Judgment Before Nuremberg by Greg Dawson

by Greg Dawson

When people think of the Holocaust, they think of Auschwitz, Dachau; and when they think of justice for this terrible chapter in history, they think of Nuremberg. Not of Russia or the Ukraine, and certainly not a town called Kharkov. But in reality, the first war-crimes trial against the Nazis was in this idyllic, peaceful Ukrainian city, which is fitting, because it is also where the Holocaust actually began. Revealing a lost chapter in Holocaust historiography, Judgment Before Nuremberg tells the story of Dawson’sjourney to this place, to the scene of the crime, and the discovery of the trial which began the tortuous process of avenging the murder of his grandparents, great-grandparents, and tens of thousands of fellow Ukrainians consumed at the dawn of the Shoah, a moment and crime now largely cloaked in darkness. Eighteen months before the end of World War II—two full years before the opening statement by the prosecution at Nuremberg—three Nazi officers and a Ukrainian collaborator were tried and convicted of war crimes and hung in Kharkov’s public square. The trial is symbolic of the larger omission of Ukraine from the popular history of the Holocaust—another deep irony as most of the first of the six million perished in Ukraine long before Hitler and his lieutenants even decided on the formalities of the Final Solution.

Genres: Holocaust, History, Nonfiction, World War II, Audiobook, Jewish, Ukraine

Paperback

First published January 1, 2012

Reviews

[Jaimie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Even though I think that Dawson is doing a historically good deed in writing about a largely ignored area of history and Holocaust studies, I question that he is the right candidate to write about it. His motivation is in the right place (his mother and aunt are the only known survivors of the Drobitsky Yar massacre) and he has the writing skills needed to engage an audience, but the fact that it took him two thirds of the book to actually get to the trial in question because he was so busy writing about the back story too much is inexcusable. Sure, many of his readers will need a primer on the Holoaust in the Ukraine, but he basically rewrote the whole story rather than having a succinct introduction or referring them to general sources. I also feel like he could have beefed up the discussion of the trial, and done so easily by including interviews and eyewitness accounts (he pawns this off because he figures that it's too raw a wound and people woulndn't be willing to talk...). This is why historians, not journalists, need to take the lead in exposing stories like this!

[Denise · Rating 2 out of 5]

Given the title, one might expect this book to be about the Holocaust in the Ukraine and the war crimes trials that took place there a couple of years before Nuremberg. Instead, the author spends most of this book talking about an earlier book he wrote, what it's all about, how he came to write it, and the research he did for it. While his wish to highlight his familial ties to the subject he intended to discuss in this work is understandable, far too much space was allocated to that. What background he gives on the Holocaust in the Ukraine is interesting (though not every reader of his is as ignorant about these basic facts as he seems to think), but repetitive - either the editor was asleep, or Dawson thinks his readers incapable of retaining a piece of information for more than a handful of pages. It's not until chapter 24 out of 29 that he finally gets around to writing about the actual war crimes trial he set out to enlighten the reader about, and he doesn't really have all that much to say about it.

[Umar Lee · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some interesting observations. Not much new ground broken. Took 70% of the book to actually arrive to the subject of the trials in Ukraine for perpetrators of the mass shootings of Jews in Ukraine (Holocaust by bullets). While we are waiting for Dawson to get to the matter at hand we mostly hear about his first book and his family and personal life.

[Jean Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

If Greg Dawson’s second book suffers from any flaws at all, it is that he allows himself to be sidetracked too often by personal reminiscences and by too many references to contemporary, popular American culture, and also that the actual story of the three Germans and one Ukrainian collaborator who were the defendants in the first Holocaust war crimes trial occupies only a very small part at the conclusion of the book. Dawson was likely looking for a way to help younger Americans become more aware that there even was such a thing as the Holocaust, and explain where, why and how it began. This is not an easy task considering the abysmal ignorance of it in today’s America; so in this sense his minor digressions can be considered a virtue rather than a liability. Dawson’s pride in the fact that his mother and her sister were able to survive the Drobitsky Yar massacre, and his anger at the lack of emphasis in the American press that the Holocaust was going on, and that the lion’s share of its victims were Jews, and that steps could have been taken to mitigate its effects as early as 1942 and yet very little was done, are also quite understandable.

