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Monday, September 20, 2004

Churchill urges FDR and Stalin to agree to the summary execution of "50-100" captured enemy leaders; Sept 17, 1944

[see too: Eden submitted a Cabinet paper WP(44)423 (?) with lists of war criminals to be dealt with in Germany and Italy. The War Office summarized its content]


At Hyde Park, NY, on September 17, 1944 Churchill sent over to Roosevelt a draft telegram typed on No. 10 Downing Street notepaper.

He suggested they send it to Stalin. It recalled an earlier Churchill draft approved by the Moscow conference of foreign ministers that preceded Teheran.

His September 1944 memorandum recommended "local punishment of war criminals ... at the scenes where their atrocities had been committed."

But what should be done with ringleaders, like Hitler, Himmler, Göring, Goebbels, and Ribbentrop, " whose offences have no particular geographical localization"? To Churchill the method of trial, conviction and judicial sentence seemed inappropriate.

Closely following Morgenthau's infamous loose-leaf "book" Churchill's draft would have inquired of Stalin,

"Would you consider whether a list could not be prepared of say 50 to 100 persons whose responsibilities for directing or impelling the whole process of crime and atrocity is (SIC) established by the fact of their holding certain high offices?"

The United Nations should declare the lives of these "world outlaws" forfeit. "The nearest General Officer," was Churchill's suggestion, "will convene a Court for the sole purpose of establishing their identity, and when this has been done will have them shot within one hour."

Source: "Draft of a suggested telegram to be sent by the President and the Prime Minister to Marshal Stalin," September 17, 1944. FDR Library.


Eden circulates Churchill's draft to the Cabinet members on October 3, 1944:

On October 3, 1944 Eden circulated to members of Mr Churchill's Cabinet a telegram which the prime minister proposed that he and Roosevelt should address to Marshal Stalin. After reminding the Soviet dictator of the conclusions reached at Moscow and Teheran a year previously, the draft continued:

It has now become important for us to reach agreement about the treatment of these major criminals. Would you [Stalin] consider whether a list could not be prepared of say 50 to 100 persons whose responsibilities for directing or impelling the whole process of crime and atrocity is established by the fact of their holding certain high offices. Such a list would not of course be exhaustive. New names could be added at any time. It is proposed that these persons should be declared, on the authority of the United Nations, to be world outlaws and that upon any of them falling into Allied hands the Allies will decide how they are to be disposed of and the execution of this decision will be carried out immediately . Or, alternatively, the nearest General offcer will convene a Court for the sole purpose of establishing their identity, and when this has been done will have them shot within six hours without reference to higher authority.

2. It would seem that the method of trial, conviction and judicial sentence is quite inappropriate for notorious ringleaders such as Hitler, Himmler, Goering, Goebbels, and Ribbentrop. Apart from the formidable difficulties of constituting the Court, formulating the charge and assembling the evidence, the question of their fate is a political and not a judicial one. It could not rest with judges however eminent or learned to decide finally a matter like this which is of the widest and most vital public policy. The decision must be the joint decision of the Governments of the Allies. This in fact was expressed in the Moscow Declaration.

3. There would seem to be advantages in publishing a list of names. At the present time, Hitler and his leading associates know that their fate will be sealed when the German Army and people cease to resist. It therefore costs them nothing to go on giving orders to fight to the last man, die in the last ditch &c. As long as they can persuade the German people to do this, they continue to live on the fat of the land and have exalted employments. They represent themselves and the German people as sharing the same rights and fate. Once however their names are published and they are isolated, the mass of the German people will infer rightly that there is a difference between these major criminals and themselves. A divergence of interests between the notorious leaders and their dupes will become apparent. This may lead to undermining the authority of the doomed leaders and to setting their own people against them, and thus may help the break up of Germany.

Source: Eden, War Cabinet Paper, WP(44)555, Draft of a Suggested Telegram to be sent by the President and the Prime Minister to Marshal Stalin, Oct 3, 1944 (PRO file CAB.66/56).


STALIN HOWEVER TURNED THE PROPOSAL DOWN: SEE MOSCOW CONFERENCE


Letter from the Lord Chancellor, Sir John Simon, to Lord Halifax, Nov 11, 1944, about War Criminals, recommending (between the lines) their summary execution:

"I may say that my own view strongly is that the question of what is to be done with the top war criminals is not really suitable to be decided by juridical process. It is essentially a political question and must be settled by the governments of the principal States. I have been joining with the P.M. and others in consultation on this point and I believe that the P.M. developed this view when he last saw the President in Quebec. It is a difficult problem which is as yet, as I understand, not decided. In any case, it would be, I should think, very unwise to make announcements about it at this stage, for we have to consider the possibility of reprisals against British and American airmen now in German hands whom the Germans might, if too far provoked, arrange to put on trial now on the charge of bombing objectives which are not military in character."

Source: Halifax papers, Borthwick Institute, York, England. A4.410.4.14:

Website note: The above texts are optically scanned, and may contain characteristic OCR errors. We will correct these if notified. [notify].

The above material has been researched by David Irving for the third volume of his Churchill biography, "Churchill's War", vol. iii: "The Sundered Dream."

Stalin's conversations with Allied leaders Oct 11-15, 1944
Free download: David irving, "Nuremberg, the Last Battle"

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