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Final Verdict: A Holocaust Trial in the Twenty-first Century
It is 17 October 2019, the opening day of a trial in Hamburg's imposing criminal justice building that is historic in more ways than one. Bruno Dey is accused of being an accessory to a crime that took place more than seven decades the murder of at least 5,230 inmates at Stutthof, a Nazi concentration camp in present-day Poland. He was seventeen at the time, and a member of the SS unit charged with administering and guarding the camps. Dey admits he served as a guard at Stutthof from August 1944 to April 1945, but he denies the accusation that he had any role in the murders, even as an accessory.
The trial of Bruno Dey comes at a poignant moment for modern Germany. After fifteen years of stable government, the Merkel era is coming to an end and support for the AFD is ever-growing. The last members of the war generation - victims and perpetrators alike - are disappearing, and with them all first-hand knowledge of how the Holocaust came to pass. Against that backdrop, what is the significance - and the legacy - of the trial? Yet Dey's trial raises questions that touch not just on German history, politics and memory culture, but also on Buck's own family history. During childhood visits to see his German grandparents, those dark years were never spoken of, but he remembers the old wedding photo on the mantelpiece in their bedroom, his grandfather in uniform with a swastika armband. He knows little else about his record during the war. Why did he never ask?
Through the prism of this gripping and complex courtroom drama Buck explores its wider significance, both political and personal. In Final Verdict he interrogates the is it right to punish Bruno Dey more than seven decades after he stood guard at Stutthof concentration camp? And what would I have done in his place?
The trial of Bruno Dey comes at a poignant moment for modern Germany. After fifteen years of stable government, the Merkel era is coming to an end and support for the AFD is ever-growing. The last members of the war generation - victims and perpetrators alike - are disappearing, and with them all first-hand knowledge of how the Holocaust came to pass. Against that backdrop, what is the significance - and the legacy - of the trial? Yet Dey's trial raises questions that touch not just on German history, politics and memory culture, but also on Buck's own family history. During childhood visits to see his German grandparents, those dark years were never spoken of, but he remembers the old wedding photo on the mantelpiece in their bedroom, his grandfather in uniform with a swastika armband. He knows little else about his record during the war. Why did he never ask?
Through the prism of this gripping and complex courtroom drama Buck explores its wider significance, both political and personal. In Final Verdict he interrogates the is it right to punish Bruno Dey more than seven decades after he stood guard at Stutthof concentration camp? And what would I have done in his place?
314 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2024
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April 22, 2024
At the young age of 17, Bruno Day served as a guard at the Stutthoff concentration camp. In 2019, at the age of 93 he was brought before a court, accused in assisting of the murder of over 5,000 prisoners. One of the key questions raised by this trial, is why now? Why charge an elderly man who had such a minor role in the Holocaust? Through Dey's trial Tobias Buck's Final Verdict: the Holocaust on Trial in the 21st Century answers this question by following the case and delineating the historic failure of German postwar justice to adequately set precedents to charge those complicit in the infrastructure of the Holocaust until 2009.
Germany's guilt after World War II was clear beyond doubt, compared to the complicated conclusion of the First World War. The memory culture of the Holocaust and the collective societal guilt was a key part of the post war German identity, seen through memorials and the political approaches Germany has taken in supporting Israel and the Ukraine. I state 'was' here because Buck argues that this is changing, especially as both the perpetrators and the survivors of the Holocaust are dying, intellectuals debate the centrality of guilt, political parties use it as point of support or opposition and Germany has changed with conflict fueled immigration from Afghanistan, Syria and other nations. This last point is quite apparent in the courtroom as Dey's daughter appears in hijab as she has married a Muslim.
Buck's book is short, and the simple but straightforward writing hides a complex depth that struggles with the questions inherent in the Holocaust, what would I have done in this situation? Would one follow their internal conscience, or give sway to peer pressure and the "comfort of obedience?" Among the many people feature in this book: Dey did his job without documented complaint, Tobias Buck discovered his grandfather served in the SS and Charlotte Knobloch one of survivors who appeared before the court has been an important figure in revitalizing the Jewish community in Munich.
