A harrowing but incredibly important story. The atrocities of the holocaust should never be forgotten. Highly recommended.

This remarkable story of a Jewish gay lawyer who, during the decades preceding, during and after WWII, managed to survive in Nazi Germany, escape to Sweden and eventually return to Germany and prosecute as many war criminals as he could. He was fighting two personal vulnerabilities at every stage of his career but after the end on WWII he was up against former SS and Gestapo officers who had been absorbed into the new German administration and had a degree of protection at the highest levels.
The book lifts the lid at yet another aspect of life in Europe in the first half of the 20th Century during this particular individuals lifietime.

This book follows rising star in the local judiciary, Fritz Bauer. Fritz a German Jew had to get out of the country and he spent the war years in Scandinavia. He came back to Germany after the war and to continue his law career. He was particularly focused on Auschwitz. Fritz was involved in the arrest and prosecution of Eichmann. This book was incredibly well researched. It was very moving, difficult to read in parts. I learned many things that I did not know and it gave me another perspective. Fritz was a very brave man exposing himself to danger to get to the truth and to get justice.

Highly recommended book.

A very moving, beautifully and thoroughly researched book set in Germany in the aftermath of WWII. It tells the story of Fritz Bauer, who fought a life-long, one-man battle to get his fellow Germans to accept their collective guilt and atone for the Holocaust.
In the early 1930s Bauer was a rising star in the German legal system, despite being a Jew and gay. However, with Hitler’s rise to power, Bauer was arrested and sent to a concentrations camp. He was released nine months later. He managed to flee to Scandinavia and remained there until the end of the war, when he decided to return to Germany to resume his legal career.
He was appalled to discover that many former Nazis who had implemented genocide were now ensconced in all levels of government and businesses, claiming they had been ‘denazified’. Critics called this exoneration, ”Persilschein” after the laundry detergent that could supposedly remove all stains. Furthermore, antisemitism was still rife in the 1950s. Many Germans did not support punishment beyond what had been meted out at Nuremberg. Both the Americans and the newly elected Chancellor, Konrad Adenauer, were determined to “put the past behind us”. So much so that Adenauer appointed as Chief of Staff, Hans Globke who had been instrumental in drafting the Nuremberg Race Laws, and Reinhard Gehlen, who became head of Adenauer’s Intelligence Agency, a post he had occupied under Hitler.
Bauer felt that the Nuremberg Trials merely put a spotlight on the Nazi elite. He was determined to pursue other Camp personnel to get Germans to recognise their collective complicity; he spent the rest of his life in this pursuit.
When Bauer eventually took up his new post as Attorney General in Hess, his newly found authority allowed him to pursue high profile cases which would attract worldwide attention, and force a reckoning in Germany. His doggedness led him to discover the whereabouts of Adolf Eichmann in Argentina which led to the famous trial in Israel in the 60s. At the same time Bauer put several other Nazis on trial for their roles in Auschwitz.
It became an international phenomenon and an embarrassment for the German people.
This is an amazing tribute to an exceptional man, who spent his life in the pursuit of justice for the victims of the Holocaust. He had managed to overcome many obstacles, including suppressing his homosexuality to pursue the greater cause. His life was often threatened by those who feared their past would be exposed and were bent on silencing him. He was often thwarted by having Nazi judges imposed on him to preside over the trials; survivor witnesses were cruelly harassed by defendants and their lawyers, but still Bauer continued in his demoralising quest for justice, determined to prove that the Holocaust was not just an aberration of a handful of freakish monsters. It was a pity that Bauer did not live long enough to witness the change in public opinion as a generation of Germans who grew up in the 1960s embraced the guilt that their parents had avoided.
This is a meticulously researched book, drawing on hitherto unpublished family papers, newly declassified German records and exclusive interviews. Very sensitively written, it brilliantly captures the story of one lonely man’s courage in forcing the world to face the truth. A tour de force of a story, and a must read for anyone interested in the history of post-war Germany.

