John Kampfner’s perceptive piece on the postwar Nazi trials (If we want Vladimir Putin brought to justice, Nuremberg has much to teach us, 10 April) omitted one element – that the Soviets had to be dragged, screaming and shouting, into the Nuremberg approach. Specific charges, the production and testing of evidence (by cross-examination), the provision of defence lawyers and independent judicial decision were alien to them – as brilliantly documented by Francine Hirsch in Soviet Judgment at Nuremberg. No wonder Vladimir Putin will never willingly succumb to independent international judgment.
Dianne Hayter
Labour, House of Lords
• John Kampfner says the Nuremberg trials set a benchmark “for rigour and fairness in dealing with the vanquished of war”. But can there really be fairness if the crimes of the victorious are not also dealt with?
Maureen Jack
St Andrews, Fife
