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Οι μεγάλες δίκες του Β΄ Παγκοσμίου Πολέμου
Το 1945, με τη λήξη του Β' Παγκόσμιου πολέμου, οργανώθηκε ένα μοναδικό στην Ιστορία εγχείρημα παραπομπής σε δίκη εγκληματιών πολέμου. Έτσι, ένα σύστημα εδραιωμένο στο δίκαιο θα νικούσε ένα σύστημα εδραιωμένο στο κακό, με την ελπίδα ότι θα επαναβεβαιωνόταν ο πολιτισμός της ανθρωπότητας. Το δίκαιο ήταν η πολιτισμένη απάντηση, και "Νυρεμβέργη" το όνομα που κατέληξε να συμβολίζει τη μορφή της. Έτσι γεννήθηκε ένας μύθος.
Όμως η δίκη της Νυρεμβέργης ήταν ένα τμήμα αυτού του ευρύτερου σχεδίου απόδοσης δικαιοσύνης. Ο βραβευμένος συγγραφέας Α. Τ. Williams εξετάζει την ιστορία αυτού του εγχειρήματος και αποκαλύπτει τις λιγότερο γνωστές πτυχές του. Από τις μαρτυρίες για τις θηριωδίες στα στρατόπεδα συγκέντρωσης ως τα πρακτικά, τις δικογραφίες και τις ομάδες ερευνητών και κατηγόρων, η ενδελεχής έρευνα του Williams ξεδιπλώνει ένα μοναδικό χρονικό και θέτει το ερώτημα: Αποδόθηκε τελικά δικαιοσύνη;
Όμως η δίκη της Νυρεμβέργης ήταν ένα τμήμα αυτού του ευρύτερου σχεδίου απόδοσης δικαιοσύνης. Ο βραβευμένος συγγραφέας Α. Τ. Williams εξετάζει την ιστορία αυτού του εγχειρήματος και αποκαλύπτει τις λιγότερο γνωστές πτυχές του. Από τις μαρτυρίες για τις θηριωδίες στα στρατόπεδα συγκέντρωσης ως τα πρακτικά, τις δικογραφίες και τις ομάδες ερευνητών και κατηγόρων, η ενδελεχής έρευνα του Williams ξεδιπλώνει ένα μοναδικό χρονικό και θέτει το ερώτημα: Αποδόθηκε τελικά δικαιοσύνη;
552 pages, Paperback
First published May 5, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
November 14, 2016
I have a split opinion of this book, I'm afraid.
It is a solid history of the investigation and prosecution of the"minor" war crimes trials at the Belsen and Neuengamme Concentration Camps. In this, it deals only with the British prosecutions, while paying lip service to the American effort and going into detail on the division of labour involved with the investigations.
However... where it is not so good is in the author's Concentration Camp tourism. It's clear he cares, and is deeply affected by what he sees, but it struck me as a little odd that he seems to have no particular prior knowledge of the Nazi system. He also doesn't seem to be able to keep his own opinion out of events, which jars with the narrative, as does his attempts to link the Nazi crimes with events which occurred in Iraq (but hey, its a chance for him to plug his other book).
If you're looking for a book on the wide picture of the post - war trials (which I'll confess I was) you may be left cold. If you can get past the personal aspects of the book and some of the oddities of the personal narrative, it is a very good look at the process behind the trials and what occurred beyond the spotlight of Nuremburg. But I'm not sure I could really recommend the book.
It is a solid history of the investigation and prosecution of the"minor" war crimes trials at the Belsen and Neuengamme Concentration Camps. In this, it deals only with the British prosecutions, while paying lip service to the American effort and going into detail on the division of labour involved with the investigations.
However... where it is not so good is in the author's Concentration Camp tourism. It's clear he cares, and is deeply affected by what he sees, but it struck me as a little odd that he seems to have no particular prior knowledge of the Nazi system. He also doesn't seem to be able to keep his own opinion out of events, which jars with the narrative, as does his attempts to link the Nazi crimes with events which occurred in Iraq (but hey, its a chance for him to plug his other book).
