Lecture by Prof. Dr. Leora Bilsky

Fritz Bauer Lecture

Moderation: Dr. Markus Roth, Fritz Bauer Institut

The attempt of the Allies to bring Nazi leaders to justice in Nuremberg has challenged the law. One of the novelties of the trial was the admission of a new type of eye-witness to genocide – the camera. It was an attempt to adapt the trial to »crimes beyond imagination« but, at the same time, it threatened to bring the trial closer to its feared Other – the »show trial«. This lecture turns to the writings of Rachel Auerbach, a Holocaust survivor from Warsaw ghetto, who was a member in the clandestine »Oyneg Shabas« (Ringelblum) archive group. The lecture will focus on one aspect of her radical vision during the Eichmann trial – how to re-conceptualize the role of the victim as eyewitness to genocide.

Prof. Dr. Leora Bilsky

holds the Benno Gitter Chair in Human Rights and Holocaust Studies at the Buchman Faculty of Law and is Director of the Minerva Centre for Human Rights at Tel Aviv University. She is author of many publications.