Bazyler Michael J - Forgotten Trials of the Holocaust

FORGOTTEN TRIALS OF THE HOLOCAUST

PRAISE FOR FORGOTTEN TRIALS OF THE HOLOCAUST

Takes the reader on a journey across nearly six decades, seven countries, and ten different judicial settings to examine a wide variety of ways in which attempts were made to bring Holocaust perpetrators to justice. The authors do not shy from assessing the strengths, weaknesses, and difficulties of each trial and the degree to which justice was served. An important contribution to the history of the judicial aftermath of the Holocaust.

Christopher R. Browning, author of Remembering Survival : Inside a Nazi Slave Labor Camp

Provides lucid summaries of ten lesser-known trials of participants in Nazi war crimes, along with acute and balanced conclusions about the legal legitimacy and legacy of each proceeding. The authors bring fresh and illuminating perspectives to a matter of urgent concern: understanding how the claims of law and justice should interact in the aftermath of atrocity.

Peter Hayes, Theodore Zev Weiss Holocaust Educational Foundation Professor of History, Northwestern University

Brings to the reader important trials that have fallen beneath the general publics radar. The authors, as both academics and practicing lawyers, bring a fresh and incisive approach to these trials, dissecting the strategies of the trial lawyers as well as the decision making by the presiding judges. They manage, in each of these trials, to focus on the defendants, the victims, and the players in the courtroom scene. They present a vivid picture of the Holocaust in operation, which is an essential undertaking as the survivor generation decreases in number. This book is worth reading for anyone interested in trials and for anyone interested in the Holocaust, and it is compulsory reading for anyone interested in both.

Robert M. Morgenthau, Former District Attorney, New York County

For too long, lawyers and legal academics have relegated the Shoah to the margins and shadows of legal discourse. The killing of six million European Jews has been treated either as an extraordinary and unique circumstance beyond law or, more recently, as little more than a precursor event to the development of international criminal law. Michael J. Bazyler and Frank M. Tuerkheimer have rendered an invaluable service to legal practice and scholarship by bringing the Holocaust to the center of the legal profession and discipline. This extraordinary book, by examining the intersections and encounters between law and the Shoah in a number of jurisdictions, across a significant time period, makes it impossible for us to ignore or forget the intimate and complex relationship between law and the Holocaust.

David Fraser, author of Law after Auschwitz: Towards a Jurisprudence of the Holocaust

An invaluable book about significant trials conducted by the United States, certain European countries, and Israel against German government officials, military officers, and non-German collaborators with the Holocaust. It will educate, expand, and enlighten every readers knowledge about one of the most tragic events in human history, perpetrated by one of the most culturally, medically, scientifically, artistically, and politically advanced civilizations the world has ever known. Bazyler and Tuerkheimer have made a most significant contribution to the study of the Holocaust, and the worlds response.

Stan Levy, Founding National Director of the Bet Tzedek Holocaust Survivors Justice Network

Forgotten Trials of the Holocaust

Michael J. Bazyler and Frank M. Tuerkheimer

New York and London

NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS

New York and London

www.nyupress.org

2014 by Michael J. Bazyler and Frank M. Tuerkheimer

All rights reserved

References to Internet websites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing.

Neither the author nor New York University Press is responsible for URLs that may have expired or changed since the manuscript was prepared.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Bazyler, Michael J., author.

Forgotten trials of the Holocaust / Michael J. Bazyler and Frank M. Tuerkheimer.

pages ; cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-4798-8606-7 (hardback)

1. War crime trialsHistory20th century. 2. War crime trialsEuropeHistory20th century. 3. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) 4. War criminalsEuropeTrials, litigation, etc.. I. Tuerkheimer, Frank M., author. II. Title.

KZ1174.5.B39 2014

341.690268dc23

2014017283

New York University Press books are printed on acid-free paper, and their binding materials are chosen for strength and durability. We strive to use environmentally responsible suppliers and materials to the greatest extent possible in publishing our books.

Manufactured in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Also available as an ebook

publication of trial histories
made possible by a grant:
Jewish Federation of Greater Hartford

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The impetus for this book came from our many years of offering Holocaust-focused courses at our respective law schools and as visiting professors at other law schools around the world. It occurred to us that while several books have been written about individual trials concerning the mass murder of Jews during the Second World War, none has attempted to provide an overview of these prosecutions by actually focusing on the trials themselves. Further, it struck us that since most books on Holocaust trials have been written by academics, our backgrounds both as academicians and trial practitioners could provide a different perspective on these trials. Knowing that much has been written about the Nuremberg trial of major Nazi defendants and the Eichmann trial, we quickly decided that there was no need for yet another book on these trials. Rather, we aimed to focus on trials that remain largely unknown, not only to the general public, but even to many scholars. The ten trials we selected aim to reveal to the reader not just an intimate description of the Holocaust in operation, but an illustration of how different legal systems, over almost six decades, confronted the German plan to exterminate European Jewry.

We are indebted to many persons who have provided invaluable assistance to us as we have written this book. Both of us are indebted to Jennifer Hammer, our editor at New York University Press, and her assistant, Constance Grady. Their comments and advice, and their selection of extremely knowledgeable reviewers who have provided us with numerous helpful suggestions, vastly improved the end product which follows in these pages. Thanks also to Dan Geist and Professor Peter Hayes for their many helpful editorial suggestions.

With respect to the chapters written by Michael Bazyler, he is grateful to his faculty assistant Mary DeVlugt and law library assistant Deborah Lipton of the Dale E. Fowler School of Law at Chapman University. Professor Marilyn Harran at the Rodgers Center for Holocaust Education at Chapman University is a superb colleague, educator, and scholar, who took time out of her busy schedule to review the manuscript and provide very useful comments. A large number of Chapman law students provided invaluable research and cite-checking assistance. They include Tamara Rider, Malka Barhodari, Alison Bollbach, Nicole Hughes, Blair Russell, and Kellyanne Gold. William Elperin, president of The 1939 Society and his wife Rosemary also provided inspiration and guidance. Last, Michael is especially thankful to his independent editor, Bonny V. Fetterman.