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BOOK REVIEWS
Southern Methodist University Press, 1999 Reviewed by Eric Garcetti California Committee, South In his preface to the new edition of his book, Tyranny on Trial, Whitney Harris, one of the last surviving prosecutors from the Nuremberg Trials, says, "This is a book of tragedy." In few places has the subject of the Nuremberg Trials been presented in such an exhaustive and penetrating manner. Harris speaks not only from the perspective of a respected legal scholar and practitioner, but as a living witness to and participant in the proceedings, allowing the reader unparalleled access to the events in cold, horrifying detail. Harris' book is organized into seven parts. In different sections, he outlines the cases against Nazi aggression, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. Each of these sections describes the horrors committed by the Nazis; so powerful are the words of the defendants that Harris often lets them speak for themselves. Perhaps the most remarkable part of the book is "Part Five: The End," in which Harris describes rendering of the verdicts against the Nuremberg defendants and their last hours before most of them were executed. Though the book is a legal narrative, it is in the end, also a moral tale. Harris imbues the ashes of Nuremberg's justice with hope and optimism. In this new edition of his classic, Harris, who has led an association of former Nuremberg prosecutors in support of a permanent international criminal court, argues the case for the new ICC, set forth by the Rome Treaty of 1998. The great unfinished promise of the horrible legacy of World War II is only now finally coming to pass, Harris writes. Just as Nuremberg marked the beginning of the end of "the Age of War," it is only when "the rule of law overcomes our temptation to deliver executive justice will the possibility of peace come to us," Harris believes. He writes: "Nuremberg and Rome stand against the resignation of mankind to its self-debasement and its self-destruction." Let us hope that the powerful possibilities unleashed by the Rome Treaty for an International Criminal Court gives us a small measure of a just and peaceful world once again. BACK TO COMMUNITY: BOOK REVIEWS |
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