The Right Wrong Man

Lawrence Douglas's immensely readable book absorbs the reader in the twists and turns of the Demjanjuk saga, helping us understand both why justice required prosecuting Demjanjuk for his `egregious moral complicity,' and how the job got done. --Kevin P. Spicer, Commonweal [A] thoughtful treatise. --Arnold Ages, Chicago Jewish Star A perceptive and thought-provoking analysis. . . . The story told by Lawrence Douglas in The Right Wrong Man is a vital part of that narrative of barbarism [and] a remorselessly fascinating account of the longest trial of any defendant accused of Nazi crimes. --Oliver Kamm, Jewish Chronicle In his indispensable history of the Demjanjuk case, Lawrence Douglas, the James J. Grosfeld Professor of Law, Jurisprudence, and Social Thought at Amherst College, delivers a reader-friendly history of this controversial case that provides a valuable understanding of how German law evolved from eschewing the legal principles established by the Nuremberg Tribunal to the 2011 Demjanjuk case, which marked the first time a German court had ever tried, let alone convicted, `one of the thousands of auxiliaries who served as foot soldiers of Nazi genocide.' --Jack Fischel, Jewish Book Council Formidable . . . a thoughtful treatise. --Cleveland Jewish Star The Right Wrong Man is an important read about the accountability those who do wrong ultimately face. --San Francisco Book Review [A] tour de force. --Foreign Affairs Sophisticated and suspenseful, the book provides a trenchant analysis of the legal and moral dilemmas surrounding trials for genocidal crimes against humanity. --Glenn Altschuler, Jerusalem Post [A] story that needed telling. --Dominic Lawson, Sunday Times An excellent legal-minded elucidation of the long trail toward the conviction of a notorious concentration camp guard. --Kirkus As Holocaust historian Lawrence Douglas has written, the Eichmann proceedings were the `Great Holocaust Trial,' an unparalleled reckoning with the universal moral burden of the Nazi regime and its crimes. But what came--what could possibly come--after Eichmann? This is the question that guides Douglas's new book, The Right Wrong Man: John Demjanjuk and the Last Great Nazi War Crimes Trial. . . . By Douglas's account, the Demjanjuk affair was a tumultuous encapsulation of much of the post-Eichmann politics of international justice, shaped as they were by the wax and wane of European communism, the creation of a nascent global architecture of legal accountability for atrocities perpetrated both during the Holocaust and elsewhere, and the global process of coming to terms with Europe's violent past. --Daniel Solomon, The New Republic [M]asterful. . . . [D]eftly delivers disquisitions on nuanced legal questions as if they were plot points in a thriller, making his demanding book a pleasure even for readers unschooled in the particulars of international law. --The Wall Street Journal [An] admirable book. . . . Douglas's narrative and analysis of this convoluted legal odyssey [is] extraordinarily impressive. --Christopher R. Browning, Times Literary Supplement Douglas relates with authority and clarity the story of these complex legal processes. . . . [He] does justice to both the story's factual complexities and its moral and political conundrums. . . . The Right Wrong Man, from its summary title to its thoughtful postscript, is an impressive work, as well as a timely one in its demonstration of the power of legal systems to learn from past missteps. --Anthony Julius, New York Times Book Review The case of [Demjanjuk] the death camp guard turned autoworker, related with authority and clarity. --New York Times Book Review