AAARGH
Jerusalem (April 16, 2001) - No one could have known on April
11, 1961, just how much of an impact the trial of Adolf Eichmann
would have on Israeli history and society, but the result of that
seminal moment was so great that two conferences are being held
this week to mark its 40th anniversary.
Last night saw the opening of a two-day symposium jointly sponsored
by Hebrew University and Yad Vashem, while tomorrow begins a two-day
conference at Ben-Gurion University. Both gatherings will focus
not so much on the trial, but rather on how it influenced and
forever changed Israeli society, from the educational system to
the way Israelis look at themselves.
"One of the impacts on society was the vision of Israel's
place vis-a-vis the other nations, Israel's place in the world,"
said Hanna Yablonka, a lecturer at Ben-Gurion University and author
of The State of Israel vs. Adolf Eichmann, just published in Hebrew
and due out in English in September.
"The concept that 'all the world is against us,' was very
much emphasized during the trial. It was a concept that Israelis
have a predestination - they are predestined to be hated, they
will never be a normal state among other states."
Until that time, Yablonka said, one of the successes of Zionism
was that it gave Jews a sense of normalcy, that despite having
enemies like the Arabs, there was never a feeling that the whole
world was against the Jews.
"It gave a very pessimistic worldview," said Yablonka,
who is participating at both conferences. "It is a key to
understanding some of the fears, the existential fears, of Israelis,
even today, and to understand some of the decision-making processes
in Israel, because those who were in their youth in those days
are today holding the country on their shoulders."
One of the most important things to come out of the Eichmann trial,
on a universal level, according to Ya'acov Lozowick, director
of archives at Yad Vashem, was Hannah Arendt's concept of "the
banality of evil," which Lozowick explained as how one "can
get caught up in something and not realize what you are doing,
not truly realizing what you are doing - you get carried along
by the winds of history and peer pressure, all sorts of other
things," and not because you subscribe to the ideology of
murdering Jews.
"Outside of Israel, that concept is probably the main thing
the Eichmann trial is remembered for," he said. "[Arendt]
was one of the most intelligent people in the 20th century in
the whole globe, but she was wrong on that one.
"Many accept her concept of the 'banality of evil' as something
that she was right about. Having read the documents of Eichmann
-- not the trial, of Eichmann -- I think she was wrong,"
he said.
Perhaps the single greatest impact on Israeli society, historians
agree, is how the trial brought forward the whole subject of the
Holocaust, for Israelis and specifically for survivors.
"It raised the consciousness of Israeli society to what had
happened," said David Bankier, head of the International
Research Institute of Yad Vashem and a professor at Hebrew University.
"Until then the survivors were rather silent about their
ordeal - this gave legitimacy to the cultural and political presence
of the survivors in Israeli society. Before that they felt ashamed,
compared to the heroes, the Israeli sabras, who had fought the
Arabs.
"After the trial, their suffering was part of something that
could be presented and not be ashamed of."
Survivors felt ashamed, Bankier said, also by the way they were
regarded by the Israelis.
"One of the reasons was the way the sabras looked at them
- as losers.
"These people just created the state, and beat up seven Arab
nations, and suddenly you have these people coming from Europe
having achieved nothing, short of surviving."
Yablonka said the trial "really started an historical process,
an historical turning point, in the way Israelis knew the Holocaust.
They had a lot of information, but most of them, those who were
not survivors, knew about the Holocaust for the first time and
first-hand during the Eichmann trial."
He said that as a result of the trial, the education system was
forced to change.
"The impact of the trial was so profound that the educational
system had to adapt, and one of the adaptations it made was putting,
slowly, the Holocaust chapter into a central place in the educational
system," she said. "Today it's a must, an obligatory
course for matriculation.
"After the trial they wrote books to study from - there were
no books to study the Holocaust before that. And they started
the trips to Poland as a result, in 1963, as an initiative of
Holocaust survivors who testified at trial."
The one thing that bothers Yablonka today about the Eichmann episode
is that the authorities wouldn't let historians interview Eichmann
in jail.
"Many historians applied, and all were denied this very important
witness to be questioned," she said. "It was a very
big loss for historiography."
Asked to explain Israel's position, Yablonka said, "They
didn't want the show to be stolen from them."
The Jerusalem Post, 16 avril 2001. This article can also
be read at <http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2001/04/16/News/News.24671.html>
<http://cgis.jpost.com/cgi-bin/General/printarticle.cgi?article=/Editions/200
1/04/16/News/News.24671.html>
Displayed on AAARGH 10 May 2001
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