Final Verdict: A Holocaust Trial in the Twenty–first Century

The highly acclaimed story of an extraordinary trial - one of the last trials of a Nazi war criminal - and its wider implications for history, memory and justice, and the author's own family legacy

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.

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 -- Adam LeBor ― 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 -- James Holland ― 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 -- Rachel Cooke ― THE OBSERVER

Excellent . . . a timely, wise and fair-minded meditation on a singular crime -- Lawrence Douglas ― TLS

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 -- Colin Shindler ― 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

About the Author

Tobias Buck is the Managing Editor of the Financial Times. Born in Germany, he studied law in Berlin before joining the FT as a graduate trainee in 2002. He went on to serve as the FT's correspondent in Brussels, Jerusalem, Madrid and Berlin. His first book, After the Fall: Crisis, Recovery and the Making of a New Spain, was published in 2019.