At the end of the Nuremberg trial in 1946, some of the greatest war criminals in history were sentenced to death, but hundreds of thousands of Nazi murderers and collaborators remained at large. The Allies were ready to overlook their pasts as the Cold War began, and the horrors of the Holocaust were in danger of being forgotten.
In The Prosecutor, Jack Fairweather brings to life the remarkable story of Fritz Bauer, a gay, Jewish judge from Stuttgart who survived the Nazis and made it his mission to force his countrymen to confront their complicity in the genocide. In this deeply researched book, Fairweather draws on unpublished family papers, newly declassified German records, and exclusive interviews to immerse readers in the shadowy, unfamiliar world of postwar West Germany where those who implemented genocide run the country, the CIA is funding Hitler's former spy-ring in the east, and Nazi-era anti-gay laws are strictly enforced. But once Bauer landed on the trail of Adolf Eichmann, he wouldn't be intimidated. His journey took him deep into the dark heart of West Germany, where his fight for justice would set him against his own government and a network of former Nazis and spies bent on silencing him.
In a time when the history of the Holocaust is taken for granted, The Prosecutor reveals the courtroom battles that were fought to establish its legacy and the personal cost of speaking out. The result is a searing portrait of a nation emerging from the ruins of fascism and one man's courage in forcing his people--and the world--to face the truth.
"The Prosecutor is a tour de force of both historical research and absolutely terrific writing. Fairweather's topic--the criminal prosecution of war criminals--is of the utmost importance, and the book itself reads like the best sort of cloak-and-dagger novel. As a writer and journalist, I gauge books by how much I learn about my own craft, and this book was a kind of masterclass."--Sebastian Junger, #1 New York Times bestselling author of War, The Perfect Storm, Fire, and A Death in Belmont
"Jack Fairweather, a brilliant researcher and compelling writer, tells the remarkable and inspiring story of German jurist Fritz Bauer. Both Jewish and gay, Bauer survived Hitler's concentration camps and exile and returned to help remake his country, braving public opprobrium and personal danger to pursue the complicit and compel a national reckoning with his country's crimes. . . . A triumphant story."--Mark Bowden, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Black Hawk Down
"Jack Fairweather has taken it upon himself to revive our awareness of humankind's most terrible known moral crime--the Holocaust. He is a fine writer and a meticulous historian, and his books make for riveting reading. This spellbinding account details the extraordinary life story of Fritz Bauer, a German Jewish prosecutor who devoted himself to the cause of bringing Nazi war criminals to justice in a postwar Germany that preferred to look the other way. By doing so, he changed history. This is a book of great importance. The Prosecutor is, quite simply, a stunning achievement."--Jon Lee Anderson, bestselling author of Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life
"Jack Fairweather continues his stellar writing career with an important new book about a hitherto unacknowledged hero, Fritz Bauer. In a world where the loathsome bacillus of antisemitism is once again on the rise, this well-researched, well-written, and hard-hitting book could not be more timely. Fairweather has unearthed a vast amount of new information about the darkest period in the history of mankind."--Andrew Roberts, author of Churchill: Walking with Destiny
"Deeply humane, powerfully wrought and an essential tale in this age of impunity."--Phillipe Sands, author of The Ratline and The Last Colony
"Beautifully written and hugely evocative, Jack Fairweather's new book is a powerful literary memorial to Fritz Bauer, the German-Jewish lawyer whose tenacity forced a nation to confront its crimes."--Katja Hoyer, bestselling author of Beyond the Wall
"One of the great untold stories of the Holocaust--and Jack Fairweather is the perfect person to tell it."--Jonathan Freedland, author of The Escape Artist