Philippe Sands

"A ... personal detective story, an uncovering of secret pasts, and a book that explores the creation and development of world-changing legal concepts that came about as a result of the unprecedented atrocities of Hitler's Third Reich"--Dust jacket flap.

On the Origins of "genocide" and "crimes Against Humanity"

East West Street

As Governor of Galicia, SS Brigadeführer Otto Freiherr von Wächter presided over an authority on whose territory hundreds of thousands of Jews and Poles were killed, including the family of the author's grandfather. By the time the war ended in May 1945, he was indicted for 'mass murder'. Hunted by the Soviets, the Americans, the Poles and the British, as well as groups of Jews, Wächter went on the run. He spent three years hiding in the Austrian Alps, assisted by his wife Charlotte, before making his way to Rome where he was helped by a Vatican bishop. He remained there for three months. While preparing to travel to Argentina on the 'ratline' he died unexpectedly, in July 1949, a few days after spending a weekend with an 'old comrade'. In The Ratline Philippe Sands offers a unique account of the daily life of a senior Nazi and fugitive, and of his wife. Drawing on a remarkable archive of family letters and diaries, he unveils a fascinating insight into life before and during the war, on the run, in Rome, and into the Cold War. Eventually the door is unlocked to a mystery that haunts Wächter's youngest son, who continues to believe his father was a good man - what happened to Otto Wächter, and how did he die?

Love, Lies and Justice on the Trail of a Nazi Fugitive

The Ratline

Martin Rowson

A Tale of Exile, Justice and Britain's Colonial Legacy

Last Colony

After the Second World War, new international rules heralded an age of human rights and self-determination. Supported by Britain, these unprecedented changes sought to end the scourge of colonialism. But how committed was Britain? In the 1960s, its colonial instinct ignited once more: a secret decision was taken to offer the US a base at Diego Garcia, one of the islands of the Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean, create a new colony (the 'British Indian Ocean Territory') and deport the entire local population. One of those inhabitants was Liseby Elysé, twenty years old, newly married, expecting her first child. One suitcase, no pets, the British ordered, expelling her from the only home she had ever known. For four decades the government of Mauritius fought for the return of Chagos, and the past decade Philippe Sands has been intimately involved in the cases. In 2018 Chagos and colonialism finally reached the World Court in The Hague. As Mauritius and the entire African continent challenged British and American lawlessness, fourteen international judges faced a landmark decision: would they rule that Britain illegally detached Chagos from Mauritius? Would they open the door to Liseby Elysé and her fellow Chagossians returning home - or exile them forever? Taking us on a disturbing journey across international law, THE LAST COLONY illuminates the continuing horrors of colonial rule, the devasting impact of Britain's racist grip on its last colony in Africa, and the struggle for justice in the face of a crime against humanity. It is a tale about the making of modern international law and one woman's fight for justice, a courtroom drama and a personal journey that ends with a historic ruling.

