A 21st-century Holocaust trial

Tobias Buck reflects on one of the last ever legal cases involving the crimes of the Third Reich

Published: June 26, 2024 at 7:00 AM

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In October 2019 Bruno Dey went on trial in Hamburg for his involvement in a horrific crime – 75 years after that crime had been committed. Dey was now an old man but in his youth he had served as a guard in Stutthof concentration camp, where thousands of people had been murdered by the Nazis. Dey's trial was one of the last times that the Holocaust would be the subject of legal proceedings, and raised many questions around justice, moral culpability and, ultimately, how a society could descend into genocide. Journalist Tobias Buck tells the story of the trial in his new book Final Verdict – he spoke to Rob Attar about this profound moment in the histories of Germany and the Holocaust.

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Tobias Buck is the author of Final Verdict: A Holocaust Trial in the Twenty-first Century (Orion, 2024).

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Authors

Rob AttarHead of content and editor of HistoryExtra magazine

Rob Attar is head of content and editor of HistoryExtra magazine

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