I have just finished reading "The Final Reckoning" by Sam Bourne. It is a novel which quotes actual research by eminent historians in the story being told. I am trying to be unemotional in asking why so few Nazis were brought to justice? Of all of those involved in this obscenity only 11 paid with their lives and only 300 were still in prison in 1949! I remember an earlier thread (which I cannot locate) explaining that lots of Japanese had escaped justice for the greater good. Am I alone in thinking that some of the ensuing atrocities of the late 20th/early 21st century could maybe have been avoided if these earlier ones had not only administered justice but sent that message very clearly to wouldbe perpetrators?
By 1949 WW2 was old hat and it was considered more important to rebuild Germany and Japan to stand up to the Soviet Union. To be fair, the West also wanted to avoid the excesses of the Versailles Treaty by crushing the defeated nations. So it was left to Simon Wiesenthal and Mossad to track down the rest. The would-be perpetrators would have to believe that the US and Europe still had the resolve and the resources to stand up to them, whatever happened after WW2. And they were pretty safe if they were prepared to help the West against Communism or militant Islam.
I think we will the the answers to your question buried away in some government file mark "not to be released for 100 years" except a lot of us will not still around to read it. John
Unfortunately many were tried under the "war crimes" banner at that time which did not result in any effective punishment, in other words it was simply war and as such sentences reflected that element so were not as severe as they should have been. Nowadays those caught are tried under the "crimes against humanity" which is much more serious an act than one of war.
Was there no alternative to "war crimes"? Not sure that I see how the treatment of the Jews and other minorities was "war". How soon after the war did the atrocities become public knowledge? Wasn't there a public thirst to see some sort of justice done?
