The Wehrmacht War Crimes Bureau, 1939-1945 /

De Zayas's thorough study of German investigation of enemy war crimes in WW II contains much information on the mistreatment of both German soldiers and non-Germans (e.g., Ukrainians and the Polish officers at Katyn) by Allied forces, mostly Russians. There is a detailed dicussion of the legal procedures adopted by the Wehrmacht-Untersuchungsstelle, and of its analysis of specific incidents. However, the book as a whole must be regarded with suspicion on several grounds: first, the author's statement that the bureau was a haven of objective, apolitical lawyers is implausible. This is the old picture of the anti-Nazi Wehrmacht retouched; the author feels no need to address the question of the use to which the regime put the bureau. Further, De Zayas implies an equivalence of Allied and Axis behavior that is not dispelled by his occasional genuflection to "Nazi" enormities, which both in scale and nature (at least on the evidence shown here) differed from those of their opponents. De Zayas is a lawyer; his book reads like a brief for the defense. M. Mazower Princeton University

Published in Germany in 1980, this well-documented report evaluates previously inaccessible archival material about a little-known German office that during WW II investigated crimes allegedly committed by Allied armies against German soldiers and civilians. De Zayas, a United Nations legal officer for human rights, substantiates that the Allies, particularly the Soviets, perpetrated numerous atrocities. The German bureau appears to have performed creditably without becoming an instrument of Nazi propaganda; however, it is difficult to accept the author's assertion that ``the German military judge . . . saw himself as a protector of generally accepted human values and not until after the German unconditional surrender was he confronted with the full reality of Nazi crimes.'' De Zayas defensively reiterates that his intention is not to weigh Allied excesses against Nazi horrors but to establish the folly of war. The Allied confrontation with Hitler, however, does not bolster his advocacy of pacifism. Photos not seen by PW. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved