Discussions dealing with the Holocaust often revolve around the atrocity of the event itself. But last night Harry Reicher, director of international affairs at an Orthodox Jewish lobbying group, spoke about the legal implications.
Reicher, of Agudath Israel World Organization, discussed the challenges facing the legal community regarding the accuracy of the testimony of Holocaust survivors.
"When we speak of memory, we don't speak of something tangible, but it is still a fundamental part of who and what we are," said Reicher, a Holocaust expert. "Holocaust memories are products of human psyche and, like human beings, themselves imperfect."
He noted that survivors tend to remember core facts of their trauma rather than peripheral details.
Reicher, who is also an adjunct professor at the University's Law School, explained that many survivors refused to speak immediately after the Holocaust. Now, however, as they grow older, many are giving their testimony and writing memoirs.
And according to Reicher, these memoirs help move the Holocaust "from the abstract to the concrete... to a figure of one to that of six million."
Reicher discussed ways in which Holocaust memories are relevant in the legal world.
He cited the Nuremberg and Eichmann trials, as well as other trials in the U.S. and Israel, as examples where testimonies were accepted as valid evidence.
Another legal issue is that of reparations and compensation for survivors. In these applications, the testimony of survivors is often called into question due to the inaccurate memories of the applicants, Reicher said.
Recently, those who deny the Holocaust have begun "seizing onto the testimony of survivors that are found to be slightly inaccurate [and] use these imperfections to expunge the testimony as a whole," Reicher explained.
Reicher suggested a few key concepts to remember when dealing with memory.
He emphasized that there is no such thing as a perfect memory, adding that the legal system does not require perfection and accepts a level of reasonable doubt.
Reicher was born in Prague, Czech Republic, a city that had one of the largest Jewish communities before World War II.
Perhaps the most moving part of the whole evening was during the question-and-answer session when Tomas Radil, a Holocaust survivor and visiting scientist to the University, stood up and spoke.
Radil, also from Prague, talked about the humiliation he and fellow survivors have experienced in Eastern Europe in trying to receive reparations, noting that payments have been pushed off year after year as more survivors die.
Radil said that time is endangering the memory of the Holocaust.
"The real danger is not denial," he said. "The real danger is oblivion." He added that the recent documentation of testimony may be too late.
Several audience members said they enjoyed the talk.
Andrew Schissler, an Engineering freshman, said it "was a very interesting and moving presentation." He added that since his grandmother was still waiting for reparations, he found the talk extremely relevant.
Reicher spoke to a crowd of 50 students, faculty and community residents in College Hall. His lecture, entitled "Holocaust Era Testimony: Frailties of Memory and the Eliding of Belief into Recollection," was the last in the Penn Humanities Forum's lecture series on "belief."
