2–9 November The Future of Memory

curated programs
Image courtesy of Jennifer Teege.
The Swiss Banks Holocaust
Litigation and Settlement: What
Can we Learn from the Proposals
to Allocate Residual Funds?
Over the past two decades, we have seen the resurgence
of criminal trials for war crimes, genocide, and crimes
against humanity. Yet in addition to this revival of the
legal legacy of the Nuremberg Trials, civil restitution suits
also emerged in the 1990s as a legal and political tool for
redress after atrocities. The most prominent of these has
been a class action litigation brought in American courts
against Swiss Banks found to have retained and laundered
looted Holocaust-era assets. The eventual financial settlement
was $1.25 billion, and the distribution was complex.
This presentation from HEW 2016 Scholar-in-Residence
Dr. Ron Levi analyzes the varying allocation proposals that
were submitted during this litigation, and the decision
reached over the allocation of any residual funds to the
neediest of Holocaust survivors.
Scholar-in-Residence
Professor Ron Levi holds the George Ignatieff Chair of Peace and Conflict
Studies at the University of Toronto, where he serves as Deputy Director
of the Munk School of Global Affairs, and is an Associate Professor of
Global Affairs and Sociology. He is a sociologist and legal scholar, whose
research focuses on justice system responses to violence, crime, and
human rights violations. Among his current projects, Prof. Levi is researching
the strategies of international criminal courts from the Nuremberg
Trial to the present, the practices of UN human rights professionals,
the Swiss Banks Holocaust-era litigation, and new strategies in policing
and counter-terrorism. Prof. Levi’s next research project will address
community safety, insecurity, and radicalization in Europe. An awardwinning
teacher, Prof. Levi is a past Fellow of the Canadian Institute
for Advanced Research, has launched a Global Justice Lab in the Munk
School of Global Affairs, and in 2014 was awarded the University of
Toronto’s Ludwik and Estelle Jus Memorial Human Rights Prize. In 2016,
he was appointed as a Permanent Visiting Professor in the University
of Copenhagen’s Centre of Excellence for International Courts.
Please RSVP to Nicole Nassri at nnassri@stikeman.com. Space is
extremely limited for this event. Upon registering, you will receive a
confirmation e-mail with the location and final details of the event.
If you have not registered for the event ahead of time, nor received an
e-mail confirmation, you will unfortunately not be granted access to
the event.
HEW 2016 Scholar-in-Residence is generously sponsored by the
Cohen Family Charitable Trust. Lunch ‘n Learn hosted by Stikeman
Elliott LLP.
Friday, 4 November | 12:00 noon
ADDRESS PROVIDED UPON CONFIRMATION OF REGISTRATION
My Grandfather Would Have Shot Me: A Black
Woman Discovers Her Family’s Nazi Past
At age 38, Jennifer Teege picked up a book at a library in
Hamburg and discovered that her grandfather was Amon Goeth,
the brutal Nazi commandant of the Plaszow concentration
camp, portrayed by Ralph Fiennes in the film Schindler’s List.
Although she was placed in an orphanage and then adopted at a
young age, Teege had some contact with her biological mother
and grandmother. Yet neither revealed their family legacy, one
indelibly marked by Goeth—the Nazi “butcher of Plaszow”—
and his crimes as a concentration camp commandant. As she
began to learn the scope of her grandfather’s crimes and address
her subsequent depression, Teege delved into researching her
family’s past.
In My Grandfather Would Have Shot Me, Teege explores the revelatory
journey of discovering her grandfather’s crimes, seeking
greater understanding of her biological family and searching for
a sense of closure for the victims. After her emotional pilgrimage,
Teege says, “I’m no longer a prisoner of the past. There is no Nazi
gene: We can decide for ourselves who and what we want to be.”
Jennifer Teege worked in advertising for fifteen years and lives in Germany
with her husband and two sons. She holds a degree from Tel Aviv University
in Middle Eastern and African studies. Her first book, a New York Times bestseller,
has garnered critical acclaim.
Book sale and signing to follow program. Limited parking.
Generously co-sponsored by the Consulate General of the Federal
Republic of Germany.
Saturday, 5 November | 8:00 PM
Kehillat Shaarei Torah | 2640 Bayview Avenue
Toronto | 416–229–2600
Neuberger Holocaust Education Week 17