Recommended to readers and researchers of the Holocaust, Post-War Germany, Contemporary Germany, post Genocide justice or the legacies of works like Christopher Browning's Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution.
I received a free digital version of this book via NetGalley thanks to the publisher.
Germany's guilt after World War II was clear beyond doubt, compared to the complicated conclusion of the First World War. The memory culture of the Holocaust and the collective societal guilt was a key part of the post war German identity, seen through memorials and the political approaches Germany has taken in supporting Israel and the Ukraine. I state 'was' here because Buck argues that this is changing, especially as both the perpetrators and the survivors of the Holocaust are dying, intellectuals debate the centrality of guilt, political parties use it as point of support or opposition and Germany has changed with conflict fueled immigration from Afghanistan, Syria and other nations. This last point is quite apparent in the courtroom as Dey's daughter appears in hijab as she has married a Muslim.
Buck's book is short, and the simple but straightforward writing hides a complex depth that struggles with the questions inherent in the Holocaust, what would I have done in this situation? Would one follow their internal conscience, or give sway to peer pressure and the "comfort of obedience?" Among the many people feature in this book: Dey did his job without documented complaint, Tobias Buck discovered his grandfather served in the SS and Charlotte Knobloch one of survivors who appeared before the court has been an important figure in revitalizing the Jewish community in Munich.
Recommended to readers and researchers of the Holocaust, Post-War Germany, Contemporary Germany, post Genocide justice or the legacies of works like Christopher Browning's Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution.
I received a free digital version of this book via NetGalley thanks to the publisher.
May 11, 2024
I came into this book expecting a broader scope reflection on history’s final judgment of the men and women complicit in the crimes of the concentration camps of Nazi Germany.
Using the case of a 93 year old German man who had served as a concentration camp guard at the age of 17 during the waning days of the Third Reich, the author reveals far more about the failings of the German judiciary after the war and the changes in how Germans themselves remember the holocaust.
I remember seeing the news in 2019 that a 93 year old man who had been a concentration camp guard and wondering what the purpose could be of such delayed justice.
Now, I know.
This is not a book about Nazi atrocities and the horrors of mass extermination. This is a book about how a nations identity and its collective memory can and should change over time. This is a book about the courage of the final living witnesses of history’s greatest atrocity sharing their voices for perhaps the final time.
Using the case of a 93 year old German man who had served as a concentration camp guard at the age of 17 during the waning days of the Third Reich, the author reveals far more about the failings of the German judiciary after the war and the changes in how Germans themselves remember the holocaust.
I remember seeing the news in 2019 that a 93 year old man who had been a concentration camp guard and wondering what the purpose could be of such delayed justice.
Now, I know.
This is not a book about Nazi atrocities and the horrors of mass extermination. This is a book about how a nations identity and its collective memory can and should change over time. This is a book about the courage of the final living witnesses of history’s greatest atrocity sharing their voices for perhaps the final time.
December 21, 2024
lovedddd the writing style of this book, so quick and easy (despite me starting it Sept 7) I really enjoyed it
July 9, 2024
The scourge of the Holocaust still stains humanity today and the book Final Verdict takes us into one of the final Nazi trials in Germany. Bruno Dey is 93 and served a concentration camp guard where more than 5000 people were murdered. As the last living witnesses and victims get a chance to tell their story in court, Germany is facing a trial of its own, as the rise of anti-Semitism along with forgetting the past threatens the progress the country has made since those terrible days. This riveting account takes the reader through the entire trial that was interrupted by and nearly thrown off the rails by COVID, the question of whether Dey was serving the SS out of fear for his own life or for his own hateful agenda, and the understanding that comes with cases like this as we strive to never experience anything like the Holocaust again.
What I enjoyed most about this book is that the author brilliantly incorporates the broad scope of the Holocaust experience along with the story of one man and his sins. This was a level and balanced look at the defendant, the trial, and the decades of history and understanding of this terrible time in the world. It is reckoning not only of the past, but a hope for the future as we continue to face issues like racism, genocide and hate.
