Justice Delayed: How Britain Became a Refuge for Nazi War Criminals [Paperback]

David Cesarani (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 2001

Cesarani describes how the immigration policy of Clement Attlee's post-war government actually favoured Eastern Europeans over non-whites and Jewish Holocaust survivors. Despite protests from MPs Dick Crossman and Tom Driberg, former members of the Waffen-SS and Nazi police units made new lives in Britain. British intelligence recruited agents among them and sent many into the Eastern Bloc, where they were betrayed by Kim Philby. Only in 1986 did the Simon Wiesenthal Centre provide evidence that could not be ignored. The House of Lords defied the Commons in a last ditch effort to stop legislation which would permit war crime trials in Britain but on May 10, 1991, the war crimes bill was signed by The Queen. This authoritative book written by a former researcher for the All-Party Parliamentary War Crimes Group, brings together the whole extraordinary story, exposing the use made of Nazi collaborators by British intelligence, the post-war 'cover up' and provides in-depth background to the first war crimes trials in Britain for fifty years.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

David Cesarani is Director of Studies at the Institute of Contemporary History and Wiener Library. He has written on Anglo-Jewish history, and the history of Zionism, and has written the official history of the Jewish Chronicle newspaper. From 1987-1991 he was consultant to the All-Party Parliamentary War Crimes Group and was Principal Researcher of its 'Report on the Entry on Nazi War Criminals and Collaborators in the UK, 1945-50.

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Sterling Publishing (June 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 184212126X
• ISBN-13: 978-1842121269
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,594,469 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, but rather long-winded, June 8, 2003

By 

Linda Oskam "dutch-traveller" (Amsterdam Netherlands) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Justice Delayed: How Britain Became a Refuge for Nazi War Criminals (Paperback)

Just after the second world war Europe was in turmoil: millions of displaced persons, the Soviet Union emerging as the new enemy and the occupying needed to build up their destroyed homelands in addition to ruling the remains of Germany. In this hectic climate literally thousands of former Baltic and Ukranian people found their way to the UK, and among them a good many war criminals. Checking was only cursory if at all, and their was great reluctance with the British government to send even the criminals back to the USSR.

In the 1980's it became more and more clear that Britain provided a safe haven. It took a long and tedious process to get legislation approved that made the trial of war criminals possible. Quite a few influential people thought it was a"Jewish conspiracy". In the end only one war criminal stood trial and was convicted.

David Cesarani describes this whole process in much detail,maybe a little too much detail, because who is interested in an extensive list of which honourable MP said what except for the highlights? Still it was interesting to read in the end.