Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil (Penguin Classics)

Book Description

Hannah Arendt's authoritative report on the trial of Nazi leader Adolf Eichmann includes further factual material that came to light after the trial, as well as Arendt's postscript directly addressing the controversy that arose over her account.

Customer Reviews:

A Classic that Elaborates on the Genocide of Jews and Others.......2007-09-20

I am delighted to see this classic back in print. Jewish author Hannah Arendt has provided a wealth of timeless information that goes far beyond the trial of the German war criminal Adolf Eichmann. This review is based on the original (1964) edition.

Arendt (p. 39) gives the readers a taste of the scale of the Kristallnacht (November 1938): 7,500 Jewish shop windows broken, all synagogues burned, and 20,000 Jewish men incarcerated in concentration camps. In common with many others who wrote during the first two decades after WWII, Arendt (p. 5, 11-12) addresses the issue of Jewish passivity in the face of death during the later roundups and transports to the death camps.

Arendt briefly discusses the fate of Jews of some individual European nations. She mentions the conniving of the Bulgarians (with, of course, the implied freedom to do so) performed in order to avoid sending their Jews to the death camps, and the fact that Finland, Germany's ally, was never seriously pressured to turn over her 2,000 Jews to be murdered (p. 170). Clearly, the latter part of the oft-repeated statement, "Not all of the victims of the Nazis were Jews, but all Jews were victims of the Nazis" is incorrect.

Throughout this work, Arendt gives various biographical details of Adolf Eichmann. For example, she mentions that he was a Gottglaubiger (p. 27), a Nazi term for those who had broken with Christianity, and which Eichmann maintained right up to the very moment of his hanging, having refused the solace and Bible reading of a Protestant minister (p. 252).

Arendt briefly discusses Hitler's flouting of the Versailles treaty and his rise to power. While Jan T. Gross has asserted that there were Poles who praised Hitler in the 1930's, Arendt makes it clear that this was far from limited to Poland during that time: "...Hitler was admired everywhere as a great national statesman." (p. 37).

While most recent Holocaust materials focus on the real or imagined collaboration of locals in the sending of Jews to their deaths, Arendt is unsparing in her criticism of Jewish collaborators in this regard: "Without Jewish help in administrative and police work--the final roundup of Jews in Berlin was, as I have mentioned, done entirely by Jewish police--there would have been either complete chaos or an impossibly severe drain on German manpower. (p. 117). She adds that, because of this collaboration, only a few thousand Germans, most of whom furthermore only did office work, were able to send hundreds of thousands of Jews to their deaths (p. 117). Finally, Arendt concludes that: "Wherever Jews lived, there were recognized Jewish leaders, and this leadership, almost without exception, cooperated in one way or another, for one reason or another, with the Nazis. The whole truth was that if the Jewish people had been unorganized and leaderless, there would have been chaos and plenty of misery but the total number of victims would hardly have been between four and a half and six million. (According to Freudiger's calculations about half of them could have saved themselves if they had not followed the instructions of the Jewish councils..." (p. 125).

Arendt (p. 42, 118, etc.) elaborates on the actions of a Jew, Rudolf Kastner (Kasztner). He made a deal with Eichmann in which 1,684 Jews were allowed to go to Palestine in exchange for Kastner's silence before and during which 476,000 Hungarian Jews were sent to the gas chambers of Auschwitz.

Jan Tomasz Gross, who has gotten a great deal of publicity for his books (NEIGHBORS and FEAR), has stated that the 2-3 million Poles who died in the hands of the Germans were largely the collateral victims of military action. Arendt knows better: "...Eichmann knew that right behind the front lines all Russian functionaries ("Communists"), all Polish members of the professional classes, and all native Jews were being killed in mass shootings." (p. 95). "At no point, however, either in the proceedings or the judgment, did the Jerusalem trial mention even the possibility that extermination of whole ethnic groups--the Jews, or the Poles, or the Gypsies--might be more than a crime against the Jewish or the Polish or the Gypsy people, that the international order, and mankind in its entirety, might have been grievously hurt and endangered." (pp. 275-276). Arendt realizes the alternative future: "The measures against Eastern Jews were not only the result of anti-Semitism, they were part and parcel of an all-embracing demographic policy, in the course of which, had the Germans won the war, the Poles would have suffered the same fate as the Jews--genocide. This is no mere conjecture: the Poles in Germany were already being forced to wear a distinguishing badge in which the "P" replaced the Jewish star, and this, which we have seen, was always the first measure to be taken by the police in instituting the process of destruction)." (pp. 217-218).

Arendt praises the Danes for saving Jews during WWII and then, without mentioning the incomparably more difficult conditions under which Polish rescuers of Jews labored, nevertheless gives the Poles their due. After listing some individual examples of Polish assistance to Jews, Arendt adds the following: "One witness claimed that the Polish underground had supplied many Jews with weapons and had saved thousands of Jewish children by placing them with Polish families. The risks were prohibitive; there was the story of an entire Polish family who had been executed in the most brutal manner because they had adopted a six-year-old Jewish girl." (p. 231).

Beneath the thin layer of civilization.......2007-07-19

In covering, from a moral and ethical rather than legal standpoint, the trial of former Nazi Adolf Eichmann, Arendt must have known she was jumping head first into certain controversy. While I disagree with her insistence on international law, as opposed to an Israeli-ran trial (unlike Arendt, I have the hindsight of the Milosevic trial, not to mention pretty much every other pathetic joke of international law flouted by the U.N. but to which no nation honestly adheres outside Belgium), I must say that she made a rather convincing case regarding the "banality of evil".

Her point seemed to be, to the outrage of her critics, that seemingly normal men are capable of doing terrible deeds. It doesn't take a monster to act monstrous. Her critics accused her of attempting to humanize a Nazi war criminal, but I think what most people were secretly offended at was her assertion of the duality of human nature. We like to think of history and sociology in terms of black and white, good and evil. There are good guys, and there are bad guys, and there is no blur between them...

What Arendt is saying is that, save the occasional saint, we are all capable of committing the crimes that Eichmann did. It may take years of systematic propaganda, carrots and sticks, career enhancements, and whatnot, but in the end, the leap Eichmann took from ethical civilization into barbaric genocide wasn't a far leap at all. Weimar Germany wasn't a Third World country. For an industrialized, cultured, and Western nation to descend so rapidly into the dark age of Nazism is not a sign of any inherent flaw in German civilization, but rather of how thin the line between humanity and barbarism truly is.

Whether you agree with Arendt or not, the book will make you think. There's nothing wrong with hearing a fresh and opposing viewpoint, even for debate's sake.

Doctors from Hell: The Horrific Account of Nazi Experiments on Humans

Average customer rating:

Value of the book depends on your aim.
Dissapointing
Very Disappointing
Unbelievable!
German Barbarism: Genocide Beyond Jews and Against Slavs

Doctors from Hell: The Horrific Account of Nazi Experiments on Humans
Vivien Spitz
Manufacturer: Sentient Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Eyewitness Auschwitz: Three Years in the Gas Chambers

ASIN: 1591810329

Book Description

A chilling story of human depravity and ultimate justice, told for the first time by an eyewitness court reporter for the Nuremberg war crimes trial of Nazi doctors.

