CRITICALLY THINKING ABOUT THE NATURE OF THE INDIVIDUAL'S RESPONSIBILITY IN STATE-SPONSORED CRIMES

Lawrence Douglas, The Right Wrong Man: John Demjanjuk and the Last Great Nazi War Crimes Trial (Princeton & Oxford: Princeton U. Press, 2016) ("In the following pages, we will explore the elaborate and strange story of Demjanjuk's legal odyssey. But for all its extraordinary twists and turns, the Demjanjuk case also places deeper, more persistent claims on out attention. It asks us to think critically about the justice of trying old men for superannuated crimes. It invites us to reflect on the nature of individual responsibility in the orchestration of state-sponsored crimes. It demands that we think carefully about the nature, causes, and possible justifications of collaboration in the perpetration of atrocities. And it provides a crucible in which three distinct national legal systems--the American, the Israel, and the German--sought to create legal alloys potent enough to master the legal challenges posed by the destruction of Europe's Jews." Id. at 3.).