The Central Registry of War Criminals and Security Suspects, more commonly known as CROWCASS, was an organisation set up to assist the
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...
War Crimes Commission and
Allied
An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...
governments in tracing ex-enemy nationals suspected of committing war crimes or atrocities in Europe during the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. The organisation was originally set up by the
Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force
Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF; ) was the headquarters of the Commander of Allied forces in north west Europe, from late 1943 until the end of World War II. U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower was the commander in SHAEF th ...
(SHAEF) in 1945.
[Guy Walters, ''Hunting evil'', Penguin Random House, 2009, (), chap. 2, p. 65-80.]
In 1947, CROWCASS published a four volume list divided into Germans, Non Germans and two supplementary lists of people suspected of committing war crimes between September 1939 and May 1945. To Allied Nazi hunters the CROWCASS lists became known as the 'Nazi Hunter's Bible'. The lists contain over 60,000 people in all. Not all of them are war criminals (some were simply being sought for interrogation or to act as witnesses), however within the pages of CROWCASS are the alleged perpetrators of tens of thousands of war crimes. Among those on the list are Case Registry No 1:
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
- wanted for murder by
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...
,
Czechoslovakia
, rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי,
, common_name = Czechoslovakia
, life_span = 1918–19391945–1992
, p1 = Austria-Hungary
, image_p1 ...
and
Belgium
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...
.
In 2005, the
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
government sanctioned the publication of the CROWCASS Consolidated Wanted Lists. Originally the lists were not intended to be in the public domain until the year 2023.
See also
*
Central Registry of War Criminals and Security Suspects from the Kingdom of Italy
Footnotes
References
* Simpson, Christopher. ''Blowback: The first full account of America's recruitment of Nazis, and its disastrous effects on our domestic and foreign policy'', Chapter 6 'CROWCASS' pp. 66–79, 1988, Collier Books, Macmillan Publishing Company. 398 pp.
* ''The Central Registry of War Criminals and Security Suspects, Consolidated Wanted Lists'' (1947), 2005, The Naval and Military Press, Uckfield
{{DEFAULTSORT:Central Registry of War Criminals and Security Suspects
International judicial organizations
Organizations established in 1945