This unusual and complex project is the work of a professor of International Law. It is, perhaps mainly, an attempt to discuss the historical circumstances of the coming of the legal concepts of genocide and crimes against humanity, mostly by discussing the lives of the two men associated with these concepts, Raphael Lemkin and Hersch Lauterpacht, both originally from the town of Lemberg or Lviv in Galicia. These men’s lives were interrupted by the Nazis, and their concepts ultimately came to fruition at the Nuremberg trials, where what had happened to them and their families was partially distilled into these ideas, which were used to justify the execution of a handful of Nazi bigwigs. If that were all that this book was, I don’t think I would care for it very much. I am not an attorney, and although these concepts are obviously important to the author, I think they are not sufficiently explained in some logical legal context, and their discussion becomes tedious. After a while it just becomes an account of Lemkin’s and Lauterpacht’s maneuvers to get their idea used at the trial. But, the book is also several other things; it is a fascinating detective story describing the author’s search for facts about his own maternal grandfather’s life; it is a biography of Hans Frank, the Governor-General of the General Government (the part of occupied Poland that had not been absorbed by Germany), and a man intimately associated with the destruction of these men’s families; it is a behind the scenes view of what went on among the judges and prosecutors at Nuremberg; and, since the author leaves no stone unturned, it is also his captivating accounts of interviews with survivors and relatives of all of these people. ( )

An outstanding read. ( )

Absolutely fascinating! It was hard to put down - it reads almost like a thriller, even though it isn't fiction. Philippe Sands weaves together the stories of his grandparents, the two lawyers who came up with the concepts of genocide and crimes against humanity, and the Nazi commander in Poland during World War 2. It all culminates in the Nuremburg trials.
Sands research is meticulous, and it is incredible how much he is able to find out from a few initial clues. Informative as well as exciting.
The reason I picked up this book is that I listened to his BBC podcast series "The Ratline", where he investigates what happened to Otto von Wächter, another high-ranking Nazi in Poland during the war. Equally fascinating. ( )

https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3497644.html

A great book by international human rights lawyer Philippe Sands, which looks at his own family history and the background of two hugely significant international lawyers, Hersch Lauterpacht, who successfully promoted human rights as an international responsibility, and Raphael Lemkin, who developed the legal concept of genocide, and how they intertwined in the city of Lviv (as it now is) and the nearby town of Zhovka/Żółkiew. He also throws into the mix Hans Frank, the Nazi ruler of Poland, and his sidekick Otto von Wächter, both of whom have surviving sons whose takes on their fathers' careers are grimly different from each other. Carefully reconstructed from letters, photographs, documentation and memories, and framed by the Nuremberg trial of Hans Frank for crimes against humanity, it's a superb account of how ordinary enough circumstances can transform into horror and also generate genius. ( )

Beautifully crafted reconstruction of the lives and roles of three main characters whose families shared a home at the East West street of Zolkiew, a small place North of Lemberg, Lwow, Lviv, the city that changed nationality many times in a short span of time between 1914-1944 (Austria-Hungary; Soviet Union, independent Western Ukraine, Poland, Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, Ukraine). All three characters play an (in)direct role in the Nuremberg trials.

Leon Buchholz, Phillippe Sands maternal granddad, who fled to Vienna and then Paris in the wake of ww2, survived the war, but lost all 70 Jewish relatives of his from Lemberg/Zolkiew. Secondly there is Hersch Lauterpacht, Jewish lawyer, who also flees, ends up in Cambridge, England, and coins the term ‘crimes against humanity’ a key indictment at the Nuremberg trials. Hersch is a member of the British prosecution delegation at Nuremberg. His legal contribution emphasizes the existence of State orchestrated crimes against individual citizens. This concept contrasts with Rafael Lemkin’s legal contribution to Nuremberg – genocide (a contraction of the Greek term for people (genos) and the Latin term for murder). While genocide was part of the original Nuremberg indictment, it was not part of the verdict. And yet if we compare ‘crimes against humanity’ and genocide in legal practice ever since, genocide with its emphasis on the prosecution of groups in society is much more commonly used than the individually oriented crimes against humanity.

Lemkin and Lauterpacht both studied at the same law faculty of the University of Lvov, to which Phillippe Sands is invited for a lecture in 2010, putting the genesis of this wonderful book into motion. It starts with a simple question – how come the legacy of two Jewish lawyers who stood at the cradle of the human rights movement is not remembered in the city where they were both raised and studied? Well, Sands’ first audience suggests, perhaps because they were Jewish and anti-semitism has always been rife in a city that was once a battleground of three groups (Poles, Jews and Ukrainians). And perhaps the latter turbulent history of violence against groups and individuals explains why two inhabitants of Lvov crafted the legal ideas which came to dominate the international human right movement after the war. ( )