Funding: Doctoral scholarship from the Friedrich Ebert Foundation
From 1945 to 1948, the US Army conducted a total of 461 military trials to punish violations of war and international law by the National Socialist state. The complex of proceedings is known as the »Dachau Trials«, referring to the main court in Dachau. All trials took place as part of the American War Crimes Trials Program and exclusively under the jurisdiction of the US Army. The Dachau Trials are one of the largest coherent sets of proceedings for the prosecution of war crimes by a single institution. The dissertation project focuses on the role of the War Crimes Group, a special division of the U.S. Military Justice Department (Judge Advocate General's Department), which was charged with conducting the investigations and trials. The project will shed light on the Dachau Trials as part of the War Crimes Trial Program and examine the judicial approach to Nazi crimes of violence. What role did the War Crimes Group play in US war crimes policy and how did it carry out its tasks?