If you're looking for a book on the wide picture of the post - war trials (which I'll confess I was) you may be left cold. If you can get past the personal aspects of the book and some of the oddities of the personal narrative, it is a very good look at the process behind the trials and what occurred beyond the spotlight of Nuremburg. But I'm not sure I could really recommend the book.
December 29, 2024
A good but ultimately disappointing book about the various war crime trials after WWII which the UK was part of. Maybe if you come to this subject with a blank slate, no real knowledge or opinions, then this book might be of interest and serve a purpose but if you have any level of knowledge it will probably be a disappointment - it is superficial, overly simplistic and derivative. I am giving it three stars because while I thought not much good others may get something from it.
July 2, 2016
I don’t think I have encountered a book like this. It’s in part a history of the post World War Two war crimes trials, but by an accomplished legal researcher rather than an historian. It is also an accidental travelogue of holocaust/war crimes sites in which inevitably the author questions his own motivations in touring these locations, but then shouldn’t we as readers ask the same question as to why we linger over such passages. Lastly it also explores what, if any, parallels there could be to the West’s role in the conflict in Iraq. in this it draws on the authour’s previous award winning book “A Very British Killing: The Death of Baha Mousa”.
So an odd mixture, but it works and for me and it addressed three particular things that needed addressing. Firstly it told us much more about some of the lesser known British led war crimes trials outwith the more well-known Nuremberg trials. Secondly it rooted those trials in both singular and collective human frailty as we hear about minor functionaries who found themselves at the heart of horror but failing to question what they were doing. That human frailty extends to us also seeing prosecutors rushing to bring people to justice while struggling with other duties and with a fading and jaded public interest in those matters. Lastly it brings a focus on, and ends with, one particular horror of those times, the Bullenhuser Damm case. That case shows that, even though as the book’s title suggests the post war trials could be seen as a “Passing Fury”, the horrors of those times still can, and should, shock and haunt us.
So an odd mixture, but it works and for me and it addressed three particular things that needed addressing. Firstly it told us much more about some of the lesser known British led war crimes trials outwith the more well-known Nuremberg trials. Secondly it rooted those trials in both singular and collective human frailty as we hear about minor functionaries who found themselves at the heart of horror but failing to question what they were doing. That human frailty extends to us also seeing prosecutors rushing to bring people to justice while struggling with other duties and with a fading and jaded public interest in those matters. Lastly it brings a focus on, and ends with, one particular horror of those times, the Bullenhuser Damm case. That case shows that, even though as the book’s title suggests the post war trials could be seen as a “Passing Fury”, the horrors of those times still can, and should, shock and haunt us.
July 29, 2019
In this book, as in his previous book, A Very British Killing, A T Williams tackles an interesting subject but in doing so it is clear that his intentions are to find fault with the British handling of affairs, and the main method that he repeatedly uses becomes irritating to say the least. He likes to make a criticism or accusation, sometimes quite caustically, to lead your thinking in a certain direction before outlining - not always directly - his arguments, which are often flimsy and, in my opinion, quite unjust and unfair.
Altogether I made nearly thirty notes at various points, many of them lengthy, where to me there were evident flaws in his arguments. In describing Gustave Gilbert’s account of Nuremberg, Williams finds it disappointing because Gilbert, he says, ‘...infected virtually every reported conversation he had with the defendants with some damning, sarcastic, irritating intervention. He couldn’t help himself from ridiculing the accused, trying to wound with his little barbed comments.’ - and that’s exactly what Williams is guilty of himself throughout this book!
A major event that Williams returns to at various times - dare I say ad nauseum - is an incident in Neustadt Harbour concerning the British bombing of ships containing prisoners from Neuengamme, about which he makes several allegations. These are not unknown to historians and Williams has no new information to present yet he strives to infer that it was effectively a deliberate act because they knew there were prisoners on board (they didn’t - the authorities had been given warning but in the chaos of war at that stage it didn’t get passed on) and the ships were flying white flags (much debated, and even reading the accounts Williams provided it is tenuous at best - even if a (singular) white flag was hoist, it was after the bombing started and with the smoke from burning ships and flying at speed, it is unlikely the pilots would have seen it). Yet Williams returns to this several times bemoaning the fact that no-one was ever held to account.
