משפט, חברה ותרבות, כרך ג', משפט ורגשות, עורכים אורית רוזין ויורם שחר , 2020
Jewish Betrayal: The Court as an Emotional Arena in Legal Proceedings of Jewish Collaborators (H... more Jewish Betrayal: The Court as an Emotional Arena in Legal Proceedings of Jewish Collaborators (Hebrew)
The article focuses on the negative emotions expressed in the testimonies during the legal proceedings of Jews accused under the Nazis and Nazi Collaborators (Punishment) Law, 1950, and offers a common denominator: those Jews betrayed the Jewish people. The article exposes the tension and discrepancy between the negative emotions and the legal categories of the Law showing that their roots lie in the State's decision to deal with the complexity of the unprecedented phenomenon of Jewish collaboration with the Nazis through "ordinary" criminal categories that were not intended to cope with the complex situations that the Holocaust called for Jews. The survivors- witnesses understood what the legislators missed, and during their testimonies formed alongside the individual legal discussion, a community accounting with the accused that was detached from the Law and the indictments. In this way, the survivors established the court as a public emotional arena in which they laid out their daily lives in ghettos and camps under the supervision of Jewish superiors.
The article offers a narrative analysis of the testimonies that allows to understand the unprecedented reality in the ghetto and camp, not only as a legal story intended to convict or acquit, but also as a historical story that seeks to breathe life into the legal categories, thereby joining the legal rules to create a more complete legal story. Focusing on the testimonies, the article contributes to the growing literature on the issue of Jewish collaboration with the Nazis which, until the early 2000s, did not receive any scholarly attention. The article also contributes to the current discussion of the place of emotions in criminal proceedings, seeking to challenge the assumption that the legal proceedings procedure allow to channel feelings into a legal language that is consistent with legislation and judgment. The article shows that the legal language has failed to touch the survivors and their lives in ghettos and camps.
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Papers by Rivka Brot
The article focuses on the negative emotions expressed in the testimonies during the legal proceedings of Jews accused under the Nazis and Nazi Collaborators (Punishment) Law, 1950, and offers a common denominator: those Jews betrayed the Jewish people. The article exposes the tension and discrepancy between the negative emotions and the legal categories of the Law showing that their roots lie in the State's decision to deal with the complexity of the unprecedented phenomenon of Jewish collaboration with the Nazis through "ordinary" criminal categories that were not intended to cope with the complex situations that the Holocaust called for Jews. The survivors- witnesses understood what the legislators missed, and during their testimonies formed alongside the individual legal discussion, a community accounting with the accused that was detached from the Law and the indictments. In this way, the survivors established the court as a public emotional arena in which they laid out their daily lives in ghettos and camps under the supervision of Jewish superiors.
The article offers a narrative analysis of the testimonies that allows to understand the unprecedented reality in the ghetto and camp, not only as a legal story intended to convict or acquit, but also as a historical story that seeks to breathe life into the legal categories, thereby joining the legal rules to create a more complete legal story. Focusing on the testimonies, the article contributes to the growing literature on the issue of Jewish collaboration with the Nazis which, until the early 2000s, did not receive any scholarly attention. The article also contributes to the current discussion of the place of emotions in criminal proceedings, seeking to challenge the assumption that the legal proceedings procedure allow to channel feelings into a legal language that is consistent with legislation and judgment. The article shows that the legal language has failed to touch the survivors and their lives in ghettos and camps.
