The United Nations War Crimes Commission (UNWCC) was inaugurated on October 20, 1943, by representatives of the seventeen Allied nations. It was the only international framework that dealt with the issue of war crimes and war criminals during World War II. The commission continued to operate until March 31, 1948, and in the course of its four-and-a-half years of existence had created a total of 8,178 files (representing 36,810 individuals and groups). Significantly, some of the most important notions elaborated by the UNWCC found their way into the Nuremberg Charter.

The idea of establishing a United Nations (UN) "commission on atrocities" was first advanced by British prime minister Winston S. Churchill in June 1942 during his visit to the United States. Churchill was in part responding to intense pressure coming from the exiled Polish and Czech governments in London, who envisioned the threat of reprisals against Germany by the...