Description
Organized in the immediate aftermath of World War Two by the victorious Allies, the Nuremberg Trials were intended to hold the Nazis to account for their crimes - and to restore a sense of justice to a world devastated by violence. As Francine Hirsch reveals in this immersive, gripping, and ground-breaking book, a major piece of the Nuremberg story has routinely been omitted from standard accounts: the part the Soviet Union played in making the trials happen in the first place. Soviet Judgment at Nuremberg offers the first complete picture of the International Military Tribunal (IMT), including the many ironies brought to bear as the Soviets took their place among the countries of the prosecution in late 1945. Everyone knew that Stalin had allied with Hitler before the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941. The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact hung heavy over the courtroom, as did the suspicion that the Soviets had falsified evidence in an attempt to pin one of their own war crimes, the mass killing of Polish officers in the Katyn Forest, on the Nazis. Moreover, key members of the Soviet delegation, including the Soviet judge and chief prosecutor, had played critical roles in Stalin's infamous show trials of the 1930s. For the American prosecutor Robert H. Jackson and his colleagues in the British and French delegations, Soviet participation in the IMT undermined the credibility of the trials and indeed the moral righteousness of the Allied victory. Yet without the Soviets Nuremberg would never have taken place. Soviet jurists conceived of the legal framework that treated war as an international crime, giving the trials a legal basis. The Soviets had borne the brunt of the fighting against Germany, and their almost unimaginable suffering gave them moral authority. They would not be denied a place on the tribunal and moreover were determined to make the most of it. However, little went as the Soviets had planned. Stalin's efforts to steer the trials from afar backfired. Soviet war crimes were exposed in open court. As relations among the four countries of the prosecution foundered, Nuremberg turned from a court of justice to an early front of the Cold War. Hirsch's book provides a front-row seat in the Nuremberg courtroom, while also guiding readers behind the scenes to the meetings in which secrets were shared, strategies mapped, and alliances forged. Soviet Judgment at Nuremberg offers a startlingly new view of the IMT and a fresh perspective on the movement for international human rights that it helped launch.
About the Author
Francine Hirsch is Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she teaches Soviet and Modern European history. Her first book, Empire of Nations: Ethnographic Knowledge and the Making of the Soviet Union (2005), received several prizes, including the Herbert Baxter Adams Prize of the American Historical Association. She and her family live in Madison.
Reviews
Hirsch's monograph will be a major point of reference in subsequent research on the subject. Her book is a great scholarly achievement, a must-read for specialists in international law and historians of Russia and the Cold War, as well as for a wider audience of history buffs. * Elena V. Baraban, Canadian Slavonic Papers *
Based on extensive and impressive research in multiple archival sources, this volume adds the Soviet voice to the story of the Nuremberg trials. This massive, readable work is a fantastic contribution to the field. Highly recommended. General readers through faculty; professionals. * W. B. Whisenhunt, College of DuPage, CHOICE *
Francine Hirsch's Soviet Judgment at Nuremberg is the first major history of the Soviet contribution to the International Military Tribunal (IMT), tasked with prosecuting leading Nazi figures in 1946. Drawing on access to closed Russian archives and a recent surge of interest in the origins of human rights law, the author makes a compelling case for the important role Soviet legal experts played in formulating the IMT's legal scope, as well for the role of law in Soviet diplomacy more broadly. In doing so, Hirsch offers a long overdue account that will be of interest not only to specialists of post-war European reconstruction and the early Cold War, but also to intellectual, diplomatic, and legal historians in other domains. * Alexander Langstaff, Cold War History *
Splendid...In brisk and lucid prose, Soviet Judgment at Nuremberg recounts the extraordinary jockeying, collaboration, rivalry, and mistrust among the four prosecuting powers, from the trial's opening in November 1945 to the final verdicts and sentencing ten months later. It is one of the few genuinely international studies of the trial, revealing new and occasionally unpredictable fault lines on the eve of the political realignments imposed by the cold war. * Benjamin Nathans, New York Review of Books *
