Justice at Nuremberg

by Robert E. Conot

Here, for the first time in one volume, is the full story of crimes committed by the Nazi leaders and of the trials in which they were brought to judgement. Conot reconstructs in a single absorbing narrative not only the events at Nuremburg but the offenses with which the accused were charged. He brilliantly characterizes each of the twenty-one defendants, vividly presenting each case and inspecting carefully the process of indictment, prosecution, defense and sentencing.

Genres: History, Holocaust, Nonfiction, World War II, Law, War, Germany

624 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1983

About the author

Robert Ernst Conot was an American journalist and historian. He is the author of a 1967 book on the Watts Riots (Rivers of Blood, Years of Darkness). The report caught the attention of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, which appointed him to edit the historical section of the commission's report. Conot is also known for a biography of Thomas Edison that was among the first works to take issue with the "Edison myth" (A Streak of Luck). He also wrote a comprehensive volume on the Nuremberg Trials, Justice at Nuremberg.

It was after his work on the Kerner Commission that Conot wrote American Odyssey: A Unique History of America Told Through the Life of a Great City (1974), a history of Detroit from its 1701 beginning until 1970, detailing the social and community struggles – problems and successes – of America's biggest boom town, until the begin of its fall.

Reviews

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Since 1969-1971, when I served in Uncle Sam's army in Germany only 25 years after WW2, I have read perhaps a dozen books on German history, looking for insight into how the Germans could have done what they did.

"Justice at Nuremberg" lays out the undeniable horrors in the very words (correspondence, journals) of those who committed them. Even after all those other books, this one practically made my hair stand on end. The cold detachment of the Nazis, their utter brutality . . . just leaves me without words.

The surprise? The disunity of the prosecution team, the major charges that were dropped, and the sort of "stick your finger in the wind" when it came to sentencing.

The book is thorough, detailed, and, at times, tedious. It's not about "great reading." It's about truth and worth the read for that alone.

[Alejandro Teruel · Rating 3 out of 5]

The impression this book might make on its readers depends very heavily on what they know about the history of Germany from the end of World War I to the end of World War II, the rise and fall of the Third Reich, Nazism, and the Holocaust and other atrocities committed at the time, and the evolving nature of international law, particularly in regard to war crimes.

Published in 1983, almost forty years after the Nuremberg trials took place, the book is an attempt to come to grips with a complex attempt to redefine the basis and concept of war crimes. In his introduction Robert Conot sets out his goals:

For the first time, the leaders of a nation were charged with international crimes committed on a scale so vast as to strain belief […] Yet, contrary to the expectations of the participants, the trial has never been fully explored. Although the record has furnished a documentary bonanza for histories of the Third Reich, there has been an absence of knowledge and comprehension of the trial except.

Thus, this statement and the title of the book builds up clear expectations that focus on the trial itself. This seems to be reflected in the structure of the book as set forward by Conot in his Acknowledgments and Methodology:

Part I: Crime and Punishment -the origination of the trial concept and organization of the tribunal.

Part II: Interrogation and Indictment -the imprisonment of the accused at Nuremberg and the preparation of the case.

Part III: Prosecution -an account of Nazi criminality and the defendants’ complicity, interwoven with the presentation of the evidence.

Part IV: Defense -the testimony of the defendants and their witnesses.

Part V: Judgment -the deliberations of the judges, their verdict, and the aftermath.

However he also warns the reader that:

Justice at Nuremberg presented a particularly difficult problem in construction and organization because of the vast scope of the subject and the charges, the large number of defendants, and the enormous amount of material available[…] Moreover, it was necessary to reconcile three complementary but sometimes disparate elements: 1) The origins and preparations for the trial, followed by the trial itself. 2) The characters and actions of the twenty-one defendants. 3) The history of Nazi Germany applicable to the trial -particularly the criminal acts perpetrated.

Thus he attempts to explicitly inject (2) and (3) into parts I, II, and III. In my opinion, this is not entirely successful and makes for a rather clumsy and certainly very slow first half of this six hundred page book.

