Theodore Korcz and William Dowdell Denson crop

William Denson (May 31, 1913 – December 13, 1998) was an American lawyer and military prosecutor who served as Chief Prosecutor in the trials of war criminals of

Nazi concentration camps From 1933 to 1945, Nazi Germany operated more than a thousand concentration camps, (officially) or (more commonly). The Nazi concentration camps are distinguished from other types of Nazi camps such as forced-labor camps, as well as con ...

. Denson was born on May 31, 1913, in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = "Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County , LargestMetro = Greater Birmingham , area_total_km2 = 135,765 ...

. He was the grandson of

William Henry Denson William Henry Denson (March 4, 1846 – September 26, 1906) was a U.S. Representative from Alabama. Born in Uchee, Alabama, Denson attended the common schools and the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa. Denson left the University of Alabama ...

, a prominent local lawyer and politician. He attended

United States Military Academy The United States Military Academy (USMA), also known metonymically as West Point or simply as Army, is a United States service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a fort, since it sits on strategic high groun ...

at West Point, graduating in 1934. He resigned from the army the same year to attend Harvard Law School, from which he graduated in 1937. In 1942, he returned to the army to teach law at West Point. In January 1945, he was transferred to the

United States Army Central The United States Army Central, formerly the Third United States Army, commonly referred to as the Third Army and as ARCENT, is a military formation of the United States Army which saw service in World War I and World War II, in the 1991 Gulf W ...

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, as a

judge advocate Judge-advocates are military lawyers serving in different capacities in the military justice systems of different jurisdictions. Australia The Australian Army Legal Corps (AALC) consists of Regular and Reserve commissioned officers that prov ...

, where he was assigned to lead the investigation and prosecution of war crimes committed at Nazi concentration camps. Denson served as Chief Prosecutor at trials for the concentration camps at Dachau,

Mauthausen Mauthausen was a Nazi concentration camp on a hill above the market town A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regu ...

, Flossenbürg and

Buchenwald Buchenwald (; literally 'beech forest') was a Nazi concentration camp established on hill near Weimar, Germany, in July 1937. It was one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps within Germany's 1937 borders. Many actual or sus ...

. During this time, he led the prosecution of 177 people and secured convictions of 174, of whom 132 were

sentenced to death Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

. Denson was instrumental in deciding not to prosecute the camp staff for crimes against humanity as was happening in the concurrent

Nuremberg trials The Nuremberg trials were held by the Allies against representatives of the defeated Nazi Germany, for plotting and carrying out invasions of other countries, and other crimes, in World War II. Between 1939 and 1945, Nazi Germany invaded m ...

, but rather under existing German law, specifically Germany's obligations as signatories to the Hague Conventions and

first First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...

and third Geneva Conventions. He reasoned that the evidence for war crimes committed by camp staff against Allied prisoners of war was more than sufficient to secure convictions and that concentrating on this would minimize the risks of convictions being overturned on appeal. After the trials concluded in 1947, Denson returned to the United States, where he entered private practice as chief of litigation for the newly created Atomic Energy Commission. In 1950, he represented the Commission in the trials of

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg Julius Rosenberg (May 12, 1918 – June 19, 1953) and Ethel Rosenberg (; September 28, 1915 – June 19, 1953) were American citizens who were convicted of spying on behalf of the Soviet Union. The couple were convicted of providing top-secret i ...

. In 1952, he moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, where he transitioned into

patent law A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...

. From 1966 to 1976, he was mayor of

Lawrence Lawrence may refer to: Education Colleges and universities * Lawrence Technological University, a university in Southfield, Michigan, United States * Lawrence University, a liberal arts university in Appleton, Wisconsin, United States Preparator ...

, New York. In 1950, Denson married Constance von Francken-Sierstorpff, whom he had met during his time in Germany.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Denson, William 1913 births 1998 deaths American anti-fascists American prosecutors Nazi war crimes trials Mayors of places in New York (state) Harvard Law School alumni United States Military Academy alumni People from Birmingham, Alabama