LBI London congratulates Professor Philippe Sands KC on receiving the 2026 Peace Prize of the German Book Trade. The award recognises his work as a lawyer, writer and advocate for international law and human rights.
Sands is widely known for East West Street: On the Origins of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity, which brings together family history, the Holocaust and the development of international criminal law. The book follows the lives and ideas of the lawyers Hersch Lauterpacht and Raphael Lemkin, whose work shaped the concepts of crimes against humanity and genocide.
In May 2018, Sands took part in a one-off LBI London event with the author and political scientist Katrin Himmler. In a short lecture and subsequent conversation, they considered how personal and family histories can be connected with wider historical events. Sands discussed the research behind East West Street, including an untold story from the Nuremberg Trial and the experiences of his own family during the Second World War.
Katrin Himmler spoke about the challenges of writing about her own Nazi family history, and about the importance of bringing family narratives into public conversation. Together, the event explored how history, law and personal memory can deepen our understanding of the past.
Listen to the 2018 LBI London recording of the event: https://www.lbilondon.ac.uk/events/lecture-series-2017-18/philippe-sand…
