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The Man in the Glass Box: Eichmann on American Television - Part 2

A presentation by Jeffrey Shandler, Rutgers University.

Duration: 14:21

The challenge of watching the Eichmann trial, which was an unprecedented event for American audiences, engendered an extensive discussion of the trial as spectacle and of Eichmann as an enigmatic, unspectacular presence. In 1961, many Americans found it much more emotionally satisfying to watch films and telecasts that dramatized Eichmann's story, including an episode of The Twilight Zone, which provides swift justice to a demonstrably evil Nazi criminal who is a thinly veiled stand-in for Eichmann.

Center for Near Eastern Studies

Published: Wednesday, February 25, 2009