Experiments with Truth

The catastrophic fate of European Jewry during the years of National Socialism in Germany and the subsequent calamity of the holocaust for both Jews and other minorities under the Third Reich have continued to press on contemporary thinkers and historians the difficult task of coming to terms with its features. While the holocaust or Shoah remains representative of a form of state crime, its overwhelming singularity is today tested by many cases of state impunity, systemic violence, repression, war crimes, and gross human rights violations - especially in the Balkan and Rwanda. In the wake of the debates around such violations new and formidable categories of jurisprudence are emerging in which such notions as transitional justice, global justice, and universal jurisdiction are working to reshape the nature of judicial sovereignty on the one hand and accountability on the other in the post-cold war period. Experiments with Truth engages with the viccissitudes of the emerging debates around "Truth and Reconciliation," new forms of gobal justice, testimonies and memories of communities. In this volume a wide range of intellectuals, artists, filmmakers, and historians respond to the challenge of transitional justice in often difficult but illuminating ways. (German edition available, ISBN 3-7757-9079-9)