RuSHA Trial, Nuremberg, Germany, 1947-1948

United States of America vs. Ulrich Greifelt, et al, commonly known as the RuSHA trial, was the eighth of the twelve "Subsequent Nuremberg trials" for war crimes and crimes against humanity after the end of World War II between 1947 and 1948. The accused were 14 officials of the Race and Settlement Main Office (RuSHA), the Reich Commission for the Consolidation of German Nationhood, the Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle, and the Lebenborn e.V., charged with crimes tied to implementing Nazi racial policies in Central and Eastern Europe which included ethnic cleansing. The RuSHA trial was held by United States authorities at the Palace of Justice in Nuremberg in the American occupation zone before US military courts, not before the International Military Tribunal. Thirteen of the fourteen accused were found guilty: eight for all three charges, and five only for being members of an illegal organization due to their membership in the SS. One received life imprisonment, seven received prison sentences between 25 to 10 years, and five were released for time served. The only acquital was Inge Viermetz, who was found not guilty of crimes against humanity and war crimes, and as a woman was not eligible to join the SS. The judges in the RuSHA trial, heard before Military Tribunal I, were Lee B. Wyatt (presiding judge), Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia; Daniel T. O'Connell of the Superior Court of Massachusetts, and Johnson T. Crawford from Oklahoma. The Chief of Counsel for the Prosecution was Telford Taylor. The indictment was served on July 7, 1947; the trial lasted from October 20, 1947 until March 10, 1948.