Neuengamme trials: Papers of J. C. Giffin

The Neuengamme concentration camp case took place between 18 March and 3 May 1946 in Hamburg’s Curiohaus. A British military court tried 14 of the leading officers and guards of the Neuengamme concentration camp complex for war crimes. After 39 days, the judge advocate found all defendants guilty, sentencing 11 to death and 3 to prison for between 10 and 20 years. The executions were carried out on 8 October 1946.

Jeffrey Charles Giffin, whose papers these are, was a member of the presiding court. According to information provided by his family, he was born on 2 June 1919 in Acton, London. He studied at Acton County School, leaving in 1936. He started his military career with the Durham Light Infantry in October 1939. In August 1940, he received an emergency commission as a Second Lieutenant with the Royal Fusiliers. In May/June 1941, he attended an intelligence course at SMI Beaconsfield; he went on to serve as an intelligence office in Gibraltar. He returned to Britain in January 1944 and received a regular commission as a lieutenant in January 1945 with the Royal Fusiliers; in August he joined the British Army of the Rhine in Germany. Between 1947 and 1950, he served in various military intelligence departments at the War Office; in March 1950, he became Staff Captain of A Branch, BAOR.