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The Belsen trial was one of several trials which the Allied occupation forces conducted against former officials and functionaries of Nazi Germany after the end of World War II. The ''Belsen Trial'' took place in Lüneburg, Lower Saxony, Germany in 1945 and the defendants were men and women of the SS as well as prisoner functionaries who had worked at various concentration camps, notably Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen. The trial generated considerable interest around the world, as the public heard for the first time from some of those responsible for the mass murder in the eastern extermination camps. Some later trials are also referred to as ''Belsen Trials''. ==First trial== (詳細はtitle=Trial Transcript - cover )〕 the trial began in a Lüneburg gymnasium on 17 September 1945. The defendants were 45 former SS men, women and ''kapos'' (prisoner functionaries) from the Bergen-Belsen and Auschwitz concentration camps. Josef Kramer had been camp commandant at Bergen-Belsen and before that at Auschwitz. Of the other defendants, 12 were kapos, 16 female SS members and 16 male SS members. Although the SS was an all-male organisation, women were able to enlist as members of the ''SS-Gefolge'', a form of civilian employee. One prisoner functionary, Ladisław Gura, who was also an SS member under arrest, was found to be too ill to stand trial after the trial had started. Three others had been excluded from the list of indicted for the same reason before the trial began.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Trial Transcript - pages 2-3 )〕 Three SS members had been shot trying to escape after the British took over the camp and one had committed suicide. Out of a total of 77 camp personnel arrested by the British in April, another 17 had died of typhus by 1 June 1945. Next to Kramer, the most high-profile defendants were Dr. Fritz Klein, who had been camp doctor at Belsen, and Franz Hössler, deputy camp commandant. Elisabeth Volkenrath had been ''Oberaufseherin'' (head warden or supervising wardress) at Auschwitz, before she came to Belsen. Many of the defendants had arrived in Bergen-Belsen only after February 1945, some as late as two days before liberation.〔 However, most had been active in similar functions in other concentration camps before that. The trial took place before a British military tribunal. The judges were Major-General H.M.P. Berney-Ficklin (presiding), Brigadier A. de L. Casonove, Colonel G.J. Richards, Lt.-Colonel R.B. Moriush and Lt.-Colonel R. McLay. C.L. Stirling was Judge Advocate. Colonel T.M. Backhouse, Major H.G. Murton-Neale, Capt. S.M. Stewart and Lt.-Col. L.J. Genn were Counsel for the Prosecution. Counsel for the Defence were also members of the British Army — in the case of the five Polish defendants a Polish officer, Lt. Jedrezejowicz.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Trial Transcript - pages 2-3 )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Trial Transcript - page 1 )〕 As this was a military court, it was legally based on the ''Regulations for the Trial of War Criminals made under Royal Warrant'' of 14 June 1945.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Trial Transcript - page 647 )〕 All the charges related to international law, which applied at the time the crimes were committed, so this was not a case of retroactive justice. Due to the nature of the court, the only charges that could be brought were war crimes and crimes against citizens of the Allied countries. "Crimes against humanity" and "crimes against peace", which featured in the later trials at Nuremberg, were not among the charges at Lüneburg.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Belsen trial」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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