Philippe Sands silent on general Rudenko

Short comment on The Ratline: Love, Lies and Justice on the Trail of a Nazi Fugitive by Philippe Sands review by Dominic Sandbrook, The Times, April 12, 2020.


I read Philippe Sands’ East West Street. I was unpleasantly surprised that he chose to completely ignore the problem with the Soviet presence at the Nuremberg trial. He spent time criticising Rafael Lemkin’s approach to the enormous crimes while at the same time seeing nothing wrong with the Soviet presence at Nuremberg. The head of the Soviet team was general Roman Rudenko, a criminal himself, guilty of crimes against humanity.

His writing has many strengths but also some very significant weaknesses.

I won’t go into detail, because this review is about a different book. So, this is just my remark on the margins.

@LechSBorkowski