Another thing that Williams frequently does is to take swipes at people and events from the comfort of 70 years’ distance, applying today’s attitudes and peacetime morality to a time when culture was very different and to nations coming to the end of 5 years of war and destruction (and that, it has to be remembered, following soon on from the devastation of the Great War, which for many was still raw in their memories). That is not to offer excuses for what went on but you have to understand what drove those attitudes - it is unfair and wrong to do what Williams does and judge them by modern standards.
Despite the flaws it remains an interesting read and many of the observations Williams makes are not without merit. It would have been a much better book if Williams had simply stuck to the facts and presented his points in a more balanced manner without trying to lead you down his own personal (and, in my opinion, flawed) alleyways. The trials of Bergen-Belsen, Neuengamme, Nuremberg and so on are interesting enough and, yes, weren’t necessarily handled as we, from the perspective of the 21st century, would have liked, but the application of a revisionist (and in my view socialist) approach just doesn’t gel for me and is disingenuous at best.
I found myself irritated - and at times angered - by his approach to the events in A Very British Killing and bought this book with a little trepidation, fearing I would be equally perturbed but wanting to give Williams the benefit of doubt. I was indeed perturbed, and angry, so I may well not venture into it should Williams bring out another work - though it depends on whether the subject matter is interesting enough in and of itself.
Altogether I made nearly thirty notes at various points, many of them lengthy, where to me there were evident flaws in his arguments. In describing Gustave Gilbert’s account of Nuremberg, Williams finds it disappointing because Gilbert, he says, ‘...infected virtually every reported conversation he had with the defendants with some damning, sarcastic, irritating intervention. He couldn’t help himself from ridiculing the accused, trying to wound with his little barbed comments.’ - and that’s exactly what Williams is guilty of himself throughout this book!
A major event that Williams returns to at various times - dare I say ad nauseum - is an incident in Neustadt Harbour concerning the British bombing of ships containing prisoners from Neuengamme, about which he makes several allegations. These are not unknown to historians and Williams has no new information to present yet he strives to infer that it was effectively a deliberate act because they knew there were prisoners on board (they didn’t - the authorities had been given warning but in the chaos of war at that stage it didn’t get passed on) and the ships were flying white flags (much debated, and even reading the accounts Williams provided it is tenuous at best - even if a (singular) white flag was hoist, it was after the bombing started and with the smoke from burning ships and flying at speed, it is unlikely the pilots would have seen it). Yet Williams returns to this several times bemoaning the fact that no-one was ever held to account.
Another thing that Williams frequently does is to take swipes at people and events from the comfort of 70 years’ distance, applying today’s attitudes and peacetime morality to a time when culture was very different and to nations coming to the end of 5 years of war and destruction (and that, it has to be remembered, following soon on from the devastation of the Great War, which for many was still raw in their memories). That is not to offer excuses for what went on but you have to understand what drove those attitudes - it is unfair and wrong to do what Williams does and judge them by modern standards.
Despite the flaws it remains an interesting read and many of the observations Williams makes are not without merit. It would have been a much better book if Williams had simply stuck to the facts and presented his points in a more balanced manner without trying to lead you down his own personal (and, in my opinion, flawed) alleyways. The trials of Bergen-Belsen, Neuengamme, Nuremberg and so on are interesting enough and, yes, weren’t necessarily handled as we, from the perspective of the 21st century, would have liked, but the application of a revisionist (and in my view socialist) approach just doesn’t gel for me and is disingenuous at best.
I found myself irritated - and at times angered - by his approach to the events in A Very British Killing and bought this book with a little trepidation, fearing I would be equally perturbed but wanting to give Williams the benefit of doubt. I was indeed perturbed, and angry, so I may well not venture into it should Williams bring out another work - though it depends on whether the subject matter is interesting enough in and of itself.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 10, 2016
Bij tijd en wijle fascinerend boek. Zo nu en dan wel wat langdradig.
December 4, 2016
A hard and emotional read.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews