Abstract
Lothar Rendulic’s acquittal by a US military tribunal in Nuremberg for the charges of devastation and forceful evacuation of Northern Norway sent shockwaves through the Norwegian public. How could Rendulic be acquitted when, 500 days earlier, the International Military Tribunal found Alfred Jodl, Rendulic’s superior, guilty of the same facts? This chapter shows that the US tribunal did not consider all available information. After the war, two parallel proceedings against Rendulic were initiated: one in Oslo and another by Telford Taylor in Nuremberg. To secure evidence on Rendulic’s activities in Finnmark, Taylor collaborated with the Norwegian government-in-exile in London through its envoy to the United Nations War Crimes Commission. This collaboration was not communicated to the public prosecutor in Oslo who later requested Rendulic’s extradition to Norway. Once misunderstandings were clarified, a Justice of the Norwegian Supreme Court sent several thousand pages of evidence to Taylor. Only a few were translated to English, however, resulting in an incomplete case for the prosecution. Crucially, Taylor’s team did not submit to the tribunal a May 1947 report in which Rendulic admitted to Norwegian interrogators that the destruction of Northern Norway did not appear necessary and could in part have been avoided.
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Notes
- 1.
Known as the St. James declaration of 13 January 1942.
- 2.
Newspaper clippings in RA/S-1555/D/L0041, folder 2, published 10 July 1947.
- 3.
- 4.
- 5.
Elstad 2020, pp 426–434 and 471–481.
- 6.
RA/S-1557/Db/Looo9. Charges 1 and 63-289.
- 7.
Ibid.
- 8.
Ibid.
- 9.
Ibid.
- 10.
Soleim et al. 2022, p 363.
- 11.
RA/S-1555/D/L0041, file 3.
- 12.
Since much more serious crimes had been committed in the Balkans, Norway did not have a right of priority when it came to extradition. In practice, this meant that the case had to be brought to Nuremberg. See RA/S-1555/D/L0041, folder 2. “Criminal case against Generaloberst Rendulic”, 4 October 1948, Asbjørn Bryhn.
- 13.
RA/S-1555/D/L0041, folder 3. Follestad’s letter, 2 March 1948.
- 14.
RA/S-1557/Da/L0033, folder “20. Gebirgsarmeé” (several documents).
- 15.
This loss of time is also raised in Olsen 2019, pp 263–267.
- 16.
RA/S-1555/D/L0041, file 1, “De tyske ødeleggelser i Finnmark og Nord-Troms vinteren 1944/45”, 9 October 1946.
- 17.
RA/S-1555/D/L0041, file 1. “Ansvarsforholdet for ødeleggelsene i Finnmark og Nord-Troms under den tyske tilbaketrekning 1944”, signed Wrede Holm, 27 July 1946.
- 18.
Ibid.
- 19.
RA/S-1557/Da/L0033, file “20. Gebirgsarmeé”, several documents.
- 20.
Letter from Clark Denney to Aars Rynning, Norwegian representative, UNWCC, 12 December 1946.
- 21.
RA/S-1555/D/L0041. Taylor to Springer, 30 April 1947.
- 22.
RA/S-1555/D/L0041, folder 3, Follestad’s letter to the Norwegian Parliament’s Justice Committee, 3 November 1948.
- 23.
RA/S-1557/Db/Looo9. The document concerns charges 1 and 63-289, “The province of Finnmark in North Norway. October/November 1944”.
- 24.
Ibid.
- 25.
RA/S-1555/D/L0041, file 3, “Straffesak mot Rendulic”, 25 July 1947.
- 26.
RA/S-1555/D/L0041, file 2, “Straffesak mot general Rendulic for militærdomstolen i Nürnberg”, 2 August 1947.
- 27.
RA/S-1555/D/L0041, file 2,”Rettsbok for Tana forhørsrett, år 1947, den 4. August”.
- 28.
Elstad 2022, p 219.
- 29.
RA/S-1555/D/L0041, file 2,”Straffesak mot General Rendulic”, 24 July 1947.
- 30.
Ibid.
- 31.
Ibid.
- 32.
Ibid.
- 33.
Ibid.
- 34.
RA/S-1555/D/L0041, file 3, “Straffesak mot generaloberst Rendulic”, 20 September 1947.
- 35.
RA/S-1555/D/L0041, file 3, “Lothar Rendulic – tyskernes ødeleggelser og herjinger i Finnmark og Nord-Troms i 1944–45”, 8 November 1948.
- 36.
RA/S-1555/D/L0041, file 3, “Lothar Rendulic – tyskernes ødeleggelser og herjinger i Finnmark og Nord-Troms i 1944–45”, 3 November 1948.
- 37.
RA/S-1555/D/L0041, folder 3, Follestad’s letter to the Norwegian Parliament’s Justice Committee, 3 November 1948.
- 38.
Heller 2011, p 318.
- 39.
Heller 2011, p 311.
- 40.
Dierl and Stiller 2013, p 247.
- 41.
Taylor 1949, p 207.
- 42.
As quoted in The Stars and Stripes, 24 February 1948.
- 43.
Ibid.
- 44.
Ibid.
- 45.
Ibid.
- 46.
Ibid.
- 47.
Priemel 2016, p 349.
- 48.
Ibid.
- 49.
RA/S-1555/D/L0041, file 3, “Straffesak mot generaloberst Rendulic. - Ødeleggelsene i Finnmark vinter 1944/45”, 2 March 1948.
- 50.
Justice and Police Department, Parliamentary document (Stortingsmelding) No. 44, 1948, p 2.
- 51.
Ibid., p 2.
- 52.
Ibid., p 3.
- 53.
Ibid., p 4.
- 54.
Ibid., p 4.
- 55.
Trial of the Major War Criminals before the International Military Tribunal (“The Blue Series”), available at The Library of Congress: https://www.loc.gov/rr/frd/Military_Law/Nuremberg_trials.html [accessed 1 April 2023], Vol. 1, p 324.
- 56.
Ibid., Vol. 19, p 35.
- 57.
Ibid., Vol. 19, p 34.
- 58.
Ibid., Vol. 21, p 571.
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Bones, S., Hatlehol, G.D. (2024). The Inclusion of Finnmark’s Devastation and Forced Evacuation Charge in Hostage. In: Hayashi, N., Lingaas, C. (eds) Honest Errors? Combat Decision-Making 75 Years After the Hostage Case. T.M.C. Asser Press, The Hague. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6265-611-6_5
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