Christopher J. Dodd, "Letters from Nuremberg", New-York: Three Rivers Press, 2007. Pp. 374 ; Karl Fuchs, "Your Loyal and Loving Son", Washington D.C.: Brassey's Inc, 1987. Pp. 163

Résumé du document

Letters from Nuremberg' by Christopher Dodd, US senator from Connecticut, with the collaboration of Lary Bloom, is an epistolary book. It is a collection of Christopher's father's letters, Thomas J. Dodd, written between July 1945 and September 1946 to his wife. During this period Thomas J. Dodd was an US staff lawyer in the Nuremberg Trial. Twenty-four political, military and economic Germans were indicted. The trial ran from 19 November 1945 to 1 October 1946, before the International Military Tribunal, at the courthouse in Nuremberg. 'Your Loyal and Loving Son' is also an epistolary book composed of the compelling letters of Karl Fuchs from 1937 to his death in 1941. Horst Fuchs Richardson, Karl's son, edited and translated his father's correspondence and Professor Dennis E. Showalter gave historical commentaries for a better understanding of the book. Most of the letters were to his parents or his wife Mädi.

Extraits

[...] Dodd, "Letters from Nuremberg", New-York: Three Rivers Press Pp ; Karl Fuchs, "Your Loyal and Loving Son", Washington D.C.: Brassey's Inc Pp Letters from Nuremberg, by Christopher Dodd, U.S. senator from Connecticut, with the collaboration of Lary Bloom, is an epistolary book. It is a collection of Christopher's father's letters, Thomas J. Dodd, written between July 1945 and September 1946 to his wife. During this period Thomas J. Dodd was an U.S. staff lawyer in the Nuremberg Trial. Twenty-four political, military and economic German were indicted. [...]

[...] Dodd, Letters from Nuremberg disappointed me a little. When I chose this book I expected to learn new things about the trial of Nuremberg. I hoped to discover unknown stories but this book did not reach my expectancies or nurture my historical curiosity. Although this collections of letters is a good base to historians or simple readers who want to explore the trial on the whole. Sure enough Dodd's book gives a good chronology of the trial because, though his daily letters to his wife we can see the well-advanced and the evolution of this complex trial. [...]

[...] On one side, Your Loyal and Loving Son is about a young German soldier who is convinced of the legitimacy of his ideology and his duty toward the Nazi regime. The book took place before and at the beginning of the Second World War, from 1937 to 1941. On the other side, Letters from Nuremberg by Thomas J. Dodd, staff lawyer at Nuremberg trial, took place in 1945-46 and deals with the backstages of one of the most important trials in history. [...]

[...] Dodd described his several trip to Europe and the devastated city of Nuremberg, “Here I am in the dead city of Nuremberg.” He also brought up his professional rise from staff lawyer to his job as Jackson's chief assistant, the number two prosecutor in the Nuremberg, and his doubts, questions about his future career. In many letters, he painted the portraits of the accused and told the trial in details. That is a personal point of view on one of the most important trials of the world history. But Dodd especially demonstrated, with the passage of time, his unconditional love to his wife. [...]

[...] But in spite of everything, Your Loyal and Loving Son is easier to read because, first, it is shorter and second, the letters are lest repetitive than Dodd's ones. So this work is accessible to every kind of readers. Through these two collections we have a global vision of a part of Germany's history. Sure enough, it studies the history from the start of the German threat on the rest of Europe, to the end of the Third Reich and the beginning of the reconstruction. [...]