Nazi Crimes against Jews and German Post-War Justice: The West German Judicial System During Allied Occupation (1945–1949)

Of all victims of Nazi persecution, German Jews had to suffer the Nazi yoke for the longest time. Throughout the Third Reich, they were exposed to anti-Jewish propaganda, discrimination, anti-Semitic laws and increasingly to outrages and offences by non-Jewish Germans. While the International Military Tribunal and the subsequent American Military Tribunals at Nuremberg dealt with a variety of Nazi crimes according to international law, these courts did not consider themselves cognizant in adjudicating wrongdoings against German citizens and those who lost German citizenship based on the so-called “Nuremberg laws,” such as Germany’s Jews. Until recently, scholarship failed to explore this task of the German judiciary in more detail. Edith Raim fills this gap by showing the extent of the crimes committed against Jews beyond the traditionally known facts and by elucidating how the West German administration of justice was reconstructed under Allied supervision.