The author devotes very little space to the first part (less than thirty pages), a third of which at least is really the story of two escapees from Auschwitz and thus is really an attempt to provide two concrete, personal stories the reader can grasp and empathize with.

Part two (some sixty pages) is mainly devoted to trying to provide biographical and character sketches of the dramatis personae, that is the accused, the judges, the prosecutors and the attorneys for the defense. The sketches are sometimes annoyingly shallow and there is a tendency to underestimate the intelligence of some of the accused and their attorneys for the defense -a quick glance at the results of the intelligence tests administered to the accused which are listed in the Wikipedia entry on the trial should quickly disabuse this notion.

Part three constitutes the bulk of the book and takes up over two hundred pages because it is in this part that the author tries to cover most of the history of the Third Reich and its atrocities. The history is written in a simplified and sometimes overly dramatized way. For readers familiar with the main outline of the history of the Third Reich, this part becomes rather tedious up to about the two hundred page mark when the stories of the appalling atrocities committed by the Nazi regime take center stage.

The trial itself is swamped by the character sketches and the history of the Third Reich and only becomes the main focus of the book in the last two parts, which definitely fulfills the book’s initial promise. Whether or not the first half of the book couldn’t have been better written and heavily pruned is a moot question -the answer would I believe, certainly be affirmative for readers who come to the book with some knowledge of the history of the third Reich.

The closing pages of the last chapter of the book briefly looks at what, if anything, the Nuremberg trails accomplished in terms of international justice:

In December 1948 the United Nations passed a Genocide Convention, calling upon every state to take action against groups committed to the destruction of people on religious, ethnic,national, or racial grounds. But the United States where segregation still held sway, refused to ratify the convention, and the Soviet Union did so only with reservations.
[…]
Despite the lack of an international criminal code and the obsolescence of several clauses of the Hague and Geneva conventions, most nations, including the United States, have agreed through treaty to outlaw the barbaric practices that came to light at Nuremberg. Reprisals may not be taken against hostages and prisoners of war. Forced labor is outlawed [...]The armed forces regulations of all of World War II’s major combatants now state that orders that would embrace the commission of a crime are illegal and need not be obeyed.
[…]
On the other hand, it is also true that the more things change, the more they remain the same.

What greater irony than the fact that the Jews, whom Hitler equated with bolshevism, have been the principal sufferers of repression in the Soviet Union![…P]ower politics in the name of self-interest has continued as before, and none of the Nuremberg prosecuting nations has been without sin. The United States has, on and off, practiced ideological imperialism. The French, in attempting to perpetuate colonialism, engaged in some of the same kinds of terror for which the Nuremberg defendants were condemned. The British, French and Israelis attacked Egypt in 1956. The Soviets have crushed nationalist movements in East Germany, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Poland and Afghanistan. Brishfire wars have proliferated.
[…]
Thus, while many of the principles of Nuremberg have been incorporated into international law, practices have changed little.

Fastforwarding from 1983 to present day 2017, one see further advances in international law -for example the creation of the International Criminal Court in 2003- coming hand in hand with the expansion of terrorism and some of the more questionable counter-terrorist practices. For all their faults, the Nuremberg trials courageously helped denounce and judge the horrors and crimes supposedly civilized nations were capable of, but the struggle against the darker recesses of humankind capable of committing such atrocities is every bit as relevant and pertinent world-wide today as it was one hundred years ago when World War I ended and the seeds for World War II were being ploughed.

[Sandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

No es solo la historia del juicio sino de los múltiples crímenes que cometieron los nazis mientras estuvieron en el poder y durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial. Es, por tanto, un libro bastante denso, minucioso, quizá hasta aburrido. Pero merece la pena.

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was extremely well researched and documented. The author's writing style made also made it an easy read. I would recommend it. However, be aware that although the title is 'Justice at Nuremberg', I estimate that 75% of the book focuses on and describes in some detail the horrible crimes of the Nazi criminals, and not as much on the trial itself. Yes, a portion of the book does provide descriptions of the judges, lawyers, their speeches, legal issues, prisoner life in prison during the trial, etc. But while this was the area I was most interested in, it composed only a minority part of the book.

Having said that, if one were interested in the atrocities of WW-2 in Europe, this is a well researched and easy to read book.

