The Anatomy of the Nuremberg Trials

A Personal Memoir

By: Telford Taylor

Narrated by: James Patrick Cronin

"A masterly work of military and judicial history." (New York Times)

Telford Taylor's book is a defining piece of World War II literature, an engrossing and reflective eyewitness account of one of the most significant events of our century.

In 1945, the Allied nations agreed on a judicial process, rather than summary execution, to determine the fate of the Nazis following the end of World War II. Held in Nuremberg, the ceremonial birthplace of the Nazi Party, the British, American, French, and Soviet leaders contributed both judges and prosecutors to the series of trials that would prosecute some of the most prominent politicians, military leaders, and businessmen in Nazi Germany.

This is the definitive history of the Nuremberg crimes trials by one of the key participants, Telford Taylor, the distinguished lawyer who was a member of the American prosecution staff and eventually became chief counsel. In vivid detail, Taylor portrays the unfolding events as he "saw, heard, and otherwise sensed them at the time, and not as a detached historian working from the documents might picture them".

©1992 Telford Taylor (P)2021 Tantor

Amazing story

And it is very timely for the situation of today in 2023. I didn’t realize this wasn’t written until 1991.

Detailed!!

Taylor has gone into almost encyclopedic details! This is a good book, but definitely not a light read. The level of minutiae he goes into for somewhat trivial matters makes it a bit of a dense read. Once he got to the actual trial, the pace picked up substantially.

Overall good

The comments about women involved in the story were almost always sexist.
But the rest was fascinating helping me understand not only the main trail better but also the anatomy of how a dictatorship develops and functions. It was startling to hear how similar in ways to what culminated in the Jan 6 insurrection.

Worth reading

Long and detailed when completed all questions are answered about the trial
All the defendants should have been punished

Best Nuremberg read

Clear and comprehensive. An all around telling of the story. Every character revealingly drawn. Hard to put down.

Interesting but flawed

Taylor was a participant in the Nuremberg trials as a prosecutor and later as lead prosecutor, so he had a first person view of proceedings. The account is very detailed and interesting, but it is also highly repetitive and, I fear, legalistic. I expect other books about the proceedings offer more entertainment value. Taylor freely states his opinions about the legal and ethical issues raised by the proceedings, but patently and fairly, I think. The reader presents well, but the number of words he mispronounces (maybe a dozen) is astounding and cringing.

The Anatomy of the Nuremberg Trials

The Reporting is too slow, and wandering often filled with details not complementary or additive to understanding the story