United Nations War Crimes Commission records

Copyright Holder: United Nations Archives and Records Management Section This collection contains the records of the United Nations War Crimes Commission including the following: charge files consisting of formal charges submitted to the Commission, lists of war criminals, suspects, and material witnesses; summary minutes of meetings; documents, reports, and related material; correspondence; reports of national military tribunals, including US military courts; transcripts of proceedings and documents of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (Tokyo trials); international prosecution section documents; as well as index cards of war criminals, 1942-1948, and index to the UK, US, and other countries war crimes trials, arranged alphabetically by defendant. The United Nations War Crimes Commission was established at a meeting held at the Foreign Office in London on October 20, 1943. The Commission, operating from a secretariat in London, consisted of government representatives appointed by the 17 member countries: Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, France, Greece, India, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, the United Kingdom, the United States and Yugoslavia. The first official meeting took place on January 11, 1944, and the Commission continued its activities until the end of March 1948, and was dissolved in May of that year. In addition to the main commission, a separate Far Eastern sub-commission was established at the suggestion of the Chinese ambassador.This sub-commission was initially based in Chongqing, and later, Nanjing, operating from November 1944 until March 1947. The primary activities of the Commission were to identify and prepare lists of alleged war criminals, and to help establish the legal machinery used by the member countries to apprehend, bring to trial and prosecute war criminals.