Customer Reviews:

Value of the book depends on your aim........2007-09-16

The value of the book really depends on your aim. If you just wish to have a general factual survey about the Nazi human experiments raised in the Doctor's Trial, the book will serve your need. However, most of the book relating to the Doctor's Trial per se is same as the opening speech of the US Prosecutor (General Taylor) and it is definitely weak at the conversations between the defendants and the lawyers/prosecutors during the trial. As a result, you cannot explore from this book why the defendants can commit such crime (many of them are distinguishing doctors and even the chief prosecutor admitted that some of they were not sadists). In gist, it is a book about "what" but not about "why". If you want to explore the underlying mentality, the book "Karl Brandt: The Nazi Doctor" by Ulf Schmidt may serve as a good start.

Dissapointing.......2007-02-27

Quickly I will say that in buying this book I felt I was going to be reading about the Nazi doctors and their crimes. Instead I read a book about a young lady whom was a court reporter during some of the trials and what she saw/heard.

True some acounts are harrowing and emotional but not enough to live up to the unworthy title of "Doctor's From Hell".

I had a few friends whom stated they wished to read this book when I was done and I told every single one of them that it isn't worth their time. I'll tell you the same. There are plenty of books out on this subject that give you a real sense of what happned and the evil people whom were responsible.

I was really hoping this book was going to live up to expectations but sadly it did not.

Very Disappointing.......2006-10-21

First off, how in Hades does a trifle like this manage to get a blurb from Bill "der Schlickmeister" Clinton, Al "dropped out or thrown out of law school" Gore, and Christpher "Ted Kennedy's henchman" Dodd? Plus, sort of a forward by Elie Wiesel! I thought the book would be in the spirit of Lifton's book on Nazi Doctors, etc., but it is not. Its the story of a 21 or 22 year old court reporter who went over in 1946 to take down testimony at the Nazi Doctor's trials. Ms. Spitz, who I am sure is a very nice lady, learned all the right lessons from the trials and says all the right things. But she is sure no historian, or even a professional writer. She gives absolutely no insight into any of the men charged in the crimes, and is extremely disjointed about what she tells the reader about the trials. Sometimes she quotes the transcripts at some length, sometimes there is almost no discussion of a certain gruesome experiment. The big question, what the Hell were these guys thinking, is completely untouched. In addition, Ms. Spitz's knowledge of WWII is almost nil, and she seems to know little of the first Nuremburg trial. For example, she implies that Goering hid a cyanide capsule in his mouth (the whole time), while we now know that it is likely that an American guard (unwittingly?) smuggled the ampule to him. The quotes from the transcripts are often gripping & harrowing, but that is a credit to the trials, not to the author. Really, the only thing interesting in the book by way of the author is her discussion about living arrangements in 1946 Nuremberg, and the fact that in 1947-1948 there were still pro-Nazi terrorists. Do not spend $24 on this book (or the $16 it cost me) if you are expecting a professional discussion of the Nazi medical experiments. Its worth maybe $2 as a fast read by someone of average intelligence who was at the trials of the sicko Nazi physicians.

Unbelievable!.......2006-08-18

This book is a real shocker, to think that people can have no empathy for another human beings feelings is beyond belief. "How could they do this" in no way begins to describe the horror and torture they inflicted on these poor defenceless souls. A real eye-opener but a "must" read book. Very well written.

German Barbarism: Genocide Beyond Jews and Against Slavs.......2006-06-15

The reader of this book quickly learns that the gruesome experiments conducted against helpless victims were not just done by a few "warped" Nazi ideologues, such as the infamous "Angel of Death" Josef Mengele, but by a large cadre of German doctors. One also quickly realizes that the victims were not limited to Jews, but included members of various nationalities. Every imaginable grotesque experiment was performed. Perhaps the most instructive part of the book is chapter 14, which discusses forced sterilization. The Germans found that physical castration was too slow and costly. X-radiation often made the victims ill or killed them outright. A drug derived from a certain Brazilian plant induced sterility, and was tried on inmates.

What was said to be ultimately needed was a method of sterilization that could easily be employed en masse and was preferably one in which the victim did not know that he or she was sterilized. Obviously, mass sterilization was intended for very large target of victims. In fact, defendant Rudolf Brandt cited Heinrich Himmler (pp. 191-192), who stated that forced sterilization was to be used to exterminate not only Jews but also Russians and Poles. So, although the author Spitz does not develop this further, Himmler's statement adds proof to the fact that after the Jews, most of the Slavs were next in line for genocidal extermination. Mass shootings and gassings were useful for killing a few million people (Jews and Polish intellectuals), but mass sterilization was much more practical for the eventual extermination of tens of millions to hundreds of millions of people (Slavs as a whole). Just as a small number of sterilized Jews were kept alive for forced labor, so also a remnant of the Slavic peoples would be kept alive as slaves of the German Reich. It is high time that educational Holocaust materials include focus on the fact that the Slavs were also victims of genocide. Only the end of the war spared most of the Slavs from forced sterilization, and eventual extermination.

Average customer rating:

Read This; Then Watch "Nuremberg" (TNT dvd)
Unique Look Inside the Trials
Ex Book
Intriguing Look At The Meaning of The Nuremberg Trials
Monsters of the Dritte Reich, or just a mirror?

Nuremberg Diary
G. M. Gilbert
Manufacturer: Da Capo Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0306806614

Customer Reviews:

Read This; Then Watch "Nuremberg" (TNT dvd).......2007-01-03

A great companion to the TNT Network movie "Nuremberg" of a few years ago (available on dvd). You'll come away with a good understanding of an important era of history.

Unique Look Inside the Trials.......2006-12-14

I didn't know what to expect from this book, but I was very glad I picked it up. It began a little slowly, but gained momentum quickly and soon had me unable to put it down. Dr. Gilbert, the psychologist and diarist, delivers an in-depth and intimate portrayal of the mental make-up of the Nazi's on trial at Nuremberg. I came away from this book feeling as though I had been at Dr. Gilbert's side throughout the trial, speaking to each defendant individually on a daily basis.

A real "fly-on-the-wall", behind the scenes view of the Nuremberg trials. Highly recommended.

Ex Book .......2006-10-25

Also see Nuremberg Goering's Last Stand , with Hannes Hellmann as HGm History Channel, Ex 5 Stars.

Intriguing Look At The Meaning of The Nuremberg Trials.......2003-03-21

As a person who has read a number of books relating to tghis subject, nothing so defines the striking differences between the nature of the Third Reich from the constitutional democracies that largely comprised the Allies as the way in which the defendants of the trials at Nuremberg were handled. With painstaking precision and at extraordinary cost in terms of international arm-twisting and back-door deals, the proponents of a judicial proceeding designed to illustrate the manifest individual guilt of the various Nazi officials forged a result that still stands today as a model of a non-retributive effort in the face of extraordinary pressure. While one can hardly describe the Nuremberg trials as unflawed or perfect, they did prove to the world that the Allies were willing to subscribe to the existing canon of law to judge the actions of the Nazis.

