Presented by the University of Minnesota Law Library

in cooperation with the University of Minnesota Human Rights Center

D H R:

T L D N

“The past is never dead. It’s not even past.”

– William Faulkner, Requiem for a Nun

The Dachau trials have been called thelargest yet least known series of Nazitrials in history. Beginning onNovember , , the AmericanMilitary Tribunal at Dachau tried ,

alleged war criminals in separateproceedings. Unlike the trials atNuremberg which focused on the archi-tects of Third Reich policies, theDachau trials brought to justice thoseGermans who carried out the policies.Defendants included concentrationcamp commandants, medical officers,labor officers, and others who heldpositions at the camps.

Dachau was chosen as the trial site largelybecause of its long association withGerman atrocities. The German govern-ment built Dachau as its first regular con-centration camp in . While the earliestprisoners consisted of the Third Reich’spolitical opponents, later the regime sentJews, homosexuals, gypsies, Jehovah’sWitnesses, and priests to Dachau. As atother camps, the Nazis performed medicalexperiments on prisoners, and forcedthem to work as slave laborers. Between and April , thousands died atDachau. When the U.S. Army liberatedthe camp at the end of April , it heldover , prisoners.

The International Military Tribunal atNuremberg saw the prosecution of

Nazis, orchestrated by a team of staffmembers. By contrast, the Dachau prose-cutors had only staff members to pros-ecute , defendants. The Dachau trialshave been overshadowed by those atNuremberg. Nonetheless, as Professor

Fred Morrison has noted, the Dachau trialsare part of the “concept” of Nuremberg.(Fred L. Morrison, The Significance ofNuremberg for Modern International Law, M. L. R. , ().)

The legacy of Nuremberg includes tenetsof individual accountability, medicalethics, international criminal law, univer-sal jurisdiction, human rights, and thetranscendence of law. It is reflected in theUniversal Declaration of Human Rights,the Genocide Convention, the EuropeanConvention for the Protection of HumanRights and Fundamental Freedoms, and the Statute of the InternationalCriminal Court.

Basic principles emerging fromNuremberg and Dachau include a banagainst aggressive war, violations of thelaws and customs of war, and inhumanacts committed on civilians; individual lia-bility of heads of state for war crimes;rejection of the “superior orders” defense;and the right of accused war criminals to afair trial.

Two of those principles predominated atDachau. First, many defendants claimedthat they could not be punished for fol-lowing orders. In response, the prosecu-tors proved that no staff member in a con-centration camp had ever been executedfor refusing to follow an order. Thishelped convince the American MilitaryTribunal that concentration camp workerscould be held responsible for the crimesagainst inmates. This principle has playedan important role in subsequent warcrimes trials, including those before theInternational Criminal Tribunals for theFormer Yugoslavia and for Rwanda.

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A second principle from Dachau is thewar criminal’s right to a fair trial. SomeAllied leaders, including WinstonChurchill, suggested executing Nazis with-out trial. But others felt strongly that theAllies should avoid “victor’s justice.” Thus,at Dachau, the defendants had importantprocedural rights, including the right tothe defense attorney of their choice andthe right to refuse to testify. They couldcross-examine government witnesses,make statements to the tribunal, and haveall proceedings translated into their own language. Most German defendants wereamazed at the rights accorded to them.

One of the less recognized lessons fromthe Nuremberg and Dachau trials is theimportance of documenting human rightsviolations. Robert Jackson, the chief

prosecutor at Nuremberg, sought to present and preserve the evidence of Nazicrimes “with such authenticity and in suchdetail that there can be no responsibledenial of these crimes in the future …” As the last witnesses to the Holocaust disappear, the role of documentation, andthe archives and libraries that preserve it,becomes even more important. JusticeStephen Breyer acknowledged this legacywhen he said, “Future generations needonly open their eyes and read.” (StephenBreyer, Speech, Crimes against Humanity:Nuremberg, , N.Y.U. L. R.

().)

Mary Rumsey

Foreign, Comparative and International

Law Librarian

University of Minnesota Law Library

“The privilege of opening the first trial in history for crimes against the peace of the

world imposes a grave responsibility. The wrongs which we seek to condemn and

punish have been so calculated, so malignant and so devastating, that civilization

cannot tolerate their being ignored because it cannot survive their being repeated.”

