Justiz und NS-Verbrechen / Nazi Crimes on Trial presents a systematic overview of:
1) the more than 900 'Nazi trial' cases conducted in West Germany since 1945, as well as of
2) the more than 900 'Nazi trial' cases conducted in East Germany since 1945, including the so-called Rehabilitation trials.*

This English section is essentially the translated version of the original German one. It contains a brief description of the subject matter of each of the trial cases, which can be accessed by way of a number of entries. The information you find here is based on the collection of German postwar trial judgments, published in two separate multi-volume documentation series, entitled
 Justiz und NS-Verbrechen (the West German judgments) and DDR-Justiz und NS-Verbrechen (the East German judgments).

Next to the published edition in book form, there is now also an on-line edition: www.junsv.nl

In addition to the overview of the German trials, you will also find here a similar survey of the so-called Dachau Trials, conducted by American military courts during the immediate postwar years.

Translation of the German database
Since the documents themselves (i.e. the trial judgments) are in German, the original database, which we first published on this website some 20 years ago, was also in the German language. A growing number of visitors from non-German speaking countries pointed out to us, however, that it would be a great help to have an English translation of the site for students who do not read German. Since we realized that the collection of data provided on the German trial cases has grown into an important documentation source in its own right, we decided to comply with this request.

Thus, the site provides informative and detailed information on the quantitative and qualitative aspects of the way in which the German judiciaries in both East and West addressed the issue of Nazi crimes during the past seven decades. It lists the defendants of the trials, the sentences passed, the courts involved, the countries in which the crimes were committed, the locations where these crimes took place, the crime dates and the perpetrator agencies that carried them out, as well as the victims and their nationalities, etc.

Out of practical considerations, a number of terms have remained untranslated. These include the designations of the various German courts and many of the specific names of the German agencies involved in the perpetration of the crimes. Many of these German terms are commonly used in English textbooks on the subject as well and are thus familiar to the average interested reader. An approximate translation of the lesser known terms can be found in the glossary and list of abbreviations. Also excluded from translation for practical reasons were the German geographical names of crime locations, such as, 'Warschau', 'Köln', and so on.

For questions, comments or suggestions, please use this e-mail address: junsv@expostfacto.nl

Note:
* The West German trial judgments as published in the series Justiz und NS-Verbrechen are limited to crimes of a homicidal nature ('Tötungsverbrechen'), committed during the period of the war. The East German trial judgments as published in the series DDR-Justiz und NS-Verbrechen also only concern homicidal crimes, but these include the ones committed before 1 September 1939.

The Justiz und NS-Verbrechen project was started in 1968 by Prof. Dr. C.F. Rüter at the Institute of Criminal Law at the Law Faculty of the University of Amsterdam. Between 1968 and 1982 the first 22 volumes appeared, covering the trial judgments passed by West-German courts between 1945 and 1965. In 1998 a beginning was made with the publication of the post-1965 judgments and from 2002 the East-German judgments were included in the project.

With the publication of volume 49 of the West German series the project is now complete as far as the book publications are concerned. The East German series has been completed in 2010 with the publication of the index volume on the 14 volumes of trial judgments. Trial judgments rendered after 1 January 2012 will only be published in the on-line edition: www.junsv.nl

In 1999 a website carrying an overview of the post-war German 'NS-trials' was set up, to which overviews of the American 'Dachau Trials' and the war crimes' trials in the Netherlands (in German only: see ....) were later added.

The editors

Prof. Dr. Christiaan Frederik Rüter (1938)

Head of the Justiz und NS-Verbrechen project. Graduated at the University of Amsterdam in 1962. From 1962 to 1966 he studied at the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law in Freiburg im Breisgau. He was Senior Professor of Criminal Law at the University of Amsterdam from 1972 until 2003 and is deputy judge at the Amsterdam Criminal Court and member of the advisory board of the Austrian Forschungsstelle Nachkriegsjustiz (Vienna).
Distinctions:
Ridder Nederlandse Leeuw
Bundesverdienstkreuz I

Dr. Dick W. de Mildt (1957)

Historian and co-editor of the series; studied modern history at Leiden University; graduated 1987. Worked between 1987 and 2006 at the Institute of Criminal Law of the University of Amsterdam. Earned his Ph.D. in 1996 with a dissertation on the so-called Euthanasia and Aktion Reinhard trials ('In the Name of the People'). Next to his work for the JuNSV project, De Mildt has his own research bureau, EX POST FACTO