Historians at the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial

Historians at the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial PDF Author: Mathew Turner
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1838608664
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
The Frankfurt Auschwitz trial was a milestone event in West German history. Between 1963 and 1965, twenty-two former Auschwitz personnel were tried in Frankfurt am Main. It was a trial that saw the engagement of four of the nation's leading historians as expert witnesses - Martin Broszat, Hans Buchheim, Helmut Krausnick, and Hans-Adolf Jacobsen - appointed by the prosecution to give evidence pertaining to the historical and organisational context of the Holocaust. Following the trial, the reports of these historians were published in a bestselling book, Anatomie des SS-Staates (Anatomy of the SS State) and Mathew Turner here investigates the relationship between the trial and this publication. In recent years, more attention has been paid to the intersection between history and law that accompanies historians' entry into the courtroom. Very little, however, has been written about this intersection with a focus on a single case study. Based on original research in several German archives and first-hand interviews, Turner addresses these connections through a study of West Germany's most famous trial, and the monumental work of history produced from the engagement of historical expertise in court.

Historians at the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial

Historians at the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial PDF Author: Mathew Turner
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1838608664
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
The Frankfurt Auschwitz trial was a milestone event in West German history. Between 1963 and 1965, twenty-two former Auschwitz personnel were tried in Frankfurt am Main. It was a trial that saw the engagement of four of the nation's leading historians as expert witnesses - Martin Broszat, Hans Buchheim, Helmut Krausnick, and Hans-Adolf Jacobsen - appointed by the prosecution to give evidence pertaining to the historical and organisational context of the Holocaust. Following the trial, the reports of these historians were published in a bestselling book, Anatomie des SS-Staates (Anatomy of the SS State) and Mathew Turner here investigates the relationship between the trial and this publication. In recent years, more attention has been paid to the intersection between history and law that accompanies historians' entry into the courtroom. Very little, however, has been written about this intersection with a focus on a single case study. Based on original research in several German archives and first-hand interviews, Turner addresses these connections through a study of West Germany's most famous trial, and the monumental work of history produced from the engagement of historical expertise in court.

Historians at the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial

Historians at the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial PDF Author: Mathew Turner (Historian)
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781786724793
Category : Auschwitz Trial, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 1963-1965
Languages : en
Pages : 236

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Book Description
"The Frankfurt Auschwitz trial was a milestone event in West German history. Between 1963 and 1965, former Auschwitz personnel were tried in Frankfurt am Main. It was a Holocaust perpetrator trial that saw the engagement of four of the nation's leading historians as expert witnesses - Martin Broszat, Hans Buchheim, Helmut Krausnick, and Hans-Adolf Jacobsen - appointed by the prosecution to give evidence pertaining to the historical and organisational context of the alleged crimes. Following the trial, the reports of these historians were published in a bestselling book, Anatomie des SS-Staates (Anatomy of the SS State). Mathew Turner here investigates the relationship between the trial and this publication. In recent years, more attention has been paid to the intersection between history and law that accompanies historians' entry into the courtroom. Very little, however, has been written about this intersection with a focus on a single case study. Based on original sources located in several German archives and first-hand interviews, this book addresses these connections through a study of West Germany's most famous trial, and the monumental work of history produced from the engagement of historical expertise in court"--Back cover.

The Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial, 1963-1965

The Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial, 1963-1965 PDF Author: Devin O. Pendas
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521844062
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 372

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Book Description
Drawing on a wide range of archival sources, this book provides a comprehensive history of the Frankfurt Auschwitz trial.

Beyond Justice

Beyond Justice PDF Author: Rebecca Wittmann
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674045297
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 349

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Book Description
In 1963, West Germany was gripped by a dramatic trial of former guards who had worked at the Nazi death camp Auschwitz. It was the largest and most public trial to take place in the country and attracted international attention. Using the pretrial files and extensive trial audiotapes, Rebecca Wittmann offers a fascinating reinterpretation of Germany’s first major attempt to confront its past. Evoking the courtroom atmosphere, Wittmann vividly recounts the testimony of survivors, former SS officers, and defendants—a cross-section of the camp population. Attorney General Fritz Bauer made an extraordinary effort to put the entire Auschwitz complex on trial, but constrained by West German murder laws, the prosecution had to resort to standards for illegal behavior that echoed the laws of the Third Reich. This provided a legitimacy to the Nazi state. Only those who exceeded direct orders were convicted of murder. This shocking ruling was reflected in the press coverage, which focused on only the most sadistic and brutal crimes, allowing the real atrocity at Auschwitz—mass murder in the gas chambers—to be relegated to the background. The Auschwitz trial had a paradoxical result. Although the prosecution succeeded in exposing SS crimes at the camp for the first time, the public absorbed a distorted representation of the criminality of the camp system. The Auschwitz trial ensured that rather than coming to terms with their Nazi past, Germans managed to delay a true reckoning with the horror of the Holocaust.

