Yugoslav War Crimes Proceedings

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Schmauser
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#16

Post by Schmauser » 26 Sep 2002, 15:51

Hi David!,

How many war crimes trials do you have information on? I am currently working on 27 war crimes trials and have completed 60 so far.

Hope to hear from you soon either on hear or by pm...

~Regards Schmauser

David Thompson
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#17

Post by David Thompson » 26 Sep 2002, 22:14

Schmauser -- I didn't organize the information by trials, but by accused persons. I estimate the number of bios on persons accused or arrested in European war crimes proceedings at about 4,000 -- some more detailed than others. With an appendix covering wartime fatalities, the manuscript comes to approximately one thousand pages, Times New Roman text, 12 point font, single spaced. I've got miles to go, though, as Octavianus' post pointed out.


Octavianus
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Trials on Yugoslav soil 1945-1948

#18

Post by Octavianus » 27 Sep 2002, 00:43

Ave amici,

All the big trials against Germans and its collaborators took place on Yugoslav soil, with only one exception, but more about it later. I must admit I did not pay much attention to this topic in the past, as I should to, so I don't have all the information about all the trials and accusants that took place in Yugoslavia shortly after the war. Anyway, here's brief summary about what I have and what I know.

Shortly after the war, Yugoslavia launched a serie of TWELVE PROCESSES, also called the "small proceses". They all took place on Yugoslav territory, except for the 7th Process which was taking place in
Nürnberg in front of American Military Court in the end of 1947 and at the beginning of 1948. This trial has also been known as the trial against the "Balkan generals" or as Yugoslavia pinpointed out the trial against the "hostages shooters". Altogether some 12 generals were put on stand, accused of various crimes their units commited during the war either in Yugoslavia, Albania or in Greece. The following accusants were trialed for crimes in Yugoslavia during 1941-1945:
- Feldmarschall Wilhelm Sigmund Walter List
- Generalmajor Kurt Ritter von Geitner
- Generalleutnant Franz Böhme
- Generaloberst Lothar Rendulic
- Generalmajor Walter Kuntze
- Feldmarschall Maximillian von Weichs
- Generalmajor Hermann Foertsch
- Generalleutnant Ernst Dehner
The trial lasted for four months, and no one was sentenced to death, except for General Böhme who took his life during trial by committing a suicide in his cell.

The biggest and also probably most known tribunal, was the Fourth Process against the German war criminals in Yugoslavia took place in Belgrade between 5th-13th February 1947, when a group of high ranking German officers was trialed by the military court of the 3rd Yugoslav Army. The accusants were as follows:
- Generaloberst Alexander Löhr
- Generalleutnant Johann Hans Fortner
- SS-Brigadeführer August Schmidthuber
- Generalleutnant Fritz Neidhold
- Generalleutnant Josef Kübler
- Generalmajor Adalbert Lontschar
- Oberst Günther Tribukait

The Sixth Process was pointed against nine German officers:
- SS-Brigadeführer Karl Reichsritter von Oberkampf
- Generalmajor Hans Gravenstein
- Generalleutnant Hartwig von Ludwiger
All three of them were together with four other German officers sentenced to death, while teo officers received twelve years of hard work.

The Tenth Process (21-30 August 1946) was taking place in front of the Military Court of the 4th Yugoslav Army in Ljubljana (Slovenia). On stand stood fourteen German and Slovene accusants - four Germans and two (?) Slovenes were sentenced to death. The names of some accusants:
- Gauleiter Dr Friedrich Rainer
- General der Gebirgstruppen Ludwig Kübler
- Generalleutnant Hans von Hößlin
- SS-Obergruppenführer Erwin Rösener
- General of the Division Leon Rupnik, Inspector-General of the Slowenisches Landwehr
- Archbishop of Ljubljana Dr Gregorij Rozman * In absence
- The Chef of Slovenian Police Lovro Hacin
- Colonel Milko Vizjak, Chief-of-Staff of the Slowenisches Landwehr
All accusants were executed, except Archbishop Rozman and Colonel Vizjak, who received some years of hard work respectively heavy imprisonment.