What I enjoyed most about this book is that the author brilliantly incorporates the broad scope of the Holocaust experience along with the story of one man and his sins. This was a level and balanced look at the defendant, the trial, and the decades of history and understanding of this terrible time in the world. It is reckoning not only of the past, but a hope for the future as we continue to face issues like racism, genocide and hate.
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July 23, 2024In Primo Levi’s Survival in Auschwitz, the author-inmate asks a camp guard a simple question: ‘Why?’ The guard replies: ‘There is no why here.’ I was reminded of this exchange reading Tobias Buck’s lucid account of the trial of the former Stutthof camp guard Bruno Dey in a Hamburg court in 2020. In a courtroom, ‘why’ is ubiquitous. A trial is an interrogative process to elicit the truth about the innocence or guilt of an individual. Buck comments on the ‘forensic curiosity’ of Anne Meier-Göring, the presiding judge, who patiently struggled to elicit why and how Dey had taken part in the Nazi genocide: ‘why [he] had climbed up the watchtower, what made [him] stay there’. Buck asserts that the trial raised questions ‘profoundly relevant to all nations’: how could this happen? Who is guilty? The deeper question is whether the Dey trial is testimony to judicial success – or failure.
Buck begins with an unsettling spectacle. A 93-year-old man is wheelchaired into a grand and ornate courtroom in Hamburg. He conceals his face behind a red folder from a mob of reporters and photographers. The man, Bruno Dey, was joining the macabre parade of alleged Nazi perpetrators hauled from armchairs in care or family homes to face belated justice before German courts: he followed in the footsteps of Irmgard Furchner, 96, a shorthand typist at Stutthof, Oskar Gröning, 93, the so-called ‘accountant of Auschwitz’ and Johann Rehbogen, 93, whose case was dropped because he was judged to be ‘permanently unfit for trial’.
As Buck acknowledges, German memory culture wobbles on an unstable foundation of chronic judicial failure: a reluctance to punish. The creation of the Federal Republic of West Germany in 1949 provoked widespread calls – both public and political – to draw a line under the shame and guilt of the past as if the Nazi period and its crimes had been an outbreak of a ‘childhood infectious disease’. Buck crisply explains the legal hurdles that thwarted prosecution of alleged German perpetrators in West German courts. In 1958, for example, at the Ulm ‘Einsatzkommando trial’ – the first major proceeding under West German law – the court found the former SS officer Bernhard Fischer-Schweder guilty as an accessory on the grounds that he and the other accused had not committed egregious acts of mass killing ‘as their own’ but in support of someone else’s crime. Later prosecutions were frequently fouled by legal sophistry. Most significantly, German law insisted that prosecutors prove that anyone accused of ‘National Socialist’ crimes was directly implicated: it had to be proved that the accused had killed people themselves, usually with excess brutality. But Treblinka, Sobibór and Auschwitz-Birkenau were factories of killing where murder was anonymous and so this fundamental requirement of German law meant that many perpetrators of the most heinous crimes lived out their lives in comfort and security cocooned by German law.
Read the rest of the review at HistoryToday.com.
Christopher Hale is the author of Deception: How the Nazis Tricked the Last Jews of Europe (The History Press, 2019).
Buck begins with an unsettling spectacle. A 93-year-old man is wheelchaired into a grand and ornate courtroom in Hamburg. He conceals his face behind a red folder from a mob of reporters and photographers. The man, Bruno Dey, was joining the macabre parade of alleged Nazi perpetrators hauled from armchairs in care or family homes to face belated justice before German courts: he followed in the footsteps of Irmgard Furchner, 96, a shorthand typist at Stutthof, Oskar Gröning, 93, the so-called ‘accountant of Auschwitz’ and Johann Rehbogen, 93, whose case was dropped because he was judged to be ‘permanently unfit for trial’.
