Edward Russell, 2nd Baron Russell of Liverpool

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Edward Frederick Langley Russell, 2nd Baron Russell of Liverpool CBE , MC ( April 10, 1895 - April 8, 1981 ) was a British soldier , lawyer and historian .

Life

Russell was the son of Richard Henry Langley Russell, the second son of Edward Russell, 1st Baron Russell of Liverpool , and succeeded his grandfather's title in 1920. He was educated at Liverpool College and St John's College (Oxford) . He served with distinction in World War I , in which he was awarded the Military Cross three times. After that he became a prominent lawyer. As Envoy General of the British Army of the Rhine , he was one of the main legal advisors during the war crimes tribunals after the Second World War .

Because of the publication of the book The Scourge of the Swastika: A Short History of Nazi War Crimes (London 1954), he resigned from his government post. The Daily Express published excerpts from it that year under the heading The Book They Wished to Ban . The volume describes some of the Nazi atrocities based on the interrogation protocols and witness reports and draws terrifying conclusions. It became a bestseller in Great Britain and the quickly submitted German translation also found great sales in both German states. The book was reprinted in the USA in 2008 and provided with a foreword by Alistair Horne. He was the foreign correspondent for the Daily Telegraph in Germany in 1954 and had sharply criticized the original publication for promoting anti-Germanism that could hinder the international political reintegration of Adenauer's Federal Republic of Germany and stir up fear of the establishment of German armed forces within the internationally controlled framework of NATO . In the new edition, Horne shifts the focus of the review away from the uniqueness of German evils to the dimension of evil that humans are capable of ( Pol Pot , terrorism ). After more than half a century, Lord Russell's book is experiencing a renaissance and deserves new attention, especially at the time when the last contemporary witnesses are dying. Lord Russell presented another important book with The Knights of Bushido: A Short History of Japanese War Crimes in 1958.

Lord Russell of Liverpool died in April 1981 at the age of 85. He was succeeded as baron by his grandson Simon Gordon Jared Russell , as his only son, Captain Hon. Langley Gordon Haslingden Russell had died before him.

literature

  • Charles Kidd, David Williamson (Eds.): Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage. St Martin's Press, New York 1990.
  • Russell of Liverpool: Scourge of Mankind. Brief History of the Nazi War Crimes. German by Roswitha Czollek. Röderberg-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1955 and Verlag Volk und Welt, Berlin 1955. In the original as: The Scourge of the Swastika: A Short History of Nazi War Crimes . Cassell, London 1954. (New edition: Skyhorse Publishing, New York 2008, ISBN 978-1-60239-281-6 ).

Web links

predecessor Office successor
Edward Richard Russell Baron Russell of Liverpool
1920–1981 		Simon Gordon Jared Russell
personal data
SURNAME Russell, Edward, 2nd Baron Russell of Liverpool
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Russell, Edward Frederick Langle, 2nd Baron Russell of Liverpool
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British soldier, lawyer and historian
DATE OF BIRTH April 10, 1895
DATE OF DEATH April 8, 1981