only one trial was ever held by a german court for crimes committed at belsen, at jena in 1949; the defendant was acquitted. more than 200 other ss members who were at belsen have been known by name but never had to stand trial. no "wehrmacht" soldier was ever put on trial for crimes committed against the inmates of the pow camps at bergen-belsen and in the region around it, despite the fact that the international military tribunal at nuremberg had found in 1946 that the treatment of soviet pows by the "wehrmacht" constituted a war crime.