As Buck acknowledges, German memory culture wobbles on an unstable foundation of chronic judicial failure: a reluctance to punish. The creation of the Federal Republic of West Germany in 1949 provoked widespread calls – both public and political – to draw a line under the shame and guilt of the past as if the Nazi period and its crimes had been an outbreak of a ‘childhood infectious disease’. Buck crisply explains the legal hurdles that thwarted prosecution of alleged German perpetrators in West German courts. In 1958, for example, at the Ulm ‘Einsatzkommando trial’ – the first major proceeding under West German law – the court found the former SS officer Bernhard Fischer-Schweder guilty as an accessory on the grounds that he and the other accused had not committed egregious acts of mass killing ‘as their own’ but in support of someone else’s crime. Later prosecutions were frequently fouled by legal sophistry. Most significantly, German law insisted that prosecutors prove that anyone accused of ‘National Socialist’ crimes was directly implicated: it had to be proved that the accused had killed people themselves, usually with excess brutality. But Treblinka, Sobibór and Auschwitz-Birkenau were factories of killing where murder was anonymous and so this fundamental requirement of German law meant that many perpetrators of the most heinous crimes lived out their lives in comfort and security cocooned by German law.
Read the rest of the review at HistoryToday.com.
Christopher Hale is the author of Deception: How the Nazis Tricked the Last Jews of Europe (The History Press, 2019).
November 27, 2023
Thank you NetGallery, Hatchette Books and author Tobias Buck for allowing me to read “Final Verdict: The Holocaust on Trial in the Twenty-first Century”
I liked this book very much. Author Tobias Buck provides a detailed account of a 2020 trial in Germany with a solid perspective regarding background, focus, purpose and history. The trial of a ninety-three year old man who, at the age of eighteen, served as a concentration camp guard raises obvious questions regarding prosecuting “camp support staff,” the youth of the accused at the time and, of course, the often-controversial issue of prosecuting extremely old defendants ….ninety-three in the case of defendant Day. Author Buck is adept at explaining the German Judicial System which, itself, may seem strange to those of us accustomed to “trial by jury.” He provides wonderful insight into the prosecution of “Holocaust Defendants,” Germany’s constant struggle to maintain awareness and personal interviews with victims. The most original idea put forth by Buck and, indeed, the primary courtroom judge herself, is one that receives too little attention: the realization that no matter how indirect or peripheral was the part played by anyone and everyone who “did their job”
to facilitate the genocide…the murder of six million Jews could not have occurred. The book describes and explains, raises awareness and questions, presents quandaries and afterthoughts. It is difficult, perhaps, to write something truly different or new about The Holocaust. This is, however, a book that does so and involves the reader’s own conscience, judgement and moral philosophy. I chose to rate this book “four stars” rather than “five stars” because the focus upon this particular trial as opposed to others may be less consequential to most readers of Holocaust literature. But, of course, the real question posed by Buck may be somewhat hidden and there is certainly great irony in this.
I liked this book very much. Author Tobias Buck provides a detailed account of a 2020 trial in Germany with a solid perspective regarding background, focus, purpose and history. The trial of a ninety-three year old man who, at the age of eighteen, served as a concentration camp guard raises obvious questions regarding prosecuting “camp support staff,” the youth of the accused at the time and, of course, the often-controversial issue of prosecuting extremely old defendants ….ninety-three in the case of defendant Day. Author Buck is adept at explaining the German Judicial System which, itself, may seem strange to those of us accustomed to “trial by jury.” He provides wonderful insight into the prosecution of “Holocaust Defendants,” Germany’s constant struggle to maintain awareness and personal interviews with victims. The most original idea put forth by Buck and, indeed, the primary courtroom judge herself, is one that receives too little attention: the realization that no matter how indirect or peripheral was the part played by anyone and everyone who “did their job”
to facilitate the genocide…the murder of six million Jews could not have occurred. The book describes and explains, raises awareness and questions, presents quandaries and afterthoughts. It is difficult, perhaps, to write something truly different or new about The Holocaust. This is, however, a book that does so and involves the reader’s own conscience, judgement and moral philosophy. I chose to rate this book “four stars” rather than “five stars” because the focus upon this particular trial as opposed to others may be less consequential to most readers of Holocaust literature. But, of course, the real question posed by Buck may be somewhat hidden and there is certainly great irony in this.
