Democracy, Nazi Trials, and Transitional Justice in Germany, 1945-1950 (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780521871297)

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.

Author: Devin O. Pendas
ISBN-10: 0521871298
ISBN-13: 9780521871297
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Language: English
Published: 09/24/2020
Pages: 230
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.07lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.56d