It is this version of history that Francine Hirsch confronts in her absorbing and readable new book. Fifteen years in preparation, Soviet Judgment at Nuremberg draws on groundbreaking research in Moscow archives to illuminate the Soviet dimension of an episode that was both "the last hurrah" of wartime Allied cooperation and "an early front of the Cold War" ... the rich detail is fascinating and the overall thesis compelling ... an elegant and important piece of scholarship which adds a significant new perspective to the history of the International Military Tribunal. * David Reynolds, Times Literary Supplement *
This truly ground-breaking book should be read by every lawyer with an interest, general or otherwise, in the law of armed conflict (LOAC) and the International Military Tribunal (IMT) in particular. Author Francine Hirsch, a history professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, deserves high praise as the first scholar to publish a comprehensive study of the role played by the Soviets in the prosecution of Nazi leaders at the IMT ... By looking at Soviet participation in the war crimes prosecution, Hirsch now gives a new and valuable perspective on what happened at Nuremberg in 1945 and 1946. Or, as she puts it, her book "presents a new history...by restoring a central and missing piece: the role of the Soviet Union." ... Her superlative history of the Soviet Union's role at the IMT deserves to reach the widest possible audience. * Fred L. Borch III, The Judge Advocate General's Legal Center and School in Charlottesville, Virginia, The Army Lawyer *
Military historians will want to read this excellent book for at least two reasons. First, it is a new history of the Nuremberg trials because it restores "a central and missing piece: the role of the Soviet Union". Second, Hirsch's book shows how the Nuremberg war crimes trial was an early battle in the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union-a foreshadowing of the superpower competition that would last for years. * Fred L. Borch, Judge Advocate General's Legal Center and School, Charlottesville, Virginia, The Journal of Military History *
Francine Hirsch's book is a brilliantly researched and skillfully narrated account of the Soviet impact on the momentous trial. Her analysis of the crucial parts played by the Soviet jurist Aron Trainin, the Katyn Forest events, and the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact will change forever how we understand the history of international justice and human rights. * Norman M. Naimark, author of Stalin and the Fate of Europe *
Fifteen years in the making, drawing extensively on Soviet archives, Francine Hirsch's wonderful book freshly illuminates the paradoxical Soviet impact on the trial of Nazi criminals as well as the inner workings of the Kremlin as it navigated the onset of the Cold War. * William Taubman, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Khrushchev: The Man and His Era and Gorbachev: His Life and Times *
Meticulous and original, Francine Hirsch's book is also deeply necessary. We cannot understand what happened at Nuremberg in the round without the Soviet angle, and that is what Hirsch provides in this unique and fascinating work. * Philippe Sands, author of East West Street *
With an unmatched command of the sources and masterful prose, Francine Hirsch offers a comprehensive and revelatory new history of the International Military Tribunal, demonstrating both the contributions of the Soviets to international law as well as the contradictions based on their own wartime crimes. This gripping and compelling book is a landmark study that finally tells the whole story of the first Nuremberg Trial. * Lynne Viola, author of Stalinist Perpetrators on Trial: Scenes from the Great Terror in Soviet Ukraine *
In the airbrushed consecration of the 1990s of the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, the part played by the Soviet Union was regarded as inconvenient or inessential, when it was mentioned at all. In this masterful history, Francine Hirsch reconstructs the story of its contribution to the framing of the proceedings, especially the priority that prosecutors - inspired by a Soviet jurist - accorded to the charge that the National Socialists had aggressively breached the peace. Her book is a landmark work on the search for justice after World War II even as the Cold War dawned. * Samuel Moyn, author of The Last Utopia: Human Rights in History *
Hirsch remind us that fairly prosecuting senior officials for high crimes is a monumental challenge well worth pursuing. * James A. Goldston, Executive Director of the Open Society Justice Initiative and previously worked in the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court *
Awards
Winner of Recipient of the Certificate of Merit for a Preeminent Contribution to Creative Scholarship by the American Society of International Law.
Book Information
ISBN 9780199377930
Author Francine Hirsch
Format Hardback
Page Count 512
Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Weight(grams) 936g
Dimensions(mm) 242mm * 162mm * 44mm
About the Author
Francine Hirsch is Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she teaches Soviet and Modern European history. Her first book, Empire of Nations: Ethnographic Knowledge and the Making of the Soviet Union (2005), received several prizes, including the Herbert Baxter Adams Prize of the American Historical Association. She and her family live in Madison.
