Alternative “Solutions” to the Nazi “Jewish Question”? Revisiting Adolf Eichmann’s Judenfrage in the Context of Antisemitism, Colonialism, and Postwar Jurisprudence, 1933-1962

Session Submission Type: Panel Session

Abstract

The so-called “Jewish Question” is a central element in the language(s) of the Holocaust, appearing in nearly every document related to the “Final Solution” as well as myriad conversations regarding alternative “solutions.” A preoccupation with the “Jewish Question” was of course most common among Nazi perpetrators and planners; and perhaps no Nazi perpetrator discussed the Judenfrage more ubiquitously, both before and after 1945, than Adolf Eichmann. While historians continue to debate the nature of Adolf Eichmann’s ideology and professional motivations, most notably in regard to his role as “architect of the Final Solution”, the discussion of alternative solutions to the Nazi “Jewish Question”, whether before or after 1945, has received much less attention.

The goal of this panel is to revisit Eichmann’s language around alternative solutions to the “Jewish Question” in three distinct phases, across three distinct caesura: during the Third Reich, in particular in the context of “solving” the “Jewish Question” between 1933 and 1941 (Kurlander); in the immediate postwar period (1945-1949), especially in the context of the Nuremberg Trials (Weinke), examining the testimonies and commentaries of his former collaborators when it came to Eichmann’s discussion of the “Jewish Question”; and during his final years (Théofilakis), notably the Sassen Tapes and his Trial in Jerusalem (1957-1962), including contemporary testimonies and interviews.

Our panel, which will be moderated by Thomas Pegelow Kaplan–– an expert on the antisemitic language and legal context of the Third Reich and Jewish efforts to negotiate that context–– is to assess, via Eichmann’s own words and testimony, the dynamic nature of the “Jewish Question” in the mind of a chief perpetrator, attempting to gauge where, when, and how the language around the “Jewish Question” as a problem to be solved began to connote physical elimination, while interrogating Eichmann's later claims to have only arrived at the “Final Solution” when all other “solutions” had been foreclosed.

Sub Unit

• Holocaust Studies

Chair

• Thomas Pegelow Kaplan, University of Colorado Boulder

Individual Presentations

• “Between Colonialism and the ‘Final Solution’ Revisiting Eichmann’s “Jewish Question” in the Context of Empire, 1933-1941” - Eric Kurlander, Stetson University

• "Eichmann, the “Jewish Question”, and the Politics of (genocidal) Language at Nuremberg” - Annette Weinke

• Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem, the "Territorial Solution", and the Soft Version of the "Final Solution” - Fabien THEOFILAKIS, University Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne

Zoom Host

• Zoom Host 05