ABSTRACT
But what of historians? How did they fit into the postwar landscape of the shifting relations between history and law? The Nuremberg trial, the greatest history lesson ever conveyed by a trial, was held in the absence of historians, except in an auxiliary role. They were partaking indirectly. Jakob Robinson was assisting occasionally in the preparation of the cases due to his language skills and familiarity with the archival material, whereas Peter Calvocoressi was rushing through the abundance of captured German papers, checking their authenticity and sorting the documents of evidentiary value for the trial. Only on extraordinary occasions were historians part of the larger forensic undertakings, such as the pursuit of Hitler’s corps, conducted by British historian Hugh Trevor-Roper, who subsequently published an important book about the last days of Adolf Hitler, literally digging under the rubble of his regime.1
