Media

The 1961 trial of Adolf Eichmann is considered a landmark event in the post-Holocaust era. It shaped the international community's understanding of Nazi atrocities; it sparked debates and controversies on the viability of justice in the aftermath of genocide, and it ushered in a new awareness of the meaning and practice of witnessing. One of the most fascinating aspects of this historic trial was its notable representation in contemporary media coverage. From the start of the trial in April 1961 and until Eichmann's execution about 14 months thereafter, newspapers, radio, and TV outlets throughout the world communicated the dramatic events that transpired in the Jerusalem court to international audiences. Focusing on this aspect, the three presenters in this panel will analyze the particular effects of the trial's media presence in the United States, in Israel, and in Germany. Through their respective fields of expertise, they will discuss the public discourse that emerged in the three countries in response to the coverage, as well as the long-term impact that it had on the memory and interpretation of the trial. Presentations: Jeffrey Schandler: "The Eichmann Trial on American Television" Kerstin Steitz: "The Public Discourse About the Eichmann Trial in the German Press in the 1960s" Amit Pinchevsky: "Eichmann on the Airwaves" Moderated by Sheer Ganor (UMN, History) Presented by the Center for Holocaust & Genocide Studies and the Ray Wolpow Institute at Western Washington University. Co-sponsored by the Center for German & European Studies and the Center for Jewish Studies. Paid for in part with the Wexler Fund for Holocaust & Genocide Education

In his new book, Transmitted Wounds, Amit Pinchevski explores the ways media technology and logic shape the social life of trauma both clinically and culturally. Drawing on a number of case studies such as radio broadcasts of the Eichmann trial, videotapes of Holocaust survivor testimonies, and the recent use of digital platforms for holographic witnessing, he demonstrates how the technological mediation of trauma feeds the traumatic condition itself. His insights have crucial implications for media studies and the digital humanities field as they provide new ways to understand the relationship between technology and human suffering. Pinchevski is an associate professor in the Department of Communication and Journalism at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Since its establishment in 1979, the Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies at Yale University has given rise to numerous studies on history, memory and trauma in the wake of the Holocaust. While acknowledging its audiovisual nature, previous accounts have nevertheless failed to consider the significance of this novel archival formation and how it shapes the production and reception of survivors’ testimonies. This talk occasions an unlikely encounter between the trauma and testimony discourse as developed in the context of the Yale archive, and the theory of “technical media” as developed by German media theorist, Friedrich Kittler. I argue that the trauma and testimony discourse has a technological unconscious in the form of videotape technology, which crucially conditions the way trauma is conceived in this discourse. The question of archiving trauma has special importance today, as the media of cultural memory are changing from analog to digital. I will finally offer some reflections on the status of trauma and testimony under the conditions of digitization.