East West Street, Philippe Sands
East West Street, Philippe Sands
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East West Street
On the Origins of “Genocide” and “Crimes against Humanity”

Author: Philippe Sands

Narrator: Philippe Sands, David Rintoul

Unabridged: 14 hr 24 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/24/2016

Synopsis

When human rights lawyer Philippe Sands received an invitation to deliver a lecture in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, he began to uncover a series of extraordinary historical coincidences. It set him on a quest that would take him halfway around the world in an exploration of the origins of international law and the pursuit of his own secret family history, beginning and ending with the last day of the Nuremberg Trials.Part historical detective story, part family history, part legal thriller, Philippe Sands guides us between past and present as several interconnected stories unfold in parallel. The first is the hidden story of two Nuremberg prosecutors who discover, only at the end of the trials, that the man they are prosecuting, once Hitler’s personal lawyer, may be responsible for the murder of their entire families in Nazi-occupied Poland, in and around Lviv. The two prosecutors, Hersch Lauterpacht and Rafael Lemkin, were remarkable men, whose efforts led to the inclusion of the terms crimes against humanity and genocide in the judgement at Nuremberg, with their different emphasis on the protection of individuals and groups. The defendant was no less compelling a character: Hans Frank, Hitler’s personal lawyer, friend of Richard Strauss, collector of paintings by Leonardo da Vinci, and governor-general of Nazi-occupied Poland.A second strand to the book is more personal, as Sands traces the events that overwhelmed his mother’s family in Lviv and Vienna during the Second World War and led his grandfather to leave his wife and daughter behind as war came to Europe. At the heart of this book is an equally personal quest to understand the roots of international law and the concepts that have dominated Sands’ work as a lawyer. Eventually he finds unexpected answers to his questions about his family in this powerful meditation on the way memory, crime, and guilt leave scars across generations.

About Philippe Sands

Philippe Sands is professor of law at University College London and a practicing barrister at Matrix Chambers. He frequently appears before international courts, including the International Criminal Court and the World Court in the Hague, and has been involved in many of the most important cases of recent years, including Pinochet, Congo, Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Iraq, and Guantanamo. His previous books include Lawless World and Torture Team. He is a frequent contributor to the London Financial Times, the Guardian, New York Review of Books, and Vanity Fair, makes regular appearances on radio and television, and serves on the boards of English PEN and the Hay Festival.

About David Rintoul

David Rintoul, an Earphones Award–winning narrator, is a stage and television actor from Scotland. A former student of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, he has worked extensively with the Royal National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company. He has also appeared regularly on BBC television, starring as Mr. Darcy in the 1980 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice and as Doctor Finlay in the television series of the same name.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Marks54 on August 13, 2016

I was totally unprepared for how good a book this was. Let me try to explain. At one level, this is an intellectual history of the evolution of two concepts central to international law since World War II and the Holocaust and still relevant today in the consideration of human rights abuses in confli......more

Goodreads review by Esil on May 26, 2018

East West Street is an interesting mix of autobiography, history and legal theory. The author’s grandparents were Jews from a town in Eastern Europe that had gone through various names and been part of different countries during the 20th century. Sands tells the story of how his grandparents and mot......more

Goodreads review by Dean on August 06, 2019

One of the most important books I have read ever!!! A deeply moving and shocking piece of literature.. Philippe Sands an international jewish lawyer try to dig up his family secret history.. He uncovers the path which will lead him halfway across the world and even to the Nuremberg trial.. He does magni......more

Quotes

“A monumental achievement: profoundly personal, told with love, anger, and great precision.” John le Carré, #1 New York Times bestselling author

“In a triumph of astonishing research, Sands has brilliantly woven together several family stories which lead to the great denouement at the Nuremberg tribunal. No novel could possibly match such an important work of truth.” Antony Beevor, New York Times bestselling author

“Sands is a fine writer and sets his scenes so compellingly and earnestly…Engrossing, luminous, and moving.” Wall Street Journal

“A rare and unusual event: a book about international law that makes you want to keep reading.” Vanity Fair

“Examines the meaning and importance of law, of the words that go to make it, and of life lived well versus life lived foully. It does this personally, universally, locally and internationally with an eye to what unites and protects us from the power-madness of a divide-and-rule mentality that’s once more, right now, courting catastrophe.” Guardian (London)

“Barack Obama and his successors would be well advised to move to the top of their reading lists this account of the…unprecedented body of rights-based law, whose application has scarcely begun.” New York Times

“Weaves lives together in a kind of collective biography of a generation…Remarkable…compelling…moving and powerful.” Financial Times (London)

“This is the best kind of intellectual history…a clear, astonishing story.” New Statesman

“Written with novelistic skill, its prose effortlessly poised, its tone perfectly judged, the book teems with life and high drama…One of the most gripping and powerful books imaginable.” Sunday Times (London)

“A voyage of discovery…[and] riveting odyssey…Sands elicits the most extraordinary revelations from his subjects.” London Review of Books

Awards

  • New York Times   Bestseller
  • Cundill Prize in Historical Literature
  • Baillie Gifford Prize
  • Boston Globe Pick
  • Economist Best Book
  • Guardian Best Book of the Year
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