–Opening statement for the United States by Robert H. Jackson, Nuremberg, November ,

Survivor of Dachau

The centerpiece of the exhibitionDefending Human Rights: The Legacy of Dachau and Nuremberg is a unique collection of photographs and documents collected by Horace R.Hansen, prosecutor of war crimes atMauthausen, Buchenwald, Dachau and Flossenburg.

The Horace R. Hansen Archives were donat-ed to the University of Minnesota LawLibrary in May by the Hansen family.

Horace Hansen (-) received hisJ.D. from the St. Paul College of Law(William Mitchell College of Law) in. Before joining the armed forces in, Hansen had a successful career as aworkers’ compensation attorney for theIndustrial Commission and as a prosecut-ing attorney in the Ramsey CountyAttorney’s Office.

The Archives include photographs takenby Hansen during World War II and atthe war crimes trials at Dachau. Hansen’sphotographs record several key events of World War II, including the Army’sdiscovery of a barn nearGardelegen, Germany,where Nazis had burnedalive more than one thou-sand slave laborers to pre-vent them from falling intoenemy hands. The plan ofthe Germans to completelyincinerate the remains ofthe bodies was destroyed bythe advance of the ndInfantry Division in whichHansen served. Hansen’sphotographs of the Army’sdiscovery of the atrocity at

Gardelegen on April , supplementthose of the U.S. Army Signal Corps,which were widely circulated in the press,including The Washington Post and TheNew York Times.

The Hansen Archives include personalpictures of the surrender of German sol-diers and officers in the weeks leading upto V-E Day, May , . In one ofHansen’s extensive letters home, he wrote,in his characteristic straightforward man-ner, “When we hear the great V-E news isannounced, there is mild excitement last-ing about five minutes. Then everyonegoes back to work.” The Archives includea complete file of these letters, which werewidely circulated and published in the St.Paul Dispatch.

Hansen’s transfer in January to theJudge Advocate’s General Corps withassignment to the war crimes division ledto his appointment as a prosecutor atDachau. The Hansen Archives containpersonal photographs of the courtroom atDachau, including a chilling photograph

T H R. HA

Trial of Dr. Klaus Schilling, who was found responsible for performingmalarial experiences on patients and was hanged in May .

of forty defendants, with Hansen’s hand-written annotation, “These are the bastardsnow on trial.”

On Hansen’s staff at Dachau were five ofthe eight stenographers who had recordedverbatim Hitler’s twice-daily military-situa-tion conferences. Hansen conducted thor-ough interviews with each of theserecorders, documenting first hand informa-tion about Hitler’s rise to power and hiscommand of the war. The Archives includetranscriptions of these immensely valuableoral histories. Of particular interest is aneyewitness account by ReichstagsstenographHeinz Buchholz of the attempt on Hitler’slife on July , . Hansen’s experiencesas a prosecutor and his interviews withHitler’s chief recorders form the basis forhis book, Witness to Barbarism, publishedin .

After the war, Hansen became a partner in the St. Paul firm now known asHansen, Dordell, Bradt, Odlaug & Bradt.He was a nationally recognized expert ininsurance, banking and health law. Heserved for many years as general counselfor Independent Bankers of America.Hansen was general counsel for the GroupHealth Association of America and testi-fied several times in Congress on behalf ofcooperative health insurance. His papersdocumenting this work are preserved inthe Social Welfare History Archives at theUniversity of Minnesota. His articles ongroup health plans appeared in theMinnesota Law Review, the Iowa LawReview, and the Vanderbilt Law Review.Hansen was one of the founders of GroupHealth in Minnesota, now HealthPartners,and served as its counsel for many years.

Katherine Hedin

Curator of Rare Books and Special Collections

University of Minnesota Law Library

An American GI gives the last of his cigarettes to liberated prisoners.

University of Minnesota Law Library

Walter F. Mondale Hall Nineteenth Avenue South

Minneapolis, Minnesota

The University of Minnesota Law Library and Human Rights Center gratefully acknowledge the support of Hansen, Dordell, Bradt,

Odlaug & Bradt as well as HealthPartners in making this exhibit possible. The Library and Center also appreciate the assistance of the

University of Minnesota Human Rights Program and the Center for Holocaust & Genocide Studies as well as

Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights.

Cover photograph: Liberation at Dachau, April -, Page photograph: Warsaw ghetto, .