Because the book is written in a down-to-earth manner rather than as a dry and scholarly dissertation, it is eminently readable and is only a bit preachy. With such a huge subject as the Holocaust it is very difficult not to go off on any number of tangents, and overall Dawson manages to pull it off. The bibliography contains many easily accessible books for those interesting in exploring further (I’m checking out “The Destruction of the European Jews” by Raul Hilberg – the 3-volume set). As a caveat – many of the descriptions of the atrocities committed by the Germans and their Ukrainian collaborators are quite horrific and graphic, so I would not recommend the book for younger readers. The war in the East was indeed a dirty war of extermination and annihilation, and it’s difficult for the mind to comprehend how anyone at all could descend to the levels of brutality and barbarity which were exhibited. It helps, after reading material such as this, to read about the many who risked their own lives to help Jews survive, and also about those who fought back against the catastrophe that was overwhelming them.

**** review by Chuck Graham ****

[Bruce Cline · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Judgment Before Nuremberg, The Holocaust in the Ukraine, by Greg Dawson (2013, audiobook 8 hours). Like many (most?) casual history readers, I was unaware of the 1943 court cases and convictions of Nazis for their mass killings of Jews (and others) in the Ukraine, specifically in the city of Kharkov but certainly not limited to that community. Mass killings of Jews and others in the Baltics and other Eastern European areas predate the more widely known exterminations in concentration camps, a fact that is not widely known or at least publicized. Based in part on the discovery of the author’s link to the holocaust via his mother—a long repressed family history—the book provides background information about the occupation by Germany of the area, and ample descriptions of the atrocities that later resulted in the trials. Unfortunately, despite what I thought would be more of a focus on the actual trials, the author spends more time describing the mass killings, history that is generally better known than the pre-Nuremberg prosecutions. I would have preferred to read more about the actual prosecutions, the specific defendants (representative of a far greater number of killers), the prosecutors, the irony of Stalinist jurists condemning murderers in light of mass killings of Ukrainians (millions) by the government they represented, etc. This is a good but not great book, not so much for what it includes but what it doesn’t. However, I recommend it in that it brings to light a bit of history that has, as the author demonstrates, been hidden for too long a time, including during the war and until the present day.

[Jason Semez · Rating 3 out of 5]

I kind of liked it. It is really weird by getting this book I thought it will talk about mostly the Kharkov trials and the holocaust but it does not talk about that a lot. The book is like a article/travelogue/sequel/history book kind of vibe. It talks about his adventure of making this book for the first 40 percent and it talks about the history for like the next 30 percent with his experiences in the memorial and his walk to Dobritsky Yar that his family took. If you've read Holocaust books or seen films about Easter Europe Holocaust then most of the information will be review probably 80 percent of the history will be review. And then the last 30 percent was what I wanted witch was the Kharkov trials and even then there could have been more interviews and probably he could have found more information. So overall if you are looking for a hisorical book it will be a waste of time and I am sure there will be a more better book out there. But the reason why I did not give this book a 1 is because of the writing style it is like a blog. But not only that the very sad things that happened in the holocaust is very well balanced with the kind of light writing style and with some jokes here and there that also lighten up the book. So overall this book was not a waste of time even thought it did not satisfy my need in the history of the eastern Ukrainian Holocaust in world war 2 but it is a perfect book if you are just getting into Holocaust history and world war 2 history in the Eastern front.

[Holly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of the Goodreads criticisms of this book revolve around the fact that Greg Dawson spends a great deal of time talking about his first book and how he began his journey to write about the Holocaust. It’s true, he does. If you read his first book, Hiding in the Spotlight, you might be among those who were disappointed with this one. I have not read his first book, so everything here was new information for me. I found the content to be worthwhile, educational, and important. I was not previously aware of how horrifically Ukraine was hit by the Holocaust. Ukraine is just simply not traditionally tied to the Holocaust story. Their history is absolutely heartbreaking. It is even more emotionally moving to me in light of what Ukraine is going through today with Russia.

With all that said, there are elements of this book that become very repetitive. For example, I lost count of how many time Dawson talks about the worldwide ignorance about Ukraine’s suffering during the Holocaust. I understood that point almost immediately and did not think it was necessary to keep hammering that home. I was far more interested in hearing the actual truth of what happened than to keep hearing that people don’t know what happened.

[Cate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Agree with other reviews that it's a bit slow to get to the scenes in the title of the book (the war trials in Ukraine), but nonetheless a fascinating book. I've read a lot of books about Holocaust history, and was aware of the atrocities in Ukraine, but the information about the war trials in 1942 and the details about press coverage in Western countries was all new to me.

I thought it was particularly enlightening to hear about how much of the documentation covered up the fact that it was primarily Jews being murdered, by using words like "peace loving citizens" instead of just saying "Jewish people". American newspapers also were aware of the Ukrainian atrocities 3 years before the end of the war, and they was fairly well covered, yet they seem to have been forgotten by the collective human memory - again, the facts of "Jews" being the victims being missed out or buried is really interesting and shows how little people wanted to believe what was going on.

Overall a good book, with a more unique viewpoint on the retelling of stories from the Holocaust.

[Bethany · Rating 3 out of 5]

I listened to this on Audible~ it’s got great info into a ton of obscure facts on WW2 & the Holocaust.

BUT… the reader is AWFUL (only reason it got 3 stars). It sounds computer generated & is difficult to listen to.

[Vikki Vaught · Rating 4 out of 5]

There’s a lot of history in this book. The delivery is a bit dry, but I still found it fascinating. The narrator had a little bit of a sing song cadence to it which kept me from fully enjoying this book. Happy reading and listening!

[readwithabbiee · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was never taught in history books. Happy to have found this & learn about this puzzle piece of the Holocaust.

[Kimber · Rating 5 out of 5]

The things you don't know you don't know.

[Hunter · Rating 2 out of 5]

So many different things I didn't like about it, but it boils down to being almost completely devoid of substance, and the actual topic of the book should have been an article. A short one at that.

[Candy Dawson · Rating 5 out of 5]

More of a personal journey than you would think from the title and description. The author was searching for closure on the murders of his grandparents and great grandparents who were killed by the Nazis in 1942. His first book Hiding in the Spotlight: A Musical Prodigy's Story of Survival, 1941-1946 written with his Holocaust survivor mother, Zhanna, set the stage. Read this one to learn of the family mission begun by the author's daughter, Aimee, whose probing questions to her grandmother set in motion a two-decade labor of love and remembrance previously kept secret. Plenty of history of this unknown era and region but beautifully written by a son whose life was made possible by the kindness of many Ukrainians and by his mother's amazing ability to outwit the Nazis with her musical virtuosity.

[Amanda · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought this book would be about the Holocaust in Ukraine as well as the actual war crime trials, which happened a couple years before Nuremberg. It is not until the last quarter of the book. The first 75% is more about the author plugging his first book and telling of the journey of how he wrote that one. Even when discussing the Ukraine I felt like I got more information about all the German Nazis. The content was jumpy, it felt like a sales pitch for his first book that I WAS excited about but now don't want to read, and generally a disappointment. The only benefit is that I now know another layer of Holocaust literature and history exists for me to learn about. This just wasn't the avenue I should have taken.

[Robin · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title is a misnomer. The author opens nearly every chapter discussing his previous book and writes about his adventures researching this book. He imparts a lot of really valuable, eye-opening, information about the German invasion of Soviet Ukraine and the horror that followed, along with the Nuremberg Trial. But he doesn't really deal with this first Nazi war crimes trial of the Holocaust, which happened while the the War was still being fought, until the book has nearly ended. I can't help but think of what Erik Larson could do with story.

[Roberta · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book to remind all that there were war criminals before Nuremburg, in the Ukraine. Many people, Jew and non-Jew do not realize how many people were killed in the Ukraine. This book interweaves the story of his mother and aunt who escaped the Ukraine. Mr. Dawson took the same trip his mother made at the same time of the year to see what conditions his mother faced. Highly recommended and is our October book selection for book club.

[OCLS Southwest Book Club · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is our title selection for October 2012
Meeting Date: Tuesday, October 16
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Where: Southwest Branch Library
7255 Della Drive
Orlando, FL 32819

Note: Greg Dawson, the author of this book will be joining the Southwest Book Club for their discussion of the book. Public is invited. Don't miss this event!

[Pauly · Rating 1 out of 5]

"When I set out in 2000 to do research for my mother's biography Hiding in the Spotlight..." so begins chapter 13. This isn't a work of history, but a tiresome plug for another book. Every chapter seems clogged with this kind of advertising. There is HARDLY ANY information on the Kharkov trial. This book is a waste of time.

[Janis Mills · Rating 4 out of 5]

Currently reading. Fascinating book about the killing fields of the Ukraine during WWII. L knew about Baba Yar. Knew very little about the Ukraine other than it was part of the Soviet Union. This is a must read for those who care to learn more about the Holocaust.

[Yael Weinstock mashbaum · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book gives an introduction to the Holocaust in the Soviet Union. It is written for someone who does not know much about the topic already but can handle some difficult numbers and horrific facts.

[Ed · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well told,lest we forget. The plight of those in the Ukraine only reinforces how dark these times were.

[Lesley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read Hiding in the Spotlight

[Brent L. · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author's personal account of the Kharkiv war crimes trials which predated the more well-known Nuremberg trials at the conclusion of the Second World War.