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Phillipe-sands
Philippe Sands

Chatwin, Patagonia, and the Bodleian: Searching for a Nazi SOLD OUT

Philippe Sands Interviewed by Richard Ovenden

Saturday, 25 March 2023

12:00pm

1 hour

Weston Lecture Theatre

£7 - £12.50

Leading international lawyer Philippe Sands discusses his search for Walter Rauff, a Nazi criminal who escaped to Chile, using the Bruce Chatwin archive at the Bodleian.

Rauff was a bit character in Sands’ book, Ratline, an account of the life of SS Brigadeführer Otto Freiherr von Wächter, governor of Galicia, who presided over the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Jews and Poles, including Sands’s grandfather. Rauff was another SS officer. He turned up in Rome before escaping along the ratline to Syria and then to South America where he worked for Pinochet as an interrogator. During the event, he will be joined by Chilean poet Mariana Camelio via a video link.

Sands is professor of Law at UCL and a practising barrister. He has been involved in many of the most important international cases of recent years, including Pinochet, Congo, Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Iraq, Guantanamo and the Rohingya. He is author of Lawless, Torture Team, and East West Street, winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-fiction. Camelio is bachelor in hispanic literature and author of Isla Riesco, nominated for the 2020-2021 Santiago Municipal Literature Award. She is part of the general coordination of the Ronald Kay Archive and the Frank Ocean writing and translation collective. Here they talk to Bodley’s Librarian Richard Ovenden.

Presented by Bodleian Libraries

University of Oxford European Union Supported by the Delegation of the European Union to the UK Bodleian Libraries Festival cultural partner Oxford Martin School Festival ideas partner Oxford Mathematics Spanish Embassy The Spanish Embassy: supporters of the programme of Spanish literature and culture Cervantes Institute, London The Cervantes Institute, London elBullifoundation Embassy of Peru Embassy of Peru
 

The Oxford Literary Festival sponsors, donors & partners

The Telegraph Festival media partner University of Oxford European Union Supported by the Delegation of the European Union to the UK Bodleian Libraries Festival cultural partner Oxford Martin School Festival ideas partner Oxford Mathematics Spanish Embassy The Spanish Embassy: supporters of the programme of Spanish literature and culture Cervantes Institute, London The Cervantes Institute, London elBullifoundation Embassy of Peru Embassy of Peru Embassy of Chile in the UK Embassy of Chile Iberia British Airways Embassy of the Dominican Republic Embassy of the Dominican Republic Blackwell’s Festival on-site and online bookseller Sotheby’s Symington Wines of the Douro Valley Compassion in World Farming Pasture to Plate Oxford Business College Where learning meets opportunity: education partners of the festival Old Bank Hotel Five-star hotel partners of The Oxford Collection Old Parsonage Hotel Five-star hotel partners of The Oxford Collection Oxford Brookes University Oxford International Centre for Publishing Gravita Accountants to the festival Confucius Institute Voltaire Foundation Felicity Bryan Associates Goldmoney Properties Princeton University Press Prestige publishing partner. Celebrating 25 years in Europe in 2024 Oxford University Department for Continuing Education Jewish Book Week Partner of Oxford Literary Festival Jim Mellon Miles Young Tim and Marion Stevenson Martin and Elise Becket Smith Ian and Carol Sellars David Isaac Mary and Cecil Quillen Supporters of the programme of American literature and culture Other donors Yale University Press London New College New College founded 1379 Exeter College Exeter College: college home of the festival. Founded 1314 Worcester College Worcester College founded 1714 Lincoln College Lincoln College founded 1427 Trinity College Trinity College founded 1555 Magdalen College Magdalen College founded 1458 Brasenose College Brasenose College founded in 1512 Reuben College Reuben College founded in 2019 Harris Manchester College Harris Manchester College founded 1893 Pusey House Founded 1884 New Dutch Writing Human Ecology Project MACROVegan Bear Ram Elk Festival Digital Strategy & Web Design Racalia Olive Oil Olive oil from Sicily Paul Bloomfield Ltd University of Oxford Alumni Office Alumni Office The Sheldonian Theatre Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies Oxford University Images Oxford University Images CAV Oxford The Litmus Partnership Schoolreaders Science Oxford Windrush Group The Oxford Times BBC Radio Oxford Local radio partner Conference Oxford Ox in a Box OX magazine