The Last Nazi Trials

80 years after the Nuremberg trial, the prosecution of Nazi perpetrators has effectively come to an end. Examining the last Nazi trials in Germany from a multidisciplinary perspective, the present volume addresses key aspects of the judicial phenomenon of Spätverfolgung (‘late prosecution’), links the issue to the international discourse on transitional justice, and contributes to current debates in academia and society at large.

1 Introduction: The Late Prosecution of Nazi Crimes by Moritz Vormbaum.- Part I: Historical Context: 2 From the ‘Poison Cabinet’ to the Forefront of National Identity: (West) Germany’s Engagement with Nazi Mass Crimes and the Holocaust Since 1945 by Thomas Köhler.- 3 The Holocaust as the Object of West German Criminal Justice by Gerhard Werle.- 4 The Verdict Against Demjanjuk: A Late Correction by Kirsten Goetze.- Part II: Trials: 5 Due Process as the Lawful Response to the Crimes of an Unlawful Regime by Anne Meier-Göring and Tino Ohlmann-Frieling.- 6 Reflections on the Late Prosecution of Nazi Crimes by a Counsel for Co-Plaintiffs by Christoph Rückel.- 7 The Role of the Criminal Defence in the Last Nazi Trials by Rebecca Ohnesorge.- Part III: Legal Questions: 8 Justifying the Late Punishment of Elderly Nazi Criminals from the Perspective of Punishment Theory by Tobias Köpcke.- 9 The Guard and the Secretary by Lawrence Douglas.- 10 Belated Justice without Punishment: The Prosecution of Nazi War Criminals in Italy by Paolo Caroli.- Part IV: Visualities and Effects: 11 Atrocity Then, Trial Now: The Aesthetics, Acoustics, and Visualities of Prosecuting Oskar Gröning by Caroline Fournet and Mark Drumbl.- 12 ‘Show/Trials’: The Performative Aspect of the Late Prosecution of Nazi Crimes by Stefan Arnold and Kerstin Wilhelms.- 13 Belated Justice: Judging the Past to Build the Future by Emanuela Fronza.- 14 The Pedagogical Potential of the Late Prosecution of Nazi Crimes, Or: When in Doubt, Embrace the Doubt by Katharina Rhein.- Part V: Experiences from the Global South: 15 The Chilean Experience: Prosecuting the Crimes against Humanity Committed under the Pinochet Dictatorship by Claudia Cárdenas.- 16 Late Prosecution in South Africa by Gerhard Kemp.- 17 Addressing the Past in a Conflicted Democracy: The Case of Ghana by Marian Yankson-Mensah.