Judging Auschwitz: Murder, Genocide and the Challenges of Legal InterpretationHow does one go about judging the greatest mass crimes in history? Can one do so using categories developed for far more mundane circumstances? What are the legal and political stakes involved in such cases? German courts in the 1950s and 1960s confronted these questions, as the country tried to prosecute Nazi genocide as murder under ordinary statutory law. Devin Pendas discusses the most famous such trial, the Frankfurt Auschwitz trial, and explores the way the judges in that case tried to do justice for mass crimes using ordinary law.
Devin Pendas is an associate professor of history at Boston College. His research focuses on war crimes trials after World War II, particularly on West German Holocaust trials. In addition to many articles, he is the author of the acclaimed book, The Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial, 1963-1965: History, Genocide and the Limits of the Law (Cambridge University Press, 2006). Professor Pendas is a faculty affiliate and co-chair of the German Study Group at the Center for European Studies at Harvard University.
Introductions will be made by UVM Hilberg Professor of History, Frank Nicosia and VLS Professor of Law, Robert Rachlin. This event is free and open to the public.]]>Oakes Hall Classroom 007Professor Robert Rachlin at (802) 831-1366 or <a href="mailto:rrachlin@vermontlaw.edu">rrachlin@vermontlaw.edu</a>20110224T05:00:0020101216T22:00:00