Department for the Investigation of Enemy War Crimes by the French Judiciary Police Service de recherche de crimes de guerre ennemis de la police judiciaire (SRCGE)

Starting in June, 1944, a commission was created by Provisional Government of the French Republic in Algiers, as the jurist René Cassin, who had joined De Gaulle in London, advised. This commission was eventually going to report its findings to the U.N. offices in London and the international investigative committee for all Axis war crimes, later known as CROWCASS (Central Registry of War Criminals and Security Suspects). As soon as the Provisional Government of the French Republic (GPRF) arrived in Paris in late August, 1944, the Ministry of Justice created a Service central des crimes de guerre whose purpose was to conduct the necessary investigations to gather proof and identify those guilty of war crimes, assuring the liaison with Allied military authorities, French military tribunals, and civil authorities, as well as to prepare a Livre noir 3 of war crimes (there had already been 2 previous Livres noirs of war crimes perpetrated on mainland France and in North Africa). The SRCGE was officially formed by decree on December 6, 1944, composed of a central directorate, 15 chargés de mission, regional delegates assisted by local committees, investigative units in foreign countries, and liaison officers. The Ministry of War was responsible for providing the personnel, supplies, and equipment necessary to the Director, Colonel Chauveau. Findings were to be reported regularly to Professor Gros in London, the only French delegate to the Interallied Commission for war crimes, but also to the French military tribunals, which had been entrusted with the power to try such crimes by a government ordonnance issued August 28, 1944. The SRCGE was in close contact with the judicial authorities in the French Occupied Zone of Germany and sent search warrants for individuals having committed crimes in France who they suspected had returned to Germany. The SRCGE did not have the prerogative to investigate crimes committed by Axis powers or French collaborationists in Eastern Europe, under Russian control. At one point, over 300 people were working for the SRCGE and regional delegations continued investigations through 1946, though they had fewer responsibilities and these were then turned over to the Services régionaux de la police judiciaries. By 1947, the staff at the central office was reduced to 45 persons.

Archives nationales (France)

Source of acquisition is the Archives nationales (French National Archives). The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives received the collection via the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s International Archives Project in Nov. 2020. This is a joint project of the USHMM and the French Shoah Memorial.