396.1 LO/2–1852

Paper Agreed Upon by Secretary of State Acheson, Foreign Secretary Eden, Foreign Minister Schuman, and Chancellor Adenauer 1
secret

Article on War Criminals

There is hereby established a Mixed Board (referred to in this article as “the Board”). The task of the Board will be without calling in question the validity of the convictions to make recommendations [Page 102] for termination or reduction of sentence, or for parole, in respect of persons convicted by a tribunal of an Allied power of crime against humanity or against the laws and usages of war or of crimes committed during the war, commonly referred to as “war crimes”, and confined by the Three Powers in prisons in the Federal Republic on the date of the entry into force of this convention.

2.
The Board shall consist of six members, of whom three shall be appointed by the Federal Republic and one by each of the Three Powers. The members of the Board shall be independent persons not exercising other official functions in Germany and not subject to instructions of the appointing Government in formulating their recommendations. No person may be appointed who has participated in any manner in any war crimes trial.
3.
The right to terminate or reduce sentences and to grant parole in respect of persons referred to in paragraph 1 shall be exercisable by the Power which imposed the sentence. The right shall not be exercised unless the Board has previously made a recommendation. A unanimous recommendation of the Board shall be binding upon the Power which imposed the sentence. Save on matters dealt with in paragraphs 5 and 7 below, the Board shall act only at the request of one of the Four Governments relating to a particular case or on the receipt of a petition by or on behalf of a person referred to in paragraph 1.
4.
The Three Powers will transfer to the Federal Republic on the date of the entry into force of this Convention custody of the persons referred to in paragraph 1. The Federal Republic will accept the custody of such persons and will carry out their sentences as then in effect or as thereafter modified by the procedure herein provided.
5.
The Federal Republic will confine the persons referred to in paragraph 1 under the same conditions that govern their detention on the effective date of this Convention. Changes in those conditions shall be made only in accordance with decisions of the Board. In these matters the Board’s decisions shall be final. The members of the Board shall have free access to the institutions in which the persons referred to in paragraph 1 are confined and to such persons themselves.
6.
The Board shall act by the vote of a majority of its six members.
7.
The Board shall have exclusive power to decide questions of interruption of sentence on compassionate or other grounds without reference to Governments, in accordance with rules of procedure which it may adopt.
  1. This proposed article was agreed upon by the three Foreign Ministers and the Chancellor at their meeting on the afternoon of Feb. 18; see the Laukhuff minutes, p. 67. Regarding the origin of this draft article, see footnote 3, p. 55.