Facing the Glass Booth: The Jerusalem Trial of Adolf Eichmann

by Haim Gouri, Alan Mintz, Michael Swirsky

Overview

A detailed historical account of Adolf Eichmann’s trial that changed attitudes toward Holocaust survivors in Israeli society.

Facing the Glass Booth, being published in English for the first time, is a detailed account of Eichmann’s trial by the poet and journalist Haim Gouri, who was assigned to cover the event by the Israeli daily newspaper Lamerhav. The trial changed attitudes toward Holocaust survivors in Israeli society. He admits to his initial skepticism toward these witnesses, and yet he learns much from them. Gouri’s account is both a fascinating historical document and a chronicle of an extraordinary poet’s encounter with one of the most terrible events of our times.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780814330876
Publisher:	Wayne State University Press
Publication date:	11/01/2004
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	360
Sales rank:	517,650
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.75(d)

About the Author

Haim Gouri is an award-winning poet, journalist, and novelist, as well as a documentary filmmaker who has devoted much of his career to exploring political and cultural shifts in his country.

Table of Contents

	Foreword	ix
	Translator's Note	xv
	Acknowledgments	xvii
	The First Day	1
	A Speech of Accusation and Lament	6
	Day and Night and Day	12
	A Minor Logistical Officer	16
	Problems of Communication	20
	"That Which Was ..."	23
	Shmuel Grynszpan and Benno Cohen	26
	The Story of God's Servants	31
	The Disciples of the Angel of Death	34
	The Miracles	38
	Why Fear Death?	42
	Marta's Sabbath Dress	49
	Documents, Amsterdam, Copenhagen	53
	"The March to the Star"	57
	The Narrowing Booth	62
	Heinrich-Karl-Ernst Grueber	66
	After a Month	71
	Yitzhak Nehama of Salonica	75
	The Ghost of the Past?	80
	Exhibits T/1091 to T/1099	85
	Hungary, Hungary	90
	The Psychologist	95
	Part of the Crime	101
	The Yoke of Guilt	107
	Our Glorious Brothers	111
	Blaze Forth, Teutonic Fire	116
	A Forest and a Small Railway Station	123
	The Planet of Ashes	128
	Potato Power	131
	In Vino Veritas	137
	The Key?	142
	The Power of the Imagination	147
	The "Legal Basis"	153
	Addenda and Notes	157
	"An Hour to an Hour and a Half"	162
	Ivan and Nikolai	167
	Jacques Stern's Face	171
	In the Madhouse	175
	Ghosts	178
	That Deal	182
	On Assignment	185
	The Cross-Examination	189
	Insomnia	194
	Falsehood	198
	The Puzzle	202
	"Yes, but ..."	206
	Did You Go to Maidanek?	209
	Patrimony	213
	The Bear, the Dog, and the Man	219
	The Categorical Imperative	224
	One Last Chance	228
	Final Questions	233
	The Last Document	238
	The True Picture	244
	The Black Flag	247
	A Concluding Speech	253
	Dr. Robert Servatius	259
	The Jerusalem Trial	266
	Convicted	280
	Words in the Forest	285
	Deserving of Death	288
	No Reply	292
	The Sentence	297
	"Human Rights"	301
	The Book and the Appeal	305
	Making It Short	309
	The Last Round	311
	Afterword to the First Edition	317
	Afterword to the English Edition	321
	Index	329

What People are Saying About This

Professor of Religion and Director of the Elie Wiesel Center for Judaic Studies, Boston University - Steven T. Katz

The publication of Haim Gouri's Facing the Glass Booth is long overdue. This book is an eloquent and compassionate work of journalism, history and literature. It's a unique achievement in Holocaust writing. Not until Gouri's courtroom reporting did the young nation of Israel come to grips with the horrors of World War II. It found the voice to articulate and to chronicle the physical and emotional pain as well as the shame of survivors. Gouri's narrative must be read and re-read in every home, in every generation. Gouri the poet is also Gouri the historian and teacher."

Editorial Reviews

Facing the Glass Booth is a superb translation from the original Hebrew account by Haim Gouri containing the sensitive and profound insights and observations of a journalist/poet who attended the drama unfolding in Jerusalem in April, 1961 as a reporter for the newspaper Lamerhav. Gouri's reportage-cúm-literary work provides a fascinating account of unimaginable evil as well as extraordinary epic of survival that lays bare the physical and emotional scars of the victims and the painful self reproach of many survivors.

Jewish Book World

Facing the Glass Booth is a superb translation from the original Hebrew account by Haim Gouri containing the sensitive and profound insights and observations of a journalist/poet who attended the drama unfolding in Jerusalem in April, 1961 as a reporter for the newspaper Lamerhav. Gouri's reportage-c?m-literary work provides a fascinating account of unimaginable evil as well as extraordinary epic of survival that lays bare the physical and emotional scars of the victims and the painful self reproach of many survivors.--Jewish Book World

The publication of Haim Gouri's Facing the Glass Booth is long overdue. This book is an eloquent and compassionate work of journalism, history and literature. It's a unique achievement in Holocaust writing. Not until Gouri's courtroom reporting did the young nation of Israel come to grips with the horrors of World War II. It found the voice to articulate and to chronicle the physical and emotional pain as well as the shame of survivors. Gouri's narrative must be read and re-read in every home, in every generation. Gouri the poet is also Gouri the historian and teacher."--Steven T. Katz "professor of Religion and director of the Elie Wiesel Center for Judaic Studies, Boston University "

From the Publisher

The publication of Haim Gouri's Facing the Glass Booth is long overdue. This book is an eloquent and compassionate work of journalism, history and literature. It's a unique achievement in Holocaust writing. Not until Gouri's courtroom reporting did the young nation of Israel come to grips with the horrors of World War II. It found the voice to articulate and to chronicle the physical and emotional pain as well as the shame of survivors. Gouri's narrative must be read and re-read in every home, in every generation. Gouri the poet is also Gouri the historian and teacher."

professor of Religion and director of the Elie Wiesel Center for Judaic Studies, Boston University - Steven T. Katz