Witness to Nuremberg

The Many Lives of the Man who Translated at the Nazi War Trials

The chief translator and only American to speak with all Nazi defendants at Nuremberg shares his personal encounters with evil in this stirring memoir.

At age twenty-two, Richard Sonnenfeldt was appointed the chief interpreter for the American prosecution of Nazi war criminals during the Nuremberg trials. Sonnenfeldt dealt directly with top Nazi leaders like Hermann Goering, von Ribbentrop, Rudolph Hoss, and the editor of the anti-Semitic Der Sturmer, Julius Streicher. As the only American to talk with all the defendants, Sonnenfeldt offers his unique insight into the minds of Nazi leadership, including Hitler, Goebbels, Himmler, and other high-ranking officials.

In Witness to Nuremberg, Richard Sonnenfeldt recounts his experiences during the post-World War II trials, and also his life before and after Nuremberg. From fleeing Germany for England at eighteen years old, to being deported to Australia as a “German enemy alien,” to arriving in the United States and joining the US Army, to fighting in the Battle of the Bulge and helping liberate the Dachau concentration camp. This memoir is a detailed reflection that offers a firsthand account of World War II and the Nuremberg trials.

“It is unlikely anyone alive has as many firsthand memories of the Nazi leaders. What those memories say about today’s world is no simple thing.” —The New York Times