us-005578-irn723126
type: RecordSet
archival history: Archives nationales (France)
biographical history: Starting in June, 1944, a commission was created by Provisional Government of the French Republic in Algiers, as the jurist René Cassin, who had joined De Gaulle in London, advised. This commission was eventually going to report its findings to the U.N. offices in London and the international investigative committee for all Axis war crimes, later known as CROWCASS (Central Registry of War Criminals and Security Suspects). As soon as the Provisional Government of the French Republic (GPRF) arrived in Paris in late August, 1944, the Ministry of Justice created a Service central des crimes de guerre whose purpose was to conduct the necessary investigations to gather proof and identify those guilty of war crimes, assuring the liaison with Allied military authorities, French military tribunals, and civil authorities, as well as to prepare a Livre noir 3 of war crimes (there had already been 2 previous Livres noirs of war crimes perpetrated on mainland France and in North Africa). The SRCGE was officially formed by decree on December 6, 1944, composed of a central directorate, 15 chargés de mission, regional delegates assisted by local committees, investigative units in foreign countries, and liaison officers. The Ministry of War was responsible for providing the personnel, supplies, and equipment necessary to the Director, Colonel Chauveau. Findings were to be reported regularly to Professor Gros in London, the only French delegate to the Interallied Commission for war crimes, but also to the French military tribunals, which had been entrusted with the power to try such crimes by a government ordonnance issued August 28, 1944. The SRCGE was in close contact with the judicial authorities in the French Occupied Zone of Germany and sent search warrants for individuals having committed crimes in France who they suspected had returned to Germany. The SRCGE did not have the prerogative to investigate crimes committed by Axis powers or French collaborationists in Eastern Europe…
conditions of use: Copyright Holder: Archives nationales (France)
has beginning date: 1940-01-01
has end date: 1949-12-31
has or had holder: us-005578
has or had identifier: 2
has or had identifier: 1
has or had some members with language: fra
has or had some members with language: deu
has or had subject: 43
has or had subject: 636
has or had subject: 701
has or had subject: 760
has or had subject: 843
has or had subject: 744
has or had subject: 685
has or had subject: 560
has or had subject: 0
has or had subject: 3149
has record set type: Item
identifier: irn723126
record resource extent: 82,831 digital images, JPEG
record resource structure: Arranged in two series: 1. Individual files for investigations conducted by the SRCGE, and 2. Specific types of crimes. Nearly all of the files can be found under the département or country where the crime supposedly occurred, rather than by subject.
results or resulted from: 1
scope and content: Investigations conducted by the Department for Investigation of Enemy War Crimes (SRCGE) into war crimes committed either on the French mainland or involving French citizens in camps outside of France. The investigations were conducted by judiciary police starting in late 1944. They are organized alphabetically by département or by the country where they are presumed to have occurred (Germany, Austria, Poland), and also by subject matter. Investigated activities include arrest, arson, denaturalization denunciation, deportation, execution, expropriation, forced labor, homicide, internment, kidnapping, mass graves, murder, pillage, property destruction, raids, rape, spoliation, theft, and torture. Subjects of the investigations included the 11th Panzer Division, 90th Panzergrenadier Division, Feldgendarmerie, German police, Gestapo, Milice, Sicherungs-Regiment 194, Waffen SS, Wehrmacht, and individual military personnel and civilians.
title: Department for the Investigation of Enemy War Crimes by the French Judiciary Police Service de recherche de crimes de guerre ennemis de la police judiciaire (SRCGE)