The Nuremberg Trials - A Personal History

This is one of the most fascinating books about the

Nuremberg Trials that you are likely to encounter. It is a

personal account by an internationally respected historian

who attended the Nuremberg Trials as a

young French observing lawyer.

      Georges Bonnin recounts the story of the Nuremberg Trials

and how he was sitting only a couple of metres away from

Hermann Goering. He tells us of the conversations and

intrigue in the corridors, about the restaurants and parties

attended, and about the gossip and the final judgements.

       In addition he informs us of what turned out to be the

extraordinary circumstances of his capture and imprisonment

by the Nazis in Caffarelli prison in Toulouse, and his

subsequent experiences as a prisoner in occupied France.

      We learn about some of the activities of the resistance,

the cafés they would frequent and the signs and nods used to

establish who was friend and who was foe.

The prostitutes, the lonely old men in seedy restaurants

eating their soup and trying not to be noticed, the food

packages passed through the prison railings and George’s

mouth-organ-playing fellow inmate whose silence on one

particular day signalled his having been transported

away to the death camps... 

     As a historian, a lawyer and prisoner of the Nazis

historically Georges Bonnin’s experiences and insights

are unique in providing us with an invaluable

first-hand account of these times.