The Unknown Eichmann Trial: The Story of the Judge
This essay analyzes the decisive role of the 1961 Eichmann trial and the pivotal judicial perspective of its presiding judge, Supreme Court Justice (later Chief Justice) Moshe Landau. Justice Landau's part in the trial has been neglected in previous studies, and his own perspective on the trial has been—until now—utterly unknown. The article considers new historical materials—Landau's private memoir—in the context of the "objective" legal facts as established in the trial transcripts and videotapes. The analysis focuses on Landau's leadership in an extraordinary courtroom situation, as well as on the path-breaking decisions he made during the proceedings. The trial became the landmark that it was because of the presiding judge's meticulous professionalism and his deep understanding of its potential significance for the state of Israel.
Quelle: http://hgs.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/short/29/1/1?rss=1
Sanctuary from the Holocaust? Roman Catholic Conversion of Jews in Bucharest, Romania, 1942
Faced with increasing persecution, some Romanian Jews converted to Christianity before and during the Holocaust. While the Romanian authorities enforced the March 1941 law banning conversions, for various political reasons conversion to Roman Catholicism was treated differently. The papal nuncio to Romania, Monsignor Andrea Cassulo, as well as some specific Roman Catholic churches (the article looks at two in Bucharest) were willing to convert Jews as a way of helping them escape victimization. Yet the modest number of baptisms and the persistent allegations that they were performed in exchange for money suggest that, despite the political conditions that might have spurred conversions, the Catholic Church in Romania did not convert on a large scale, and that the initiative itself remained controversial.
Quelle: http://hgs.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/short/29/1/39?rss=1
„I will wash it out“: Holocaust Reconciliation in Agnieszka Holland’s 2011 Film In Darkness
In her recent film In Darkness, Agnieszka Holland constructs two perspectives on the Holocaust: one Polish-Catholic and the other Jewish. This article examines the cinematic techniques and devices employed in the film to block the emergence of a hegemonic "gaze," or overriding narrative. Instead, the director works to produce parallel narratives and a de-centered perspective so that the viewer cannot develop an allegiance to a single character. The author maintains that Holland uses these artistic strategies to produce a reconciliatory discourse on Polish-Jewish relationships during the Holocaust.
Quelle: http://hgs.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/short/29/1/57?rss=1