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25 Legal Stud. 627 (2005)
Executioners, Bystanders and Victims: Collective Guilt, the Legacy of Denazification and the Birth of Twentieth-Century Transitional Justice

handle is hein.journals/legstd25 and id is 633 raw text is: Executioners, bystanders and victims: collective guilt, the legacy of denazification and the birth of twentieth-century transitional justice Therese O'Donnell* Lecturer, Strathclyde University 'We did not go into the streets when our Jewish friends were led away; we did not scream until we too were destroyed ... We are guilty of being alive.' Karl Jaspers The Question of German Guilt, p 66 The following scene as recounted by the English writer James Stern occurred in a German town one week after Germany's unconditional surrender in May 1945. A crowd is gathered around a series of photographs which though initially seeming to depict garbage instead reveal dead human bodies. Each photograph has a heading 'WHO IS GUILTY?'. The spectators are silent, appearing hypnotised, and eventually retreat one by one. The placards are later replaced with clearer photographs and placards proclaiming 'THIS TOWN IS GUILTY' YOUARE GUILTY'.' INTRODUCI'ON In the 1990s a tidal wave seemed inexorably to sweep across the landscape comprising the institutions of international criminal justice. That tidal wave of transitional justice, the implementation of notions of justice in eras of political change, sought a multi-faceted approach in restoring societies riven by violence in the recent past.2 Its ultimate aim was often to facilitate the co- * A variety of individuals offered helpful feedback on earlier drafts of this article, most particularly I must mention Dino Kritsiotis of Nottingham University, Dominic McGoldrick of Liverpool University, Phil Rumney of Sheffield Hallam University and Donald Nicolson and Claire McDiarmid both of Strathclyde University. Helpful comments were also offered by anonymous reviewers. All responsibility for errors remains with the author. I must also thank both the British Academy Small Research Awards Scheme and the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland for facilitating sabbatical leave at the Lauterpacht Research Centre for International Law at Cambridge University where the bulk of research for this article was carried out. 1. Stern also described detailed radio broadcasts regarding crimes. C FitzGibbon Denazification (London: Joseph, 1969) pp 96-97. Jaspers draws significance from the anonymity of the accuser: K Jaspers The Question of German Guilt (trans E B Ashton) (New York: Fordham University Press, 2000) p 41. 2. See B B Ghali 'Agenda for Peace' which refers to peace-building and post-conflict societal reconstruction: An Agendafor Peace: Preventive Diplomacy, Peacemaking and Peace-keeping A/47/277, S/24 111 (1992).

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