Home > Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity > Control Council Law No. 10

Entered into force on December 20, 1945, Control Council Law No. 10 created a framework for the post–World War II trials of German military and civilian personnel. Commanders of the four zones of occupation in postwar Germany made up the Allied Control Council. Major war criminals were to be tried, under the London Charter, by the International Military Tribunal (IMT). Control Council Law No. 10 applied to those individuals not considered major war criminals.

Control Council Law No. 10 provided definitions for specific offenses, so that all the Allied powers would be using the same legal standard. These definitions were taken from the London Charter, with minor adjustments, and included crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. Control Council Law No. 10 did not ascribe particular penalties to offenses; rather, it named penalties that a court could apply to any person convicted of an offense falling into one of the three categories named above. These penalties included life imprisonment, imprisonment for a term of years, and capital punishment.

As it referred to and incorporated the terms of the London Charter, Control Council Law No. 10 did not permit superior orders as a form of defense, but allowed their consideration as a mitigating factor in determining punishment. Further, no one was immune from prosecution by virtue of a governmental position.

Control Council Law No. 10 also referred to the right of the IMT to declare as criminal a particular organization. It provided for the conviction of members of such organizations. The IMT declared as criminal certain categories of leadership within the Nazi Party, Gestapo, and SD, and most members of the SS.

Although Control Council Law No. 10 did not create courts to conduct trials, it assumed that each of the Allied powers would establish appropriate courts for this purpose in its zone of occupation. Each zone commander would then determine the rules of trial.

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) did not hold such trials in its zone of occupation, but did try Nazi military personnel in the USSR for atrocities committed against civilians during Germany's occupation of the former Soviet Union. France held a small number of trials in its zone of occupation and a larger number in France for atrocities committed during Germany's occupation of France. Great Britain conducted numerous trials in its zone of occupation before military courts, a number of them involving the killings of prisoners of war.

In implementing Control Council Law No. 10, the U.S. military government issued Ordinance No. 7, dated October 18, 1946, that provided for three-judge courts. Judges were to be drawn from a pool of attorneys in the United States. A listing of the rights of the accused was included. Judgments would enumerate the reasons behind the justices' decisions; they were final and not subject to appeal.

The United States established six such courts, all at Nuremberg. They heard a total of twelve cases between 1946 and 1948, all but one involving multiple defendants. Charges related to medical experiments performed on concentration camp inmates, the killing of the mentally ill in German hospitals and nursing homes (via the Nazis' euthanasia program), the persecution of Jews and political opponents in Germany, and the killing of Jews and political opponents in occupied countries of the Eastern Front.

German industrialists were tried in these courts for employing forced foreign laborers, concentration camp inmates, and prisoners of war in war industry plants. Military figures were tried for killing civilians in Yugoslavia and Greece as reprisal for partisan attacks on German troops. Some defendants were charged with membership in an organization declared criminal by the IMT, typically in conjunction with other charges.

The U.S. command additionally established military courts at Dachau to focus on violations of the rights of prisoners of war and atrocities committed in the concentration camps. German courts also conducted trials of Germans accused of offenses during World War II.

Even though the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, trying, as it did, top Nazi leadership, gained more notoriety, a much larger number of trials were held before the courts created under Control Council Law No. 10. These trials involved thousands of defendants. They were important not only for the penalties imposed on particular defendants, but also for the body of law they developed. The United States published the proceedings of its Nuremberg cases in fifteen volumes: Trials of War Criminals before the Nuremberg Military Tribunals under Control Council Law No. 10.

SEE ALSO London Charter; Nuremberg Trials; Nuremberg Trials, Subsequent

John Quigley