The Mauthausen Trial

American Military Justice in Germany
Erscheinungsjahr 2012
ISBN: 978-0-674-06157-6
Verlag: Harvard University Press

Buch, Englisch, 304 Seiten, Format (B × H): 149 mm x 223 mm, Gewicht: 511 g

Shortly after 9:00 a.m. on May 27, 1947, the first of forty-nine men condemned to death for war crimes at Mauthausen concentration camp mounted the gallows at Landsberg prison near Munich. The mass execution that followed resulted from an American military trial conducted at Dachau in the spring of 1946—a trial that lasted only thirty-six days and yet produced more death sentences than any other in American history. The Mauthausen trial was part of a massive series of proceedings designed to judge and punish Nazi war criminals in the most expedient manner the law would allow. There was no doubt that the crimes had been monstrous. Yet despite meting out punishment to a group of incontestably guilty men, the Mauthausen trial reveals a troubling and seldom-recognized face of American postwar justice—one characterized by rapid proceedings, lax rules of evidence, and questionable interrogations. Although the better-known Nuremberg trials are often regarded as epitomizing American judicial ideals, these trials were in fact the exception to the rule. Instead, as Tomaz Jardim convincingly demonstrates, the rough justice of the Mauthausen trial remains indicative of the most common—and yet least understood—American approach to war crimes prosecution. The Mauthausen Trial forces reflection on the implications of compromising legal standards in order to guarantee that guilty people do not walk free.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Jardim, Tomaz

Fachgebiete

• Rechtswissenschaften Berufs- und Gebührenrecht freie Berufe Rechtsanwälte und Notare
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Deutsche Geschichte Deutsche Geschichte: Holocaust
• Rechtswissenschaften Öffentliches Recht Öffentlicher Dienst Wehrrecht, Soldaten- und Zivildienstrecht, Bundesfreiwilligendienst
• Rechtswissenschaften Strafrecht Strafverfahrens- und -prozessrecht, Strafverteidigung und Opferschutz

Über Autor(innen)

Jardim, Tomaz
Tomaz Jardim is the author of <i>The Mauthausen Trial: American Military Justice in Germany</i>, winner of the Wallace K. Ferguson Prize. A former fellow at the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, he is Associate Professor of History at Toronto Metropolitan University.