38 Londres Street: On Impunity, Pinochet in England, and a Nazi in Patagonia

THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS' CHOICE — In this gripping legal and historical investigation, world-renowned lawyer and acclaimed author of East West Street, Philippe Sands, unravels the fates of two of the twentieth century’s most brutal figures—both accused of genocide and crimes against humanity—while testing the limits of justice, immunity, and accountability after Nuremberg.

“Though nearly a decade in the making, this book could not arrive at a better time, because its subject is one of the most pressing themes of our era: impunity. . . . Sands has created an indelible and enthralling work of moral witness.” —Patrick Radden Keefe, author of Say Nothing

On October 16, 1998, Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet was arrested at a London medical clinic. His seventeen-year regime—defined by assassinations, disappearances, and torture centered around Santiago’s notorious Londres 38 detention site—had finally caught up with him. Indicted for international crimes and extradition to Spain, Pinochet’s case opened the door to the unprecedented prosecution of a former head of state.

Decades earlier, on December 3, 1962, SS-Commander Walter Rauff—the man behind the development of Nazi gas vans used to murder tens of thousands of Jews—was captured in Punta Arenas, Chile. He too faced extradition, this time to West Germany, under charges of mass murder.

Could these men ever truly face justice? Were their stories connected?

The Nuremberg Trials had introduced the concept of universal jurisdiction, but it was the Pinochet case that would test its reach in modern history. In this extraordinary blend of memoir, courtroom drama, and travelogue, Sands takes readers behind the scenes of the Pinochet trial—where he served as counsel for Human Rights Watch—and exposes the dictator’s unexpected link to a Nazi war criminal who ended up managing a king crab cannery in Patagonia.

A chilling, thought-provoking journey through the intersections of law, morality, and memory, this is the untold story of two men whose destinies converged on one haunting address: 38 Londres Street.

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