Democracy, Nazi Trials, and Transitional Justice in Germany, 1945–1950
Seiten
2020
Cambridge University Press (Verlag)
978-0-521-87129-7 (ISBN)
Cambridge University Press (Verlag)
978-0-521-87129-7 (ISBN)
Revising our understanding about how transitional justice works, this study analyses and compares Nazi trials in post-war East and West Germany from 1945 to 1950 to challenge assumptions about the political outcomes of prosecuting mass atrocities.
Post-war Germany has been seen as a model of 'transitional justice' in action, where the prosecution of Nazis, most prominently in the Nuremberg Trials, helped promote a transition to democracy. However, this view forgets that Nazis were also prosecuted in what became East Germany, and the story in West Germany is more complicated than has been assumed. Revising received understanding of how transitional justice works, Devin O. Pendas examines Nazi trials between 1945 and 1950 to challenge assumptions about the political outcomes of prosecuting mass atrocities. In East Germany, where there were more trials and stricter sentences, and where they grasped a broad German complicity in Nazi crimes, the trials also helped to consolidate the emerging Stalinist dictatorship by legitimating a new police state. Meanwhile, opponents of Nazi prosecutions in West Germany embraced the language of fairness and due process, which helped de-radicalise the West German judiciary and promote democracy.
Post-war Germany has been seen as a model of 'transitional justice' in action, where the prosecution of Nazis, most prominently in the Nuremberg Trials, helped promote a transition to democracy. However, this view forgets that Nazis were also prosecuted in what became East Germany, and the story in West Germany is more complicated than has been assumed. Revising received understanding of how transitional justice works, Devin O. Pendas examines Nazi trials between 1945 and 1950 to challenge assumptions about the political outcomes of prosecuting mass atrocities. In East Germany, where there were more trials and stricter sentences, and where they grasped a broad German complicity in Nazi crimes, the trials also helped to consolidate the emerging Stalinist dictatorship by legitimating a new police state. Meanwhile, opponents of Nazi prosecutions in West Germany embraced the language of fairness and due process, which helped de-radicalise the West German judiciary and promote democracy.
Devin O. Pendas is Professor of History at Boston College. He is the author of The Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial, 1963–1965 (2010) and co-editor of Political Trials in Theory and History (2017) and Beyond the Racial State: Rethinking Nazi Germany (2018) as well numerous articles on the history of Holocaust trials and international law.
Acknowledgements; Introduction: The Promise and Perils of Transitional Justice; 1. Allied justice and its discontents; 2. Allied policy towards German courts; 3. Debating crimes against humanity in the West; 4. Debating democracy in the East; 5. The trials that did not happen; Epilogue; Bibliography; Index.
Erscheinungsdatum | 16.09.2020 |
---|---|
Zusatzinfo | Worked examples or Exercises |
Verlagsort | Cambridge |
Sprache | englisch |
Maße | 235 x 160 mm |
Gewicht | 490 g |
Themenwelt | Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Neuzeit (bis 1918) |
Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► 1918 bis 1945 | |
Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte | |
Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Militärgeschichte | |
Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung | |
ISBN-10 | 0-521-87129-8 / 0521871298 |
ISBN-13 | 978-0-521-87129-7 / 9780521871297 |
Zustand | Neuware |
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