Dachau Trials
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See trials: [1945] Nuremberg [1945] Belsen  [1963] Frankfurt Auschwitz    [1972] Vienna Auschwitz [1988] Zundel

[American Military Tribunal at Dachau between November 1945 and August 1948 tried 1,672 German alleged war criminals in 489 separate proceedings. 1,416 of them were convicted and then sent to War Criminals Prison at Landsberg am Lech for execution or incarceration. There were 297 death sentences, and 279 sentences to life in prison.]

When It's Confession Time at Dachau, or, I Saw the Light While I Was Seeing Stars By Carlos Porter

When It's Twilight by the Gas Chamber (Lampshades of Human Skin Dept.) by Carlos Porter

List of Trials

Martin Gottfried Weiss
Commandant Ziereis

The Buchenwald Camp Trial, In this trial, during April, August, 1947, 31 members of the staff of the Buchenwald camp were found guilty of atrocities and 22 were sentenced to death; the rest to imprisonment.
The Dachau Camp Trials: Forty officials were tried; 36 of the defendants were sentenced to death (13 December 1945), of whom 23 were hanged on either the 28 May or 29 May 1946, including the former commandant Gottfried Weiss and the camp doctor Schilling. Smaller groups of Dachau camp officials and guards were included in several subsequent trials by the U.S. court at Dachau. On 21 November 1946 it was announced that, up to that date, 116 defendants of this category had been convicted and sentenced to terms of imprisonment.
The Flossenbürg Camp Trial, Fifty-two officials and guards of this camp were tried between 12 June 1946 and 19 January 1947. Forty of the defendants were found guilty; 15 of these were sentenced to be hanged, and 25 to terms of imprisonment.
The Mauthausen Camp Trials, Sixty-one officials of this camp were tried by a U.S. military court at Dachau in March/April, 1946; 58 defendants were sentenced to death (11 May 1946) and were executed, including the commandant of the Totenkopf guard.
The Mühldorf Concentration Camp Trial, five officials of this camp were sentenced to death by a U.S. war crimes court at Dachau on 13 May 1947 and 7 others to imprisonment.
August 7, 1947: The "Dora"-Nordhausen Trial, 'The United States of America versus Arthur Kurt Andrae et Al., convicted fifteen Dora SS guards and Kapos (one was executed). The trial also addressed the question of liability of Mittelwerk V-2 rocket scientists.

Dachau Trials


Gustav Petrat appears calm just before his execution

Gustav Petrat was just one of many German SS soldiers who were put on trial at Dachau, but he earned a place in history when he accused his American interrogators of beating and torturing him in his final written statement to the court, two months before he was hanged. Trial of Gustav Petrat

Trial of Gustav Petrat
Gustav Petrat's statement that he was beaten

Witnesses for the prosecution were professional witnesses who were paid; they were housed in the barracks of the former Dachau concentration camp so that they could be available as witnesses in many of the other proceedings at Dachau. According to Joseph Halow, a court reporter at several of the Dachau proceedings, who wrote a book entitled "Innocent at Dachau," the professional witnesses in the Spanish Kapo case "caused the prosecutor various embarrassments. He was often forced to remind these witnesses of important details from their pretrial statements, including beatings and killings, which they seemed, bewilderingly enough for uninitiated observers, to have entirely forgotten on the stand. Their testimonies included inconsistencies of a wildness to embarrass all but the most gullible of bigoted hearers."  Trial of Spanish Kapos

16 Apr. At the Buchenwald trial, Dachau, Germany, Frau Ilse Koch, known to the inmates as the bitch of Buchenwald. She is being tried for atrocities committed in the Buchenwald concentration camp. She has lampshades made of human skin and lamp stands of human bones.
 


16 Apr. At the Buchenwald trial, Dachau, Germany, the defendants are on trial for atrocities committed in the Buchenwald concentration camp. Shown are the eight Army Officers who are to decide the fate of the defendants. From l-r: Lt. Col. Morris, Col. Robertson, Col. Ackerman, Brig. Gen. Keil, Lt. Col. Dwinell, Col. Pierce, Col. Dunning, and Lt. Col. Walker.

16 Apr. At the Buchenwald trial, Dachau, Germany, the entire group of defendants are shown (wearing numbers) with the members of the defense counsel in foreground. The defendants are being tried for atrocities committed in the Buchenwald concentration camp.

16 Apr. At the Buchenwald trial, Dachau, Germany, Mr. Denon, Chief Prosecutor, is shown listening to testimony by Dr. Kogon. The defendants are on trial for atrocities committed in the Buchenwald concentration camp.


 

22 April. Shown here on the witness stand at the Buchenwald War Crimes Trials at Dachau, Germany, is Mr. Karl Berthold, of Washington D.C., a witness for the prosecution. On his left from l/r are: Werner Klein, radio reporter, and translator Fred Stecker, War Department civilian.

22 April. Pictured here on the witness stand at the Buchenwald War Crimes Trials at Dachau, Germany, is Prof. Pierre Biermann, of Luxemburg, a witness for the prosecution. Also shown are l/r: Werner Klein, radio reporter, and translator Rudolf Nathanson.

16 Apr. Examples of decorated human skin shown at the Buchenwald War Crimes Trial, Dachau, Germany. Skin was removed from inmates of the Buchenwald concentration camp for decoratives purposes by the Nazis, who are now on trial for atrocities committed at Buchenwald.