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Facing the Glass Booth The Jerusalem Trial of Adolf Eichmann Haim Gouri With an Introduction by Alan Mintz

As the head of Hitler's Race and Resettlement Office stood trial on Israeli soil under the eye of the international media and Israeli survivors told their powerful stories to the world, the Holocaust became a defining experience for Zionism and human history. Facing the Glass Booth, being published in English for the first time, is a detailed account of Eichmann's trial by the poet and journalist Haim Gouri, who was assigned to cover the event by the Israeli daily newspaper Lamerhav. The trial changed attitudes toward the Holocaust, and Gouri's reporting was the literary catalyst of this change. Packed with tension, Gouri's riveting descriptions of the testimony reveal a marked shift in attitudes toward Holocaust survivors in Israeli society. He admits to his initial skepticism toward these witnesses, and yet he learns much from them. Gouri's account is both a fascinating historical document and a chronicle of an extraordinary poet's encounter with one of the most terrible events of our times.

"The publication of Haim Gouri's Facing the Glass Booth is long overdue. This book is an eloquent and compassionate work of journalism, history and literature. It's a unique achievement in Holocaust writing. Not until Gouri's courtroom reporting did the young nation of Israel come to grips with the horrors of World War II. It found the voice to articulate and to chronicle the physical and emotional pain as well as the shame of survivors. Gouri's narrative must be read and re-read in every home, in every generation. Gouri the poet is also Gouri the historian and teacher." —Steven T. Katz, professor of Religion and director of the Elie Wiesel Center for Judaic Studies, Boston University

$25.95s paper / ISBN 0-8143-3087-8 360 pages / 6 x 9 2004 contents > foreword > extract > index >