Event Title

In the Aftermath of Genocide: Internment and Interrogation

Submission Type

Paper

Abstract

In the aftermath of the Second World War, British authorities established Civil Internment Camps (CIC) as part of the denazification process. The CICs were used in conjunction with Combined Services Detailed Interrogation Centres (CSDIC), which were intended to hold former Nazis for questioning. Suspects were screened at the No. 74 CSDIC at Bad Nenndorf.

While conditions in the CICs were harsh, the treatment meted out at Bad Nenndorf was far worse. In a 1947 report regarding the state of an abused internee, Major James Morgan-Jones of the Royal Artillery remarked, “It was one of the most disgusting sights of my life. The man literally had no flesh on him, his state of emaciation was incredible… [He] was still a figure which may well have been one of the Belsen inmates.” The report revealed that prisoners sent to the hospital from the interrogation centre at Bad Nenndorf suffered from frostbite, malnutrition and physical abuse.

My paper will argue that for the British, the process of denazification was flawed from the outset. Its attempt at interrogating Nazi party officials and former members of the Schutzstaffel was plagued by scandal, corruption, excessive bureaucracy and inhumane treatment of its internees. While prisoners-of-war were taken into custody often without charge or the expectation of trial, ordinary civilians were also detained and later released. By the summer of 1946 there were 66,000 suspected Nazis interned in the British Zone of Occupied Germany. I argue that the British had no clear direction regarding what was to be done with those in custody. Instead, the incarcerated languished for months, and some for a year or more, often in cramped conditions with poor medical care and abuse.

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In the Aftermath of Genocide: Internment and Interrogation

In the aftermath of the Second World War, British authorities established Civil Internment Camps (CIC) as part of the denazification process. The CICs were used in conjunction with Combined Services Detailed Interrogation Centres (CSDIC), which were intended to hold former Nazis for questioning. Suspects were screened at the No. 74 CSDIC at Bad Nenndorf.

While conditions in the CICs were harsh, the treatment meted out at Bad Nenndorf was far worse. In a 1947 report regarding the state of an abused internee, Major James Morgan-Jones of the Royal Artillery remarked, “It was one of the most disgusting sights of my life. The man literally had no flesh on him, his state of emaciation was incredible… [He] was still a figure which may well have been one of the Belsen inmates.” The report revealed that prisoners sent to the hospital from the interrogation centre at Bad Nenndorf suffered from frostbite, malnutrition and physical abuse.

My paper will argue that for the British, the process of denazification was flawed from the outset. Its attempt at interrogating Nazi party officials and former members of the Schutzstaffel was plagued by scandal, corruption, excessive bureaucracy and inhumane treatment of its internees. While prisoners-of-war were taken into custody often without charge or the expectation of trial, ordinary civilians were also detained and later released. By the summer of 1946 there were 66,000 suspected Nazis interned in the British Zone of Occupied Germany. I argue that the British had no clear direction regarding what was to be done with those in custody. Instead, the incarcerated languished for months, and some for a year or more, often in cramped conditions with poor medical care and abuse.