Overview

When the Allies decided to try German war criminals at the end of World War II they were attempting not only to punish the guilty but also to create a record of what had happened in Europe. This ground-breaking new study shows how Britain and the United States went about inscribing the history of Nazi Germany and the effect their trial and occupation policies had on both long and short term 'memory' in Germany and Britain. Donald Bloxham here examines the actions and trials of German soldiers and policemen, the use of legal evidence, the refractory functions of the courtroom, and Allied political and cultural preconceptions of both 'Germanism' and of German criminality. His evidence shows conclusively that the trials were a failure: the greatest of all 'crimes against humanity' - the 'final solution of the Jewish question' - was largely written out of history in the post-war era and the trials failed to transmit the breadth of German criminality. Finally, with reference to the historiography of the Holocaust, Genocide on Trial illuminates the function of the trials in perpetuating misleading generalizations about the course of the Holocaust and the nature of Nazism.

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9780198208723

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A well-researched project and one of great interest ... is a significant addition to our understanding of the preconceptions and purposes of the War Crimes Trials ... addresses the origins of our understanding of the history of the Holocaust. Reviews in History Awesome precision ... this book is essential for scholars and the lawyers at the Hague could do a lot worse than to add it to their legal armoury. David Cesarani, Ham & High (Hampstead & Highgate Express) This excellent book reminds us that one of the many ways to hit historical gold is to reshuffle the cards and deal them afresh ... Dr Bloxham writes so well and manages the three-ringed circus of this argument so deftly that his book is a lot easier to read and its argument easier to follow than might have been expected of an enterprise boldly transcending the departmental boundaries of law, history and politics ... beautifully produced. English Historical Review Offers much food for thought for contemporary and future historians interested in the Holocaust and in Nazism in general. Journal of the Commonwealth Lawyers' Association

A well-researched project and one of great interest ... is a significant addition to our understanding of the preconceptions and purposes of the War Crimes Trials ... addresses the origins of our understanding of the history of the Holocaust. Reviews in History Awesome precision ... this book is essential for scholars and the lawyers at the Hague could do a lot worse than to add it to their legal armoury. David Cesarani, Ham & High (Hampstead & Highgate Express) This excellent book reminds us that one of the many ways to hit historical gold is to reshuffle the cards and deal them afresh ... Dr Bloxham writes so well and manages the three-ringed circus of this argument so deftly that his book is a lot easier to read and its argument easier to follow than might have been expected of an enterprise boldly transcending the departmental boundaries of law, history and politics ... beautifully produced. English Historical Review Offers much food for thought for contemporary and future historians interested in the Holocaust and in Nazism in general. Journal of the Commonwealth Lawyers' Association

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