A Daily Telegraph Book of the Year

Any trial is an act of theatre.

After the horror of the Second World War, the Nuremberg Tribunal became a symbol of the ‘free world’s’ choice of justice in the face of tyranny, aggression and atrocity. But it was only a fragment of retribution as, with their Allies, the British embarked on the largest programme of war crimes investigations and trials in history.

This book exposes the deeper truth of this controlled scheme of vengeance. Moving from the scripted trial of Göring, Hess and von Ribbentrop, to the makeshift courtrooms where ‘minor’ war criminals (the psychotic SS officers, the brutal guards, the executioners) were prosecuted, A Passing Fury tells the story of the extraordinary enterprise, the investigators, the lawyers and the perpetrators and asks the question: was justice done?

A Passing Fury reassesses the value and flaws of the attempt to do justice in clear, engaging prose, bringing it to life for a new generation and demonstrating its contemporary relevance in responding to ‘evil’.