Doing so was anything but easy, Indeed, achieving a fair result that would literally convince the watching world of the guilt of the participants in the war was anything but easy, and moving toward that deliberate goal is a theme providing an interesting theme punctuating the pace of the book. Churchill wanted revenge by way of summary trials and quick retribution, while the Russians just wanted to string up the whole group in a mass hanging. Yet American Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson was able to resolve the differences well enough to proceed, although at times the reader wonders if the trials will be anything like the fair-minded judicial event he has in mind. Indeed, the back-stabbing, personal ambitions, and petty jealousies of the various factions, trial officials, and individual defendants becomes a kind of political circus that sometimes resembles nothing so much as vaudevillian showboating.

Still, the efforts at conducting a fair and open forum for the world to watch as the prosecution and defense teams clashed before the international tribunal prevailed, and the trials concluded with mixed results in terms of the results. Most of the defendants were found guilty, and many were hanged. Yet few observers doubted that the defendants had had their day in court along with and adequate opportunity to defend their actions to a watching world. Given how little justice and liberty they collectively allowed for their tens of millions of victims, it is remarkable just how civilized and dignified a proceeding the Nuremberg trials were, with all their theatrics and subterranean undercurrents.

One marvels at the fact that after fifty years the world still stands in awe at the deliberate, careful, and methodical way in which the Allies achieved the result of a rational and fair trial of the defendants in history's most horrific modern nightmare, the terror of the Third Reich. This is an interesting and absorbing book, and a fascinating and entertaining book to read. It was also particularly interesting to me because it explores the lives of each of the defendants in looking at their individual guilt. I recommend it to anyone interested in learning more about these singular trials and their impact on history

Monsters of the Dritte Reich, or just a mirror?.......2002-12-20

Ever have the urge to get into the mind of a monster just to see how he thinks? Sound like another serial killer book? Well, in a sense, Nuremberg Diary is that, but it is so much more as well.

About a month ago, I watched the TNT production about the Nuremberg trial and took note of the names of some of the characters portrayed in it. The character of Captain Gilbert interested me. He was a prison psychologist who visited with many of the prisoners in their cells... spending an inordinate amount of time with Goering. I speculated that very probably that individual might have written a book after the trial.

I did a search on his name and guess what... he did indeed write a book about his experiences. It was published originally by Farrar, Straus & Company in 1947... barely a year after the Nuremberg trial was over. I quickly emailed a query off to Tracy at The Attic... could she get me a copy? The reply came back a day or so later... yes, she could, it would cost a certain amount... and if I wanted one with the dust-cover still intact... a certain amount plus about eight bucks... if I remember right. I placed the order and a few weeks later (coming from Canada), it arrived and Tracy emailed me to come pick it up. I showed up the next day to behold a beautifully preserved first-edition copy with the name "Clayton J. Golding" inscribed with an old-fashioned fountain pen. Thanks Tracy... good scrounge!

What's the book about? Well, some of you web-surfers are a bit young, I suppose.

After WWII was over, the victorious Allies decided to have a trial... charging 23 of the aforementioned monsters with four separate offenses. Two of the defendants, Robert Ley and Hermann Goering, killed themselves before sentence could be carried out, Ley, barely before the trial was even started. The others were either convicted and had their sentence carried out, or were released with a "not guilty" verdict... leaving them to the tender mercies of the German government.

During most of their time in captivity, an American officer, the aforementioned Captain G. M. Gilbert, Phd., for a time the Prison Psychologist, had access to the prisoners in their cells as well as at other times. He administered psychological tests... including intelligence tests, (they were all of fairly high intelligence... which I found a bit surprising) interviewed them at length, and even visited with some of their families... most noteworthy, the wife and daughter of Hermann Goering. Most importantly, he kept a journal... making careful notes as soon as he left the presence of the individual in question.

The book is lengthy, comprising some 471 pages, including the index. I found it to be fascinating at the outset, though the oft repeated anti-Semitic Nazi party line became a bit tedious toward the end.

Surprisingly, the defendants were willing to talk to Captain Gilbert quite openly... displaying lewdness, bigotry, hatred, stupidity, piousness, resignation, and every extreme of emotion that any group of men might display under similar pressures. One can really get a flavor for what these men of Hitler's inner sanctum were like.

After finishing this book, I was left with some questions, and a rather disturbing conclusion, that should not have surprised me but did. I wondered why they decided to try all these men simultaneously. Normally criminals are tried separately, not as a group. The defendants were judged guilty/not guilty of different crimes, indeed they were widely different in beliefs and temperament as well as tasking within the Dritte Reich. So why did they do it that way? The sentencing tends to support my questioning this as they were not sentenced as a group.

Initially, Goering was able to exert his yet considerable influence upon his co-defendants. As things began to heat up, and people saw, among other things, the incredible wealth of stolen artwork in Goering's larder, the absolutely horrifying conditions of the concentration camps, the lies, the signatures on orders, etc., his hold on them was broken. It was broken further when he was prevented from communicating with them. It was surprising how powerful he was perceived to be by the others who would hang with him... almost literally. Gilbert shows this in great detail by the words and activities of the other prisoners he chronicled.

I was surprised by what I saw of the monsters of the Dritte Reich. What surprised me most was that they were not monsters at all. They were just ordinary men. As a group, more intelligent on the average than most, but still fairly run-of-the-mill in terms of character and judgment. Yes, they were racists, certainly they were guilty of many crimes... but for all that, they were not significantly different from many other men of their time... not so very different than men of our own era. They sought to put the blame on others, to justify their actions by comparing themselves to other men in history, to deny knowledge... much like our own politicians do when they get some body part from the nether regions caught in a trap. (I was very much reminded of the words of William Jefferson Clinton during the Monica scandal.)

This is the truly scary part... the fact that they were not monsters. For if they were not monsters, then what makes them different from any one of us? Could not any of us, even including those of us blessed with high intellect, be seduced by a charismatic leader?

This is one that more people should be reading today, lest history repeat itself. The message is timeless... and should never, ever, be forgotten.

Book Description

In the spring and summer of 1952, fifteen Soviet Jews, including five prominent Yiddish writers and poets, were secretly tried and convicted; multiple executions soon followed in the basement of Moscow's Lubyanka prison. The defendants were falsely charged with treason and espionage because of their involvement in the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, and because of their heartfelt response as Jews to Nazi atrocities on occupied Soviet territory. Stalin had created the committee to rally support for the Soviet Union during World War II, but he then disbanded it after the war as his paranoia mounted about Soviet Jews.

For many years, a host of myths surrounded the case against the committee. Now this book, which presents an abridged version of the long-suppressed transcript of the trial, reveals the Kremlin's machinery of destruction. Joshua Rubenstein provides annotations about the players and events surrounding the case. In a long introduction, drawing on newly released documents in Moscow archives and on interviews with relatives of the defendants in Israel, Russia, and the United States, Rubenstein also sets the trial in historical and political context and offers a vivid account of Stalin's anti-Semitic campaign.

Customer Reviews:

Powerful, definitive account of Soviet anti-semitism.......2004-03-15

Mr. Rubenstein has done an outstanding job as a researcher and writer in giving us this gripping record of Stalin's purge in 1950-52 of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee. The JAC had been active during WWII in organizing international aid to the besieged Soviets. Despite their vigorous efforts in the struggle against the Nazis, some of the most respected Russian Jewish poets, writers, and cultural figures associated with the JAC were eventually imprisoned on blatantly fabricated charges of espionage, then executed in 1952. Using recently-opened soviet files, he and Mr. Vladimir Naumov have carefully and authoritatively documented this sordid chapter in recent Soviet history.