October 6, 2024
I was recommended this book from a friend and it really intrigued me as I do want to educate myself on things that have happened in the world and I have read a few Holocaust books and it does interest me. This book is really hard to rate as it’s not a happy book, it’s a real life story that affected millions and how do you rate that. I found that this book brought up questions and feelings surrounding the Holocaust that I don’t know I would feel or think. Before, I felt very black and white and now I have black and white and some more colours in there. This book made me think about what it is saying, how do you prosecute someone who was indirectly involved but still knew what was happening and did nothing to stop it, but if they did would it have risked their life? There’s layers to explore but we will never have answers. If everyone involved who felt and knew that what was happening wasn’t okay and they stood up to do what was right would that have changed the outcome? Did they believe in what they were doing or were they scared? There’s just so many unanswered questions. I did also appreciate the stories told by survivors no matter have tough.
The other thing that really bothered me and I still don’t understand the point were the people who were pretending they had been in the Holocaust and were survivors and wrote books. Like how f*cked up does a person have to be to do that.
I would recommend this read to everyone because we need to understand what happened and educated ourselves so it never happens again.
The other thing that really bothered me and I still don’t understand the point were the people who were pretending they had been in the Holocaust and were survivors and wrote books. Like how f*cked up does a person have to be to do that.
I would recommend this read to everyone because we need to understand what happened and educated ourselves so it never happens again.
October 23, 2025
Ostensibly a detailed account of the trial of 93 year old Nazi Concentration Camp guard Bruno Dey, this book proved to be such more. The story of the trial itself makes compelling reading, but what drives this review to a five star rating, is the authors' authoritative exploration of how post-war Germany has approached the topic of justice for the victims of the Holocaust.
One might ask why relatively minor functionaries such as Dey, have only been prosecuted many decades after the horrific events which they were embroiled in. For many years after the war, the tens of thousands of Germans who were complicit in Nazi crimes were not viewed as being directly accountable. Justice was dispensed to a relatively small number of high-ranking perpetrators and a few others whose behaviour was seen to be particularly cruel, sadistic and brutish. If personal acts of brutality could not be proven, then the very small number of Nazi functionaries and middle ranking officials who were brought to trial were found not to be culpable or received surprisingly light sentences.
The title of the book is apposite. With the final Nazi war crime trials being held in recent years, a more holistic view has emerged in that all who were involved should bear responsibility for the crimes of the Nazi state. Whilst this enlightened view is to be welcomed, it comes too late to apply to the tens of thousands who helped the wheels of the Nazi killing machine turn, many of whom suffered no adverse consequences as a result of their involvement.
One might ask why relatively minor functionaries such as Dey, have only been prosecuted many decades after the horrific events which they were embroiled in. For many years after the war, the tens of thousands of Germans who were complicit in Nazi crimes were not viewed as being directly accountable. Justice was dispensed to a relatively small number of high-ranking perpetrators and a few others whose behaviour was seen to be particularly cruel, sadistic and brutish. If personal acts of brutality could not be proven, then the very small number of Nazi functionaries and middle ranking officials who were brought to trial were found not to be culpable or received surprisingly light sentences.
The title of the book is apposite. With the final Nazi war crime trials being held in recent years, a more holistic view has emerged in that all who were involved should bear responsibility for the crimes of the Nazi state. Whilst this enlightened view is to be welcomed, it comes too late to apply to the tens of thousands who helped the wheels of the Nazi killing machine turn, many of whom suffered no adverse consequences as a result of their involvement.
December 18, 2023
Does everyone that worked in a concentration camp have equal reponsibility for the horrors that occur there? That is the question raised by this book and the trial of Bruno Dey, a guard at a camp during WWII. This book is an exploration of his trial, along with other trials for Nazi war crimes and a small history of Holocaust remembrance.
This book is fascinating and very well written. Multiple Holocaust victims are spoken to and the stories they convey are heartbreaking. The author goes into a deep dive of the war crimes trials after WWII and why there were so few compared to how many people could have been prosecuted. He also takes a deep look at the mindset of German people as a whole post war.
