TYRANNY ON TRIAL: The Evidence at Nuremberg

An extraordinarily readable study of the record of the Hitler regime as it emerged through the examination of the evidence at the Nuremberg trials. Instead of presenting it in orthodox legal terminology, the author, who was a member of the prosecuting staff, has taken one facet after another, related the documentary evidence to that area of investigation, and the end result is a remarkably cogent reduction of a mass of material to a continuous story. In these days of the apologists for Germany, it is important for the world -- as well as for the Germans- to have this evidence available. He starts with a review of the negotiations relating to war crimes, before, during and after the war; he takes up the accusations, unfolding the story of Hitler's rise to power, his organization, consolidation, his aggressive program relating to Germany's expansion to include Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Denmark, Russia, Norway. The chapters dealing with the war crimes include a wide scale of atrocities; the portrait of the deliberate plan of confiscation, exploitation of economy, building of cultural gratification, and slave labor is enlightening when brought into focus; the assumption of the necessity of systematic torture reveals facets of character not to be bypassed; the struggle against religion is a factor too often forgotten. The book ends with the last days- and Hitler's suicide and cremation. Controversial at times- but worth reading.