Important documentation of Soviet horror under Stalin.......2003-11-15

This book documents just one of the horrors of the Soviet regime. While Stalin murdered millions of innocent people who were unlucky enough to have been citizens under his rule, this book tells of the way this evil regime turned on fifteen people whose crime was being Jewish and wanting to examine the Nazi atrocities in the portions of the USSR they occupied.

It is a particularly poignant telling because the authors provide us with excerpts from the transcripts of the trial so you hear the victims and their accusers in their own words. These people were destroyed by the system they tried to serve and help largely because Stalin decided to use the Jews and the fear of paranoid Zionist conspiracies as the Nazis had done.

This is a very valuable book and I am glad it is in print. As part of the Annals of Communism series it provides important and permanent testimony of the criminality of the USSR that had been lied about and hidden for too long.

Amazon.com

While living in Argentina in 1960, Nazi leader Adolf Eichmann was kidnapped and smuggled to Israel where he was put on trial for crimes against humanity. The New Yorker magazine sent Hannah Arendt to cover the trial. While covering the technical aspects of the trial, Arendt also explored the wider themes inherent in the trial, such as the nature of justice, the behavior of the Jewish leadership during the Nazi Régime, and, most controversially, the nature of Evil itself.

Far from being evil incarnate, as the prosecution painted Eichmann, Arendt maintains that he was an average man, a petty bureaucrat interested only in furthering his career, and the evil he did came from the seductive power of the totalitarian state and an unthinking adherence to the Nazi cause. Indeed, Eichmann's only defense during the trial was "I was just following orders."

Arendt's analysis of the seductive nature of evil is a disturbing one. We would like to think that anyone who would perpetrate such horror on the world is different from us, and that such atrocities are rarities in our world. But the history of groups such as the Jews, Kurds, Bosnians, and Native Americans, to name but a few, seems to suggest that such evil is all too commonplace. In revealing Eichmann as the pedestrian little man that he was, Arendt shows us that the veneer of civilization is a thin one indeed.

Customer Reviews:

Report of Banality of Evil and Poor Human performance.......2007-05-19

Burned question like roll of Romania in holocaust, the little understanding about treacherous behave of Jewish leaders starting from supposing clever Jewish intellectuals of Germany, Hungary and Poland mentally paralyzed by sneaky performance of Germany machine of extermination (I ask forgiveness to use "sneak" to try to explain the human's perfidy); the little silly Zionist mind of the strange Mr. Kastner and other Zionist fellows. Far more astonishing is how poor and failing was the human performance of these involuntary protagonists of the holocaust.
Let be clear: briefly a tragedy expressed very well in this book.
And if we want to look straight in the eyes of following generations we have to accept our fallings and weaknesses and by exposition of this tragic holocaust trying to prevent future mistakes.
This Eichmann was nothing; what was in his mind is secondary and of no importance to his acts. The clerk of the dead Eichmann, was a primitive guy with unfortunate instincts to manipulate his victims. How was this guy, what was in his mind, how he perform is of no importance and this is the smallest revelation in Hanna Arendt book.

AN OVER-RATED ACCOUNT.......2007-04-09

As a lifelong admirer of Hannah Arendt, especially her thrillingly suggestive "The Human Condition," I was surprised, when I finally picked up her "Eichmann in Jerusalem," to find it a poor account of the subject: disorganized, digressive, meandering. Arendt seems to start the story in the middle and assume too much background from her readers, a fault that grows only more irritating with the distance of time. Every straightforward discussion soon degenerates into a thicket of scholarly throat-clearing and asides. This is the sort of story best handled by a clear-eyed journalist who starts the story at the beginning, introduces every strand properly, nails every discussion with plenty of concreta, and never abandons the reader. Properly told, this story should get more interesting as it proceeds; with Arendt, it only gets more boring and tiring.

Best Non-Fiction Book of the 20th Century?.......2006-12-25

Originally appearing as a series of articles in The New Yorker, Arendt's account of Eichmann's trial is one of the landmark works of journalism from one of the century's finest historians and philosophers. She writes like the native German-speaker she is (long sentences, many clauses), but her dense style suits the complexity of her subject. Sharply critical of the Israeli government's approach to the trial, Arendt guides the reader through each step of the case while we watch her understanding of Eichmann's actions and motives grow. Her brief history of deportations from Europe is as deeply moving as her philosophical justification for the ultimate verdict is incisive. Surprisingly funny at times, always keenly observed, and a thrilling narrative, Eichmann in Jerusalem is one of my favorite books and one of the finest books about the Holocaust and what it reveals about human behavior.

Eichmann in??.......2006-12-12

The most serious flaw in this work is the lack of detail provided about Eichmann himself. For a book where Eichmann is the central character, it is surprising how little time Arendt devotes to the man himself. Of course, the larger picture of the Nazi killing of the Jews must be provided, but it seems Arednt errs too closely on the macro side, leaving aside the micro. Her propensity to study mass, totalitarian movements left her little prepared to write a biography, or report on a trial of one man.

That said, there are some wonderful passages of analysis here, well worth tackling. You can sense Arednt's simmering resentment at every turn, and her spite and rage are a strange pleasure to read. In a world where moral categories are too often drawn in strict black and white, Arednt in Eichmann in Jerusalem was not afraid to write a book almost entirely in gray.

Should be required high school reading.......2006-11-09

The most important factor in my decision to give this book five stars is courageousness with which Arendt was willing to expound controversial ideas, especially since her subject matter was intimately related to such a sensitive topic, the Holocaust. A few of those ideas come to mind:

1. The principal concept formulated in this book is that atrocities such as the Holocaust are not the result of evil masterminds. Even though Arendt leaves room for evil masterminds as secondary factors, to her the most important factor contributing to such crimes against humanity is the "banality" (best understood as "commonplaceness", not "boring", as another reviewer suggests) of evil. We are all evil, in the end. The biggest moral lesson from the book is derived from this concept; that moral lesson is that we are all frighteningly too capable of the kind of evil the Nazis were guilty of. If we spend all day captivated by the evil of Hitler we will have no time left to reflect on our own immorality.

2. Another concept that Arendt develops is that the Jews were surprisingly passive in response to their situation. Now, obviously there are room for exceptions, and perhaps fairly large exceptions, but nevertheless this turned out to be a very controversial idea. I do, however, feel that Arendt successfully defends this position to the point that perhaps a second subtitle to this book might have been: "the banality of cowardice". This problem, too, must be seen in the proper light, for it show us that when faced with an evil attacker too many of us are willing to shy away from the fight.

Aside from the philosophical point, this book is about a remarkable trial. Adolf Eichmann was a former Nazi official, kidnapped out of Argentina by Israeli Mossad agents, and tried for war crimes and crimes against humanity by the Israeli government. I especially admire Arendt's position on this point because she isn't afraid to criticize the Israeli government for its conduct during the trial (Arendt is Jewish, in case you didn't know). Specifically, Arendt shows that the government attempted to make the world feel guilty about the Holocaust by paint Eichmann as the mastermind of that evil scheme.

