Photograph of the Judges

The impression of the images of Auschwitz, as this one taken during the liberation on January 27, 1945, faded quickly in the minds of many Germans.
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The campaign against "victor’s justice" mainly targeted the Allied war crime trials rather than the German proceedings. The High Commissioners, especially John McCloy, were confronted with a growing flood of petitions, statements, and demands of German origin that all called for a revision of the sentences passed against German war criminals and heightened the expectations of the German public, especially after the German "Christmas amnesty".

The Americans endeavoured to alleviate this pressure by releasing about 60 prisoners at the turn of the year and installing a clemency board in March 1950. This board was to revise all sentences of the trials of war criminals by the US Army and the US High Commissioner. When it became clear in the course of the year that the West Germans were expected to provide a "defence contribution" due to the increasingly acute East-West confrontation, the statements of the German side started becoming more and more self-confident and demanding.