Tags: trial

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In April 1945, Hermann Goering appears before the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal and in a defiant and frighteningly witty manner defends Nazism, questions the authority of the court, predicts future horrific war crimes, defends Nazi genocide, and evades execution through suicide. He closes the play by interrogating the audience: "What do you think men are?"

A Dead Woman on Holiday

A love story set during the Nuremberg Trials, A Dead Woman on Holiday tells the story of Sophia, a French-Jewish interpreter, and Paul, an American interpreter, as they try to make sense of their growing relationship and come to terms with the trials that they are translating.

An English Tragedy

The true story of a family in turmoil in post-war Britain. English traitor, John Amery, was arrested in Italy in 1945 and brought back to London for trial. He was charged with high treason for making propaganda broadcasts for Nazi Germany. The fact that John Amery was the son of senior politician, Leo Amery, who served in Winston Churchill's cabinet during the war, made the crime all the more controversial.

Angel: A Nightmare in Two Acts

Based on the trial and execution of real-life Nazi war criminal Irma Grese, who became a concentration camp guard at the age of sixteen, was prosecuted by the British in the Belsen trials, and was executed at the age of 22 for her crimes against humanity. A strikingly beautiful woman, she was dubbed by the international press as “The Blonde Angel of Auschwitz.”

Collaborators [משתפי פעולה]

The play is divided to three acts: the first takes place in a Jewish hospital in an unnamed capital city in central Europe in 1943. The second act takes place in the same time and city, but focuses on ghetto life working groups, a Rabbi's story and Eichmann's bloody offer. The third act takes place in Israel, June 1, 1962—Eichmann's trial in Israel. It focuses on the death sentence, the last confession, etc. Then there are nine past visions: the Rabbi, a speech by a diplomat, a burning ghetto and others.

Consequences: The Trial of Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Examines Franklin D. Roosevelt’s immigration policies during WWII through the eyes of survivor Arthur Mandel. When Arthur dies and is seeking admission to heaven, he has two goals: to be reunited with his wife Leah who died in Auschwitz, and to avenge FDR, whose policies were the cause of her death. God grants Mandel permission to put FDR on trial, and from the confrontations of the trial, the play shifts back in time to the romance between Arthur and Leah, as well as to the horror Leah experiences in Auschwitz.

Denial

In a contest of intellect and wills, Abby Gersten, a tenacious civil liberties attorney, defends a right-wing Holocaust denier, arguing her case against a young, committed Jewish federal prosecutor. But Abby may have to sacrifice everything to prove that Truth and Justice do not always go hand in hand.

Judgment at Nuremberg

An obscure American judge arrives in Nuremberg in 1947 to preside over the trial of four German judges, who are accused of crimes against humanity for their role in carrying out heinous laws enacted by the Nazi regime. In addition, the trial is affected by political considerations, as the simmering Cold War with the Soviet Union begins to seem more pressing than meeting out justice for some relatively low-level Nazis.

Perdition

Perdition is a highly controversial play, loosely based on actual circumstances involving Dr. Rudolph Kastner, who negotiatied with Adolph Eichmann, to exchange goods to save 1,685 Jews in Hungary from deportation to the Auschwitz death camp. Kastner was found guilty by an Israeli court of conspiring with the Nazis, a ruling overturned by the Israeli Supreme Court, but not before Kastner was assassinated. Allen’s play, which had its Royal Court Theatre production in London cancelled, suggests that Zionists conspired with the Nazis.

Prozess in Nürnberg

Schneider’s drama is based on a review of prosecution and defense documents from the Nuremberg trials. Hochhuth focuses on four major defendents and in a play written during the Vietnam war draws parallels to contemporary circumstances.

The False Witness: Trial of Adolf Hitler

An allegorical courtroom drama in which Hitler is on trial before a judge of the Eternal Court of Justice. His defense attorney is Martin Luther and his prosecutor Thomas Jefferson. Among the witnesses who testify about the historical roots of the Nazis' anti-Semitism are Shakespeare, Wagner, Henry Ford, Franklin Roosevelt, Pope Pius XII, the Apostle Paul, and Rambam.

The Man in the Glass Booth

The Man in the Glass Booth, by Robert Shaw who was a well-known actor and writer, is somewhat influenced by the capture and trial of Adolf Eichmann. The lead character is Arthur Goldman, a very wealthy Jewish businessmen living in Manhattan in 1965. Israeli secret service agents kidnap him and transport him to Israel, put him in a bulletproof glass booth, and prosecute him, charging that Goldman is not a Jew, but in reality a significant Nazi war criminal, guilty of horrific genocidal crimes. The play has a shocking final dramatic twist.

The Table

The author of The Table comments that her play “is a protest against the law which tries genocide according to the code intended for trivial crimes.” In Fink's drama, a prosecutor is preparing four witnesses to testify about killings by the Gestapo. None of the witnesses can agree about specific details regarding the murders but agree that many were killed on a specific day. Because the prosecutor cannot present witnesses who can identify specific members of the Gestapo nor agree on all of the details, he cannot, according to the letter of the law, gain a conviction.

The Trial of Franklin D. Roosevelt

A play about the ill-fated voyage in 1939 of an ocean liner, the SS St. Louis. On board were more than 900 Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi persecution. Having traveled from Hamburg, Germany to Havana, Cuban officials only allowed a couple dozen passengers to disembark. In desperation, passengers asked the United States to give them sanctuary, but President Franklin D. Roosevelt chose not to override the United States' strict immigration quotas. When they were also refused entry to Canada, the refugees were forced to return to Europe where 254 of the passengers died in the Holocaust. In The Trial of Franklin D. Roosevelt the audience serves as the jury.

The Trials of John Demjanjuk: A Holocaust Cabaret

In 1987, Cleveland auto worker John Demjanjuk was accused of being Ivan the Terrible of Treblinka and brought to trial in Jerusalem for crimes against humanity. The circus of the public trial transforms the courtroom into cabaret, lawyers into Nazis, and survivors into singing emcees.

The White Crow

Subtitled Eichmann in Jerusalem, The White Crow is set in the basement office of an Israeli police station in the summer of 1960. Adolf Eichmann, German SS officer and one of the major organizers of the Holocaust, is under interrogation. He has been tracked down in Argentina and brought to Israel to stand trial for his crimes. The play explores Eichmann’s psyche and goes beyond his defense that he was merely following orders.

Tscherly KaTscherly [צ’ארלי קאצ’רלי]

Tscherly KaTscherly is a character from a children’s rhyme. He is the ultimate “Tsabar” (“Sabra,” the Zionist ideal, Israeli born, through and through “New Jew”). The play is divided into short scenes and songs, a structure once popular in the Zionist’s settlements (similar to a review). The actors portray Tscherly KaTscherly, and parts of the scenes deal with Holocaust issues, such as a camp prisoner, a Nazi officer, etc. The stage is set with three rows of chairs designed to look like a trial scene.

War Criminals and Punishment

Written for the Writers' War Board in order to generate public support of the war effort, War Criminals and Punishment is a radio play in which a captured Adolf Hitler is brought before a court to stand trial for all of the horrors he has inflicted on the world. His murderous acts are described and Jewish victims testify against him.