[Casey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very good presentation of the events that took place prior to and during the Nuremberg trial after World War II. It is well researched and written. The author spends time on not only the 16 defendants, but also the judges, prosecutors, and the defense attorneys. He presents what was solid evidence against the accused along with what was suspect. He also spends time addressing the addressing the emotional state of everyone and the disagreements between the American, British,
French and Russian judges and prosecutors. I recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in the trial as it is much more detailed and better than the movie.

[Stephen Rynkiewicz]

Our family papers show keen interest in the evils and evildoers of World War II, and not just because my cousin Herb Gawronski was a busy judge in Allied-occupied Germany. Conot's courtroom drama certainly fades alongside the breathtaking scale of war crimes: Germans on the home front who had not recognized the Final Solution also failed to ask about emaciated foreigners who replaced their conscripted co-workers, or healthy elders at the old-age home suddenly pronounced dead from lingering illness. The evasive defendants at Nuremberg embody not only the banality of evil, but also the sin of comfortable ignorance.

[Boudewijn · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a sort of dissapointment because I expected something else. About three quarters of this book describes the crimes that the accused performed and not so much on the trial itself. Unfortunately, this was what I was looking for and therefore after 107 pages, I decided to let this one go.

[Erwin · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you read any book about the Nuremberg Trials this is the one to read. "Justice At Nuremberg" covers all of the bases.

With this opening line Conot begins his story...

“On April 7, 1944, two Slovakian Jews, 26 year old Alfred Weczler and 20 year old Rudolf Vrba, escaped from Auschwitz. They provided the first eye witness account of the concentration and extermination camp to the western world, an account that set off the chain of events that led to the Nuremberg trial.”

Conot does an extraordinary job telling the story in a very well ordered narrative. Beginning with how the trials actually came to be... to the enormous documentation detailed in the Prosecution, followed by the Defense and then of course... the verdicts, executions and the aftermath.

The horrors of what happened during the war are highly detailed with first person testimony by those directly involved.

If you are a WWII buff or historian this is a must read.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this immediately after I met my first holocaust denier. Whom I can never understand because the Nazis admitted it. And the HD nuts deny that they did, yet it's throughout this soi-disant "first comprehensive dramatic account of the trial of the Nazi leaders". Speer is the best example.

Speer was described by a friend as "Hitler's unrequited love". Odsbodlikins!

[Josh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Conot mentions the disorganization of the prosecution at the International Military Tribunal, where 22 Nazi leaders were tried. The prosecutors were overwhelmed by the evidence they had and the complexity of the structure of the Nazi government. Conot himself confesses he too being overwhelmed by the voluminous material produced by the trial and the papers of its (English-speaking) participants, but he eventually settles on a narrative roughly divided into 4 parts: the origins of the IMT, the prosecutor's case, the Nazi leaders' defense, and the outcome. The prosecutions' case is the largest part of the history, and is the most frustrating, as Conot mostly switches to an omniscient narrative recounting the basic history of Nazi Germany, and the actual trial proceedings recedes to the background. Conot glides over the most interesting aspects of the trial. I still do not quite understand how the participants in this international trial (with Allied prosecutors and judges, and German defendants and defense attorneys) agreed to a specific format or rules of evidence or proceedings. Conot mentioned that the Allies themselves have quite different judicial traditions and customs, with the adversarial Anglo-American system being foreign to the continent system of France and the USSR, but it is not clear where they landed (the trial does seem like it followed the adversarial model). How did they agree on basic rules of evidence or proceedings? How were the defense attorneys onboarded, if at all? Were they given legal texts or precedents to consult? I get the sense everything was made up on the fly. The perspective of the German defense attorneys is barely mentioned; Conot basically divides them into clowns, Nazi symps who chomp at the big to use a "tu quoque" defense (that the judges ruled invalid), and Nazi opponents who detested their clients.

So we have a shaggy history of a momentous trial that glosses over its most interesting aspects, but is still pretty readable--I was never bored.

