Losing Trust in the World
Holocaust Scholars Confront Torture
Published on 5. December 2016
Book
Paperback/Softback
245 pages
978-0-295-99846-6 (ISBN)
Description
In July 1943, the Gestapo arrested an obscure member of the resistance movement in Nazi-occupied Belgium. When his torture-inflicting interrogators determined he was no use to them and that he was a Jew, he was deported to Auschwitz. Liberated in 1945, Jean Amery went on to write a series of essays about his experience. No reflections on torture are more compelling.
Amery declared that the victims of torture lose trust in the world at the "very first blow." The contributors to this volume use their expertise in Holocaust studies to reflect on ethical, religious, and legal aspects of torture then and now. Their inquiry grapples with the euphemistic language often used to disguise torture and with the question of whether torture ever constitutes a "necessary evil." Differences of opinion reverberate, raising deeper questions: Can trust be restored? What steps can we as individuals and as a society take to move closer to a world in which torture is unthinkable?
Amery declared that the victims of torture lose trust in the world at the "very first blow." The contributors to this volume use their expertise in Holocaust studies to reflect on ethical, religious, and legal aspects of torture then and now. Their inquiry grapples with the euphemistic language often used to disguise torture and with the question of whether torture ever constitutes a "necessary evil." Differences of opinion reverberate, raising deeper questions: Can trust be restored? What steps can we as individuals and as a society take to move closer to a world in which torture is unthinkable?
Reviews / Votes
"A compelling body of essays. . . . Readable and challenging. In the end, I'm not sure I know exactly how to 'confront' torture. But I am better equipped to try."- Kelly McFall (New Books in Genocide Studies (NBN)) "Losing Trust in the World: Holocaust Scholars Confront Torture, in which Holocaust scholars employ their expertise to target the crime of torture, is long overdue. . . . [Survivors of torture] know that the only way to put an end to the horror of such abuse is by telling their stories and building alliances with others. . . . The very existence of the book signals that these Holocaust scholars intend to be powerful allies in that struggle."
(Human Rights Quarterly)
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Seattle
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 150 mm
Thickness: 15 mm
Weight
318 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-295-99846-6 (9780295998466)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Leonard Grob is professor emeritus of philosophy at Fairleigh Dickinson University. John K. Roth is the Edward J. Sexton Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and founding director of the Center for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights (now the Mgrublian Center for Human Rights), Claremont McKenna College. The other contributors are Margaret Brearley, Suzanne Brown-Fleming, Dorota Glowacka, Peter J. Haas, Bjoern Krondorfer, David Patterson, Sarah K. Pinnock, and Didier Pollefeyt.
Content
Prologue The Questions of Torture / Leonard Grob and John K. Roth
Part One What Is Torture?
1. Torture during the Holocaust: Responsible Witnessing / Leonard Grob
2. Torture / Bjoern Krondorfer
3. Speech under Torture: Bearing Witness to the Howl / Dorota Glowacka
Part Two Is Torture Justifiable?
4. Johann Baptist Neuhaeusler and Torture in Dachau / Suzanne Brown-Fleming
5. The Emerging Halachic Debate about Torture / Peter J. Haas
6. Torture in Light of the Holocaust: An Impossible Possibility / Didier Pollefeyt
7. The Justification of Suffering: Holocaust Theodicy and Torture / Sarah K. Pinnock
Part Three What Can Be Done about Torture?
8. Assuaging Pain: Therapeutic Care for Torture Survivors / Margaret Brearley
9. Torture and the Totalitarian Appropriation of the Human Being: From National Socialism to Islamic Jidhadism / David Patterson
10. Crying Out: Rape as Torture and the Responsibility to Protect / John K. Roth
Epilogue Again, the Questions of Torture / Leonard Grob and John K. Roth
Selected Bibliography
Editors and Contributors
Index
Part One What Is Torture?
1. Torture during the Holocaust: Responsible Witnessing / Leonard Grob
2. Torture / Bjoern Krondorfer
3. Speech under Torture: Bearing Witness to the Howl / Dorota Glowacka
Part Two Is Torture Justifiable?
4. Johann Baptist Neuhaeusler and Torture in Dachau / Suzanne Brown-Fleming
5. The Emerging Halachic Debate about Torture / Peter J. Haas
6. Torture in Light of the Holocaust: An Impossible Possibility / Didier Pollefeyt
7. The Justification of Suffering: Holocaust Theodicy and Torture / Sarah K. Pinnock
Part Three What Can Be Done about Torture?
8. Assuaging Pain: Therapeutic Care for Torture Survivors / Margaret Brearley
9. Torture and the Totalitarian Appropriation of the Human Being: From National Socialism to Islamic Jidhadism / David Patterson
10. Crying Out: Rape as Torture and the Responsibility to Protect / John K. Roth
Epilogue Again, the Questions of Torture / Leonard Grob and John K. Roth
Selected Bibliography
Editors and Contributors
Index