• Date: 11 October 2011
• Time: 17.30-19.30 (lecture starts at 18.00)
• Organizer: Peace Palace Library
• Venue: Peace Palace Library, Historic Reading Room, Carnegieplein 2, The Hague

In 1961, Adolf Eichmann (1906-1962), a former SS-Obersturmbannführer, was accused, before a court in Jerusalem, of helping Hitler in his plan to exterminate the Jews in the Second World War. He was found guilty on all charges and subsequently hanged in a prison near Tel Aviv in June 1962. The trial was omnipresent in Israeli and global politics, media and academic discussions. Especially due to the work of Hannah Ahrendt, Eichmann became known as the embodiment of the banality of evil, the Schreibtischmörderer who slavishly and uncritically carried out orders from the top of the bureaucracy.

Documents recently disclosed and studied by Dr. Birn shed some interesting new light on the case. They give the impression that the Israeli prosecutor in the Eichmann case was ill-prepared, and that his investigation had significant gaps.

Professor Thomas Mertens will present his recently published book on the Eichmann trial and the controversial reporting by Hannah Arendt. 

Professor Harmen van der Wilt will compare the Eichmann trial with standards and the practice of modern day prosecutions.  

The Peace Palace Library Lecture Series consists of approximately four lectures a year about issues of international public law. Each lecture will start with a small reception in the library’s new reading room, followed by the lecture in the historical reading room. The Lecture Series are open to everyone and are especially interesting for researchers and students, as well as diplomats, international civil servants, journalists and other professionals working in the field of international public law.

Please register by sending an email to Otto Spijkers at o.spijkers@ppl.nl. We hope to see you there!