Why did Allies go easy on Nazi war criminals?

[dps]

One thing to keep in mind is that some of the people convicted of war crimes were convicted of complicity in atrocities--stuff that we commonly think of war crimes, which were called "Class B" warcrimes--but others were convicted of being "planners of offensive war" or "Class A" warcrimes.*  Senoir Allied military leaders were quite opposed to the concept of "Class A" warcrimes, because planning wars is the job of military leaders in peacetimes, and whether those wars are offensive or defensive is more of a political decision made by a country's civilian leadership (at least in countries that adhere to the principle of civilian control over the military).  I'm not sure that being convicted and sentenced to death, life imprisonment, or a long prison term and then being released after 10 years or so is a "common template", but to the extent that it is, I bet a high percentage of those involved were convicted of "Class A" type stuff, not the "Class B" crimes.

* I think that technically, the "Class A" and "Class B" designations were only used in the warcrime trials of Japanese leaders, but the concept of "Class A" warcrimes seems functionally equivalent to the "planner of offensive war" charge that some German leaders were convicted for.

[grumbler]

One thing to keep in mind is that some of the people convicted of war crimes were convicted of complicity in atrocities--stuff that we commonly think of war crimes, which were called "Class B" warcrimes--but others were convicted of being "planners of offensive war" or "Class A" warcrimes.*  Senoir Allied military leaders were quite opposed to the concept of "Class A" warcrimes, because planning wars is the job of military leaders in peacetimes, and whether those wars are offensive or defensive is more of a political decision made by a country's civilian leadership (at least in countries that adhere to the principle of civilian control over the military).  I'm not sure that being convicted and sentenced to death, life imprisonment, or a long prison term and then being released after 10 years or so is a "common template", but to the extent that it is, I bet a high percentage of those involved were convicted of "Class A" type stuff, not the "Class B" crimes.

* I think that technically, the "Class A" and "Class B" designations were only used in the warcrime trials of Japanese leaders, but the concept of "Class A" warcrimes seems functionally equivalent to the "planner of offensive war" charge that some German leaders were convicted for.

The OP claims that "many German generals"  were "found guilty and sentenced to death," so that doesn't seem to have anything to do with your (true) point.  I would argue that the question raised in the Op is based on a faulty perception of history; those sentenced to death were either a very few high=level political generals, or fairly low-level actual criminals in charge of death squads and the like.

The argument that some of those sentenced to death were reprieved because the Allies wanted their expertise in running death squads seems to fail based on the fact that they were never used again.

I suspect that a bigger reason for reprieves was that some of the trials and evidence were rather dicey.  Having read about Lucius Clay, I have a hard time believing that he commuted sentences because of his desire to employ former Nazis.

[The Brain]

Senoir Allied military leaders were quite opposed to the concept of "Class A" warcrimes, because planning wars is the job of military leaders in peacetimes, and whether those wars are offensive or defensive is more of a political decision made by a country's civilian leadership

If you're not prepared to die for your country maybe you shouldn't be an officer.

[dps]

One thing to keep in mind is that some of the people convicted of war crimes were convicted of complicity in atrocities--stuff that we commonly think of war crimes, which were called "Class B" warcrimes--but others were convicted of being "planners of offensive war" or "Class A" warcrimes.*  Senoir Allied military leaders were quite opposed to the concept of "Class A" warcrimes, because planning wars is the job of military leaders in peacetimes, and whether those wars are offensive or defensive is more of a political decision made by a country's civilian leadership (at least in countries that adhere to the principle of civilian control over the military).  I'm not sure that being convicted and sentenced to death, life imprisonment, or a long prison term and then being released after 10 years or so is a "common template", but to the extent that it is, I bet a high percentage of those involved were convicted of "Class A" type stuff, not the "Class B" crimes.

* I think that technically, the "Class A" and "Class B" designations were only used in the warcrime trials of Japanese leaders, but the concept of "Class A" warcrimes seems functionally equivalent to the "planner of offensive war" charge that some German leaders were convicted for.

The OP claims that "many German generals"  were "found guilty and sentenced to death," so that doesn't seem to have anything to do with your (true) point.  I would argue that the question raised in the Op is based on a faulty perception of history; those sentenced to death were either a very few high=level political generals, or fairly low-level actual criminals in charge of death squads and the like.

The argument that some of those sentenced to death were reprieved because the Allies wanted their expertise in running death squads seems to fail based on the fact that they were never used again.

I suspect that a bigger reason for reprieves was that some of the trials and evidence were rather dicey.  Having read about Lucius Clay, I have a hard time believing that he commuted sentences because of his desire to employ former Nazis.

Yes, that's why I put the sentence, "I'm not sure that being convicted and sentenced to death, life imprisonment, or a long prison term and then being released after 10 years or so is a 'common template' " in my post.  There weren't a lot of generals who were sentenced to death but instead spent a decade in prison, then got released, even if DGuller seems to think there were.