The extraordinary true story of Howard Triest, the only German-Jewish interpreter to work with the psychiatrists in the Nuremberg Prison during the Nuremberg Trial from 1945-6. At the end of WW2, twenty-two surviving members of Hitler’s government were behind bars in Nuremberg Prison, awaiting trial for their part in the most heinous crimes in history.
Munich-born Howard Triest fled Nazi Germany on the eve of war. Four years later he landed on Omaha beach with invading American forces and served on the frontline all the way to the invasion of Germany. As he entered the country of his birth, he felt euphoric. But there was a special, painful task ahead for the man whom the Nazis once wanted to kill and whose family had disappeared in France in 1942. Howard was assigned as the only translator to the psychiatrists working in the jail. For twelve months he walked with them into the prison cells on a daily basis and sat within inches of Hitler’s henchmen and the men who sent his parents to the gas chambers of Auschwitz. How did Howard feel about being inches away from Hermann Goering, Rudolf Hess, Julius Streicher and Franz Rosenberg? How did he react to being so close to pure evil? Was reconciliation with Germany possible in the light of such nationwide complicity? These searching questions are woven into the backdrop of Howard’s experience of Nuremberg at a critical moment for international justice.
Over sixty-five years later he is the sole surviving witness to those crucial prison interviews with the men who once ran Nazi Germany alongside Adolf Hitler.
Helen Fry was raised in North Devon and went on to graduate from the University of Exeter with a degree and Ph.D. She has written over 25 books on the Second World War with particular reference to the 10,000 Germans and Austrians who fought for Britain, and intelligence, espionage and prisoners of war. Her highly acclaimed book The Walls Have Ears: The Greatest Intelligence Operation of WWII was in the top 8 Daily Mail’s Books of the Year in War, and has been optioned for film. It has been the subject of numerous documentaries and continues to receive media attention.&n...
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