Troubling Tactics

Michael Marrus’s new book, Some Measure of Justice: The Holocaust Era Restitution Campaign of the 1990s, is a compelling and detailed portrait of what he views to be a key moment—possibly a paradigm shift—in the understanding and reception of the Holocaust. In a turn of events that he views as remarkable, the Clinton-era U.S. federal courts welcomed a range of class action suits related to dormant Swiss bank accounts, looted European art, pre-war insurance policies, and slave and forced labour under German corporate organization across occupied Europe. The goal of his study is not simply to portray the outcomes of these suits—largely successful in negotiated settlements rather than through final court judgements—but also to understand in what way these cases confronted challenging questions raised by the Holocaust. Did the fact that survivors received settlement payments from governmental and business sources contribute to historical understanding, to an...