This book is well written and helps the reader understand the complexities surrounding the Holocaust and the trial of Eichmann, issues that most people tend to see a simply black and white. I think this book should be required reading in high school because it is a model of good writing and effective academic inquiry.

Average customer rating:

Worthy, even landmark, addition to Holocaust/Nazi history
Five Minutes Past the Thousand-Year Reich . . .
The Nuremberg Interviews.
Over familiar ground
This is the real stuff.

The Nuremberg Interviews
Leon Goldensohn
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1400030439
Release Date: 2005-10-25

Book Description

During the Nuremberg trials, Dr. Leon Goldensohn–a psychiatrist for the U.S. Army–monitored the mental health of two dozen German leaders charged with carrying out genocide. These recorded conversations have gone largely unexamined for more than fifty years, until Robert Gellately–one of the premier historians of Nazi Germany–made them available to the public in this remarkable collection.

Here are interviews with the likes of Hans Frank, Hermann Goering, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, and Joachim von Ribbentrop–the highest ranking Nazi officials in the Nuremberg jails. Here too are interviews with lesser-known officials essential to the inner workings of the Third Reich. Candid and often shockingly truthful, The Nuremberg Interviews is a profound addition to our understanding of the Nazi mind and mission.

Customer Reviews:

Worthy, even landmark, addition to Holocaust/Nazi history.......2007-03-22

After World War II the allies and occupied/liberated countries (e.g., Britain, France, Italy, Poland, Greece, the Soviet Union) tried tens of thousands of people (German POWs, Nazi officials, Nazi colloborators, etc.) for war crimes. The records of most of these trials (many of which were summary) are not available for one reason or another. The most notorious of these war crimes trials were the ones before the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg (scene of the spectacle of the Nazi party day celebrations) in which the U.S., Britain, France, and the USSR jointly prosecuted both organizations (e.g., the SS) and individuals (e.g., Martin Bormann, presumed to be the most powerful man in Germany after Hitler at the end of war, although he was tried "in absentia").

These trials were notorious for two reasons.

First, major players of the Third Reich then in captivity were on trial and attesting to events they were involved in (unlike in normal criminal trials in the U.S., in these trials the accused had no right against self-incrimination and could not refuse to testify or be cross-examined).

Second, documentation of the mass killings in concentration/extermination camps, which some had tried to downplay to that point as propaganda, was divulged to the world for all to see.

Dr. Goldensohn was a psychiatrist who interviewed defendants and witnesses in captivity at the Nuremberg trials on a regular basis. In so doing Dr. Goldensohn's purposes were several: He had to gauge the person's mental spirits (the prosecutors did not want to lose anyone to suicide) and medical well-being, as well as obtain a personal and family history, and prepare a psychological profile.

The results are nothing short of amazing, if not startling. With a few possible exceptions, all of the interviewees tried to distance themselves from the mass killings in one way or another and expressed remorse that they occurred. Their primary excuses were: (1) they knew nothing about them until the end of the war when the inmates in the camps were freed, and (2) they were just following orders, which if disobeyed meant their own death or imprisonment.

The extracts from Dr. Goldenson's contemporaneous interview notes are presented as separate chapters, one for each person. The interviews are primarily independent of each other (they are presented in the book in alphabetical order by defendants and then by witnesses). They can thus be easily read separately or out of order at a leisurely pace without losing the overall context of the book.

The interviews for a particular person vary from 1-2 pages (Rudolf Hess, Alfred Jodl, Albert Speer, Kurt Daluege) to over 20 pages (Walther Funk, Hermann Goering, Hjalmar Schacht, Ewald von Kleist) in length, most are about 10-15 pages. Many of the interviewees come off as bland and colorless, one exception is Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering who by turns is remonstrative and bombastic. Each chapter begins with the person's photo, along with a brief description of their positions and titles, and what ultimately happened to them (death, imprisonment, not guilty).

Dr. Goldensohn's work is particularly enchanced by the participation of historian Robert Gellately, who (1) provides as an introduction a 20-plus page insightful and balanced discussion of the background of the trials and interviews, (2) masterfully edits and abridges the interviews presented (they were still in an incomplete format when Dr. Goldensohn died in 1961, some were typed, some were handwritten, and contained errors in spelling and syntax, etc.), and (3) provides useful endnotes on many of the statements of the interviewees (the endnotes explain the context of some of the statements made, expose misstatements or outright falsehoods, and contain references for further reading).

There are a couple of minor shortcomings to the work: (1) Dr. Goldensohn was not fluent in German and had to rely on a translator for what most of the interviewees were saying: thus it is possible "something got lost in the translation"; (2) one must remember that all of the interviewees were on trial for their lives (10 of the 19 "defendants" were sentenced to death as, at subsequent trials, were 5 of the 14 "witnesses"; 7 of the defendants and 7 of the witnesses received jail terms) and probably suspected anything incriminatory they said would be used against them (indeed, there was no patient-doctor confidentiality in these interviews and any statements they made to Dr. Goldensohn could have been used against them although that apparently never happened). (In this regard, for what its worth, two of the most extensive interview notes in the book are those for Hans Fritsche, a minion who worked in the German Propaganda Ministry, and Hjalmar Schact, former president of the Reichsbank (to 1939) and minister without portfolio (to 1943), both of whom were found not guilty.)

Five Minutes Past the Thousand-Year Reich . . ........2006-01-31

Learning that an America soldier, psychiatrist and MD had the opportunity to examine this Germanic rabble in 1946 was simply too intellectually enticing to ignore, and Robert Gellately's compilation of Dr. Leon Goldensohn's interviews with some major members of the Nazi tribe is just as fascinating and nauseating as I had expected. While `The Nuremburg Interviews' sometimes seems rather like notes from a sophomore psyche class, the book is - in its antiseptic purity - the nearest approximation to explaining the inexplicable, and the nearest to giving some understanding of the incomprehensible.

This lack of editorializing is the book's greatest value. The patients of Dr. Leon Goldensohn (19 of whom are on trial and 10 of whom are just 6 months shy of becoming strange fruit) seem every inch a gentleman . . . Hermann Göring is "friendly, eager to talk, and quite comfortable" while Wilhelm Keitel is "always in a good mood for talking" as Alfred Jodl bleats "you come to see the others but rarely to see me."

To read their interviews is to be struck dumb by their cordial banality. Perhaps most haunting of all is to come to the realization that these men are not monsters but men who acted monstrously in ways that would inspire the devil himself.

Stanley Milgram proved as much in his studies at Yale University and his book "Obedience to Authority." In it, Milgram demonstrated that we are truly a potentially twisted species; frightfully capable of astonishing cruelty when merely nudged in the wrong direction.

`The Nuremburg Interviews' is an ugly read, but an undeniably fascinating one.

The Nuremberg Interviews........2005-10-25

VERY GOOD DETAILS PERTAINING TO THE THOUGHT PROCESSES OF BOTH THE ACCUSED AND THE WITNESSES. WELL ORGANIZED AND WRITTEN IN A MANNER THAT IS EASY TO FOLLOW.

