War Is an International Crime. Why Does It Go Unpunished?
Key takeaways
- Fresh off their victory in World War I, the Allies clamored for Kaiser Wilhelm II’s head.
- Determined not to repeat that failure after World War II, the Allies did not waver in seeking to deliver justice, convicting 19 Nazi leaders at the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg in 1946.
- The Criminal State: War, Atrocity, and the Dream of International Justice, Lawrence Douglas, Princeton University Press, 456 pp., $35, April 2026
Fresh off their victory in World War I, the Allies clamored for Kaiser Wilhelm II’s head. There was just one catch: The kaiser had absconded, 59 train cars of luggage in tow, to the Netherlands, which refused to extradite him. He died in 1941 under German occupation, an unrepentant admirer of Nazi policies until the end.
Determined not to repeat that failure after World War II, the Allies did not waver in seeking to deliver justice, convicting 19 Nazi leaders at the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg in 1946. Despite its association with the Holocaust today, the tribunal did not primarily seek justice for the victims of one of history’s most systematic genocides. Instead, it was an opportunity for the Allies to punish Germany for going to war in the first place.
Fresh off their victory in World War I, the Allies clamored for Kaiser Wilhelm II’s head. There was just one catch: The kaiser had absconded, 59 train cars of luggage in tow, to the Netherlands, which refused to extradite him. He died in 1941 under German occupation, an unrepentant admirer of Nazi policies until the end.