Kenneth Hermele’s ”Den vilda rättvisan” explores the often-overlooked narrative of Jewish vengeance following the horrors of the Holocaust. While countless volumes detail the suffering and systematic extermination of European Jews, Hermele shifts the focus to those individuals who actively sought retribution against their persecutors. This pursuit of justice, often raw and unmitigated, took various forms, ranging from spontaneous acts of violence immediately following liberation to more organized efforts by covert groups.
The book opens with the chilling account of Martha Gellhorn witnessing the liberation of Dachau concentration camp. The scene, filled with emaciated survivors and piles of corpses, proved too much for the liberating American soldiers, who deviated from protocol and summarily executed numerous SS guards. This incident, while extreme, epitomizes the widespread sentiment of the time. Across Europe, liberated territories became the backdrop for countless acts of revenge against former Nazi officials and collaborators, many of whom were lynched by civilians. This ”wild justice,” as Hermele terms it, stemmed from an understandable rage and the desperate need for some form of immediate retribution in the face of unimaginable atrocities.
Hermele meticulously contextualizes this thirst for vengeance, explaining that while the official Jewish response manifested in the political project of establishing the State of Israel, a quieter, more personal desire for payback simmered beneath the surface. This yearning was often at odds with the prevailing image of Jewish victims, an image perpetuated both by anti-Semitic stereotypes and a certain Jewish self-perception. The cinematic portrayal of violent Jewish resistance fighters in Quentin Tarantino’s ”Inglourious Basterds,” Hermele notes, served as a refreshing counterpoint to this established narrative.
The sheer scale of the Holocaust, however, presented a formidable challenge to the concept of justice. As Hannah Arendt observed, the enormity of the crime rendered it both impossible to punish and impossible to forgive. The Nuremberg trials, while historically significant, primarily focused on war crimes and crimes against humanity, leaving the genocide of the Jews somewhat peripheral. This inadequacy further fueled the desire for revenge amongst some Jewish groups, as exemplified by the activities of the Jewish Brigade and the more clandestine Nokmim. Hermele details the Nokmim’s daring, yet ultimately unsuccessful, plots, including an attempt to poison the water supply of several German cities and a scheme to contaminate bread delivered to imprisoned SS officers. These attempts, while audacious, ultimately underscored the futility of matching the scale of the Holocaust with retaliatory actions.
The narrative then transitions to the complexities of post-war Germany and the conflicting approaches to dealing with the legacy of Nazi atrocities. While Konrad Adenauer, West Germany’s first chancellor, advocated for moving forward and ”leaving the past behind,” this stance effectively amounted to a widespread amnesty for many who had served the Nazi regime. This fueled efforts by Jewish organizations, spearheaded by Simon Wiesenthal, to extend the statute of limitations for war crimes, shifting the focus from immediate revenge to the pursuit of legal justice. Wiesenthal, in many ways, became the symbol of this transition, prioritizing meticulous documentation and legal proceedings over retaliatory violence.
Hermele concludes with a controversial chapter examining Israel’s role in perpetuating a culture of revenge, drawing a direct line to the ongoing conflict in Gaza. He criticizes the nationalistic rhetoric of the Israeli right-wing government, arguing that their actions have fostered a disproportionate and ultimately destructive cycle of violence. This critique, while certainly provocative, underscores the complex and enduring legacy of the Holocaust, demonstrating how the quest for justice can, if unchecked, morph into a perpetuation of the very violence it seeks to condemn. While occasionally dense with historical detail and perhaps over-reliant on examples, ”Den vilda rättvisan” remains a compelling and thought-provoking exploration of a complex and often-ignored aspect of Holocaust history. It challenges readers to confront the uncomfortable realities of vengeance and the enduring struggle to reconcile the desire for retribution with the pursuit of a just and peaceful future.