A harrowing but informative read detailing the rise of Hitler in Germany, WW2 and then after the war with a small group of people trying to bring the atrocities perpetrated by the Nazis to the attention of the German public. Factual but made readable by Jack Fairweather pulling it together. The book is based around Fritz Bauer, a German Jew who managed to escape the actual war years in Scandinavia but returned as a Judge and prosecutor, particularly focusing on Auschwitz. I did get bogged down at times with all the names but the important ones do stick. Half the book is actually given over to reference points, explanations of footnotes etc. I think that reading this book in book form would be easier than a kindle for referring to these footnotes and glossary of the people involved. I solved it by reading on two devices, one set to the footnotes so I could work through them at the appropriate times. Photos throughout. I certainly feel more informed about these times.

A rising star in the local judiciary, Fritz Bauer realised that his career was in jeopardy when the Nazi party gained power. As a Jewish homosexual, Bauer needed to get out of Germany and he spent the war in Scandinavia. Post-war Bauer wanted to return to his law career but he also wanted to see justice for the Holocaust. Involved in the arrest and prosecution of Eichmann, his lasting legacy was in the 1965 trial of those who oversaw the concentration camp at Auschwitz.
This is a very well-researched and deeply moving book. The story of Fritz Bauer is one of dedication and determination to see justice served. Fairweather has done this a real service by producing a succinct, readable narrative which looks into the man himself as well as his actions. What will stay with me is the attitudes post-War when former Nazis were still serving in local government and blocking many attempts to investigate the crimes of them and their colleagues.

Ordinary men claiming to be simply following orders. This was the defence of many Nazi officers. That they had no choice but to carry out superior orders, no matter the criminality or depravity.

Many West Germans (as was) wanted to move on and plead ignorance. Perhaps the shame was overwhelming.

The Nuremberg trials left thousands unpunished. And one man could not let that happen. With a small team, Bauer begins a new indictment, one he hopes will change the law and mete out commensurate punishment for all who took part in the genocide.

It doesn't exactly go to plan. Some were imprisoned for life, but most were treated with leniency.

Yet Bauer and his team had succeeded in getting the truth out into the world. A truth that had largely been hidden. He gave a voice to the survivors, many of whom began to heal after testifying, and even facing their torturers.

The truth inspired countless films and books.

This book was absolutely forensic in detail, but read like a novel. Many things were brutal to read. There were times I had to step away for a moment. The reader should feel sickened and saddened by this, and the sense that humans haven't learnt this terrible lesson from history.

I don't think a book I've read about the Nazi government has ever affected me quite as much as this book. We can somehow be desensitized by a broader view of the atrocities. But when you hear one person's experience of what they've seen, heard, smelt, endured, it hits differently.

A beautifully written elegy to a man who dedicated his life's work - at great danger to himself - to exposing the truth, and seeking justice.

The Prosecutor by Jack Fairweather is a deeply compelling and meticulously researched account of Fritz Bauer, a Jewish, gay judge who survived the Nazis and dedicated his life to bringing war criminals to justice.

Following the end of the Nuremberg trials, thousands of Nazi perpetrators remained free, shielded by Cold War politics and a society eager to move on from its past. West Germany, still riddled with former Nazis in positions of power, was reluctant to prosecute its own, while the CIA backed ex-Hitler spies in the fight against communism. In this dangerous and deeply compromised environment, Bauer fought tirelessly to expose Nazi crimes and force his fellow countrymen to acknowledge their complicity.

His pursuit of justice led him to Adolf Eichmann, one of the architects of the Holocaust, but it also put him in the crosshairs of those who wanted the past buried. Despite the odds, Bauer’s determination set the stage for historic trials that would cement the Holocaust’s place in history and challenge Germany to confront its darkest chapter.

Fairweather’s book is both harrowing and vital, shining a light on a man whose courage shaped postwar justice. The writing is immersive, drawing on newly declassified records, unpublished family papers, and exclusive interviews to paint a vivid portrait of Bauer’s struggle. The Prosecutor is a necessary reminder of the price of truth and the importance of never forgetting the horrors of the Holocaust.

Read more at The Secret Book Review.

A very interesting read about the aftermath of WWII and the frustration of the excuse of 'only following orders' But it was good that the victims finally managed to speak out and tell the world what happened, despite the difficulty in bringing perpetrators to justice.