Over familiar ground.......2005-08-02

An interesting presentation if you have not read Gilbert and others. Otherwise, somewhat of a disappointment.

This is the real stuff........2005-07-17

I am not Jewish, nor German, but the issue of what happened in Germany in the Nazi years is a vital one for all of us. (Believe me.)

This book is a very useful collection of interviews. I was enabled to see some light in the murkiness. It also had photographs of the interviewees, which I appreciated very much.
It's hard to describe what I took out of it. It cast so much light on "how it could happen" that I found myself reading passages out loud to people. Large portions I skipped through, in fact I trawled idly, opening what interested me. But the bits that I became absorbed in were very valuable to me. If you are, like me, always trying to find contemporary writings that seem to have the ring of truth about them, this is a must.
My copy has gone AWOL, and I find myself having to buy another.

Average customer rating:

Don't be afraid to buy and read this book!
The Founding Myths of Modern Israel
Good books are scarce! This is one!
GREAT WORK BY A COURAGEOUS INDIVIDUAL...
A great thriller

The Founding Myths of Modern Israel
Roger Garaudy
Manufacturer: Inst for Historical Review
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0939484757

Customer Reviews:

Don't be afraid to buy and read this book!.......2007-07-17

I am relatively new to the subject of the real history of Zionism, Israel, WWI and WW2 and the holocaust. I had, like so many, been aware that there were revisionist accounts but hesitated both out of skepticism--I couldn't believe that the mainstream narratives could be so wrong--and reluctance to associate myself with something that is invariably ascribed to racists and bigots alone. Do racists and bigots reject the mainstream historical narrative of the holocaust? They do, but not simply because they want to, but for the same reason they tend to believe that the earth revolves around the sun--the evidence is compelling. Shall we therefore reject the heliocentric model of our solar system too?

My own awakening came after learning of the work of Jewish Canadian revisionist scholar David Cole, whose videotaped tour of Auschwitz was one of the most fascinating and eyeopening things I have ever watched. Learning subsequently that David Cole renounced his revisionist work as a result of death threats made against him by the Jewish Defense League (a terrorist group according to the FBI--they have plotted to bomb mosques and even a US congressman's office)I realized that the only reason for such actions by the JDL and by those governments that have imprisoned revisionist scholars for simply talking about the issue is that the traditional account of the holocaust rests on a precariously thin body of evidence that grows thinner every year as mainstream historians are themselves forced to revise things like the number of Jewish people killed and the existence of gas chambers at several camps where they were once claimed to exist but no longer.

I discovered that not even supporters of the traditional narrative claim any longer that the bodies of Jewish victims were used to make lampshades or soap as I was taught as a child. Why, I wondered, would these stories have to have been invented if in fact the Nazi's crimes were already so awful?

It should be made explicitly clear that neither this book nor the revisionist case generally comes close to saying that the Nazis were good people or that Hitler was not a racist and cruel dictator. The issue is one of scale--were the crimes committed by the losers of WW2 any worse than those committed by the victors? Was the "final solution" to the "Jewish question" proposed by Hitler's Germany the extermination of the world's Jews or was it their expulsion from Europe? Were the deaths in the concentration camps which no one denies were harsh centers of forced labor really a result of homicidal gas chambers or the result of diseases like typhus, for which reason Zyklon B gas was used to kill the lice that spread the disease? What evidence is there in support of the traditional narrative? Have you ever looked for it?

This book makes abundantly clear that the reason for the distortion and exaggerration of the extent of the Nazis' war crimes was to create a sacred myth that would place the suffering of Jewish people above that of all other victims of WW2 and thus lend support both externally and internally to the new European colonial outpost, Israel, which was formed at the expense of the lives of those who had previously inhabited the "promised land".

While it is no doubt a difficult truth with which to come to terms, it is upon sober reflection undoubtedly the real story of the tragically violent 20th century.

Do not be intimidated by those who have their reasons for not wanting anyone to examine the revisionist case. Read, think, and decide for yourself what to believe. You won't be sorry.

The Founding Myths of Modern Israel.......2007-01-10

Unfortunatly publicised as 'Holocaust denial', but not so. Impeccably sourced, sources are often the 'Founding Fathers' of modern Israel. Even if you disagree with 75% of his views - and you probably won't - extremely informative and thought-provoking. Even the most vehement of Israel supporters should read it if they claim to have views based on facts instead of propaganda and emotion.

Good books are scarce! This is one! .......2006-02-03

I found every detail in this book, based on very reliable references.
Sources of this piece of academic work are all exposed by the professor author, in details and with backup to reliable sources that can be traced.

Points are well explained in a nice short and efficient way.

it is such a small Book and consists of so much Information.

Very recommended, one.

Hope you could get a copy of it, It is not an easy mission.

GREAT WORK BY A COURAGEOUS INDIVIDUAL..........2005-02-04

Ever since the beginning of the current Iraq affair, one perplexing question kept looming within my thoughts, for which no written materials or media sources had been available to answer or to confirm. That is until I read this book.

A great thriller.......2004-11-05

This book is extemely recommended if you are a fan of conspiracy fictions and the like. It is also an important primary resource for people with an interest in the written origins (and products) of modern antisemitism. Its historical value, however, is virtually nonexistet, as the book leans on politically, religiously and - I dare saying - racially biased axioms in order to base most of its arguments. There are thousands of books out there about the history of Israel and the Middle East: This book does not fit in this category.

The Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial, 19631965: Genocide, History and the Limits of the Law

Average customer rating:

Scholarly and compelling
inadequate justice
fascinating narrative, superbly researched

The Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial, 19631965: Genocide, History and the Limits of the Law
Devin O. Pendas
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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People in Auschwitz

ASIN: 0521844061

Book Description

The Franklin Auschwitz trial was the largest, most public, and most important trial of Holocaust perpetrators conducted in West German courts. Drawing on a wide range of archival sources, Devin O. Pendas provides a comprehensive history of this momentous event. Situating the trial in a thorough analysis of West German criminal law, the book argues that in confronting systematic, state-sponsored genocide, the Frankfurt court ran up against the limits of law. This book provides a compelling account of the divided response to the trial among the West German public.

Customer Reviews:

Scholarly and compelling.......2007-06-21

Pendas's book does something rare in academic publishing: it deals intelligently and responsibly with a very complex topic (the intersection of German law, crimes against humanity, and the Cold War) in a way that is accessible and even compelling to read. His understanding of the German legal context is nicely passed along to his readers, and makes the outcomes of the Auschwitz Trial (often confusing and disappointing to Anglo-American observers) much more understandable. (It is worth noting, btw, that a number of those who managed and staffed Auschwitz, including its first commandant, were arrested and tried (and many executed) by the Polish government in the immediate aftermath of the war.)

inadequate justice.......2007-06-11

This book can be gainfully read in conjunction with Whitmann's book, Beyond Justice: The Auschwitz Trial. Both cover the 1963-5 Auschwitz trial, held in Frankfurt.

Pendas' account is heavily footnoted, demonstrating a lot of scholarship in this terrible subject. The entire book tends to focus on the legal maneuverings of the trial. By comparison, the actual events at Auschwitz seem to take second place. The biggest shortcoming was the inadequacy of German law, which at that time was largely the case law as existed before the war, to fully prosecute genocide. There is a stark and dreadful contrast between the measured and protracted tactics used by the defense and the mass murders summarily conducted at Auschwitz.

Also greatly inadequate were the numbers of SS prosecuted. In part due to some reluctance by Germans at that time to fully confront their recent past. Under these conditions, the Frankfurt prosecutors did a commendable job with the resources they had.

fascinating narrative, superbly researched.......2006-08-06

I picked up this book while writing a review of Rebecca Wittmann's on the same subject, and found that I couldn't put this one down. Pendas used a wide array sources and secondary literature as the basis for this book, and he has a knack for clear and engaging narrative. Telling anecdotes, like the dramatic arrest of former Auschwitz commandant Baer in 1960, and the Frankfurt court's visit behind the Iron Curtain in Auschwitz in December 1964, make this book well worth the purchase price. My detailed review can be found on my university web site.

Lying About Hitler: History, Holocaust, and the David Irving Trial

Average customer rating:

Forceful case against David Irving
A Great Book
Watse of Time
A Well-thought out and researched novel
This book is a pack of lies!!!

Lying About Hitler: History, Holocaust, and the David Irving Trial
Richard J. Evans
Manufacturer: Basic Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Holocaust on Trial

ASIN: 0465021530
Release Date: 2002-04-16

Book Description

An illumination of one of the most explosive and publicized "holocaust trials" since that of Adolf Eichmann, by a leading historian who acted as chief adviser to the defense

In ruling against the controversial historian David Irving, whose libel suit against the American historian Deborah Lipstadt was tried in April 2000, the High Court in London labeled Irving a falsifier of history. No objective historian, declared the judge, would manipulate the documentary record in the way that Irving did. Richard J. Evans, a Cambridge historian and the chief adviser for the defense, uses this famous trial as a lens for exploring a range of difficult questions about the nature of the historian's enterprise.

Customer Reviews:

Forceful case against David Irving.......2007-09-22

As an American, I did not follow this libel trial when it was taking place in London. It was not widely covered here, and that is unfortunate. Had it been, many would learn just how prevalent Holocaust denial is worldwide.

I would have expanded the title if this book to include Irving's lies about the Holocaust in general, not just Hitler. After all, one of Mr. Irving's most shocking assertions is how not a single person died in a gas chamber in Auschwitz.

A Great Book.......2007-07-18

This is a fascinating book on the Irving v. Lipstadt trial in the U.K. Evans, then "only" a top-notch historian, was the chief expert for Lipstadt. He analyzed Irving's work. It is interesting that since the trial, Evans has moved up to the level of "super historian" with the publication of The Coming of the Third Reich and The Third Reich in Power (two great, great books). Even though this book only gives a general overview of the trial, as opposed to Lipstadt's day by day, blow by blow, in her book on the trial, I actually prefer Evan's discussion of the trial. I find Lipstadt, well, kind of boring as a writer. You definitely can't say that about Evans. In addition, Evans has a far greater respect and understanding of the field of military history than Lipstadt, who seems to have kept away from that field throughout her studies & career.

Evans takes Irving apart. Reading this book is like watching a masterful boxer who round by round picks apart his opponent until the other boxer is helpless, bleeding, and thoroughly beaten. Best of all, I get the impression that Evans entered into his role as Lipstadt's expert sort of leaning towards Irving, or at least respecting Irving as a military historian. To read how Evans, piece by piece analyzes and destroys the veracity & reliability of Irving's work is a first class attention grabber. Trust me, this guy can write! Of course so can Irving, which is why a book like this is so important.

Evans really brings out how disappointed we (military history buffs) all should be with Keegan, Erickson and Watt. I mean, these guys are giants in their fields- Keegan even got knighted for his work as a military historian. How men of their stature can basiclaly believe that Irving is a good historian except for one teensy, little eccentricity (he does not believe the Holocaust really happened in the sense of any significant numbers & does not believe Hitler had any knowledge of the planned killing of Jews that did take place) is beyond me. Shame on these guys. How can I ever read John Keegan again? And how can I respect Erickson's seeming mastery of the war in the East when Erickson gives creedence to Irving as a military historian? Watt is just a fatuous, old fool, but as a dean of diplomatic history the guy has no excuse for going soft on Irving. My thought is that historians of their age studied in their formative academic years a WWII where the full extent of the Holocaust had not yet become apparent, but maybe I'm just making excuses for them. Also, I get the impression that each of these "giants" of history seem to have a low regard for Professor Lipstadt, which is just plain stupid (and I'm not saying that just cause I went to college & studied history at Emory, where Lipstadt teaches). I doubt as a student I would have liked Professor Lipstadt's brand of social history, but come on gentlemen, academically this woman is far beyond Irving (who was not trained via graduate school).

So Professor Evans tells it like it is, in clear, precise and extremely readable prose. Look, I've read some of Irving's work (Hitler's War, his books on Goering and Goebbels) and enjoyed them, but after reading this book it is clear that nothing Irving has ever put to paper can be taken as being truthful on its face. For a historian, this is a great crime. I am also disgusted with some of the other reviews on this site, which don't seem to get that Irving was suing Lipstadt to try and shut her up, and some of the reviews, frankly, engage in classic anti-semetism, as opposed to actually analyzing the book. Even after almost 6 million Jews were "liquidated" (i.e., murdered) in the Holocaust, there seem to be many people who either can't accept that fact, or don't believe it, or think that Hitler's efforts were merely a "good start".

Watse of Time.......2006-12-13

This is just one more Hilter book that quotes the lies of earlier Hitler books. Hitler was no prince and the Nazis were not the boy scouts, but if you take a balanced look at history, they were not "the worst of the worst" and Hitler as not "evil incarnate". Irving's books contain detailed footnotes. He got to know people the other historians wouldn't seek out, he found documents that others ignored and, he came to conclusions, based on his research, that others didn't want to hear. If you just read the introduction to "Hitler's War" you can see that Irving is not whitewashing Hitler or the Nazis. The idea of discrediting the messenger in order to discredit the message explains exactly what it happening to Irving and others like him who are attempting to correct the historical record. History is written by the victors and you can go back 2,000 years or more and find that "official" stories are often biased or outright lies. If you want to reread the lies, read Evans; if you want the truth, read Irving.

A Well-thought out and researched novel.......2006-05-03

In response to the review from 'Eric Rachut "Government doc"', I think that it is very important to point out that while people do need to read both sides of any story and decide for themselves, it is also important to be sure that both sides are based on historical fact, not historical imaginings. Free speech is important, of course, but Evans has every right to expose the lies for what they are.

A historian has an obligation to his or her sources and readers. No information can be repressed, and each source has to be thoroughly vetted.This book is painstakingly well-researched and shows how Irving subtely mistranslated documents and trusted with no reservations baised sources. Doing this is not a crime, but one must remember that it was David Irving himself who sued Deborah Lipstadt for libel and thus allowed Evans the opportunity and material to expose him for what he was, a pseudo-historian.

This book is painstakingly researched and well-written. I recommend that everyone read it as the perfect case-study which shows how NOT to do history, and also shows that readers today must be critical and suspicious of every author whether or not you agree with them.

