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Judgement in Berlin
It is January 1979 and headlines across Europe and America proclaim a startling event: Unprecedented American Court Convened in West Berlin to Try East German Fugitives.
Four months earlier an East German, fleeing the Communist secret police, had diverted a Polish airliner from East Berlin to the American sector of West Berlin. As he and his woman companion disembarked, other passengers spontaneously defected to the West, and the two “hijackers” were welcomed as heroes by U.S. officials. But within hours the Communists reminded the Western powers of their anti-hijacking agreements — and the fugitives were arrested on orders of the U.S. State Department.
Persuaded by West Germany, the State Department uses the continued occupied status of Berlin as a pretext to convene an occupation court in the middle of modern-day West Berlin. And so, thirty-four years after the end of World War II, the United States hurriedly builds a court for this case in the former capital of the Third Reich, houses it in what had been the home of the Luftwaffe, convenes it by right of conquest, and appoints a “United States Judge for Berlin.”
As the trial progresses, both prosecution and defense employ strategies and maneuvers worthy of Perry Mason himself, Indeed, before the trial is over, the judge has had to forbid a brazen attempt by the U.S. prosecutor to apply Nazi law to defendants whose real crime, it seems, was to choose the wrong means of escaping oppression.
With its vivid accounts of daring escapes, close calls, diplomatic intrigues, and dramatic courtroom confrontations, JUDGMENT IN BERLIN is unsurpassed as a true-life suspense story. Readers will eagerly await the surprise verdict as they ponder their own answer to the question: What may prisoners locked behind the Iron Curtain legally do to gain their freedom?
Four months earlier an East German, fleeing the Communist secret police, had diverted a Polish airliner from East Berlin to the American sector of West Berlin. As he and his woman companion disembarked, other passengers spontaneously defected to the West, and the two “hijackers” were welcomed as heroes by U.S. officials. But within hours the Communists reminded the Western powers of their anti-hijacking agreements — and the fugitives were arrested on orders of the U.S. State Department.
Persuaded by West Germany, the State Department uses the continued occupied status of Berlin as a pretext to convene an occupation court in the middle of modern-day West Berlin. And so, thirty-four years after the end of World War II, the United States hurriedly builds a court for this case in the former capital of the Third Reich, houses it in what had been the home of the Luftwaffe, convenes it by right of conquest, and appoints a “United States Judge for Berlin.”
As the trial progresses, both prosecution and defense employ strategies and maneuvers worthy of Perry Mason himself, Indeed, before the trial is over, the judge has had to forbid a brazen attempt by the U.S. prosecutor to apply Nazi law to defendants whose real crime, it seems, was to choose the wrong means of escaping oppression.
With its vivid accounts of daring escapes, close calls, diplomatic intrigues, and dramatic courtroom confrontations, JUDGMENT IN BERLIN is unsurpassed as a true-life suspense story. Readers will eagerly await the surprise verdict as they ponder their own answer to the question: What may prisoners locked behind the Iron Curtain legally do to gain their freedom?
384 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 1984
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 3, 2018
The legalistic double talk by prosecutors would drive me insane. The prosecutors were ready to find this man and woman guilty for political reasons rather than looking at the facts.
January 29, 2017
The writing style of the book is pretty good, but the story is fascinating. It reads like fiction, which in my mind is a great compliment!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews