Democracy, Nazi Trials, and Transitional Justice in Germany, 1945–1950

Compares Nazi trials in East and West Germany from 1945–1950 to challenge assumptions about the political outcomes of prosecuting mass atrocities.

Devin O. Pendas (Author)

9780521871297, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 24 September 2020

230 pages
16 x 23.5 x 1.5 cm, 0.49 kg

'… writing soberly, thoughtfully and astutely, Pendas strikes at the heart of the notion of transitional justice by arguing that its actual unfolding in a formative time and place shakes the ground beneath the generally accepted theory of its happily democratizing power.' Douglas G. Morris, EuropeNow

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.

Acknowledgements
Introduction: The Promise and Perils of Transitional Justice
1. Allied justice and its discontents
2. Allied policy towards German courts
3. Debating crimes against humanity in the West
4. Debating democracy in the East
5. The trials that did not happen
Epilogue
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: War crimes [JWXK], Second World War [HBWQ], European history [HBJD]