The Eleventh Process (22 October 1947) was again back in Belgrade. Five of six accusants were sentenced to death, including
- General der Flieger Heinrich Danckelmann and
- SS-Gruppenführer Dr Hermann Behrens

Also sentenced to death were following German generals (trials unknown):
- General der Flieger Martin Fiebig
- Generalleutnant Eugen Wurster
- Generalmajor Hubert Strohmaier
- Generalleutnant Adolf Fischer
- Generalmajor Theodor Fischer
- Generalmajor der Polizei Andreas May
- Generalmajor der Waffen-SS Jürgen Wagner

Besides the Fourth Process, two other processes were held in Belgrade in late 1946 respectively early 1947.
The first one (exact number unknown) which was taking place between 9. -19. December 1946 was pointed against the SS and Gestapo authority in Serbia. Out of 21 people accused of war crimes Nine people were hanged, another nine executed by a firing squad, and three accusants received some years of imprisonment. The names of those who were hanged are:
- August Meissner
- Wilhelm Fuchs
- Hans Helm
- Josef Hahn
- Ludwig Teichmann
- Josef Eckert
- Ernst Weimann
- Richard Kaserer
- Friedrich Polte

The second trial took place from 27th February to 5th March 1947 and it was also in front of the Military Court of the Yugoslav 3rd Army in Belgrade. The accusants were mainly member of German military administration in Serbia during the war. Out of twelve accusants, ten were sentenced to death and shot:
- Franz Tritschler
- Rudolf Berg
- Walter Firow
- Harold Thurner
- Georg Kiessel
- Walter Böhme
- Adolf Jostel
- Langemann Schulze
- Ernst Ludwig
- Karl Böthmer

From 10th June to 15th July 1946 another trial was in Belgrade, only that this time the accusants were not Germans, but Serbian Chetnik leaders.
Out of 24 accusants, ten (eleven, including Mihailovic) were sentenced to death: The following people were executed at this trial:
- General Dragoljub "Draza" Mihailovic
- Radoslav-Rade Radic
- Tanasije-Tasa Dinic
- General Kosta Musicki
- Bosko Pavlovic
- Mladen Zujovic * In absence
- Velibor Jonic
- General Petar Zivkovic * In absence
- Dragomir-Dragi Jovanovic
- Milos Glisic
- Djura Dokic

The capital of Croatia, Zagreb, hosted two trials. The first one was taking place from 9th September to 11th October 1946. Sixteen people were accused, and only one was (as far as I know executed). Three main accusants from this trial were, the rest were, as you say in USA, a "small fish":
- Archbishop of Zagreb Dr Alojzije Stepinac - 16 years of hard work
- Ustasha Colonel Erih Lisak - hanged
- Archishop's Stepinac's secretary Ivan Salic - 12 years of imprisonment. Other accusants received "light" imprisonment sentences.

Another trial against three Croatian and one German accusant (I could find no other accusants) took place in Zagreb from 10th May to 4th June 1947. All four were executed:
- Marshal Slavko Kvaternik
- Dr Vladimir Kosak
- Dr Mehmed Alajbegovic
- Dr Siegfried Kasche - German Ambassador in NDH & hanged

One of the last trials took place in August 1948, shortly after the end of Operation "Gvardijan", when several Ustasha officers and officials were caught, trialed and executed, including Bozidar Kavran and Ljubo Milos.

Schmauser - I think I have answered here to your question regarding the name of a process. You may simply referr to him as the "Fourth Process" or by my opinion even better the "Fourth (Belgrade) Process".

Hope this helps.

Gratiam,

Octavianus

David Thompson
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#19

Post by David Thompson » 27 Sep 2002, 00:57

Octavianus -- Thanks. Please let me know if and when I can return the favor.

David Thompson
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#20

Post by David Thompson » 29 Sep 2002, 23:18

Octavianus -- Was the picture of Mesic you referred to one of those on the Slovenian Axis Forces website at:

http://www.geocities.com/Pentagon/Quart ... ition.html

Octavianus
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Ademaga Mesic

#21

Post by Octavianus » 02 Oct 2002, 15:11

Salve David,
Octavianus -- Thanks. Please let me know if and when I can return the favor.
Don't you worry, David. We will find something sooner or later, hehe :lol:
Octavianus -- Was the picture of Mesic you referred to one of those on the Slovenian Axis Forces website at:
Yes, that's the one. The only online photo of Ademaga Mesic, one of two Poglavnik Pavelic's deputies. The man on the right is Nikola Mandic, the last Croatian Prime Minister in 1945, who was captured with a large portion of his government by Yugoslav partisans while escaping to Austria. Mandic and his ministers were actually the first to be "trialed" in Yugoslavia (if we may call it so) shortly after their capture in Mai 1945 and all accusants were more or less ad hoc sentenced and executed, often also without any trial, not that this would help them much.

There is another photo of Ademaga Mesic, which was send to me some two years ago by Klemen (the webmaster of the SAF website), which shows Mesic with a red fez on his head and walking under guard of Yugoslav guards.

Actually I am suprised this photo gallery is still online. The last time I spoke with Klemen he clearly said to me that he will abandon the website, so better to take advantage and to save those great photos on our PCs.
:D :D :D

Gratiam,

Octavianus

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