The Leipzig trials

About this book

"After World War I, the Allies aimed to prosecute Germans accused of war crimes but ultimately agreed to allow the Reichsgericht in Leipzig to try them. This is the first systematic scholarly assessment of all these cases. Of the 900 Germans on Allied extradition lists, only a few faced court investigations; seven were convicted, ten found not guilty; charges against all others were dropped. Hankel demonstrates how German courts' war crimes definitions revealed differences between German and international interpretations of existing agreements on the treatment of civilians, partisans, or prisoners of war. The Leipzig trials reinforced German perceptions that their conduct of war was legitimate, with disastrous effects in World War II, but also paved the way to the Nuremberg Trials." -- Back cover.