I didn’t know anything about the trial followed over the main course of the book so didn’t know what the outcome would be but it could be largely predicted based on the events of the trial and common sense. Even though I could see what was coming I enjoyed the journey there.
This book was incredibly hard to read at points but I think it is well worth it. Highly recommend to history/nonfiction fans of appropriate age.
This book is fascinating and very well written. Multiple Holocaust victims are spoken to and the stories they convey are heartbreaking. The author goes into a deep dive of the war crimes trials after WWII and why there were so few compared to how many people could have been prosecuted. He also takes a deep look at the mindset of German people as a whole post war.
I didn’t know anything about the trial followed over the main course of the book so didn’t know what the outcome would be but it could be largely predicted based on the events of the trial and common sense. Even though I could see what was coming I enjoyed the journey there.
This book was incredibly hard to read at points but I think it is well worth it. Highly recommend to history/nonfiction fans of appropriate age.
May 10, 2024
I can’t imagine being one of the attorneys in Tobias Buck’s Final Verdict: The Holocaust on Trial in the 21st Century. It details the prosecution of 93-year-old former concentration camp guard Bruno Dey. For his role as an SS guard at the Stutthof concentration camp from 1944 to 1945, he was charged with 5,230 plus counts of accessory to murder. His defense attorney Stefan Waterkamp argued prosecutors had no evidence of Dey’s direct involvement. He was 17 years old when he served at Stutthof. It was really interesting that he was tried in juvenile court because of his age at the time he was in the SS. Prosecutor Lars Mahnke helped some 30-plus witnesses tell the story of loved ones who died at the “work camp” as well as some who survived. The Hamburg juvenile court convicted him of aiding and abetting in the murder of at least 5,232 people. He was given a 2-year suspended sentence. As an attorney, I wanted more details about the actual evidence and court proceedings, but I’m sure most appreciate not being bogged down with all the legalese and mundane court details. This book was so intriguing to me.
August 24, 2024
I must declare that my review is coloured by being married to holocaust survivors’ daughter; I have witnessed the effects of the holocaust on both generations at first hand.
So, there were different strings interwoven in Tobias Buck’s book.
* Firstly, over and above all w wee the horrors of the Nazi brutality.
* Then, the German court proceedings legal processes, linked with Bruno Dey’s interrogation and his responses, constrained by the effect of passage of time on his memory.
* In addition, the author articulates his forebears SS connections, written with candour.
* Finally, there was the history of German ethnic cleansing and antisemitism; here I must admit I found the content rather dense and difficult to assimilate.
Having said that, the book is essential reading for all who want to expand their knowledge of the Holocaust.
So, there were different strings interwoven in Tobias Buck’s book.
* Firstly, over and above all w wee the horrors of the Nazi brutality.
* Then, the German court proceedings legal processes, linked with Bruno Dey’s interrogation and his responses, constrained by the effect of passage of time on his memory.
* In addition, the author articulates his forebears SS connections, written with candour.
* Finally, there was the history of German ethnic cleansing and antisemitism; here I must admit I found the content rather dense and difficult to assimilate.
Having said that, the book is essential reading for all who want to expand their knowledge of the Holocaust.
September 20, 2024
I got 2/3rds of the way through this book, read as an audiobook, before I threw in the towel. The book is mostly interesting, although there are a few dull chapters (his chapter on German jurisprudence gets a little repetitive). His chapter where he discovers that his own grandfather was a member of the SS was a highlight.
My main issue is that after a certain point, I just couldn't take the graphic descriptions of extreme brutality. I don't know what I expected from a book on the Holocaust. I got to the point where the author describes an SS guard smashing a baby against a brick wall and then I thought, you know what, I don't need to expose myself to this anymore.
I recommend this book for those interested in the legal nuances of how the post-war German state dealt with perpetrators of the Holocaust.
My main issue is that after a certain point, I just couldn't take the graphic descriptions of extreme brutality. I don't know what I expected from a book on the Holocaust. I got to the point where the author describes an SS guard smashing a baby against a brick wall and then I thought, you know what, I don't need to expose myself to this anymore.
I recommend this book for those interested in the legal nuances of how the post-war German state dealt with perpetrators of the Holocaust.
