O.65 - אוסף יעקב רובינזון, משפטן ודיפלומט

O.65 - Collection of Jacob Robinson, Jurist and Diplomat 

O.65 - Collection of Jacob Robinson, Jurist and Diplomat 

O.65 - Collection of Jacob Robinson, Jurist and Diplomat Dr. Jacob Robinson was born in Seirijai, a village in the Alytus district in southeastern Lithuania on 28 November 1889, and received a traditional Jewish education. In 1910 he completed his studies at the Suwalki high school and in the summer of 1914, he completed his studies for the title of Doctorate in Law (LL.D.) at the University of Warsaw. In May 1923 he was elected to the Sejm (Lithuanian Parliament), where he served as head of the Jewish faction and a leader of the minorities bloc. During the years 1925-1931, Robinson served as a prominent Jewish spokesman at the Congress of European Nationalities. After the outbreak of World War II, he was chosen to head the Jewish delegation to the committee for the handling (care) of Jewish refugees from Poland. In 1940 he left Lithuania and arrived to New York with his family, via Lisbon. In New York, along with his brother Nechemia Robinson, he established the Institute for Jewish Affairs in 1941, under the combined auspices of the World Jewish Congress and American Jewish Congress, which he directed until 1947. At the Nuremberg Trials, Robinson served as Advisor for Jewish Matters to Judge Robert H. Jackson, who headed the Prosecution for the United States. Robinson became known as the person who filled the key position in convincing Judge Jackson to accept the new idea of"Crimes against Humanit" as a clause of indictment against the Nazis for crimes committed against the Jews. Following the trials of the main war criminals, Robinson continued to follow closely the investigations of the sentences and proceedings related to the punishment of war criminals, in the series of trials known as the"Subsequent Nuremberg Trial". In 1951, together with his brother Dr. Nechemia Robinson, he took an active part in the negotiations with West Germany regarding reparations to Nazi victims. After the capture of Adolf Eichmann, Robinson was invited to join the prosecution team headed by Gideon Hausner. Following the Eichmann Trial, Robinson published the book,"And the Crooked Shall Be Made Straight: The Jews of Europe in the Face of Historical Truth and the Eichmann Trial in Jerusalem, and of the International La", a critical response to the book by Hannah Arendt,"Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evi". Jacob Robinson died in New York on 24 October 1977. The Jacob Robinson Collection includes: documentation and publications dealing with the capture of Adolf Eichmann and the Eichmann Trial and, in particular, with international legal aspects regarding this event; a copy of the interview conducted by Willem Sassen with Adolf Eichmann in Argentina in the mid-1950s; documentation regarding criminals and trials conducted against them, in main, the Nuremberg Trials; plans for the creation of a comprehensive bibliographical and chronological project regarding the Holocaust; bibliographical surveys; documentation regarding the Joel Brand Affair, the Holocaust of the Jews of Europe, and other matters.