at Yale Law School at Yale Law SchoolDEAR MR. SECRETARY:
I have the honor to submit herewith the final report of the Office, Chief of Counsel for War Crimes on the Nuernberg war crimes trials held under the authority of Control Council Law No. 10.
An interim statement on the progress of the trials (attached to this report as Appendix A) was submitted by me to the Secretary of the Army (then the Honorable Kenneth C. Royall) on 12 May 1948. At that time four trials were still in process, all of which have since been concluded by the rendition of judgments. The sentences imposed by the Nuernberg Tribunals in eleven of the twelve cases (all except United States v. Ernst von Weizsaecker, Case No. 11) have all been reviewed by the Military Governor. With a single exception, in which a death sentence imposed by a Tribunal (in United States v. Oswald Pohl, Case No. 4) was reduced to life imprisonment, all were confirmed. Seven of the twenty-three death sentences imposed (and confirmed) have been carried out, and the other condemned men are confined at Landsberg Prison in Bavaria, where the jail sentences of the other convicts are being served. Publication of the Judgments and other important records of the trials is in process.
This report does not cover the activities of the Secretary-General of the Nuernberg Military Tribunals, who was directly responsible to the Deputy Military Governor. I am advised by the Secretary-General (Dr. Howard H. Russell) that his final report will be submitted to the High Commissioner in due course.
With the submission of this report my task as Chief of Counsel for War Crimes and as Chief Prosecutor for the United States under the London Charter is concluded, and I respectfully request that my assignment in those capacities be terminated forthwith.
Respectfully yours,
TELFORD TAYLOR
Brigadier General, USA
Chief of Counsel for War Crimes