|
The Dora Trial, also the "Dora"-Nordhausen or Dachau Dora Proceeding ((ドイツ語:Dachau-Dora Prozess)) was a war crimes trial conducted by the United States Army in the aftermath of the collapse of the Third Reich. It took place between August 7 and December 30, 1947 on the site of the former Nazi concentration camp at Dachau, Germany. In the proceedings, officially known as the ''United States of America vs. Kurt Andrae et al.'' (Case 000-50-37), 19 men were accused of war crimes committed in the operation of the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp, its many subcamps, and the Mittelwerk armaments plant located near Nordhausen, Germany. The main trial ended with 4 acquittals and 15 convictions, including 1 death sentence. Dora was the last of a sequence of proceedings which took place in the context of the Dachau Trials relating to wide-ranging war crimes uncovered by the United States in its zone of occupation at the end of World War II. Those convicted in the Dora Trial served their sentences at Landsberg Prison. Additional Dora-related proceedings were held both during and after the Dora Trial. Between late-October and mid-December 1947, short trials were held against 14 lower-level defendants, mostly SS-TV Guards. These resulted in 4 convictions and 1 acquittal, with the remaining 9 cases dropped for lack of evidence or available witnesses. Violent crimes still extant in the body of the facts resulted in several more trials of individual cases in both West Germany and East Germany. The most public and important occurred in Essen between 1968 and 1970, resulting in 2 convictions. == Background == (詳細はMittelbau-Dora concentration camp complex, with its catastrophic working and living conditions, at least 20,000 died of hunger, exposure, disease and abuse.〔Jens-Christian Wagner: ''Konzentrationslager Mittelbau-Dora 1943-1945'' (Göttingen, 2007) p. 7〕 When American troops reached Mittelbau on 11 April 1945, they found nearly 2,000 dead bodies. Only several hundred prisoners were found alive, mostly sick or dying, as the Mittelbau and its sub-camps had already been forcibly evacuated by the SS-Totenkopfverbände on April 6, 1945. During the "evacuation", approximately 36,500 prisoners were sent on death marches and over 8,000 died from starvation, exposure and summary executions.〔Jens-Christian Wagner: ''Produktion des Todes: Das KZ Mittelbau-Dora'' (Göttingen 2001) p. 301〕 In one infamous example, about 400 prisoners led by Erhard Brauny left the Rottleberode subcamp on 4 April 1945 in a plan to move them to Neuengamme concentration camp, which was still operational. When the transport reached the town of Gardelegen, the prisoners were joined by additional "evacuation transports". The prisoners, now numbering over 1000, could be moved no further due to damaged railway lines. There they were simply murdered by their captors at Isenschnibber Barn on 13 April 1945.〔Wolfgang Benz, Barbara Distel: "Der Ort des Terrors. Geschichte der Nationalsozialistischen Konzentrationslager", In: ''Wewelsburg, Majdanek, Arbeitsdorf, Herzogenbusch, Bergen-Belsen, Mittelbau-Dora'' (München: C. H. Beck, 2008, ISBN 978-3-406-52967-2) p. 333〕〔Karola Fings, ''Krieg, Gesellschaft und KZ. Himmlers SS-Baubrigaden'' (Paderborn: Ferdinand Schöningh, 2005, ISBN 3-506-71334-5) p. 274〕 ''Investigating Team 6822'', part of the U.S. War Crimes Program to create legal standards and judicial systems to prosecute Nazi crimes, quickly began to identify the perpetrators. By May 25, 1945 the investigations were complete and a report was sent to General Simpson, Supreme Commander of United States 9th Army.〔Michael Löffelsender: ''A particularly unique role among concentration camps'' (Nordhausen, 2007) p. 154〕 Many of the suspects were quickly captured and interned. Recorded testimony and photographic evidence formed the basis of the indictments.〔Robert Sigel, ''Im Interesse der Gerechtigkeit. Die Dachauer Kriegsverbrecherprozesse 1945-48.'', (Frankfurt am Main, 1992) p. 16 ff.〕 The process became complicated after the withdrawal of American forces from Thuringia on July 1, 1945, when the Mittelbau-Dora complex wound up in the Soviet occupation zone. On September 3, 1946 an exchange of detainees and evidence failed, as no Soviet military representatives appeared at a previously agreed meeting point on the frontier.〔Manfred Overesch: ''Buchenwald und die DDR - oder die Suche nach Selbstlegitimation'' (1995) p. 207 ff.〕 Corresponding demands to the Soviet military administration remained mostly unanswered. Why Soviet authorities did not cooperate on Dora was unclear, since evidence presented to them on the Gardelegen Massacre resulted in the transfer of 22 suspects. The notebook of an American investigator indicates the possibly that due to unclear responsibilities among the Soviet investigators and their managers, they could not make a decision.〔Katrin Greiser: "Die Dachauer Buchenwaldprozesse – Anspruch und Wirklichkeit – Anspruch und Wirkung" In: Ludwig Eiber, Robert Sigl: ''Dachauer Prozesse – NS-Verbrechen vor amerikanischen Militärgerichten in Dachau 1945–1948.'' (Göttingen, 2007) p. 162〕 Those Mittelbau-Dora suspects and evidence that were in U.S. custody were finally incorporated into the framework of the Dachau Trials. Prior to the start of the Dora Trial, 12 former members of the SS administration at Mittelbau-Dora had already been convicted of war crimes under British military jurisdiction in the Belsen Trial. There, 4 defendants were sentenced to imprisonment and 5 acquitted. Protective Custody Camp Leader Franz Hößler, commander of the Kleinbodungen subcamp Franz Stofel and his deputy Wilhelm Dörr were all sentenced to death and executed by hanging on 13 December 1945 in Hamelin prison.〔Jens-Christian Wagner: ''Produktion des Todes: Das KZ Mittelbau-Dora'' (Göttingen, 2001) p. 567〕 Josef Kollmer, the commander of Dora's SS guard battalion from October, 1943 to May, 1944, was executed in Kraków on January 28, 1948 following his conviction by Poland's Supreme National Tribunal in the First Auschwitz Trial. Former camp commandant Otto Förschner was executed by American occupation authorities in Landsberg prison on May 28, 1946 following his conviction by a US military tribunal for war crimes that occurred during his tenure as commander of the Dachau subcamp of Kaufering. His successor, former Auschwitz commandant Richard Baer was arrested by West German authorities in 1960, but died of natural causes in 1963, before he was able to appear as a defendant in the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trials.〔Ernst Klee: ''Das Personenlexikon zum Dritten Reich: Wer war was vor und nach 1945'' (Frankfurt am Main, 2007) p. 24, p. 158〕 Helmut Bischoff, SS security chief for the V-weapons program and commander of the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) detachment in Mittelbau-Dora, was arrested by Soviet occupation forces in January, 1946 and held in military detention in East Germany, and later Siberia, until 1955. Karl Kahr, the former SS Camp Physician, was not charged due to his relatively good reputation among the prisoners. He became a witness for the prosecution in the Dora Trial.〔Jens-Christian Wagner: ''Produktion des Todes: Das KZ Mittelbau-Dora'' (Göttingen, 2001) p. 296〕〔Frank Wiedemann: ''Alltag im Konzentrationslager Mittelbau-Dora. Methoden und Strategien des Überlebens der Häftlinge'' (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang - Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften, 2010) p. 51〕 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「Dora Trial」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|