Le Bourhis, Eric, Irina Tcherneva, and Vanessa Voisin (eds.). Seeking Accountability for Nazi and War Crimes.

Sixteen historians employ new approaches to the trials of persons accused of war crimes and mass murder in Europe during the ascendency of Nazism and the Second World War (1933-1945). Focusing on the visibility of accountability trials and social mobilization aspect of the demand for justice, contributors test the notion of ‘show trials’, exploring judicial and political cultures from Germany to the Soviet Union. Essays examine expectations for accountability among civilians  involved in the trials: survivors, witnesses, perpetrators, and activists. Chapters invoke the expertise of reporters, filmmakers, investigators and prosecutors who shaped public representation of justice. These shaping efforts often supported the desire of political authorities to benefit from trial publicity and to contain dissemination of information. The book’s examination of interactions between citizens and authorities, particularly as non-state agents of influence, thus demonstrates the limits of a ‘coproduction’ of justice. This work joins studies of Soviet and eastern bloc trials by Vanessa Voisin (USSR), Nadège Ragaru (Bulgaria), Judit Molnar (Hungary), Ginsburgs (USSR), Aleksandr E. Epifanov (USSR), Andrzej Paczkowski (Poland), Donald D. Barry (1996), and Franziska Exeler (USSR), as well as the literature on WW II war crimes accountability by István Deák (pan-European), Annette Weinke (Germany), Michael J. Bazyler and Frank M. Tuerkheimer (pan-European), Devin Pendas (Germany), Donald Bloxham (pan-European) and others.

Le Bourhis, Eric, Irina Tcherneva, and Vanessa Voisin (eds.), Seeking Accountability for Nazi and War Crimes in East Europe: A People’s Justice? (Rochester NY: University of Rochester Press, 2022)