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A review by jamie_o
Mission at Nuremberg: An American Army Chaplain and the Trial of the Nazis by Tim Townsend
4.0
This book is an interesting look at the Nuremberg trials from the perspective of military chaplain Henry Gerecke, whose time at Nuremberg is described as "a historic experiment in how good confronts radical evil."
Not solely about Gerecke and his time in Germany, the book covers the history of the chaplaincy, the German cities/regions in which Gerecke is involved, and a brief history of each major character introduced. This mostly worked, as it gave good context for the time period, but there were so many characters that it was easy to forget who a certain person was, especially listening to the audiobook where it's not easy to go back and reread.
Townsend provided what felt like a fair and balanced view of Henry Gerecke, showing his faults and positive traits. He sounded like the type of person every Christian should aspire to: down to earth, faithful, and compassionate. I like how his preaching was described as non-pretentious, and everyone felt like Gerecke was speaking directly to him/herself. Before Nuremberg, he was a pastor, then missionary in his hometown of St. Louis, where he had a heart for the downtrodden and needy of every ethnicity.
People wondered how Gerecke could minister to such evil monsters (including Hermann Goering) at Nuremberg, but he said that he just had to remind himself that they were once children too, and as in need of a savior as anyone.
Not solely about Gerecke and his time in Germany, the book covers the history of the chaplaincy, the German cities/regions in which Gerecke is involved, and a brief history of each major character introduced. This mostly worked, as it gave good context for the time period, but there were so many characters that it was easy to forget who a certain person was, especially listening to the audiobook where it's not easy to go back and reread.
Townsend provided what felt like a fair and balanced view of Henry Gerecke, showing his faults and positive traits. He sounded like the type of person every Christian should aspire to: down to earth, faithful, and compassionate. I like how his preaching was described as non-pretentious, and everyone felt like Gerecke was speaking directly to him/herself. Before Nuremberg, he was a pastor, then missionary in his hometown of St. Louis, where he had a heart for the downtrodden and needy of every ethnicity.
People wondered how Gerecke could minister to such evil monsters (including Hermann Goering) at Nuremberg, but he said that he just had to remind himself that they were once children too, and as in need of a savior as anyone.