1. The House of Justice Flashcards
What was the political nature of the Eichmann trial?
Ben-Gurion had set it up as a show trial
Who was the chief presiding judge of the trial?
Judge Landau
What were Arendt’s own concerns?
She was less concerned with justice than with the questions behind how and why the Holocaust had happened
Who was the chief prosecutor
Hausner
What did Arendt see as hypocritical about the trial?
The prosecution had claimed to make no ethnic distinctions (Jew/Gentile); precedent in Israeli history indicated otherwise, and Israel’s laws regarding inter-ethnic marriage resembled the Nuremburg laws
What is the principle of Jewish justice?
The belief that only Jews can judge crimes against the Jewish people
What were Ben-Gurion’s aims regarding the trial’s effect on the international community?
Shame with regards to the Holocaust
What were Ben-Gurion’s aims regarding the trial’s effect on international Jews?
Propaganda that would lead Jews to believe that they would only be safe in a Jewish homeland
What is the problem with Zionism and Jewish exceptionalism?
A Jewish homeland would make it a nation among nations
What are Arendt’s beliefs regarding general anti-semitism after the war?
That it was sublimated; that people didn’t become non-antisemitic in principle but rather that they just found the outcomes atrocious
Why did Arendt think the Jews had submitted so peacefully to the Holocaust?
Fear of torture
What was the Nazi ethos with regards to the Jews?
That they must be dehumanized before being killed
What was the reaction of Arabs during and after the war?
Sympathy for Hitler and the Final Solution
What circumstances indicated a general indifference towards the Holocaust after the war?
Nazis either thrived in Germany or found places to live abroad and didn’t even have to live under assumed names
How did Germany try to compensate for its public perception before the Eichmann trial?
By rounding up and prosecuting Nazis
