The Adjudication and Findings of Finnmark’s Devastation Charge in Hostage

As part of the post-World War II military trials of Nazi war criminals, General Lothar Rendulic, Commander-in-Chief of the 20th Mountain Army, was put on trial for acts of devastation not justified by military necessity, in the Finnmark region of Northern Norway. In his defence, Rendulic justified the acts on the grounds that the devastation of the territory and the forced evacuation of the region were permissible on the basis of being militarily necessary. Fearful of an imminent Soviet invasion of the territory following the September 1944 armistice agreement between the Soviet Union and Finland, Rendulic and his troops retreated, laying waste to the region and forcibly evacuating the population. These acts were, according to Rendulic’s account, necessary to hinder the Soviet forces from advancing. Ultimately, the US Military Tribunal accepted this justification, and found Rendulic not guilty of breaching Article 23(g) of the Hague Regulations—which prohibits the destruction or seizure of enemy property, unless such destruction or seizure is “imperatively demanded by the necessities of war”. This chapter will explore how the tribunal came to its decision, examining the charges regarding Rendulic’s conduct in Finnmark, the prosecution and defence cases, and the decision that eventually saw Rendulic acquitted of the charge of devastation.