The Mauthausen trial : American military justice in Germany /

The Mauthausen Trial is both historically engaging and instructive in the post-9/11 attempts to bring Islamic terrorists to justice. Jardim (Ryerson Univ., Toronto) writes that "[a]s scandal envelops American military commission court proceedings at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, against 'unlawful enemy combatants,' the Mauthausen trial experience sheds much-needed light on the nature and functions of this trial system, and on the successes and failures of one attempt to try foreign nationals for war crimes in a US Army court." Jardim explores one of the most notorious yet little known US Army military commission trials of WW II. Held at Camp Dachau near Munich, the 61 Mauthausen defendants were variously involved in alleged war crimes that occurred at the main Mauthausen compound and at several nearby subcamps a short distance from Adolf Hitler's boyhood home at Linz, Austria. The military prosecution relied primarily on survivor testimony coupled with what would later be characterized as "questionable" pre-trial investigative techniques. Jardim details the legal antinomies of the case as well as the political-diplomatic imbroglio that ultimately closed down the US war crime trial program in occupied Germany in the late 1940s. Summing Up: Recommended. Most levels/libraries. J. C. Watkins Jr. emeritus, University of Alabama

Jardim (history, Ryerson Univ., Toronto) presents a careful study of the Mauthausen trial, conducted by U.S. Army commission courts after World War II on the grounds of former German concentration camp Dachau, outside Munich. Using the original trial transcript, investigative records, and interviews with participants, Jardim develops his argument in five substantial chapters. He begins with an explanation of the U.S. military's background in war crimes prosecution, followed by a brief history of Mauthausen concentration camp, near Linz, Austria. Next he explores the conduct of the trial, including legally questionable strategies used by the prosecution and defense, especially the "common design" charge and the efficiency of the "parent trial" system. While scholarship on the Mauthausen trial remains scant, Jardim provides a critical perspective on American postwar justice relevant to current debates concerning the most effective ways to address international war crimes in the courtroom. VERDICT A convincing case for the important legacy of the often overlooked Mauthausen trial, this book is an exciting read, skillfully written, with a high level of research, but accessible for those unfamiliar with the topic. Recommended for readers interested in war crimes, international courts, Nazism, and the aftermath of World War II.-Rebekah Wallin, Paris, France (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.