A new non-fiction book, Mission at Nuremberg: An American Army Chaplain and the Trial of the Nazis is not about the trial but how the Nazis manipulated two chaplains at best, and at worst convinced them to become Nazi sympathizers. The main focus of the book is the interaction between the chaplains and the twenty-one Nazis tried for war crimes. Townsend illustrates the prewar life story of the two chaplains, Henry Gerecke and Father Sixtus O’ Connor, a quick review of the Chaplain Corps’ evolution, the Nuremberg tribunal’s composition and mission, the Nazi henchmen’s lives, and the prison life of the war criminals. The book has the unintended consequence of humanizing these mass killers through the way the author pieces information together. There is nauseating detail about the life of each Nazi, from their youth through their years as part of the Third Reich.  Throughout the book the author consistently writes, “Gerecke strived to...(Read Full Article)