Emory University historian Deborah E. Lipstadt examines the May 1960 capture of SS Lieutenant Colonel Adolf Eichmann by Israeli agents in Argentina and his subsequent trial that electrified the world.

The capture of SS Lieutenant Colonel Adolf Eichmann by Israeli agents in Argentina in May 1960 and his subsequent trial in Jerusalem by an Israeli court electrified the world and sparked an international public debate on where, how, and by whom Nazi war criminals should be brought to justice.

On Wednesday, June 29, 2011, at 6:30 p.m. in the Kansas City Public Library’s Plaza Branch, 4801 Main St., award-winning Emory University historian Deborah E. Lipstadt, author of The Eichmann Trial, examines this watershed moment in how the civilized world in general and Holocaust survivors in particular found the means to deal with the legacy of genocide on a scale that had never been seen before.

In her presentation, Lipstadt will also provide an overview of the trial itself (which took place 50 years ago) and analyze the dramatic effect that the survivors’ courtroom testimony—which was itself not without controversy—had on a world that had until then regularly commemorated the Holocaust but never fully understood what the millions who died and the hundreds of thousands who managed to survive had actually experienced.

Lipstadt’s presentation will be the first Gloria P. Gershun Memorial Lecture, an event honoring the memory of Gloria P. Gershun, a professional librarian and passionate booklover with deep ties to the Jewish community. Among her many volunteer activities, Gershun co-founded the Kansas City Jewish Book Fair at the Jewish Community Center and was active in its growth and support for many years. The lecture is made possible in part by funding by Lawrence and Donna Gould Cohen, and Martha Gershun and Don Goldman, and is co-sponsored by the Jewish Community Center and the Midwest Center for Holocaust Education.