In the Name of the People explores the profile of the perpetrators of Nazi genocide as reflected in postwar German trial sentences. It investigates their social background, their `route to crime', and their role in the Nazi extermination apparatus. In addition, it studies the postwar prosecution of these genocidal criminals in West Germany. It describes and analyses the obstacles, `bottlenecks', and omissions in the prosecuting policies and presents their statistical record. It examines the way in which postwar German courts dealt with these criminals by an in-depth study of the trial sentences against two specific groups of genocidal perpetrators: the `Euthanasia' and `Aktion Reinhard' killers. Through a scrutiny of the argumentation of the various courts' sentences in these cases, it presents a detailed picture of the grounds for acquittal, conviction and punishment. It discusses the controversial differentiation of `murder' and `complicity in murder' with regard to these genocidal perpetrators and highlights the ways in which the courts handled complicated questions, such as acting under superior orders, duress, and coercion. The study is intended for a readership consisting of historians, sociologists, criminologists, legal experts and others interested in the `fieldworkers' and modus operandi of the Nazi genocide and Germany's postwar judicial reaction to it.

One of the deadliest phases of the Holocaust, the Nazi regime’s “Operation Reinhard” produced three major death camps—Belzec, Treblinka, and Sobibor—which claimed the lives of 1.8 million Jews. In the 1960s, a small measure of justice came for those victims when a score of defendants who had been officers and guards at the camps were convicted of war crimes in West German courts. The conviction rates varied, however. While all but one of fourteen Treblinka defendants were convicted, half of the twelve Sobibor defendants escaped punishment, and only one of eight Belzec defendants was convicted. Also, despite the enormity of the crimes, the sentences were light in many cases, amounting to only a few years in prison. In this meticulous history of the Operation Reinhard trials, Michael S. Bryant examines a disturbing question: Did compromised jurists engineer acquittals or lenient punishments for proven killers? Drawing on rarely studied archival sources, Bryant concludes that the trial judges acted in good faith within the bounds of West German law. The key to successful prosecutions was eyewitness testimony. At Belzec, the near-total efficiency of the Nazi death machine meant that only one survivor could be found to testify. At Treblinka and Sobibor, however, prisoner revolts had resulted in a number of survivors who could give firsthand accounts of specific atrocities and identify participants. The courts, Bryant finds, treated these witnesses with respect and even made allowances for conflicting testimony. And when handing down sentences, the judges acted in accordance with strict legal definitions of perpetration, complicity, and action under duress. Yet, despite these findings, Bryant also shows that West German legal culture was hardly blameless during the postwar era. Though ready to convict the mostly workingclass personnel of the death camps, the Federal Republic followed policies that insulated the judicial elite from accountability for its own role in the Final Solution. While trial records show that the “bias” of West German jurists was neither direct nor personal, the structure of the system ensured that lawyers and judges themselves avoided judgment.

The 1948 Genocide Convention has become a vital legal tool in the international campaign against impunity. Its provisions, including its enigmatic definition of the crime and its pledge both to punish and prevent the 'crime of crimes', have now been interpreted in important judgments by the International Court of Justice, the ad hoc Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda and various domestic courts. The second edition of this definitive work focuses on the judicial interpretation of the Convention, relying on debates in the International Law Commission, political statements in bodies like the General Assembly of the United Nations and the growing body of case law. Attention is given to the concept of protected groups, to problems of criminal prosecution and to issues of international judicial cooperation, such as extradition. The duty to prevent genocide and its relationship with the emerging doctrine of the 'responsibility to protect' are also explored.

Since the end of World War II, Nazi medical atrocities have been a topic of ambivalent reactions and debates, both in Germany and internationally: An early period of silence was followed by attempts of victims and representatives of medical organisations to describe what happened. Varying narratives developed, some of which had a stabilizing function for the identity of the profession, whereas others had a critical and de-stabilizing function. In today's international debates in the field of medical ethics, there are frequent references to Nazi medical atrocities, in particular in the context of discussions about research on human subjects, and on euthanasia. The volume analyses the narratives on Nazi medical atrocities, their historicity in different stages of post-war medicine, as well as in the international discourse on biomedical ethics.