The Prosecutor by Jack Fairweather is a compelling and well researched historical account dealing with the battle for justice in post war Germany. The book follows the life of Fritz Bauer, a Jewish lawyer who survived the Nazi regime only to return and prosecute war criminals.

Fritz Bauer pursued justice while Germany was eager to bury its past. While the Nuremberg Trials brought a handful of top Nazi leaders to justice, hundreds of thousands of war criminals walked free, protected by Cold War politics and a German government still riddled with former Nazis. Fritz Bauer is an unlikely champion for the cause, a gay man in a country where homosexuality is not legalised. He investigated Adolf Eichmann one of the chief architects of the Holocaust, which led him deep into a corrupt secret world where former SS officers and intelligence operatives still branded power.

This is a compelling read where Fairweather uses unpublished letter, declassified records as well as interviews to tell his story. Fritz Bauer despite facing an almost impossible task fought for justice putting himself at risk.

A fascinating compelling read of a time that should never be forgotten.

I would like to thank both Netgalley and Penguin Random House for supplying a copy of this book in exchange review.

Wow! What book. I thought that I knew about West Germany post 1945 but this book showed me that I knew how Germany presented itself in the 1980s and 1990s but not necessarily how the first post-war years did actually happen.

Bauer was a (probably) gay, Jewish, German lawyer who survived both a stay in a concentration camp and then the Holocaust but who after the war was determined to return to Germany to help rebuild it.
He quickly discovered the lip service that was paid to de-Nazification and saw just how many (former) high ranking Nazis were left running the country unopposed - by 1946 the West had decided that Russia/Communism was a bigger threat and basically pardoned the Nazis and allowed them to run the courts, create the new Intelligence Service, and hold influential roles in government.

German laws made it hard for anyone to be held to account for the Holocaust and the horrors there but Bauer didn't give up and was instrumental in finally getting some Germans to face up to the crimes of the Third Reich.
In a time were the hard right is on the rise, along with Holocaust denial this was a timely book and one that really taught me a lot,

The Prosecutor by Jack Fairweather is the true story of Fritz Bauer (1903-1968) who was a German Jew who set about trying to bring the perpetrators of evil to justice after World War II. He was relentless in his pursuit.
At the end of World War II, Bauer estimated that eight million Germans had belonged o the Nazi party and two hundred and fifty thousand served in the SS. Many of the mass murderers and perpetrators of evil, either fled Germany or seamlessly blended back into society at the end of the war. “Few wanted to admit that fighting for Hitler was wrong.” Attitudes in the older generation, frighteningly, persisted into the 1960’s. Only with education, did the attitudes of subsequent generations of Germans change, as they admitted that the Holocaust did happen. Change started with the youth.
Jack Fairweather has clearly and methodically researched the life of Fritz Bauer, who was a good man who refused to stand by and do nothing. Along with others, including Simon Wiesenthal, Bauer helped to bring Adolf Eichmann to justice.
Bauer helped to put individuals on trial, as well as the human machinery that was Auschwitz. He introduced Auschwitz to the world through the horrifying testimonies of those who were there. The judges and others from the court, actually toured Auschwitz to see the site of the greatest mass murders in history, saying, “you need to see it… only then can you imagine the magnitude of the crime.”
The author has written a very comprehensive account of a time of pure evil. Words are just too inadequate to describe the horrors.
The Prosecutor is a harrowing, but necessary read. May we never forget the six million innocents who perished.
I received a free copy via Net Galley. A favourable review was not required. All opinions are my own.

This book made me so proud and yet so angry too at the barriers and obstacles Fritz Bauer had to try and overcome in order to bring former Nazis to justice in a Germany that after the initial Nuremberg trials wanted to let bygones be bygones.

Bauer was fighting against a country largely run, governed and administered by unpunished former Nazis who unsurprisingly did everything in their power to hinder his efforts.

Bauer was determined never to give up and his persistence left me awestruck as he relentlessly pursued the likes of Eichmann and other monsters of the Third Reich.

This book is wonderfully well researched and written and manages to keep an objective tone throughout for which the author should be congratulated given the emotive subject matter.

An important book which shines a light on a hero.