Online Class: Justice and the Holocaust

In this three-session online class led by Prof. Michael Bazyler, learn about steps taken to achieve criminal and civil justice after the Holocaust and the modern implications for international criminal law and U.S. domestic law. This class meets on Zoom for three consecutive Mondays, October 20, 27, and November 3 at 4:00pm PDT. Each session is approximately 60 minutes. 

October 20: Criminal Justice 

The first session explores landmark legal proceedings post-World War II aimed at holding Nazi war criminals accountable. The Nuremberg Trials (1945-1949) stand as a foundational moment in international criminal law, where key Nazi leaders were tried for crimes against humanity, war crimes, and conspiracy. We also examine the Eichmann Trial in Israel (1961-1962), the prosecution of one of the Nazi masterminds of the genocide of the Jewish people during the Second World War. Lastly, we examine the trials of Nazi war criminals in Germany in the 21st century, the last of the last set of trials of the few still-living Holocaust perpetrators.  

October 27: Civil Justice 

The second session addresses the ongoing efforts to provide some measure of civil justice to Holocaust survivors and heirs through financial compensation to the victims of Nazi plunder. Our focus will be on the restitution of stolen property, including looted art, as well as the complex issues surrounding stolen Swiss bank accounts, stolen Holocaust-era insurance policies and compensation of slave labor to survivors of the extermination-through- work conducted by the Nazis. The locus of the Holocaust restitution movement was the United States through lawsuits brought in American courts. Why? What have these lawsuits achieved? 

November 3: The Modern Implications of Criminal and Civil Justice 

The third and final session focuses on how the legal precedents set by the Nuremberg and Eichmann Trials and subsequent civil justice efforts in the 1990s and early 2000s in the United States continue to influence and shape modern international law and domestic law. Ongoing cases before the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and other litigation stemming from the October 7 pogrom in Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza will be discussed. We also examine ongoing efforts by the United States to help obtain compensation for stolen land and other real estate stolen from Jews during the Holocaust and never returned. We examine the role of the Office of Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues at the U.S. Department of State.  

Michael Bazyler, Professor of Law and the 1939 Law Scholar in Holocaust and Human Rights Studies at Chapman University Fowler School of Law, is a leading expert on Holocaust restitution and the legal redress for genocide and other mass atrocities. He has held positions and fellowships at Harvard Law School, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C. and Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, where he was the holder of the Baron Friedrich Carl von Oppenheim Chair. A prolific scholar, Bazyler has authored seven books and numerous scholarly articles and book chapters on the topic of law and the Holocaust. His book Holocaust Justice (2003) was cited by the Supreme Court of the United States, and his Holocaust, Genocide and the Law (2016) was the winner of the National Jewish Book Award for 2016. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany. 

Reserve your space in the class HERE. Tuition for this class is $36 for Museum members and $54 for non-members.

Not yet a member? Join HERE.