It was a fascinating read for me and I loved every page turned in this memorable book. Philippe Sands traces the tragic secret history of his own family and we feel as if we are alongside him in his journey.
A personal family history painstainkilly researched and beautifully written by the author and a history of the legal concepts that were devised to deal with the historically unprecedented horrors of the Holocaust. East West Street weaves together a collective narrative which is focused on the interrelated lives of four men, Hersch Lauterpacht, Raphael Lemkin, Hans Frank and Leon Bucholz, the latter, Sands’ maternal grandfather. Two remarkable men from the city of Lviv who's tirelessly worked to have the terms "Crimes against humanity" and "genocide" in the judgement at Nuremberg.

The Author opens this novel with a Note to the Reader. The City of Lviv occupies an important place in this story........ and as we read we learn that The city has changed hands no fewer than eight times between 1914 and 1945 and has been known as Lemberg, Lviv. Lavov, and Lwow. After the Red Army vanquished the Nazis in the summer of 1944 it became part of the Ukraine and was called Lviv, the name that is generally used today. This is a city with a remarkable history, a city that has lost so much to history and war and yet given so much to the world.

If you have an interest in WWII, Family History stories, or The Nuremberg trials then beg, borrow or steal a copy of this book as it is fascinating family history and such an education in War and research and the process of the Nuremberg trials.
I initally bought an audio copy of this book but thankfully a friend advised me to buy a hard copy of the book as it is packed full of photos, maps and illustrations which they assured me were very important to the story and I quickly purchased a used hardcopy on Amazon (which was signed by the author) and so glad I did as this is a book I will proudly display on my book shelf and already plan on re-reading it. The hard copy did contain so many photos, maps and illustrations that really inhanced this story and brought the characters and places to life.

Philippe Sands is a master at weaving family history with legal history and knowing how to keep the reader interested without the content becoming dry or too complex I had never read a book that that looked at this angle of the War and this was Fresh and rewarding.
This is a book I just loved every minute I spent reading it, I got so much from this book, I was shocked, saddened and above all I was educated which is why this is a 5 star read for me.
I am not going to recommend this to everyone but I do think readers who enjoy Non Fiction books , books about WW II/ Holocaust may be enjoy this book. ( )

This unusual and complex project is the work of a professor of International Law. It is, perhaps mainly, an attempt to discuss the historical circumstances of the coming of the legal concepts of genocide and crimes against humanity, mostly by discussing the lives of the two men associated with these concepts, Raphael Lemkin and Hersch Lauterpacht, both originally from the town of Lemberg or Lviv in Galicia. These men’s lives were interrupted by the Nazis, and their concepts ultimately came to fruition at the Nuremberg trials, where what had happened to them and their families was partially distilled into these ideas, which were used to justify the execution of a handful of Nazi bigwigs. If that were all that this book was, I don’t think I would care for it very much. I am not an attorney, and although these concepts are obviously important to the author, I think they are not sufficiently explained in some logical legal context, and their discussion becomes tedious. After a while it just becomes an account of Lemkin’s and Lauterpacht’s maneuvers to get their idea used at the trial. But, the book is also several other things; it is a fascinating detective story describing the author’s search for facts about his own maternal grandfather’s life; it is a biography of Hans Frank, the Governor-General of the General Government (the part of occupied Poland that had not been absorbed by Germany), and a man intimately associated with the destruction of these men’s families; it is a behind the scenes view of what went on among the judges and prosecutors at Nuremberg; and, since the author leaves no stone unturned, it is also his captivating accounts of interviews with survivors and relatives of all of these people. ( )

An outstanding read. ( )

Absolutely fascinating! It was hard to put down - it reads almost like a thriller, even though it isn't fiction. Philippe Sands weaves together the stories of his grandparents, the two lawyers who came up with the concepts of genocide and crimes against humanity, and the Nazi commander in Poland during World War 2. It all culminates in the Nuremburg trials.
Sands research is meticulous, and it is incredible how much he is able to find out from a few initial clues. Informative as well as exciting.
The reason I picked up this book is that I listened to his BBC podcast series "The Ratline", where he investigates what happened to Otto von Wächter, another high-ranking Nazi in Poland during the war. Equally fascinating. ( )

https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3497644.html

A great book by international human rights lawyer Philippe Sands, which looks at his own family history and the background of two hugely significant international lawyers, Hersch Lauterpacht, who successfully promoted human rights as an international responsibility, and Raphael Lemkin, who developed the legal concept of genocide, and how they intertwined in the city of Lviv (as it now is) and the nearby town of Zhovka/Żółkiew. He also throws into the mix Hans Frank, the Nazi ruler of Poland, and his sidekick Otto von Wächter, both of whom have surviving sons whose takes on their fathers' careers are grimly different from each other. Carefully reconstructed from letters, photographs, documentation and memories, and framed by the Nuremberg trial of Hans Frank for crimes against humanity, it's a superb account of how ordinary enough circumstances can transform into horror and also generate genius. ( )