Department for the Investigation of Enemy War Crimes by the French Judiciary Police Service de recherche de crimes de guerre ennemis de la police judiciaire (SRCGE)

Starting in June, 1944, a commission was created by Provisional Government of the French Republic in Algiers, as the jurist René Cassin, who had joined De Gaulle in London, advised. This commission was eventually going to report its findings to the U.N. offices in London and the international investigative committee for all Axis war crimes, later known as CROWCASS (Central Registry of War Criminals and Security Suspects). As soon as the Provisional Government of the French Republic (GPRF) arrived in Paris in late August, 1944, the Ministry of Justice created a Service central des crimes de guerre whose purpose was to conduct the necessary investigations to gather proof and identify those guilty of war crimes, assuring the liaison with Allied military authorities, French military tribunals, and civil authorities, as well as to prepare a Livre noir 3 of war crimes (there had already been 2 previous Livres noirs of war crimes perpetrated on mainland France and in North Africa). The SRCGE was officially formed by decree on December 6, 1944, composed of a central directorate, 15 chargés de mission, regional delegates assisted by local committees, investigative units in foreign countries, and liaison officers. The Ministry of War was responsible for providing the personnel, supplies, and equipment necessary to the Director, Colonel Chauveau. Findings were to be reported regularly to Professor Gros in London, the only French delegate to the Interallied Commission for war crimes, but also to the French military tribunals, which had been entrusted with the power to try such crimes by a government ordonnance issued August 28, 1944. The SRCGE was in close contact with the judicial authorities in the French Occupied Zone of Germany and sent search warrants for individuals having committed crimes in France who they suspected had returned to Germany. The SRCGE did not have the prerogative to investigate crimes committed by Axis powers or French collaborationists in Eastern Europe, under Russian control. At one point, over 300 people were working for the SRCGE and regional delegations continued investigations through 1946, though they had fewer responsibilities and these were then turned over to the Services régionaux de la police judiciaries. By 1947, the staff at the central office was reduced to 45 persons. Investigations conducted by the Department for Investigation of Enemy War Crimes (SRCGE) into war crimes committed either on the French mainland or involving French citizens in camps outside of France. The investigations were conducted by judiciary police starting in late 1944. They are organized alphabetically by département or by the country where they are presumed to have occurred (Germany, Austria, Poland), and also by subject matter. Investigated activities include arrest, arson, denaturalization denunciation, deportation, execution, expropriation, forced labor, homicide, internment, kidnapping, mass graves, murder, pillage, property destruction, raids, rape, spoliation, theft, and torture. Subjects of the investigations included the 11th Panzer Division, 90th Panzergrenadier Division, Feldgendarmerie, German police, Gestapo, Milice, Sicherungs-Regiment 194, Waffen SS, Wehrmacht, and individual military personnel and civilians. Copyright Holder: Archives nationales (France)