Reviews
Hirsch's monograph will be a major point of reference in subsequent research on the subject. Her book is a great scholarly achievement, a must-read for specialists in international law and historians of Russia and the Cold War, as well as for a wider audience of history buffs. * Elena V. Baraban, Canadian Slavonic Papers *
Based on extensive and impressive research in multiple archival sources, this volume adds the Soviet voice to the story of the Nuremberg trials. This massive, readable work is a fantastic contribution to the field. Highly recommended. General readers through faculty; professionals. * W. B. Whisenhunt, College of DuPage, CHOICE *
Francine Hirsch's Soviet Judgment at Nuremberg is the first major history of the Soviet contribution to the International Military Tribunal (IMT), tasked with prosecuting leading Nazi figures in 1946. Drawing on access to closed Russian archives and a recent surge of interest in the origins of human rights law, the author makes a compelling case for the important role Soviet legal experts played in formulating the IMT's legal scope, as well for the role of law in Soviet diplomacy more broadly. In doing so, Hirsch offers a long overdue account that will be of interest not only to specialists of post-war European reconstruction and the early Cold War, but also to intellectual, diplomatic, and legal historians in other domains. * Alexander Langstaff, Cold War History *
Splendid...In brisk and lucid prose, Soviet Judgment at Nuremberg recounts the extraordinary jockeying, collaboration, rivalry, and mistrust among the four prosecuting powers, from the trial's opening in November 1945 to the final verdicts and sentencing ten months later. It is one of the few genuinely international studies of the trial, revealing new and occasionally unpredictable fault lines on the eve of the political realignments imposed by the cold war. * Benjamin Nathans, New York Review of Books *
It is this version of history that Francine Hirsch confronts in her absorbing and readable new book. Fifteen years in preparation, Soviet Judgment at Nuremberg draws on groundbreaking research in Moscow archives to illuminate the Soviet dimension of an episode that was both "the last hurrah" of wartime Allied cooperation and "an early front of the Cold War" ... the rich detail is fascinating and the overall thesis compelling ... an elegant and important piece of scholarship which adds a significant new perspective to the history of the International Military Tribunal. * David Reynolds, Times Literary Supplement *
This truly ground-breaking book should be read by every lawyer with an interest, general or otherwise, in the law of armed conflict (LOAC) and the International Military Tribunal (IMT) in particular. Author Francine Hirsch, a history professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, deserves high praise as the first scholar to publish a comprehensive study of the role played by the Soviets in the prosecution of Nazi leaders at the IMT ... By looking at Soviet participation in the war crimes prosecution, Hirsch now gives a new and valuable perspective on what happened at Nuremberg in 1945 and 1946. Or, as she puts it, her book "presents a new history...by restoring a central and missing piece: the role of the Soviet Union." ... Her superlative history of the Soviet Union's role at the IMT deserves to reach the widest possible audience. * Fred L. Borch III, The Judge Advocate General's Legal Center and School in Charlottesville, Virginia, The Army Lawyer *
Military historians will want to read this excellent book for at least two reasons. First, it is a new history of the Nuremberg trials because it restores "a central and missing piece: the role of the Soviet Union". Second, Hirsch's book shows how the Nuremberg war crimes trial was an early battle in the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union-a foreshadowing of the superpower competition that would last for years. * Fred L. Borch, Judge Advocate General's Legal Center and School, Charlottesville, Virginia, The Journal of Military History *
Francine Hirsch's book is a brilliantly researched and skillfully narrated account of the Soviet impact on the momentous trial. Her analysis of the crucial parts played by the Soviet jurist Aron Trainin, the Katyn Forest events, and the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact will change forever how we understand the history of international justice and human rights. * Norman M. Naimark, author of Stalin and the Fate of Europe *
Fifteen years in the making, drawing extensively on Soviet archives, Francine Hirsch's wonderful book freshly illuminates the paradoxical Soviet impact on the trial of Nazi criminals as well as the inner workings of the Kremlin as it navigated the onset of the Cold War. * William Taubman, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Khrushchev: The Man and His Era and Gorbachev: His Life and Times *
Meticulous and original, Francine Hirsch's book is also deeply necessary. We cannot understand what happened at Nuremberg in the round without the Soviet angle, and that is what Hirsch provides in this unique and fascinating work. * Philippe Sands, author of East West Street *
With an unmatched command of the sources and masterful prose, Francine Hirsch offers a comprehensive and revelatory new history of the International Military Tribunal, demonstrating both the contributions of the Soviets to international law as well as the contradictions based on their own wartime crimes. This gripping and compelling book is a landmark study that finally tells the whole story of the first Nuremberg Trial. * Lynne Viola, author of Stalinist Perpetrators on Trial: Scenes from the Great Terror in Soviet Ukraine *
In the airbrushed consecration of the 1990s of the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, the part played by the Soviet Union was regarded as inconvenient or inessential, when it was mentioned at all. In this masterful history, Francine Hirsch reconstructs the story of its contribution to the framing of the proceedings, especially the priority that prosecutors - inspired by a Soviet jurist - accorded to the charge that the National Socialists had aggressively breached the peace. Her book is a landmark work on the search for justice after World War II even as the Cold War dawned. * Samuel Moyn, author of The Last Utopia: Human Rights in History *
Hirsch remind us that fairly prosecuting senior officials for high crimes is a monumental challenge well worth pursuing. * James A. Goldston, Executive Director of the Open Society Justice Initiative and previously worked in the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court *
Awards
Winner of Recipient of the Certificate of Merit for a Preeminent Contribution to Creative Scholarship by the American Society of International Law.
Book Information
ISBN 9780199377930
Author Francine Hirsch
Format Hardback
Page Count 512
Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Weight(grams) 936g
Dimensions(mm) 242mm * 162mm * 44mm
