THE TICKET COLLECTOR FROM BELARUS

AN EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF THE HOLOCAUST AND BRITAIN’S ONLY WAR CRIMES TRIAL

MIKE ANDERSON AND NEIL HANSON

Simon & Schuster, 384pp, £20

Anthony Sawoniuk was a ticket collector in Bermondsey. He also became the only person in British history to be tried successfully for war crimes. He was convicted in 1999 for the murder of 18 Jews in his Nazioccupied hometown of Domachevo in Belarus and served six years in prison before he died. As David Aaronovitch wrote in his review in the Times, this book illustrates the gulf ‘between court truth and historical truth’, and shows that ‘there are several distinct kinds of justice’.

Sawoniuk ‘ignored the advice of his own lawyers and took the stand’, wrote Saul David in the Daily

Telegraph. ‘The old man’s angry testimony is the high point of the book... The authors have interviewed most of the key players in this heart-rending tale and the result is a sensitive and well-balanced account of an extraordinary moment in British legal history.’ For Kathryn Hughes, in the

Sunday Times, the book was a ‘brilliantly gripping mix of true crime and narrative history’. She welcomed the fact that the authors ‘avoid piling on the horror, letting the court transcripts speak for themselves. Perhaps the authors’ greatest scoop is getting access to the annotated trial transcript of the judge, Sir Humphrey Potts. He was a scrupulously fair and somewhat chilly presence, but his marginalia bring what could have been dry legalese crackling into life. In particular M’lud could not believe the bold-faced ludicrousness of Sawoniuk’s claim that the Jews of Domachevo were never subject to special measures.’