The Belsen Trial was one of several trials for war crimes and crimes against humanity that the Allied occupation forces conducted against former officials and functionaries of Nazi Germany after the end of World War II. In the context of war, a war crime is a punishable offense under International Law, for violations of the laws of war by any person or persons, military or civilian. ... This article is in need of attention. ... Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich, commonly refers to Germany in the years 1933–1945, when it was under the firm control of the totalitarian and fascist ideology of the Nazi Party, with the Führer Adolf Hitler as dictator. ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000...

The Belsen Trial (or, officially, Trial of Josef Kramer and 44 others) began in a Lüneburg courtroom on September 17, 1945 against 45 former SS men, women and kapos (prisoner functionaries) from the Bergen-Belsen and Auschwitz concentration camp. The trial took place before a British military court and lasted until November 17, 1945. Lüneburg (English: Lunenburg) is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany, about 50km southeast of Hamburg. ... is the 260th day of the year (261st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar). ... SS or ss or Ss may be: The Schutzstaffel, a Nazi paramilitary force Steamship (SS) (ship prefix) The United States Secret Service A submarine not powered by nuclear energy (SS) (United States Navy designator), see SSN A Soviet/Russian surface-to-surface missile, as listed by NATO reporting name Shortstop... Bergen-Belsen, sometimes referred to as just Belsen, was a German concentration camp in the Nazi era. ... Auschwitz (Konzentrationslager Auschwitz) was the largest of the Nazi German concentration camps. ... 17 November is also the name of a Marxist group in Greece, coinciding with the anniversary of the Athens Polytechnic uprising. ...

The defendants faced charges for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in these two concentration camp through their participation in the torture and mass-murder of camp inmates. All except Starotska were accused of having committed such crimes at Bergen-Belsen; Starotska, Kramer, Klein, Weingartner, Kraft, Hoessler, Borman, Volkenrath, Ehlert, Gura, Grese, Lothe, Lobauer and Schreirer were also charged with atrocities committed at Auschwitz.

• Georg Kraft, Josef Klippel, kapo Ilse Lothe, Oscar Schmitz, Fritz Mathes, Karl Egersdorf, Walter Otto, Eric Barsch, Ignatz Schlomovicz, Ida Forster, Klara Opitz, Charlotte Klein, Hildegard Hahnel, and Antoni Polanski were acquitted.
• One defendant, Ladislaw Gura, was removed from the trial due to illness.

For those found guilty, the sentences were as follows:

• Josef Kramer, Fritz Klein, Peter Weingartner, Franz Hössler, Juana Bormann, Irma Grese, Elisabeth Volkenrath, Karl Francioh, Anchor Pichen, Franz Stofel, and Wilhelm Dorr were sentenced to death by hanging.
• Erich Zoddel was sentenced to lifetime imprisonment.
• Deputy wardress Herta Ehlert, Otto Calesson, Heinrich Schreirer, kapo Helena Kopper, and Vladislaw Ostrovski were sentenced to 15 years imprisonment.
• Kapo Hildegard Lobauer, and guards Ilse Forster, Herta Bothe, Irene Haschke, Gertrud Sauer, Johanne Roth, Anna Hempel, Stanislawa Starotska, and Antoni Aurdzieg were sentenced to 10 years imprisonment.
• Gertrude Fiest, and Medislaw Burgraf were sentenced to 5 years, Frieda Walter to 3 years, and Hilde Lisiewitz to one year.

All the executions were carried out on December 13, 1945 by hanging at the prison in Hameln. Josef Kramer, in Celle awaiting trial, August 1945. ... Fritz Klein (24 November 1888 – 13 December 1945) was a German physician hanged for his role in atrocities at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp during The Holocaust. ... Juana Bormann was a prison guard at several Nazi death and concentration camps, and was executed as a war criminal at Hameln after a trial in 1945. ... Irma Grese (born October 7, 1923 at Wrechen near Pasewalk, Mecklenburg – died December 13, 1945 Hameln) was a supervisor at the Nazi concentration camps at Ravensbrück, Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen. ... Categories: 1919 births | 1945 deaths | Holocaust | Nazi leaders | Personnel of Nazi concentration camps | People stubs ... Hanging is the suspension of a person by a ligature, usually a cord wrapped around the neck, causing death. ... Herta (born Liess, married Ehlert, divorced Naumann) was a female guard at many Nazi camps during the whole period of World War II. Herta (Hertha) was born as Hertha Liess in Berlin, Germany on March 26, 1905. ... Herta Bothe (born January 8, 1921 in Teterow, Mecklenburg, Germany) was a female Nazi concentration camp guard imprisoned for war crimes, but ultimately released. ... is the 347th day of the year (348th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar). ... Map of Germany showing Hamelin Watershed of the River Weser Hamelin (German: Hameln) is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany. ...

A second Belsen Trial was conducted at Luneberg from June 13-18, 1946 by a British Military Court to try Kazimierz Cegielski, a Polish National who was a "KAPO" ("Camp Police") at Bergen Belsen, arriving there in March 1944,according to his testimony. KAPOS were prisoner-trustees assigned by the SS as overseers over their fellow prisoners. They tended to be "political" or criminal prisoners. There were five Kapos in Belsen, two of them under the name "Kazimierz" differentiated as "Big Kazimierz" (the defendent) and "Little Kazimierz.

Cegielski was charged with cruelty and murder and was noted for beating and at times killing the sick and weakend prisoners with large wooden sticks or poles. While in Bergen Belsen he was having an affair with a prisoner, a young Jewish woman from Amsterdam, Hennny DeHaas. He was caught in 1946 when he came to Amsterdam ostensibly to find and marry DeHaas. He was convicted on June 18th, 1946 and sentenced to death by hanging. The day before he was to be hanged he made a statement saying his real name was Kasimir-Alexander Rydzewski. He was executed at Hameln Prison at 9:20 A.M. on October 11, 1946.

See also

• Allied Control Council
• Subsequent Nuremberg Trials

Kammergericht, Headquarters of the Allied Control Council The Allied Control Council or Allied Control Authority, known in German as the Alliierter Kontrollrat, also referred to as the Four Powers, was a military occupation governing body of the Allied Occupation Zones in Germany after the end of World War II in... Chief prosecutor Telford Taylor opens the prosecution case in the Krupp Trial The Subsequent Nuremberg Trials (or, more formally, the Trials of War Criminals before the Nuremberg Military Tribunals (NMT)) were a series of twelve U.S. military trials for war crimes against surviving members of the military, political, and...

References

• Law-Reports of Trials of War Criminals, Vol. II, 1947 of the United Nations War Crimes Commission