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Final Verdict by Tobias Buck

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Final Verdict

Author
Tobias Buck
Narrator
Leighton Pugh
Publisher
Orion
Publish Date
7 March 2024
Run Time
10 hours 28 minutes
Format
Audiobook
Genre
The Holocaust

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What to expect

SHORTLISTED FOR THE HWA NON-FICTION CROWN
LONGLISTED FOR THE WINGATE LITERARY PRIZE

'A masterly account' THE TIMES
'A brilliant book' OBSERVER
'Excellent . . . a timely, wise and fair-minded meditation on a singular crime' TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT
'A thrilling read ' PHILIPPE SANDS
'[A] gripping and fascinating book' JAMES HOLLAND, TELEGRAPH 5* review

October 2019, Hamburg: A trial laden with extraordinary historical weight begins to unfold. Charged with the murder of at least 5,230 inmates at the Stutthof concentration camp over seventy years ago, Bruno Dey admits his role as a guard but denies responsibility for the killings. Occurring as the last witnesses of the Holocaust disappear, this gripping trial raises profound questions about German history, politics, collective memory and personal accountability. Reflecting on his own family's silence about their Nazi-era experiences, Tobias Buck uses this courtroom drama to explore the broader significance of prosecuting Dey so many decades later and to consider what choices we might have made in his position.

Critics Review

  • In this informed, thoughtful work [Buck] skilfully weaves together his investigation into his own family's Nazi past - and their attempts to disguise it - with broader themes of historical justice and culpability . . . [a] masterly account

    THE TIMES

  • Final Verdict tells the story of a 21st-century trial that raises vital questions about how we remember the Holocaust. [A] gripping and fascinating book

    THE DAILY TELEGRAPH, 5* review

  • Timely . . . gripping. A narrative that wrestles - calmly and very elegantly - with huge questions. This is a brilliant book. I learned a lot from it, and I was glad of Buck's unshowy, measured style: on the page, he makes complicated things (the law, especially) straightforward. Above all, I found it - and this feeling has only grown since I finished it - to be important . . . books such as Final Verdict have never been more necessary

    THE OBSERVER

  • Excellent . . . a timely, wise and fair-minded meditation on a singular crime

    TLS

See more reviews
  • Final Verdict is a thrilling read. It is a book that raises a myriad of fascinating questions and human dramas, beautifully constructed and enticingly written

    PHILIPPE SANDS, author of EAST WEST STREET

  • Discursive and engaging . . . Buck deftly outlines the legal procedures while also expanding his narrative to take in other late Holocaust trials and testimonies from survivors

    IRISH TIMES

  • Through a riveting account of the trial of 93-year-old Bruno Dey, a guard at Stutthof concentration camp when he was 17 in 1944, "the smallest of small cogs" in the SS hierarchy, Buck compellingly shows how History is always present, never past

    CATRINE CLAY, author of THE GOOD GERMANS

  • The author provides a powerful guide to the proceedings and their context . . . Final Verdict provide[s] a fresh perspective on how Germans have negotiated their sense of historical and individual responsibility

    THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

  • Timely and deeply thought-provoking, The Last Verdict examines how German courts let hundreds of thousands of Holocaust perpetrators off the hook until only a few low-level concentration camp guards remained alive to prosecute. Tobias Buck navigates the thicket of thorny questions surrounding this vexed and vexing history with great scope and sensitivity

    PHILIP GOUREVITCH, author of WE WISH TO INFORM YOU THAT TOMORROW WE WILL BE KILLED WITH OUR FAMILIES

  • Absorbing . . . his insightful book examines questions of guilt, complicity and collaboration

    JEWISH CHRONICLE

  • [A] lucid account . . . Buck crisply explains the legal hurdles that thwarted prosecution of alleged German perpetrators in West German courts

    HISTORY TODAY

  • A gripping read from first to last . . . Buck's deep research into his subject makes his book highly informative and thought-provoking. Final Verdict is an important contribution to understanding the impact of the Holocaust on the nation from which it emanated. This is a book that deserves to be read

    THE JERUSALEM POST

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Details
Author
Tobias Buck
Narrator
Leighton Pugh
Duration
10 hours 28 minutes
Release Date
7 March 2024
ISBN
9781399604291
Format
Audiobook
Publisher
Orion
Genre
The Holocaust

Synopsis

SHORTLISTED FOR THE HWA NON-FICTION CROWNLONGLISTED FOR THE WINGATE LITERARY PRIZE'A masterly account' THE TIMES'A brilliant book' OBSERVER'Excellent . . . a timely, wise and fair-minded meditation on a singular crime' TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT'A thrilling read ' PHILIPPE SANDS'[A] gripping and fascinating book' JAMES HOLLAND, TELEGRAPH 5* reviewOctober 2019, Hamburg: A trial laden with extraordinary historical weight begins to unfold. Charged with the murder of at least 5,230 inmates at the Stutthof concentration camp over seventy years ago, Bruno Dey admits his role as a guard but denies responsibility for the killings. Occurring as the last witnesses of the Holocaust disappear, this gripping trial raises profound questions about German history, politics, collective memory and personal accountability. Reflecting on his own family's silence about their Nazi-era experiences, Tobias Buck uses this courtroom drama to explore the broader significance of prosecuting Dey so many decades later and to consider what choices we might have made in his position.

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