View XML QR Code

Walter Beals Nuremberg Trials photograph collection, 1946-1947

Overview of the Collection

Collector
Beals, Walter B.
Title
Walter Beals Nuremberg Trials photograph collection
Dates
1946-1947 (inclusive)
Quantity
223 black-and-white photographs, 1 negative (2 boxes) ; various sizes
Collection Number
PH1150
Summary
Photographs of United States of America v. Karl Brandt, et al. (the first Subsequent Nuremberg Trial), United States of America vs. Erhard Milch (the second Subsequent Nuremberg Trial), and people involved with some of the Subsequent Nuremberg Trials.
Repository
University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections
Special Collections
University of Washington Libraries
Box 352900
Seattle, WA
98195-2900
Telephone: 2065431929
Fax: 2065431931
speccoll@uw.edu
Access Restrictions

Entire collection can be viewed on the Libraries’ Digital Collections website. Permission of Visual Materials Curator is required to view originals. Contact Special Collections for more information.

Languages
English
Return to Top

Biographical Note

Walter Burges Beals was born in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1876. Beals's family traveled west in 1897, and Beals enrolled in the newly founded University of Washington Law School; he and his future wife Othilia Carroll were members of the first graduating class of the school in 1901.

Beals served as a military officer in France during World War I and afterwards helped organize and found the American Legion. His legal career flourished in the 1920s, and in 1926, he accepted a position as judge of the Superior Court of King County. Beals became a member of the Washington State Supreme Court in 1928, a position he held until his retirement in 1950, twice holding the position of Chief Justice. Beals is perhaps best known for his work, in 1946-1947, as Presiding Judge at the International Military Tribunal in Nuremburg, the Nazi war trial known as the "Doctors' Trial."

Walter Beals was an avid collector of books, manuscripts, such as liturgical and religious manuscripts, and signatures, particularly those of European royalty. Beals also began creating albums as a young man, a hobby he continued throughout his life, collecting and soliciting signatures, manuscripts and other materials which he would mount on paper or vellum and bind into albums, often with leather covers. In his time, Beals was considered the greatest private collector of manuscripts and books in the Pacific Northwest.

Return to Top

Historical Background

The "Doctors' Trial" or "Medical Case" ( United States of America v. Karl Brandt, et al. ) was the first of 12 trials known as the "Subsequent Nuremberg Trials". Arraignment and indictment was held on November 21, 1946, with the accused facing four charges, including:

  • Conspiracy to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity;
  • War crimes, namely, being knowingly connected to and/or performing "medical experiments without the subjects' consent [...] in the course of which experiments the defendants committed murders, brutalities, cruelties, tortures, atrocities, and other inhuman acts";
  • Crimes against humanity: committing crimes described under count 2 also on German nationals;
  • Membership in a criminal organization (the SS).
All defendants entered a "not guilty" plea.

The trial began on December 9, 1946, and lasted until August 20, 1947. Eighty-four witnesses testified at the trial. Of the 23 defendants, seven (Blome, Pokorny, Romberg, Rostock, Ruff, Schäfer, and Weltz) were acquitted, and seven (Brack, Karl and Rudolf Brandt, Gebhardt, Hoven, Mrugowsky, and Sievers) received death sentences; the remainder received prison sentences ranging from 10 years to life imprisonment.

Return to Top

Content Description

Photographs of United States of America v. Karl Brandt, et al. (the first Subsequent Nuremberg Trial), United States of America vs. Erhard Milch (the second Subsequent Nuremberg Trial), and people involved with some of the Subsequent Nuremberg Trials. Some of the photographs have notes handwritten by Judge Beals. Many of the photographs are accompanied by captions typed on separate pieces of paper.

Return to Top

Use of the Collection

Restrictions on Use

Restrictions may exist on reproduction, quotation, or publication. Contact Special Collections, University of Washington Libraries for details.

Return to Top

Administrative Information

Acquisition Information

Donated by Mrs. W. B. Beals, 1960.

Processing Note

Processed by Beck Prigot, 2015; processing completed in 2016.

Photographs were relocated from the Walter B. Beals Papers, 1946-1950, Mss Accession No. 0126-001, in the repository in 2015.

Related Materials

Correspondence, reports, writings, notes, trial transcripts, and other material documenting Judge Beals' work as a judge at the Nuremberg Military Tribunal war crime trials can be found in the Walter B. Beals papers, 1946-1950, Mss Accession No. 0126-001.

Return to Top

Detailed Description of the Collection

 

Names and SubjectsReturn to Top

Subject Terms

  • Nuremberg War Crime Trials, Nuremberg, Germany, 1946-1949--Photographs
  • Visual Materials Collections (University of Washington)
  • War crime trials--Germany--Nuremberg--Photographs

Personal Names

  • Beals, Walter B.--Archives
  • Beals, Walter B.--Photographs
  • Beiglböck, Wilhelm, 1905-1963--Photographs
  • Brandt, Karl, 1904-1948--Photographs
  • Crawford, Johnson T., 1889-1955--Photographs
  • Ervin, Thomas E.--Photographs
  • Handloser, Siegfried, 1895-1954--Photographs
  • Hardy, Alexander G.--Photographs
  • McHaney, James M., -1995--Photographs
  • Sebring, Harold L. (Harold Leon), 1898-1968--Photographs
  • Swearingen, Victor C.--Photographs
  • Taylor, Telford--Photographs

Corporate Names

  • Germany (Territory under Allied occupation, 1945-1955 : U.S. Zone). Office of Military Government. Office, Chief of Counsel for War Crimes

Other Creators

  • Corporate Names

    • Germany (Territory under Allied occupation, 1945-1955 : U.S. Zone). Office of Military Government. Office, Chief of Counsel for War Crimes (associated name)


2016 (Last modified: 9/27/2024)

CC0

About Creative Commons Licenses in Archives West

Loading...
Loading...