Indirect Perpetrators

This volume opens the door to the judicial sequels of one of the nastiest facets of National Socialist rule in Europe?denunciations by Gestapo informers and large numbers of ordinary German citizens. Ten thousands fell victim to such denunciations of private contacts with Jews (Rassenschande) or listening to foreign radio programs (Radioverbrechen). In his thorough analysis, Andrew Szanajda focuses the difficulties and results of postwar justice to come to terms with this dark side of the German Volksgemeinschaft - one of the key problems in dealing with the Nazi past. Based on hundreds of cases from the Western occupation zones and the Early Federal Republic of Germany, he convincingly shows the struggles about a proper political and juridical way to balance between the principle of nulla poena sine lege and the deep need for punishment on the basis of natural law and a sense of justice. Indirect perpetrators is a basic study for everyone who is concerned about the problems of transitional justice in postdictatorial and postwar societies. -- Jens Gieseke, Center for Contemporary History, Potsdam, Germany
This volume opens the door to the judicial sequels of one of the nastiest facets of National Socialist rule in Europe-denunciations by Gestapo informers and large numbers of ordinary German citizens. Ten thousands fell victim to such denunciations of private contacts with Jews ("Rassenschande") or listening to foreign radio programs ("Radioverbrechen"). In his thorough analysis, Andrew Szanajda focuses the difficulties and results of postwar justice to come to terms with this dark side of the German "Volksgemeinschaft" - one of the key problems in dealing with the Nazi past. Based on hundreds of cases from the Western occupation zones and the Early Federal Republic of Germany, he convincingly shows the struggles about a proper political and juridical way to balance between the principle of "nulla poena sine lege" and the deep need for punishment on the basis of natural law and a sense of justice. Indirect perpetrators is a basic study for everyone who is concerned about the problems of transitional justice in postdictatorial and postwar societies. -- Jens Gieseke, Center for Contemporary History, Potsdam, Germany
[Szanajda] has done an impressive job of mining the archives in Germany relating to this subject. He has an intimate familiarity with the literature on the subject, which is as obvious as it is thorough.... Szanajda provides a good basic framework for understanding the complex legal issues involved in the application of retroactive justice against informers in West Germany.... Worthwhile reading. * German Studies Review *