United Nations War Crimes Commission: records

Lists of alleged war criminals, files of charges brought against them, minutes of meetings, reports, correspondence, trial transcripts, and related documentation about the activities of the United Nations War Crimes Commission (UNWCC), its committees, and individuals identified as alleged war criminals, including evidence compiled against them and records related to their prosecution by national tribunals.

One significant group of these records consist of files about individuals who were identified by the UNWCC as war criminals, including the charge files that were compiled against them, based on evidence provided by member nations, and which consist of approximately 8,000 files.  These files were created after the UNWCC reviewed evidence provided by member states, and in addition to UNWCC documentation, often contain testimony from witnesses and other evidence about the suspects.  In addition, approximately 37,000 individuals are identified in the periodic lists and the Central Registry of War Criminals and Security Suspects. Combined, these two series make up between 45 to 50 microfilm reels of material.  

In addition to files about war criminals compiled by the UNWCC, the records also contain extensive records of trials carried out in various member states against alleged war criminals, as a result of the findings presented to them by the UNWCC.  Most of this material is found in the reports of the national military tribunals (67 microfilm reels) and the records of the International Military Tribunal of the Far East (52 microfilm reels).   

Remaining records consist of documentation of the activities of the UNWCC, including its component committees, consisting of correspondence with member states, minutes of committee meetings, and materials compiled by the Research Office of the UNWCC.  

Card file indexes, used to cross reference names of alleged war criminals with the charge files and the reports of national military tribunals, are also included. 

The records are arranged in the following series: I.  Charge Files (PAG‐3/2.0) II. Periodical and Other Lists of War Criminals, Suspects and Material Witnesses (PAG‐3/1.2), including Central Registry of War Criminals and Security Suspects, or CROWCASS (PAG‐3/2.1) III.  Administrative files, including meeting minutes, documents, reports and related materials (PAG‐ 3/1.0 ‐ PAG3/1.1) IV.  Tribunal materials, including Reports of National Military Tribunals (PAG‐3/2.2) and Transcripts and Proceedings of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (PAG‐3/2.3) V.  Reference Material Submitted by Outside Sources (PAG‐3/3.0) VI.  Indexes, consisting of card indexes of individual defendants, cross referenced with earlier The materials are largely listed in the order in which they are maintained at the UN‐ARMS, and in which order they were microfilmed by that organization.  However, for the purposes of this inventory, like groups of materials and series of documents that were split up during the initial and subsequent microfilming are listed together, where possible, even though this means that the numbering of the microfilm reels appears out of sequence in this inventory.  The corresponding digital version of this collection utilizes the same system of organization, so that the contents of a given microfilm reel correspond to a digital folder with the same number. The last series of films, the Index Card series, contains cards that cross‐reference two portions of the collection.  The “Index Cards of War Criminals” cross references defendants named in series 1, the “Charge File” series, using a system of abbreviations and numbers that correspond to the country from which the charges were filed, the nationality of the defendant, and the “registered number” of the case.   For example, the index card for defendant Otto Abel, found on reel NDX‐1, is given the number 4145/UK/G/604.  This corresponds to the Charge File with registered number 604, from the file group “United Kingdom vs. Germans,” found on microfilm reel 21, which includes cases with registered numbers ranging from 491 to 630.  Similarly, the index card for Ludwig Abel, also found on reel NDX‐1, is given the number 5492/B/G/360, which corresponds to a Charge File with the registered number of 360, from the charge file group “Belgium vs. Germans, Registered Number 261 ‐ 399” located on microfilm reel 2. The index cards of the subseries “Reports of the National Military Tribunals” (NDX‐9) contains cards arranged in alphabetic order by name of defendant, and which appear to be cross‐referenced to the contents of the series “Reports of National Military Tribunals,” which are arranged largely by country of tribunal, in reels 59 to 117, and therein by case numbers.