In Indirect Perpetrators Andrew Szanajda examines the administration of correctional and transitional justice in postwar Germany from 1945 to 1955. He is specifically concerned with the prosecution of those who had denounced others to the authorities during the National Socialist era. The first part of this work looks at the reasons behind the decision to prosecute informers with perpetrating a crime against humanity and the philosophical, legal, and practical problems associated with the administration of justice retroactively in the German courts through legislation specifically enacted for this purpose under the auspices of the Allied occupation powers and subsequent legislation enacted by the German authorities. The second part of the book examines the implementation of this law and the prosecution of informers in the American, French, and British occupation zones and then later in the Federal Republic of Germany, drawing on court proceedings and the judgments that were handed down in these cases. Szanajda discusses the problems associated with the implementation of this law in the respective zones and in the Federal Republic of Germany and the lessons to be drawn from this historically significant attempt to call individuals to account for their crimes against humanity after they had occurred through the use of retroactive legislation.

The Restoration of Justice in Postwar Hesse deals with the reconstruction of the administration of justice in postwar Hesse, a newly established state in the American occupation zone, during the Allied military occupation of Germany from 1945 to 1949. All government jurisdictions in Germany had collapsed as a consequence of the unconditional surrender of the National Socialist regime. The Allied occupation authorities set out to reconstruct German institutions in this vacuum of authority in their respective occupation zones in accordance with occupation objectives. German administrations of justice in the American occupation zone were reconstructed within each of the states therin under the supervision of U.S. military government authorities in each state. The administration of justice was gradually restored as increasingly greater responsibilities were granted to the state judicial authorities, while the body of German law was reformed to eliminate National Socialist influences. The denazification program in the American occupation zone, which had been considered one of the major preconditions for the postwar rehabilitation of Germany, was abandoned when it proved unworkable in practice. Meanwhile, the significance of the institutional element and its safeguards preventing any violations of the rule of law necessarily took precedence over the personnel element. The process of reconstructing the administration of justice in this state and restoring the rule of law is analysed by examining developments during the military occupation period. These developments are divided into two main parts, concerning the restoration of judicial institutions and the denazification of judicial personnel from the beginning of the military occupation, following descriptions of the National Socialist administration of justice and military civil affairs planning for the postwar military occupation. A fully functional and independent administration of justice operating under the state authorities was restored when the con

The Allies and the German Problem, 1941-1949 examines Allied policymaking during the Second World War and the military occupation of postwar Germany, demonstrating how the initial unity of the Allies disintegrated during the postwar military occupation in the face of their separate goals for postwar Germany and Europe.