Alexander Scotland - War Crimes Investigations

War Crimes Investigations

After the war, the PWIS became known as the War Crimes Investigation Unit (WCIU), and the London Cage became the headquarters for questioning suspected war criminals. Among the Nazi war criminals confined at the London cage was Fritz Knoechlein, who was in charge of the murder of 100 British prisoners who had surrendered at Le Paradis, France in May 1940. Knoechlein was convicted and hanged in 1949.

In London Cage Scotland spoke disparagingly of the varying treatment of Nazi war criminals, and the necessity of prompt prosecutions. Scotland participated in the interrogation of Gen. Kurt Meyer, who was accused of participating in a massacre of Canadian troops. Meyer was eventually sentenced to death, although the sentence was not carried out. Scotland observed that Meyer received milder treatment after news of the atrocity had grown "cold". He said that a Nazi Gauleiter, Sporenburg, who was responsible for the deaths of 46,000 Jews in Poland toward the end of the war, was not prosecuted by Poland despite documentary evidence of his crimes, because of Polish dislike of Jews.

Other Nazi war criminals passing through the London Cage after the war included Sepp Dietrich, an SS general accused but never prosecuted for the murder of British prisoners in 1940. He participated in the investigation of the SS and Gestapo men who murdered 41 escaped prisoners from Stalag Luft III in 1944, in the aftermath of what became known as the "great escape." The London Cage closed in 1948.

On 14 February 1946 he was awarded the US Bronze Star for his prisoner interrogation work, and enhancing US/UK cooperation. He was formally granted permission to wear this foreign decoration on 25 September 1947.