French-British lawyer and writer Philippe Sands has won the German Booksellers’ Peace Prize; in his speech he urged support for Ukrainians and announced a book about a special tribunal in the case of the killing of Victoria Amelina. This was reported by Chytomo, citing the prize website and in an interview the writer gave to Börsenblatt.
He announced that the documentary trilogy comprising “East West Street: On the Origins of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity”, “The Ratline: Love, Lies, and Justice on the Trail of a Nazi Fugitive” and “The Last Colony: A Tale of Exile, Justice and Britain’s Colonial Legacy” will have a continuation.
“In 2030, a fourth book will be added to the trilogy. I hadn’t actually planned it. It will be dedicated to the creation of a special tribunal in the case of the killing of Ukrainian writer Victoria Amelina. I knew her. In 2023, the Russians fired a missile at the restaurant where she was eating pizza. At the heart of all these works is the search for ways to prosecute international crimes. And I realised it is helpful to tell a great historical, political and legal drama through the prism of a personal story. It makes it easier for people to understand the connections,” the writer said.
The award ceremony took place on 11 October 2026 at St Paul’s Church in Frankfurt am Main, on the final day of the Frankfurt Book Fair. Among the roughly 700 guests was Germany’s President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
Sands titled his speech “The Albatross of Silence”. In it, he mentioned the lawyers Hersch Lauterpacht and Rafał Lemkin, who studied in Lviv. It is to them that the world owes the concepts of “crimes against humanity” and “genocide”.
“Despite the horrors that came later, Hersch Lauterpacht and Rafał Lemkin did not retreat into a corner to weep. They created ideas and books: Lauterpacht—on crimes against humanity and the individual; Lemkin—on genocide and the group. At Nuremberg, their ideas became international law, as I recounted in ‘East West Street’. Last month I was in Lviv again, when the mayor unveiled a memorial plaque on the building where the two of them first studied criminal law. Today it is the people of Ukraine who are defending the Nuremberg principles. Ukrainians need our support and solidarity, and they must have it. Their struggle is our struggle,” Sands stressed.
He added: “It was Lviv that gave me my writer’s voice—a voice that speaks to the individual and the group, to questions of identity, memory and silence.”
About Sands
Philippe Sands has been writing narrative non-fiction since 2016. His books “East West Street” and “The Ratline” were published in Ukrainian by The Old Lion Publishing House. Other works include “The Last Colony” (2022) and “38 Londres Street” (2025). Sands’s books have won, among others, the Baillie Gifford Prize, the British Book Awards and the Montaigne Prize, and in 2025 he received the Erich Maria Remarque Peace Prize.
About the Booksellers’ Peace Prize
The Booksellers’ Peace Prize is awarded by the German Publishers and Booksellers Association. Since 1950 it has been presented to intellectuals whose ideas help to advance peace, dignity and understanding.
Previous laureates include Hermann Hesse, Astrid Lindgren, Susan Sontag and Margaret Atwood. In recent years the award has gone to Serhiy Zhadan (2022), Salman Rushdie (2023), Anne Applebaum (2024) and Karl Schlögel (2025).