"In the wake of the Second World War, how were the Allies to respond to the enormous crime of the Holocaust? Even in an ideal world, it would have been impossible to bring all the perpetrators to trial. Nevertheless, an attempt was made to prosecute some. Most people have heard of the Nuremberg trial and the Eichmann trial, though they probably have not heard of the Kharkov Trial--the first trial of Germans for Nazi-era crimes--or even the Dachau Trials, in which war criminals were prosecuted by the American military personnel on the former concentration camp grounds. This book uncovers ten "forgotten trials" of the Holocaust, selected from the many Nazi trials that have taken place over the course of the last seven decades. It showcases how perpetrators of the Holocaust were dealt with in courtrooms around the world--in the former Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, Israel, France, Poland, the United States and Germany--revealing how different legal systems responded to the horrors of the Holocaust. The book provides a graphic picture of the genocidal campaign against the Jews through eyewitness testimony and incriminating documents and traces how the public memory of the Holocaust was formed over time. The volume covers a variety of trials--of high-ranking statesmen and minor foot soldiers, of male and female concentration camps guards and even trials in Israel of Jewish Kapos--to provide the first global picture of the laborious efforts to bring perpetrators of the Holocaust to justice. As law professors and litigators, the authors provide distinct insights into these trials."--

Horrified by the Holocaust, social psychologist Stanley Milgram wondered if he could recreate the Holocaust in the laboratory setting. Unabated for more than half a century, his (in)famous results have continued to intrigue scholars. Based on unpublished archival data from Milgram’s personal collection, volume one of this two-volume set introduces readers to a behind the scenes account showing how during Milgram’s unpublished pilot studies he step-by-step invented his official experimental procedure—how he gradually learnt to transform most ordinary people into willing inflictors of harm. The open access volume two then illustrates how certain innovators within the Nazi regime used the very same Milgram-like learning techniques that with increasing effectiveness gradually enabled them to also transform most ordinary people into increasingly capable executioners of other men, women, and children. Volume two effectively attempts to capture how step-by-step these Nazi innovators attempted to transform the Führer’s wish of a Jewish-free Europe into a frightening reality. By the books’ end the reader will gain an insight into how the seemingly undoable can become increasingly doable.

An interdisciplinary approach to international crimes as genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and other gross human rights violations for students, scholars, professionals and practitioners to get an insight in the roles of perpetrators and bystanders.

The 1948 Genocide Convention has suddenly become a vital legal tool in the international campaign against impunity. The succinct provisions of the Convention are now being interpreted in important judgements by the International Court of Justice, the ad hoc Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, and a growing number of domestic courts. In this definitive work William A. Schabas focuses on the judicial interpretation of the Convention, debates in the International Law Commission, political statements in bodies like the General Assembly of the United Nations, and the growing body of case law. Detailed attention is given to the concept of protected groups, to the quantitative dimension of genocide, to problems of criminal prosecution including defenses and complicity, and to issues of international judicial cooperations such as extradition. He also explores the duty to prevent genocide, and the consequences this may have on the emerging law of humanitarian intervention.

These essays are organised into four sections, dealing with the history of war crime trials from Weimar Germany to just after World War II, the sometimes diverging Allied attempts to come to terms with the Nazi concentration camp system, the ability of postwar societies to confront war crimes of the past and the legacy of war crime trials.

This book constitutes a new history of the complex memory cultures that persisted within post-war West Germany, examining the attitudes of ordinary people to the second wave of Nazi war crimes trials ushered in during the 1960s. It explores responses to the prospect of continuing investigations, the reception afforded to the defendants, and the sheer resonance that such proceedings could generate within a local community. Drawing upon case studies from across the Federal Republic, it bridges a gap between the current historiography and localised memory studies, and analyses of war crimes trials. Far from viewing the 1960s as an uncomplicated decade of change, this book emphasises the range of voices that were competing to make themselves heard during this period, whether they came from survivors’ groups, crusading journalists and students, or from former prisoners of war, veterans’ organisations and the war widowed. This diversity of opinion and experience enabled the persistence of silences, distortions and mythologies that could afford some level of distance to be imposed between the perpetrators of the Nazi genocide, and the ordinary West German population. The process of ‘coming to terms with the past’ was thus complicated and protracted.