August 30, 2025
I only read this because it was written by a German journalist. It raised a lot of valid questions about participant guilt. I lived in Germany off and on 1960s-1980s. Nothing was ever discussed until the Wall came down. The German genealogy records are only released to immediate family. There is no public listing of all those individuals who served in the military in WWII. I have at least 2 individuals whose record I would like to find - one the husband of our German babysitter. It seems like keeping the data secret is another form of keeping it buried.
It is interesting that the grandchildren of the WWII generation are interested in their family history. Not to accuse or blame their family members, but like any descendent, know their family story.
It is interesting that the grandchildren of the WWII generation are interested in their family history. Not to accuse or blame their family members, but like any descendent, know their family story.
January 10, 2025
Final Verdict is very thought-provoking, but often in an uncomfortable way. I realized the author's questions were not only applicable to the story of Germany's remembrance and treatment of the Holocaust, but to any nation dealing with past crimes. As a US citizen, what would I have done during slavery? Do I feel any guilt or responsibility towards the way we treated Native Americans? Is my daughter-in-law--a new US citizen--now required to take on this past guilt, also? Harder still, what do I, as an individual and a citizen do to remember and repair those hurts? Thank you, Mr Buck, for helping me examine my own motives and values.
May 8, 2024
I really did enjoy this read. There are a few thought provoking chapters that cut in between the courtroom drama and it complements it well.
However, I’m afraid I couldn’t possibly score this any higher. For a book centred on the Holocaust to get the date of the Final Solution wrong once is gravely disappointing, but to do it twice is unforgivable.
p.28 - January 1941
p.218 - January 1944
Speechless.
However, I’m afraid I couldn’t possibly score this any higher. For a book centred on the Holocaust to get the date of the Final Solution wrong once is gravely disappointing, but to do it twice is unforgivable.
p.28 - January 1941
p.218 - January 1944
Speechless.
March 4, 2024
The Final Verdict: The Holocaust on Trial in the 21st Century should be in every High School around the world. This book was full of history and was very interesting. It's a prime example of how Germany is trying to stop the cycle of wrong doings in the past. I did find it was a little drawn out towards the end, but overall a great read.
May 6, 2024
A compelling insightful book about perpetrators of the Holocaust still being held accountable over 70 years later.
Buck tackles Germany’s grappling with the aftermath of the Holocaust and even his own family’s unshared knowledge and compliance.
It’s definitely worth reading. Thanks to Hachette Books for the early read.
Buck tackles Germany’s grappling with the aftermath of the Holocaust and even his own family’s unshared knowledge and compliance.
It’s definitely worth reading. Thanks to Hachette Books for the early read.
November 16, 2024
Instantly gripping, you are drawn into the far wider net cast by the trial, exploring genocide, social conscience, personal responsibility, and guilt - to name but a few areas.
Supremely well written, this is a highly engaging read and a race against time for justice.
Fascinating, hypnotic, and wholly engrossing.
Supremely well written, this is a highly engaging read and a race against time for justice.
Fascinating, hypnotic, and wholly engrossing.
April 19, 2025
This is a totally brilliant book examining the trial of a 93 year old former SS concentration camp guard, but also looking at the trials of other Nazis, and, more importantly, how Germany is dealing with its Holocaust past.
June 18, 2024
I won this from GoodReads First Reads.
The last of the Nazi trials - 2019. Amazing insights, details, premonitions of today’s world. The judge’s speech at the end is breathtaking.
February 7, 2025
really interesting analyses of the impact of the holocaust on german legal system, recent developments, etc
February 22, 2025
absolutely amazing and ominously terrifying if you’re an American right now. Please read this book!!
April 11, 2025
Amazing book hugely thought provoking! A must read
April 23, 2025
2.75 ⭐️
July 24, 2025
Really well put together book. Timely and thought provoking.
October 20, 2025
A tour de force. More than the story of a late life trial of a SS man, a guide to the Holocaust and the Nazi era and the evolution of the memory culture of Germany.
January 17, 2025
An excellent read. I found myself constantly googling to learn more.
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews