THE DAY OF RECKONING

Professor of Law, at the University of California, Mr. Radin inspires discussion and speculation by presenting the hypothetical trial of Hitler, Himmler, Goebbels, Ribbentrop and other Nazi leaders, in 1945, in Luxembourg, by a Commission of the victorious Allies. The trial is the whole book, presented almost word for word, with a few comments and reactions of reporters in the gallery, used to underline various attitudes of an imaginary public. A book of ideas -- where guilt for the war falls, the necessity for unity among the Allies, the questions of post-war attitudes, the treatment of the defeated by the victors, the problem of future World Courts, etc., -- that is pointed up by moments of excitement during the proceedings. Hitler & Co. are tried for specific murders, committed under their orders, and the deaths of a Frenchman, a Czech and a Russian Jew in Poland are taken up separately, with detailed evidence. The sentence is death. Legal terminology throughout would seem to be an obstacle for the general reading public, but the idea of the book, and the ideas in the book, should arouse comment and controversy.