SOVIET JUDGMENT AT NUREMBERG

The untold story of the Soviet Union’s central role in the Nuremberg trials of Nazi leaders for war crimes.

In this masterly account based on thousands of documents in recently opened Soviet archives, history professor Hirsch describes how “Stalin’s Soviet Union fundamentally shaped the [Nuremberg trials] and was key to its success.” Her painstaking, highly readable history of the trials—in which prosecutors from the victorious Allies (the U.S., Britain, France, and the Soviets) cross-examined 24 “largely unrepentant” Nazi leaders, including Hermann Goering, Albert Speer, and Rudolf Hess—reveals participants’ sharply contrasting understandings of the meaning of justice. The Soviets, who lost 27 million civilians during the war, first suggested the trials. They had suffered the brunt of German war-making, assumed “the Nazi leaders were guilty and deserved to be hanged,” and hoped to establish a legal claim for reparations. The Western powers, which had favored “summary execution” of the defendants, wanted to show the world a fair trial. The tribunal was “filled with political intrigue, back-room negotiations, double-dealing, and compromises.” The four powers’ initial “tenuous” cooperation gave way to “bitterness and suspicion,” with the U.S. determined to “shut the Soviets out”—an early sign of the coming Cold War. Drawing nicely on the observations of such individuals as filmmaker Roman Karmen and political cartoonist Boris Efimov—both Soviets—Hirsch re-creates the trials vividly (“evidence by day and private parties at night”) and illuminates Soviet motives and actions. The vengeance-bent Moscow leadership worked hard to make Nuremberg resemble the infamous show trials of the 1930s. Ironically, themselves guilty of war crimes, they succeeded in creating the ideals of the Nuremberg principles (“crimes against humanity” and “genocide”) that have shaped subsequent movements for human rights.

Richly detailed and well-written, this important new vantage point on Nuremberg will appeal strongly to history buffs and specialists.