A Tale of Exile, Justice and Britain’s Colonial Legacy

The Last Colony

Leugens, liefde en gerechtigheid op het pad van een -vluchteling

De rattenlijn

On the Origins of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity

Entre la memoria familiar y la indagación histórica, un libro excepcional sobre el Holocausto y el juicio de Núremberg. En las páginas de este libro excepcional se entretejen dos hilos: por un lado, el rescate de la historia del abuelo materno del autor a partir de un viaje de este para dar una conferencia en la ciudad de Lviv, que fue polaca y actualmente forma parte de Ucrania. Por el otro, la peripecia de dos abogados judíos y un acusado alemán en el juicio de Núremberg, cuyas vidas también confluyen en esa ciudad invadida por los nazis. Los dos judíos estudiaron allí y salvaron sus vidas porque emigraron a tiempo –uno a Inglaterra, el otro a Estados Unidos–, y el acusado –también brillante abogado y asesor jurídico de Hitler– fue gobernador durante la ocupación. Y así, a partir de las sutiles conexiones entre estos cuatro personajes –el abuelo, los dos abogados judíos que participan en Núremberg, uno con el equipo de juristas británico y el otro con el americano, y el nazi, un hombre culto que acabó abrazando la barbarie–, emerge el pasado, la Shoá, la Historia con mayúsculas y las pequeñas historias íntimas. Y frente al horror surge la sed de justicia –la lucha de los dos abogados por introducir en el juicio el concepto de «crímenes contra la humanidad»– y la voluntad de entender lo sucedido, que lleva al autor a entrevistarse con el hijo del criminal nazi. El resultado: un libro que demuestra que no todo estaba dicho sobre la Segunda Guerra Mundial y el genocidio; un libro que es al mismo tiempo un bellísimo texto literario con tintes detectivescos y de thriller judicial, un relato histórico sobresaliente sobre el Holocausto y los ideales de unos hombres que luchan por un mundo mejor y una meditación sobre la barbarie, la culpa y el deseo de justicia. Pocas veces está tan justificado aplicar a una obra el calificativo de imprescindible.

Sobre los orígenes de "genocidio" y "crímenes contra la humanidad"

Calle Este-Oeste

Offers a revealing study of a documents, signed by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in December 2002, that authorized the use of eighteen controversial interrogation techniques that were used at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib and set the stage for a betrayal of the Geneva Convention and broke international law. 75,000 first printing. First serial, Vanity Fair.

Rumsfeld's Memo and the Betrayal of American Values

Torture Team

Olesya Khromeychuk

Andreĭ Kurkov

Death of a Soldier Told by His Sister

Ratline

Sixty years ago, the United States and Great Britain spearheaded efforts to create a new world order based on international rules. Today these same two nations are leading the charge to abandon many of the global safeguards they once fought to establish. Crisp, impassioned, and hard-hitting, Lawless World is an exposé and an indictment of a catastrophic realignment of the laws that govern international affairs, the book that broke the stories on the "Downing Street memo" and the "White House meeting memo." It is also a vivid and human account of the reckless way America has reneged on its very founding documents-and a call for us to recognize the role we should be playing to reassert the rule of law, and with it a stable, secure world. BACKCOVER: "In this expert and judicious study, Philippe Sands portrays a frightening image of 'America unbound,' self-exempted from the delicate fabric of international law on which human survival rests." -Noam Chomsky "A penetrating and detailed account of the extent to which those who claim to be spreading global values have ridden roughshod over them." -The Observer (London) "Lawless World goes to the very heart of the nature of the international order and its future." -The Guardian (London)

The Whistle-Blowing Account of How Bush and Blair Are Taking the Law into TheirO wn Hands

Lawless World

Christy Lefteri

Robert Macfarlane

Dina Nayeri

Shami Chakrabarti

Simon Smith

Amy Sackville

Kyon Ferril

Pincus HERD

Seventy years after the 1951 Refugee Convention 'endeavoured to assure refugees the widest possible exercise of these fundamental rights and Freedoms', the fourth volume of Refugee Tales again shares the tales of people who have sought refuge and welcome, and instead have found themselves detained. As the coronavirus death toll rises across the world, more than ever the detention of migrants and people forced to move is a defining issue of our moment. In these new tales, poets, novelists and writers have collaborated with people who have experienced detention, their stories appearing alongside first-hand accounts of people who themselves have been detained. Here we are told what it means to experience the ongoing reality of the UK's 'hostile environment', as well as detention in Canada, Greece, Italy, and the USA. Each new story communicates the human costs of a system which fundamentally breaches human rights, and each story conveys the need for urgent political change.

Refugee Tales Volume 4

Laurence Boisson de Chazournes

Head of Department of Public International Law and International Organisation Faculty of Law Laurence Boisson de Chazournes

Most comprehensive book analysing the ICJ Advisory Opinions on nuclear weapons handed down in 1996.

