The Writers' Castle

Nuremberg, 1946. As the trials of Nazi war criminals begin, some of the world's most famous writers and reporters gather in the ruined German city. Among their number are Rebecca West, John Dos Passos, Martha Gellhorn, Erika Mann and Janet Flanner. Crammed together in the press camp at Schloss Faber-Castell, where reporters sleep in cots, complain about the food and argue in the lively bar, they each try to find words for the unprecedented events they are witnessing. In the hothouse of the press camp, tensions simmer between Soviet and Western journalists, unlikely affairs begin, stories are falsified and fabricated - and each reporter is changed by what they experience. In this lively, fascinating account, Uwe Neumahr shifts our understanding of the Nuremberg trial by focusing on the extraordinary gathering of writers and intellectuals that it brought about. Through an engrossing series of biographical portraits, Neumahr shows how the Schloss Faber-Castell offers an unparalleled window onto the political and cultural conflicts of the time.