Gradska komisija za ispitivanje zločina okupatora i njihovih pomagača

Already during the war, the Allies concluded that wartime atrocities (committed by the opposing side) should be tried as war crimes. The criteria and standards for the establishment of war crimes stemmed from the existing international instruments (the Hague and Geneva Conventions). The views of the Allied governments were confirmed at the Moscow Conference, with adoption of the Moscow Declaration on the responsibilities of the Axis powers for crimes committed during the war. The Declaration referred to all countries occupied by the Third Reich, its wartime allies, and domestic helpers who worked in the service of the invaders and committed crimes. The declaration was confirmed at the Teheran Conference and the conferences at Yalta and Potsdam; it became the basic international law on the basis of which war criminals would be tried after the war. The United Nations War Crimes Commission called on all member states of the anti-Hitler coalition to establish their own respective national commissions. At the Second Session of The Anti-Fascist Council for the National Liberation of Yugoslavia (AVNOJ) on November 30, 1943 in Jajce, Bosnia, a Decision on the Establishment of the State Commission for the Investigation of the Crimes of the Occupiers and Their Supporters was established. The District Commission for the wider area of Zagreb was formally organized in March 1945, but its actual work started in July of the same year. Towns established city commission (in cities with over 200,000 inhabitants). According to regulations, all state authorities were obliged to assist the work of the Commission. Dr. Dusan Nedeljkovic was elected President of the State Commission . In late 1944, the Commission employed 120 workers. At the end of 1945 that number had risen to 439 people. The work of the National Commission can generally be divided into three phases. In the first phase, which followed the establishment of the commission in the late stages of military operations, the work of the commission was very limited and mostly involved organizing committees (in particular district commissions) and developing an overall networking system. The second phase, which began with moving to Zagreb, relates to the period of very intensive work (from mid-1945 to mid-1946). This work was mainly investigative in nature. At the time of the most intensive work (since the end of the war until the middle of 1946) there were 65 district, 299 districts, and 1210 municipal commissions. This included establishment of 28 inquiry commissions, which had the task "to investigate and establish some crimes of large scale or specific character." This third stage swa gradual reduction in the intensity of work, with particular emphasis on the question of extradition of criminals. The District Commission for the City of Zagreb ceased its work on 31 December 1946, and its operations to its extinction, July 31, 1947, took over the central city commission. The State Commission was abolished on 12 April 1948. The remaining operations were transferred to the Public Prosecutor's Office FNRJ. The committee was composed of several divisions and services (legal, investigative, propaganda, Executive, Registration and Personnel). The main task of the commission was to collect information and evidence by which to establish the existence of specific crimes, including information about what had occurred; when, where, and how specific crimes had been executed; and the responsibility of the perpetrators and their accomplices.

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