000 04330cam a2200433Ki 4500
001 ocn883663767
003 OCoLC
005 20240726105007.0
008 140715s2014 tnuab ob 001 0 eng d
040 _aVALIL
_beng
_erda
_epn
_cVALIL
_dYDXCP
_dIDEBK
_dCDX
_dP@U
_dOCLCF
_dE7B
_dCOO
_dEBLCP
_dNT
020 _a9781621900702
_q((electronic)l(electronic)ctronic)
043 _ae-pl---
_ae-gw---
_ae-gx---
050 0 4 _aD804
_b.E949 2014
049 _aNTA
100 1 _aBryant, Michael S.,
_d1962-
_e1
245 1 0 _aEyewitness to genocide :
_bthe Operation Reinhard death camp trials, 1955-1966 /
_cMichael S. Bryant.
260 _aKnoxville :
_bThe University of Tennessee Press,
_c(c)2014.
300 _a1 online resource (xii, 312 pages)
336 _atext
_btxt
_2rdacontent
337 _acomputer
_bc
_2rdamedia
338 _aonline resource
_bcr
_2rdacarrier
347 _adata file
_2rda
490 1 _aLegacies of war
504 _a2
505 0 0 _aA subject for jurisprudence: from the Ulm Einsatzgruppen trial to the creation of the Ludwigsburg central office, 1956-1960 --
_tThe queen of the dead: the investigation and trial of the Belzec death camp --
_tWho killed the Jews? The Treblinka investigation and trial --
_tMurdering star: the Sobibor investigation and trial --
_tHandy-dandy justice: Nazi crimes and the self-absolution of the West German Judiciary.
520 0 _aOne of the deadliest phases of the Holocaust, the Nazi regime's "Operation Reinhard" produced three major death camps--Belzec, Treblinka, and Sobibor--which claimed the lives of 1.8 million Jews. In the 1960s, a small measure of justice came for those victims when a score of defendants who had been officers and guards at the camps were convicted of war crimes in West German courts. The conviction rates varied, however. While all but one of fourteen Treblinka defendants were convicted, half of the twelve Sobibor defendants escaped punishment, and only one of eight Belzec defendants was convicted. Also, despite the enormity of the crimes, the sentences were light in many cases, amounting to only a few years in prison. In this meticulous history of the Operation Reinhard trials, Michael S. Bryant examines a disturbing question: Did compromised jurists engineer acquittals or lenient punishments for proven killers? Drawing on rarely studied archival sources, Bryant concludes that the trial judges acted in good faith within the bounds of West German law. The key to successful prosecutions was eyewitness testimony. At Belzec, the near-total efficiency of the Nazi death machine meant that only one survivor could be found to testify. At Treblinka and Sobibor, however, prisoner revolts had resulted in a number of survivors who could give firsthand accounts of specific atrocities and identify participants. The courts, Bryant finds, treated these witnesses with respect and even made allowances for conflicting testimony. And when handing down sentences, the judges acted in accordance with strict legal definitions of perpetration, complicity, and action under duress. Yet, despite these findings, Bryant also shows that West German legal culture was hardly blameless during the postwar era. Though ready to convict the mostly workingclass personnel of the death camps, the Federal Republic followed policies that insulated the judicial elite from accountability for its own role in the Final Solution. While trial records show that the "bias" of West German jurists was neither direct nor personal, the structure of the system ensured that lawyers and judges themselves avoided judgment.
530 _a2
_ub
650 0 _aWar crime trials
_zGermany.
650 0 _aWorld War, 1939-1945
_xAtrocities
_zPoland.
650 0 _aOperation Reinhard, Poland, 1942-1943.
650 0 _aWorld War, 1939-1945
_xLaw and legislation.
650 0 _aHolocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
_zPoland
_xInfluence.
650 0 _aHolocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
_xHistoriography.
655 1 _aElectronic Books.
856 4 0 _uhttps://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=1083152&site=eds-live&custid=s3260518
_zClick to access digital title | log in using your CIU ID number and my.ciu.edu password
942 _cOB
_D
_eEB
_hD.
_m2014
_QOL
_R
_x
_8NFIC
_2LOC
994 _a02
_bNT
999 _c85351
_d85351
902 _a1
_bCynthia Snell
_c1
_dCynthia Snell