Dr. Sarah Ozacky-Lazar's review on my book "In the Gray zone: The Jewish Kapo on Trial" (Hebrew)
מוזמנות ומוזמנים
created by the Jews in displaced camps in the American
Occupation Zone in Germany. At the center of the article is the
tension between the Jewish displaced persons (DPs) and the
American Army and Military Government, about the question of
the legality of the Jewish camp courts, and the attempt to put it
in the correct legal and political context. The article focuses on
the relationship between the Jewish communal law and the law
of the sovereign, namely the Military Government Law. It aims
first and foremost to shed light both on the diverse and complex
legal system created by the Jewish DPs in the American
Occupation Zone and on the ‘legal’ relationship between the
Jewish legal system and the Military Government Law. The two
sides confronted over the scope of jurisdiction while the Military
Government applied on any person in the American Occupation
Zone including the Jewish DPs while the Jewish internal law
applied on Jewish DPs only. The insistence of the Jewish DPs on
legal autonomy reveals not only the role of law in reconstructing
Jewish community after the Holocaust but also its role in their
ongoing social-political struggle for national ‘self-determination’
and recognition as a distinct national collective. With the
dismantling of the DP camps and the emigration of Jews from
Germany, the struggle for legal autonomy ended naturally.
Indeed, it was a very brief chapter in Jewish history; however, this
does not detract from the importance of the political and legal
aspects of the Jewish struggle for recognition as a distinct
national collective. Within a short time, the Jewish DPs set up a
‘national laboratory’ of sorts for the purpose of reconstructing a
Jewish collective using the law as a significant measure.
The article focuses on the negative emotions expressed in the testimonies during the legal proceedings of Jews accused under the Nazis and Nazi Collaborators (Punishment) Law, 1950, and offers a common denominator: those Jews betrayed the Jewish people. The article exposes the tension and discrepancy between the negative emotions and the legal categories of the Law showing that their roots lie in the State's decision to deal with the complexity of the unprecedented phenomenon of Jewish collaboration with the Nazis through "ordinary" criminal categories that were not intended to cope with the complex situations that the Holocaust called for Jews. The survivors- witnesses understood what the legislators missed, and during their testimonies formed alongside the individual legal discussion, a community accounting with the accused that was detached from the Law and the indictments. In this way, the survivors established the court as a public emotional arena in which they laid out their daily lives in ghettos and camps under the supervision of Jewish superiors.
The article offers a narrative analysis of the testimonies that allows to understand the unprecedented reality in the ghetto and camp, not only as a legal story intended to convict or acquit, but also as a historical story that seeks to breathe life into the legal categories, thereby joining the legal rules to create a more complete legal story. Focusing on the testimonies, the article contributes to the growing literature on the issue of Jewish collaboration with the Nazis which, until the early 2000s, did not receive any scholarly attention. The article also contributes to the current discussion of the place of emotions in criminal proceedings, seeking to challenge the assumption that the legal proceedings procedure allow to channel feelings into a legal language that is consistent with legislation and judgment. The article shows that the legal language has failed to touch the survivors and their lives in ghettos and camps.
Dr. Sarah Ozacky-Lazar's review on my book "In the Gray zone: The Jewish Kapo on Trial" (Hebrew)
מוזמנות ומוזמנים
created by the Jews in displaced camps in the American
Occupation Zone in Germany. At the center of the article is the
tension between the Jewish displaced persons (DPs) and the
American Army and Military Government, about the question of
the legality of the Jewish camp courts, and the attempt to put it
in the correct legal and political context. The article focuses on
the relationship between the Jewish communal law and the law
of the sovereign, namely the Military Government Law. It aims
first and foremost to shed light both on the diverse and complex
legal system created by the Jewish DPs in the American
Occupation Zone and on the ‘legal’ relationship between the
Jewish legal system and the Military Government Law. The two
sides confronted over the scope of jurisdiction while the Military
Government applied on any person in the American Occupation
Zone including the Jewish DPs while the Jewish internal law
applied on Jewish DPs only. The insistence of the Jewish DPs on
legal autonomy reveals not only the role of law in reconstructing
Jewish community after the Holocaust but also its role in their
ongoing social-political struggle for national ‘self-determination’
and recognition as a distinct national collective. With the
dismantling of the DP camps and the emigration of Jews from
Germany, the struggle for legal autonomy ended naturally.
Indeed, it was a very brief chapter in Jewish history; however, this
does not detract from the importance of the political and legal
aspects of the Jewish struggle for recognition as a distinct
national collective. Within a short time, the Jewish DPs set up a
‘national laboratory’ of sorts for the purpose of reconstructing a
Jewish collective using the law as a significant measure.