The Wehrmacht War Crimes Bureau, 1939-1945

by Alfred-Maurice de Zayas, Howard S. Levie (Foreword)

A best seller when it was published in Germany in 1980, and now translated into English by the author, The Wehrmacht War Crimes Bureau, 1939-1945 is the only account to date of the German investigations of war crimes allegedly committed by the Allied armies against the Nazi regime. During World War II the little-known German Bureau on War Crimes documented and filed reported cases of Allied violations of the laws of war. Filling 226 volumes, these files were seized in 1945 by American troops and brought to the United States, where they were treated as classified material, out of reach of scholars and journalists. They were returned to the Federal Republic of Germany’s Bundesarchiv in 1968 and released in 1973. Alfred de Zayas is the first researcher to evaluate this material, which represents the most important discovery of World War II records since the Nuremberg trials. In addition, he studied related files in German, American, British, and Swiss archives and interviewed more than three hundred German military judges and witnesses involved in the bureau’s investigations. His book documents many of the alleged violations and also describes the bureau’s origin, organization, and modus operandi. Widely praised, the German edition was the subject of a television special in 1983.

Genres: World War II

364 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1980

Reviews

[JerryDeanHalleck · Rating 3 out of 5]

Excellent book on a German WW II unit that kept track of Soviet and Allied war crimes against German Servicemen. Some of the data has been superceded by the opening of the Soviet archives. For example, de Zayas has a large section on whether there was a formal Stalin order to shoot prisoners in November -December 1941, and concludes with a verdict ot "unproven". Well, now we know there was such an order.

Otherwise, an excellent well written book on a subject never discussed.

[Meredith · Rating 5 out of 5]

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