What Kind of Narrative is Legal Testimony?
Hájková, Anna
What Kind of Narrative is Legal Testimony? - 2021.
36
This article examines Theresienstadt survivors who testified repeatedly in legal proceedings connected to the ghetto and how their testimonies changed over time. I also explore why was it only men who were repeatedly asked to testify, and demonstrate how male testimony is constructed as factual, whereas female testimony is portrayed as emotional and harrowing to prove the horrors of the Holocaust. By comparing these legal testimonies to other self-testimonies by these same witnesses, I show that Holocaust survivors were indeed able to shape their narratives in front of their courts, thus contradicting the research of Sigrid Weigel and Aleida Assmann. This article is the first piece of scholarship to examine what kind of narrative is legal testimony. It exists within the context of narrative research, early Holocaust trials and survivors’ retribution, and early Holocaust documentation by scholars such as Alexandra Garbarini, Lisa Leff, Laura Jockusch, and Henry Greenspan.
What Kind of Narrative is Legal Testimony? - 2021.
36
This article examines Theresienstadt survivors who testified repeatedly in legal proceedings connected to the ghetto and how their testimonies changed over time. I also explore why was it only men who were repeatedly asked to testify, and demonstrate how male testimony is constructed as factual, whereas female testimony is portrayed as emotional and harrowing to prove the horrors of the Holocaust. By comparing these legal testimonies to other self-testimonies by these same witnesses, I show that Holocaust survivors were indeed able to shape their narratives in front of their courts, thus contradicting the research of Sigrid Weigel and Aleida Assmann. This article is the first piece of scholarship to examine what kind of narrative is legal testimony. It exists within the context of narrative research, early Holocaust trials and survivors’ retribution, and early Holocaust documentation by scholars such as Alexandra Garbarini, Lisa Leff, Laura Jockusch, and Henry Greenspan.
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