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

In this intimate legal and historical detective story, the world-renowned lawyer and acclaimed author of East West Street traces the footsteps of two of the twentieth century's most merciless criminals--accused of genocide and crimes against humanity--testing the limits of immunity and impunity 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 the evening of October 16, 1998, Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet was arrested at a medical clinic in London. After a brutal, seventeen-year reign marked by assassinations, disappearances, and torture--frequently tied to the infamous detention center at the heart of Santiago, Londres 38--Pinochet was being indicted for international crimes and extradition to Spain, opening the door to criminal charges that would follow him to the grave, in 2006.

Three decades earlier, on the evening of December 3, 1962, SS-Commander Walter Rauff was arrested in his home in Punta Arenas, at the southern tip of Chile. As the overseer of the development and use of gas vans in World War II, he was indicted for the mass murder of tens of thousands of Jews and faced extradition to West Germany.

Would these uncommon criminals be held accountable? Were their stories connected? The Nuremberg Trials--where Rauff's crimes had first been read into the record, in 1945--opened the door to universal jurisdiction, and Pinochet's case would be the first effort to ensnare a former head of state.

In this unique blend of memoir, courtroom drama, and travelogue, Philippe Sands gives us a front row seat to the Pinochet trial--where he acted as a barrister for Human Rights Watch--and teases out the dictator's unexpected connection to a leading Nazi who ended up managing a king crab cannery in Patagonia. A decade-long journey exposes the chilling truth behind the lives of two men and their intertwined destinies on 38 Londres Street.

Author: Philippe Sands
Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group
Published: 10/07/2025
Pages: 480
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.53lbs
Size: 9.25h x 6.13w x 1.19d
ISBN: 9780593319758


Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 07/15/2025
Publishers Weekly 08/04/2025

About the Author
PHILIPPE SANDS is professor of law at the University of London, the Samuel Pisar Visiting Professor at Harvard Law School, and the author of East West Street. He is a frequent commentator on CNN and the BBC World Service, and a litigator before international courts. He is the former president of English PEN. In 2003, Sands was appointed a Queen's Counsel. He lives in London, England.