[Daniel Carapezzi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked up this book for free a few years ago, outside of a 2nd and Charles. Be wary of that store, by the way, cause they made me choose three 'free' subscriptions to news mags that wound up wanting to start charging me after a few months. But anyway, this book is actually very informative and interesting. I particularly liked its honest accounting of how the American component of this tribunal, against the wishes of the Soviets, refrained from making certain judgments against Nazi leaders and commanders regarding war crimes that could have plausibly applied to American military decisions, as well. It sets the scene in firebombed Nuremberg as this significant trial took place--I wonder who was responsible for all that destruction? I pulled a lot out of this book. It's long, but that's a good thing: there's a lot of important information in it. Sometimes it's good to stay in a book for a good while

[Linda Liang · Rating 3 out of 5]

Detailed plots but hard to follow. I was swept off my feet by the movie of the same title. I instantly decided to read the book, hoping to recite the brilliant legal arguments shown in the film. To my astonishment, I couldn't find the character depicted in the movie, let alone the courtroom saga.

This is not a typical type of courtroom drama that I am used to.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good overview of the trial, covering the political decisions in forming the tribunal, and the key events of both the prosecution and defense. Could have included a bit more on the life of the key players outside of the courtroom.

[William Brockman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a detailed account of the trial of the Nazi Party leaders a Nuremberg.
It covers the establishment of the court, how judges were chosen, and the political considerations that were present.

The trial, verdicts, and aftermath are also covered.

[Doug · Rating 3 out of 5]

First, the book is 523 pages not 624.

Second, this is a long, hard book to read because it's dry descriptions of who did what to whom and who knew how when.

[Chloe Z · Rating 2 out of 5]

VERY detailed on all the facts, if you will, the proceedings, the timeline, of Nuremberg, but tbh even for my paper this is too many names, too many details, maybe a good intro or book to consult.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

meticulously researched, great review of the competing politics of the trial and terrifying details of the horror of the Nazi regime.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

The work offers a comprehensive overview of perhaps the most famous legal proceedings of the 20th century, the post-World War II trial by the victorious Allied nations of top Nazis such as Hermann Goering, Joachim von Ribbentrop, and others. Journalist Robert Conot (1929-2011), whose parents died in the Holocaust, manages to combine an enormous amount of material on the trial's original conception and organization, its proceedings, and all the personalities involved--the 24 defendants, the judges, the prosecution and defense attorneys, and others--into an engrossing narrative.

The emphasis is on story-telling rather than analysis--Conot's occasional attempts to discuss the larger significance of Nazism or the trials' influence on international law are unmemorable. As a story, however, Justice at Nuremberg is gripping and powerful. In particular, the section devoted to explaining the prosecution's case is an excellent summary, in only about 200 pages, of the rise of Nazi Germany and the multitude of crimes committed by the regime.

[Terry Graap · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like history books that start from the beginning and go to the end. Well, this book they did it in each chapter. I was too thrilled about the format. And the trial didn't start until you were well into the book.

[Shukti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent account of the war crimes tribunal - lots of insight into Hitler's "men".

[Jonnie Enloe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fact filled and a relatively easy read. Helps to have pre-war Nazi History foundation before reading as some of the details of the trials are based Pre-War.

[Eileen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Intense!

[Gary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed it very much. Loved heaing about what when on behind the scenes regarding the trials of some of the most evil men in history.

[sologdin · Rating 3 out of 5]

straightforward presentation of the prosecution of the primary nuremberg defendants.

[Christopher Houston · Rating 5 out of 5]

FANTASTIC book. Very in depth and the author didn't leave out any details. I liked how the book was broken down into the sections of the charges, the prosecution, the defense, and the judgment. It made it easy to read. It was a very dense book and took me a while to read, but as I am a huge fan of World War II and the Holocaust, I knew I would enjoy it to the very end.

[✨Bean's Books✨ · Rating 5 out of 5]

REALLY GOOD BOOK!!! Gives you a unique play-by-play of the war through the experiences of the defendants. Very well researched and written. The narrative is amazing and keeps your interest to the end unlike some WWII books that just spit out facts and dates. The book is also set up in a really easy to understand way. HIGHLY recommend this book! ✨👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻✨