The Nuremberg Women: The Untold Story of the Eight Women Who Brought the Nazis to Justice

by Natalie Livingstone

From the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Mistresses of Cliveden and The Women of Rothschild, the overlooked history of the crucial role played by women during Nuremberg, the most famous trial of the twentieth century.

'Natalie Livingstone's deeply researched, unfailingly fascinating book gives the many extraordinary women at or near the centre of the Nuremberg trials their proper, important, and often ignored place in history' Salman Rushdie

'Brilliant . . . History erased these women. Natalie is righting that wrong. So fascinating, you've got to get this book in your life' Chris Evans

'A book that is as interesting as it is important. Beautifully written and immaculately researched, Livingstone transforms what we think and know about a terrible moment in history by focusing on a group of remarkable women, their incredible stories and why their example should inspire us all' Peter Frankopan

'If you think you know all about the Nuremberg trials, you don't; not until you have read Natalie Livingstone's enthralling book' Simon Schama 'Paints eight talented and courageous women back into a picture . . . a masterclass in the restoration of sidelined voices . . . Poignantly told and magnificently written, I found it absolutely unputdownable' Hallie Rubenhold, author of The Five 'Nuremberg as you've never imagined it . . . passionately written and wrought in riveting detail, The Nuremberg Women delivers a hugely timely corrective to the historical record. A book that I will return to again and again' Damien Lewis

'Vivid, gripping and timely . . . restores the women of Nuremberg to their rightful place at the moral and emotional heart of the story . . . As pacy as a thriller and as powerful as its rawest testimony: a coruscating portrayal of courage, creativity and resilience in the face of unprecedented horror' Catherine Ostler

'Perceptive, meticulous and full of humanity. Expands our understanding of a critical episode of 20th century history' Jonathan Freedland, author of The Escape Artist

'A landmark book, urgent history for our current age' Kate Williams, author of Royal Women

NUREMBERG, 1945. The eyes of a world desperate for truth, hope and justice turn to a courtroom where the leaders of the defeated Nazi regime sit in the dock. In this revelatory history, Natalie Livingstone sheds new light on the trial of the century, through the stories of extraordinary women whose importance has long been ignored.

Anti-fascist journalist Erika Mann - daughter of Germany's most famous writer - came to Nuremberg seeking a reckoning with a Germany she had fled more than a decade before, while Hungarian countess Ingeborg Kalnoky found herself presiding over a guest house in which perpetrators and survivors of the Nazi's worst crimes lived side by side.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, War, Holocaust, World War II, Crime

432 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published April 23, 2026

About the author

Natalie Livingstone was born and raised in London. She graduated with a first class degree in history from Christ's College, Cambridge in 1998. She began her career as a feature writer at the Daily Express and now contributes to Tatler, Harper's Bazaar, US Vogue, Elle, The Times and the Mail on Sunday. Natalie lives in London with her husband and two children.

Reviews

[Andrea Tomé · Rating 3 out of 5]

A much-needed but ultimately flawed book. Enormous research on a riveting topic. Some of the chapters are as fascinating as the women they’re devoted to; for the same reason, others are comparatively duller, and the pages of pre-Nuremberg biography strike as tedious.

The weaving of character biography and historical account of the Trials is likewise weak. Notes on the women’s personal lives mud the chronology of the Trials.

The key message, beyond the long overdue insight into the women of Nuremberg, is confused. The depiction of the USSR is simplistic and biased. Bearing in mind the number of Soviet women who took part in the Trials, it’s definitely a choice that the only one covered in this book held anti-Soviet views and went on to describe Nazism and Soviet communism as “twins”. Although the author doesn’t shy away from necessary criticisms to the limitations of the Nuremberg Trials, particularly when it came to prosecuting the genocide, the USSR’s efforts to punish the Nazis more harshly and to extend the scope of the crimes are underestimated.

[Helen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. The stories of the 8 women were fascinating, and presented well (kind of in parallel to the story of the Nuremberg trial). Perhaps the thing that truly made it 5 stars for me was the second part of the book with the continuation of their stories post Nuremberg: with several brilliant women having to settle for traditional lives, being forced to abandon their careers and passions because of attitudes of the time. The range of countries covered , including the perspectives and reflections from the Soviet Union and Germany, allowed Livingstone to cover a wide scope of history. Most fascinating perhaps was the story of the witness house, presided over by Ingeborg Kalnoky, revealing a window into both the experience of witnesses (worthy and not) as well as contemporary attitudes towards them, shaped by the times they had lived through.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well researched but a little dry for me, I didn't find it as gripping as I'd hoped. But it was fascinating to see a different side to the trials, a feminine perspective of the time and from different countries.

[TAB2 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely sensational. it names eight women who played crucial roles in the Nuremberg trials - from the woman who ran the chateau that housed witnesses (both nazis AND concentration camp survivors in the same dining room) to a lawyer who prepared the brief, but wasn't allowed to advocate in court because, you know, she was a woman, so she had to feed her notes to a male lawyer to speak on her behalf, to the artist who painted the famous picture hanging in the Imperial war rooms. The books explains their contributions to the trial, and what went on in the evenings after court adjourned (lots of alcohol, lots of sex), and how their lives were affected by what they bore witness to.