The Road to Nuremberg

303 pp. "How the Allies finally agreed to put the Nazi leaders on trial rather than summarily shoot them." "Thirty-six years after the event, the Nuremberg trials remain the most important (and controversial) international legal assault ever launched against aggression and atrocities. Yet, until quite recently, the full story behind the decision to go to Nuremberg could not be told because the essential documentation was unavailable. Now, in The road to Nuremberg, Bradley F. Smith, whose widely acclaimed Reaching judgment at Nuremberg revealed how the judges actually reached their verdicts, provides us with the first authoritative account of how the Allies finally agreed to try the surviving Nazi leaders under international law rather than summarily shoot them. Basing his work on hitherto unavailable documents, Smith recounts the whole fascinating store of how the sponsors of the Nuremberg system in the War Department finally overcame the bitter opposition of domestic critics who wanted to destroy Germany economically and of the British who wanted to shoot the Nazi leaders without trial. It is an exciting story, brilliantly told. Moreover, today, when there is renewed interest in international efforts to control aggression and atrocities, the planning behind Nuremberg has a great deal to teach us." Keywords: BRADLEY SMITH ROAD TO NUREMBERG MILITARY HISTORY SECOND WORLD WAR TWO WWII WW2 ALLIES NAZI NAZIS GERMAN GERMANY