St. James Declaration
In the St. James Declaration on January 13, 1942, the governments-in-exile of Belgium , Czechoslovakia , Greece , Luxembourg , the Netherlands , Norway , Yugoslavia , Poland and France announced that the war crimes committed during the Second World War would be dealt with in court those who gave orders or carried them out would be punished.
history
The governments-in-exile of the countries occupied by Germany urged the great powers Great Britain, Russia and the neutral USA to take countermeasures because of the atrocities taking place in their countries . Great Britain did not want to announce any sanctions or war crimes trials for fear for its soldiers captured by Germany and a common line with Russia could not be found. When America was drawn into the war by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, the governments-in-exile invited to a conference at St James's Palace . There the declaration was signed by the governments in exile. Great Britain as hosts and Russia, USA, China, the British Dominions and India participated as observers but did not sign the declaration. The declaration did not bring about any improvement, rather the murders and atrocities on the German side increased.
Individual evidence
- ^ Kerstin von Lingen : "Crimes against Humanity": A history of ideas of civilizing the violence of war 1864-1945 . Schöningh 2018, ISBN 978-3-506-78775-0 , p. 211 ff.
- ^ Arieh J. Kochavi: Prelude to Nuremberg . University of North Carolina 1998, ISBN 0-8078-2433-X , p. 18 ff.