Human Rights after Hitler

The Lost History of Prosecuting Axis War Crimes

Dan Plesch, Benjamin B. Ferencz, Dan Plesch , Dan Plesch

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Hardback

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English

Georgetown University Pre
20 April 2017

History; Genocide & ethnic cleansing; The Holocaust; Human rights; Civil rights & citizenship; War crimes

Human Rights after Hitler reveals thousands of forgotten US and Allied war crimes prosecutions against Hitler and other Axis war criminals based on a popular movement for justice that stretched from Poland to the Pacific. These cases provide a great foundation for twenty-first-century human rights and accompany the achievements of the Nuremberg trials and postwar conventions.

They include indictments of perpetrators of the Holocaust made while the death camps were still operating, which confounds the conventional wisdom that there was no official Allied response to the Holocaust at the time. This history also brings long overdue credit to the United Nations' War Crimes Commission (UNWCC), which operated during and after World War II.

Dan Plesch describes the commission's work and Washington's bureaucratic obstruction to a 1944 proposal to prosecute crimes against humanity before an international criminal court. From the 1940s until a recent lobbying effort by Plesch and colleagues, the UNWCC's files were kept out of public view in the UN archives under pressure from the US government.

The book answers why the commission and its files were closed and reveals that the lost precedents set by these cases have enormous practical utility for prosecuting war crimes today. They cover US and Allied prosecutions of torture, including water treatment, wartime sexual assault, and crimes by foot soldiers who were just following orders.

Plesch's book will fascinate anyone with an interest in the history of the Second World War as well as provide ground-breaking revelations for historians and human rights practitioners alike.

By: Dan Plesch
Foreword by: Benjamin B. Ferencz
Contributions by: Dan Plesch, Dan Plesch, Dan Plesch
Imprint: Georgetown University Pre
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 28mm
Weight: 567g
ISBN: 9781626164314
ISBN 10: 1626164312
Pages: 272
Publication Date: 20 April 2017
Recommended Age: From 18 years
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Introduction1. Prosecuting Rape: The Modern Relevance of World War II Legal Practices2. A New Paradigm for Providing Justice for International Human Rights Violations3. When the Allies Condemned the Holocaust4. Pursuing War Criminals All Over th World5. The Holocaust Indictments: Prosecuting the Foot Soldiers of Atrocity 6. Fair Trials and Collective Responsibility for Criminal Acts7. Crimes against Humanity: The Freedom to Lynch and the Indictments of Adolf Hitler8. Liberating the Nazis9. The Legacy UnleashedAppendixesIndexAbout the Author

Dan Plesch is director of the Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy at SOAS, University of London. He is the author of America, Hitler and the UN, coeditor of Wartime Origins and the Future United Nations, and has been a frequent contributor to the Guardian and other media.

Reviews for Human Rights after Hitler: The Lost History of Prosecuting Axis War Crimes

Revelatory . . . Those interested in the development of human rights and justice will find this work essential reading. * Choice * This is a well-researched and well-argued book. * The London Moment * [An] important book . . . With so few survivors of the Holocaust alive today to give testimony the detailed accounts contained within, the UNWCC archives should be heard widely in order to counter those who still deny the horrors of the Holocaust. For every opponent of fascism this book is an essential read. * International Socialism * The author must be congratulated for his personal efforts in securing the release of the archive as well as for this well-written history of how a valuable legal resource was kept for decades hidden from the public in denial of their right to know. * Irish Times * Dan Plesch's admirable new study aims to bring attention to the significance of the United Nations War Crimes Commission (UNWCC, 1943–48) in facilitating the prosecution of war crimes across Europe and Asia after the Second World War. * Michigan War Studies Review *