The Nuremberg SS-Einsatzgruppen Trial, 1945-1958: Atrocity, Law, and History [Hardcover]

Hilary Earl (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0521456088 | ISBN-13: 978-0521456081 | Publication Date: April 27, 2009 | Edition: 1

Based on extensive archival research, this book offers the first historical examination of the arrest, trial, and punishment of the leaders of the SS-Einsatzgruppen - the mobile security and killing units employed by the Nazis in their racial war on the eastern front. Sent to the Soviet Union in the summer of 1941, four units of Einsatzgruppen along with reinforcements, murdered approximately one million Soviet civilians in open air shootings and in gas vans and, in 1947, twenty-four leaders of these units were indicted for crimes against humanity and war crimes for their part in the murders. In addition to a describing the legal proceedings, this book also examines recent historiographical trends and perpetrator paradigms and expounds on such contested issues as the timing and genesis of the Final Solution, the perpetrators' route to crime and their motivation for killing, as well as discussing the tensions between law and history.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A magnificent study of one the most important but forgotten trials of the Holocaust. Hilary Earl adds valuable insight to our understanding of how Nazi perpetrators were dealt with by the law." - Michael Bazyler, Chapman University School of Law and author of Holocaust Justice

"Earl has written a highly readable, impeccably researched, and richly informative book about an important and insufficiently studied trial. A timely and valuable contribution." - Lawrence Douglas, Amherst College and author of The Memory of Judgment: Making Law and History in the Trials of the Holocaust

"This is a compelling, well-written, and well-researched book. In this imaginative and important study, Hilary Earl both tells the story of the Nuremberg Einsatzgruppen Trial, the 'biggest murder trial in history,' and paints a fascinating collective portrait of some of history's biggest killers. In the Einsatzgruppen Trial, the Americans prosecuted twenty-four members of the leadership corps of the SS-Einsatzgruppen, the mobil killing squads that initiated the Final Solution in the Soviet Union. In a world where the concept of genocide was as yet ill defined, prosecuting racialized mass murder proved a daunting challenge. Earl provides a compelling account of how both the prosecution and the defense responded to this challenge in the course of the trial. At the same time, she tells us a great deal about the men who perpetrated some of the most brutal crimes of the Holocaust: who they were, what their backgrounds were, and what their motives might have been. Along the way, she sheds new light on the question of whether and when Hitler might have issued a formal order to initiate the Final Solution." - Devin O. Pendas, Boston College

"Scholars in Holocaust studies have long understood more about the broad mechanics of mass murder than about the men who carried it out. Hilary Earl's groundbreaking work is a corrective to that understanding in directly focusing our attention on the actions of the leaders of the SS-Einsatzgruppen and thoroughly tracing their subsequent arrest, trial, and punishment. Moreover, she does so in a uniquely interdisciplinary way, drawing - accurately and insightfully - on perspectives from a wide range of historical, social scientific, legal, and humanistic sources to offer a mature and nuanced comprehension of what all too often is passed off as incomprehensible." -James Waller, Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation

"At last we have a serious, thoughtful, and well-written account of the one trial at Nuremberg in which aspects of the Holocaust were central. Based on an extraordinary command of the relevant published and archival materials - with some of the latter only recently declassified - this impressive study provides new insights into the way individuals became mass murderers and how a court could deal with this phenomenon." - Gerhard L. Weinberg, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

"Hilary Earl has produced an important and compelling study that deserves a wide readership among scholars and students interested in German history, the Holocaust, comparative genocide, and transitional justice." -Alan E. Steinweis, H-German

Book Description

This book offers the first historical examination of the arrest, trial, and punishment of the leaders of the SS-Einsatzgruppen. The book examines recent historiographical trends and perpetrator paradigms, expounds on such contested issues as the timing and genesis of the Final Solution, the perpetrators' route to crime and their motivation for killing, and extends the discussion to the tensions between law and history.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press; 1 edition (April 27, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521456088
• ISBN-13: 978-0521456081
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,690,388 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent In-Depth Look Into Official Mass Murder, November 11, 2009

By 

Stephen D. Weiss (Palm Desert, California) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Nuremberg SS-Einsatzgruppen Trial, 1945-1958: Atrocity, Law, and History (Hardcover)

The author, Hilary Earl, has written a masterful tome on the banality of evil. The book is incredibly well-researched with lots of excellent tables and charts which help explain how these leaders of Einsatzgruppen units during WW2 came to be mass murderers under color of authority.

The scariest thing about these men is that, when you look at them up close and read their biographies, you realize that they are for the most part ordinary people, not monsters. Just your average guy-next-door with a family who goes to church and also happens to execute innocent thousands of civilians for a living.

The book could have used a selection of photos of the Einsatzgruppen at 'work', of which there are many existing. These atrocity photos might have made it crystal-clear what these men were really about.

I highly recommend this well-written, absolutely riveting, well-researched and mesmerizing book.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Sort of disappointing, December 9, 2010

By 

Christopher Grant (Salem, UT USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Nuremberg SS-Einsatzgruppen Trial, 1945-1958: Atrocity, Law, and History (Paperback)

As far as I know, this book is the only detailed description in print of the trial of the leaders of the Einsatzgruppen who murdered around a million Soviet noncombatants during World War II. For this reason--that there is a lack of competing histories--this book is worth a read. And it certainly is the work of a competent historian who apparently did an awful lot of archival work.

Nevertheless, as my rating signifies, my feelings about the book are mixed. It was the author's dissertation at the University of Toronto, and it betrays some evidence of greenness on her part. There are lots of errors in punctuation and word choice, and it seems as if Cambridge University Press didn't have anyone proofread it carefully (and they certainly didn't put much care into the production of the paperback edition, which looks like a cheap, faded-out photocopy in places). At times, I felt that the exposition was lacking in seriousness and sophistication and that the author was insufficiently detached, too opinionated, bordering on glib. Other times, there was too much assertion and not enough presentation of facts that would allow the reader to draw the same conclusions him/herself. I wish there had been more analysis of how these mass murders could possibly have come about and less attention paid to the colorful life of the presiding judge. His escapades may make for a good yarn, but that's not the sort of thing most people buy books like this for.

5.0 out of 5 stars A Book Worth Reading, December 22, 2011

By 

Robert Everett "Reader of Prose" (California) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Nuremberg SS-Einsatzgruppen Trial, 1945-1958: Atrocity, Law, and History (Paperback)

This is an excellent work of non-fiction. I will not go into a long expansive review of the book. The book is very detailed and well researched. I will say, as a previous review stated, that this is the only work that covers the trial of these individuals and their crimes in such exhaustive detail. Of particular fascination was the Group Leader that asked to be relieved of duty. If you are interested in the concept of the duality of a person's nature (i.e., understanding how people could commit these murders and still be considered human), than this is a book worth reading.