This book is a pack of lies!!!.......2006-04-26

David Irving, for those who read his books and read the Trial Transcripts, makes it quite clear that

1. The Jews were killed by the Nazis

2. Hitler as Head of State is ultimately responsible.

3. How this happened is not as clear cut as made out to be and at any time things could have turned out differently and that everyone shares responsibility for these atrocities and no one came out of this war with clean hands.

This is why he is hated.

Average customer rating:

Excellent Easy Read, Maybe a Little Gossipy!
A easily readable narration of a COMPLEX historical moment!!
Everything you ever wanted to know about the Nazis
A Readable Account of a Highly Charged Topic
Well-written history of an important legal precedent...

Nuremberg : Infamy on Trial
Joseph E. Persico
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Justice at Nuremberg

ASIN: 014016622X

Book Description

The Nuremburg trials remain, after nearly a half a century, the benchmark for judging international crimes. Using new sources--ground-breaking research in the papers of the Nuremburg prison psychiatrist and commandant, the letters and journals of the prisoners, and accounts of the judges and prosecutors as they struggled through each day making compromises and steeling their convictions--Joseph Persico retells the story of Nuremburg, combining sweeping history with psychological insight. Here are brilliant, chilling portraits of the Nazi warlords and riveting descriptions of the tensions between law and vengeance, between East and West, and of the friction already present in the early stages of the Cold War.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent Easy Read, Maybe a Little Gossipy!.......2006-11-28

For an introductory look of the Trials and Crimes at the first and most famous Nuremberg Trial, this book is really top drawer. It gives an excellent view of why the trials occurred, the round ups of the prisoners, and the state of the beautiful and devastated city of Nuremberg in 1945-1946. The disputes among the Allies, sometimes petty, show that this very difficult trial could get un-nerving for all, not least the Conquerors and their families. Read this to get a strong sense of the atmosphere during the trials, and during their recesses. However, some of the testimony is given slightly short shrift, probably since the author wanted to keep the book best-selling and readable. Other books on the subject have described Goring as much more forceful, and frankly a very strong defendant and antagonist. The comments on the generals and admirals (Jodl,Keital, Doenitz,Raeder) may leave one wondering whether justice was truly served here (the first two were hanged), and I have always thought Hess should not have been jailed, since he flew to England hoping to negotiate peace. But these are really small quibbles in a very fine book on a very difficult subject!

A easily readable narration of a COMPLEX historical moment!!.......2004-07-06

Great book for those that want a quick glance on the happenings of the Nuremberg trials. Four main sections: Preparation of the court, Prosecution statements, Defense and Counterinterrogation of the Nazi warlords, Sentencing and beyond. Narration keeps the reader interested in the book. The only problem is the fragmentation of the situations; chapters are really short and have little continuity. This is a curse for the Nuremberg lovers...but a blessing for the normal reader...you can delay reading and not lose the whole objective of the book. There are TOO MANY NAMES...it is more difficult when half of the names are German. Still...I would highly recommend the book.

Everything you ever wanted to know about the Nazis.......2004-04-11

This is one of the only nonfiction books I've ever read, and it was well worth the effort. Although nearly everyone will be quick to place Hitler at the top of their 'most evil men in history' list, the rest of the Nazi coterie are not so well known, and what we find is a cast of characters worthy of any fictional account. You have Albert Speer, the sensitive and morally astute architect who nevertheless relied on slave labor to build his masterpieces; Goering, a bombastic wit who destroyed his captors and fellow inmates alike; Von Schirach, the eerily handsome youth leader described by one prosecution attorney as 'the sort of scout master who molests young boys;' Von Schacht, the imposing old financial genius who admits, grudginly, that he has some trouble with basic arithmetic; Julius Streicher, the lunatic propogandist, who swears at children and does nude calisethnics in front of the guard assigned to watch him.

The account is, however, very long, and I found the sections about the various other personalities involved in the trial uninteresting (well, it's difficult to compete with some of the most dramtically evil men of the century). If you're willing to skim a few passages (which is would be unacceptable in a novel, but which doesn't do much harm with a work like this), I think you'll find this very interesting, whether as a student of history, an artist, or anyone attempting to expand their knowledge of human nature.

A Readable Account of a Highly Charged Topic.......2004-03-31

While Joseph Persico is hardly the only writer to tackle the first, and most important, of the Nuremberg trials of high-ranking Nazis, his book is the one readers who want a well-written, historically accurate, compelling account of this history-making event.

Well-written history of an important legal precedent..........2003-07-02

I got started reading about the atrocities committed during WWII when I was in medical school and came across Henry Friedlander's book about The Medical Holocaust. I read several books on that, and then started reading military history of WWII. When I became more involved in a bioethics/disability group and started writing concerning this problem that persists today, I felt compelled to read more history about the original Nuremberg Trial, that set the legal precedent both for putting on trial war criminals and using the ideas of `crimes against humanity' as a means to prosecute these people.

Persico's book is probably one of the best in the historical genre. His writing is such that the book reads as quickly as a novel, but he doesn't speculate. He didn't have to, as there was so much information in writing, in photography, in video...that he could use the actual words of both the prosecution and the defendants. It not only flabbergasted the prosecution, but me as a reader to find that the Germans documented everything. It boggles the mind that these men and women who carried out such unbelievably horrible crimes, felt compelled to write about them. They were proud of what they did, and expected the world to actually laud them for their efforts to rid the world of the Jews and other minority groups.

It is so necessary that our children who are now three generations removed from The Holocaust be taught about the reality of what happened in Germany and the countries that Germany conquered (or tried to). What is so terrifying is the fact that many of these men were not charismatic, were not charming or handsome, had no great abilities of any kind, but in `normal' situations would have been merely cruel and lowly workers that no one would ever pay attention. The fact that one madman could pull into power a group of men like this (Goring among them), and threaten not only the world but their own people continues to be frightening. I see some politicians in power currently whose grasp for more power and seeks the destruction of many of the basic rights in our own democracy that parallel what happened in Germany. And unfortunately, too many of these people hold sway over other more intelligent men such as Albert Speer. I read about Speer's impact before, but still find it incredible that he could have ever listened to a raving madman and feel that his words held any credibility.

Persico writes well...I am forcing my husband to read this book because he was in Germany for two years, and I think he will find this fascinating, as I did. Persico brings up the fact that without the collaboration of industry, banks, and other corporate groups Hitler would never have retained power. These groups actively participated in the development of the Nazi killing machine, and Justice Jackson and the others involved in the criminal proceedings were right not only to bring the heads of these groups to task for their participation in the atrocities, but also to hold the entire proceeding within Germany itself, so as to allow it's people to see and have a say within the proceedings. This helped many Germans to come to an understanding of why and how this was allowed to happen in their country, and set the stage for the building of a democratic Germany.

Unfortunately, Justice Jackson's hope that the criminal proceedings would have an impact on future wars and other atrocities/genocides was misguided. I don't know if anyone ever stopped to think prior to committing crimes like these, that they could end up in court. Milosovec and other Serbs obviously didn't bother to consider this. However, Jackson's efforts did provide a precedent with which other war criminals have been tried, and with which the Serbs are now being tried.

An incredible book, an incredible story, an incredible writer.

Karen Sadler,
Science Education,
University of Pittsburgh

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