International Law, the International Court of Justice and Nuclear Weapons

Jozef Wittlin

The Ukrainian city Lviv's many names (Lviv, Lvov, Lwow, Lemberg, Leopolis) bear witness to its conflicted past - it has, at one time or another, belonged to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Poland, Russia and Germany, and has brought forth numerous famous artists and intellectuals. My Lwow, Jozef Wittlin's short 1946 treatise on the city he left in 1922, is a wistful and lyrical study of an electrifying cosmopolis, told from the other side of the catastrophe of the Second World War. Philippe Sand's essay provides a parallel account of the city as it is today: the cultural capital of Ukraine, its citizens played a key role during the Orange Revolution, and its executive committee declared itself independent of the rule of President Viktor Yanukovych in February 2014. The City of Lions includes both old black-and-white photos showing Lviv during the first half of the twentieth century, and new photographs by the award-winning Diana Matar, of the city as it is today.

City of Lions

Rachel Seiffert

Maurizio Veglio

Natalia Sierra

Khodadad Mohammadi

Bidisha

Seventy years after the adoption of the 1951 Refugee Convention, the UK is guilty of undermining the very principles of asylum, inhumanely detaining those seeking protection and ushering in sweeping changes that threaten to punish refugees at every turn. But the UK’s immigration system is not alone in committing such breaches of human rights. The fourth volume of Refugee Tales explores our present international environment, combining author re-tellings with first-hand accounts of individuals who have been detained across the world. As the coronavirus pandemic defies borders – leaving those who are detained even more vulnerable – this collection shares stories spanning Canada, Greece, Italy, Switzerland and the UK, and calls for international insistence on a future without detention. Edited by Anna Pincus & David Herd. ‘Heartbreaking and heartwarming in equal measure. Every page is filled with quiet dignity.’ – Shobu Kapoor ‘A courageous book’ – Jackie Kay Part of the Refugee Tales series.

Volume IV

Refugee Tales

Revised edition includes all new developments since 1994, including all international case-law and international legislation.

Principles of International Environmental Law

Jacqueline Peel

Adriana Fabra

Ruth MacKenzie

The new edition of this essential text offers a comprehensive, critical and future-thinking commentary on international environmental law.

повернення до Львова

Східно-Західна вулиця

Eine unfassbare Geschichte über die legendäre Fluchtroute der Nazis vom Vatikan nach Argentinien: Meisterhaft entspinnt der bekannte Menschenrechtsanwalt Philippe Sands eine unfassbare Geschichte über Liebe, Intrigen und Spionage. Er erzählt von Leben, Flucht und Tod des SS-Offiziers Otto Wächter, ab 1942 NS-Gouverneur von Galizien. Nach 1945 als Massenmörder gesucht, gelang ihm die abenteuerliche Flucht in den Vatikan. Doch bevor er von dort – beschützt vom berüchtigten Bischof Hudal – über die Rattenlinie weiterflüchten konnte, starb er 1949 überraschend. Jahrzehnte später begegnet Philippe Sands Ottos Sohn Horst Wächter – der Beginn einer komplexen Ermittlung: Horst behauptet, sein Vater sei vergiftet worden. Sands beschließt, die Wahrheit herauszufinden. Und Horst zu beweisen, dass sein Vater für den Mord an Zehntausenden Menschen verantwortlich war. Ausgehend von den privaten Briefen und Tagebüchern der Familie Wächter und auf Basis zahlreicher Dokumente aus Archiven, gelingt Sands ein intimes, verstörendes Porträt des SS-Mannes und seiner Frau. Zugleich deckt er Intrigen, Korruption und Spionage rund um die Fluchthilfe für NS-Kriegsverbrecher aus dem Vatikan auf. Und er lässt uns teilhaben an seinen Begegnungen mit Horst Wächter - und damit an der unwahrscheinlichen Beziehung zweier Männer, die auf unterschiedlichen Seiten der Geschichte stehen. »Eine fesselnde Reise durch die Zeit und ein Porträt des Bösen in all seiner Komplexität, Banalität und Selbstgerechtigkeit.« Stephen Fry

Lügen, Liebe und die Suche nach der Wahrheit

Die Rattenlinie – ein Nazi auf der Flucht

Richard Tarasofsky

Mary Weiss

Philippe Sands

About

Books

Join the club