Law in West German Democracy

Law in West German Democracy PDF Author: Hugh Ridley
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004414479
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 342

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Book Description
In their time these important court cases influenced the development of a democratic legal system in a country struggling to overcome Hitler’s legacy. Today they cast a unique light on seventy years of West German social and political history.

The Druggist of Auschwitz

The Druggist of Auschwitz PDF Author: Dieter Schlesak
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN: 9781429958929
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 384

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Book Description
Dieter Schlesak's haunting novel The Druggist of Auschwitz—beautifully translated from the German by John Hargraves—is a frighteningly vivid portrayal of the Holocaust as seen through the eyes of criminal and victim alike. Adam, known as "the last Jew of Schäßburg," recounts with disturbing clarity his imprisonment at the infamous Auschwitz concentration camp. Through Adam's fictional narrative and excerpts of actual testimony from the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial of 1963–65, we come to learn of the true-life story of Dr. Victor Capesius, who, despite strong friendships with Jews before the war, quickly aided in and profited from their tragedy once the Nazis came to power. Interspersed with historical research and the author's face-to-face interviews with survivors, the novel follows Capesius from his assignment as the "sorter" of new arrivals at Auschwitz—deciding who will go directly to the gas chamber and who will be used for labor—through his life of lavish wealth after the war to his arrest and eventual trial. Schlesak's seamless incorporation of factual data and testimony—woven into Adam's dreamlike remembrance of a world turned upside down—makes The Druggist of Auschwitz a vital and unique addition to our understanding of the Holocaust.

Lessons and Legacies VI

Lessons and Legacies VI PDF Author: Jeffry Diefendorf
Publisher: Northwestern University Press
ISBN: 0810120011
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 581

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Book Description
In the courtroom and the classroom, in popular media, public policy, and scholarly pursuits, the Holocaust-its origins, its nature, and its implications-remains very much a matter of interest, debate, and controversy. Arriving at a time when a new generation must come to terms with the legacy of the Holocaust or forever lose the benefit of its historical, social, and moral lessons, this volume offers a richly varied, deeply informed perspective on the practice, interpretation, and direction of Holocaust research now and in the future. In their essays the authors-an international group including eminent senior scholars as well those who represent the future of the field-set the agenda for Holocaust studies in the coming years, even as they give readers the means for understanding today's news and views of the Holocaust, whether in court cases involving victims and perpetrators; international, national, and corporate developments; or fictional, documentary, and historical accounts. Several of the essays-such as one on nonarmed "amidah" or resistance and others on the role of gender in the behavior of perpetrators and victims-provide innovative and potentially significant interpretive frameworks for the field of Holocaust studies. Others; for instance, the rounding up of Jews in Italy, Nazi food policy in Eastern Europe, and Nazi anti-Jewish scholarship, emphasize the importance of new sources for reconstructing the historical record. Still others, including essays on the 1964 Frankfurt trial of Auschwitz guards and on the response of the Catholic Church to the question of German guilt, bring a new depth and sophistication to highly charged, sharply politicized topics. Together these essays will inform the future of the Holocaust in scholarly research and in popular understanding.

Fritz Bauer

Fritz Bauer PDF Author: Ronen Steinke
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 0253046890
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 220

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Book Description
German Jewish judge and prosecutor Fritz Bauer (1903–1968) played a key role in the arrest of Adolf Eichmann and the initiation of the Frankfurt Auschwitz trials. Author Ronen Steinke tells this remarkable story while sensitively exploring the many contributions Bauer made to the postwar German justice system. As it sheds light on Bauer's Jewish identity and the role it played in these trials and his later career, Steinke's deft narrative contributes to the larger story of Jewishness in postwar Germany. Examining latent antisemitism during this period as well as Jewish responses to renewed German cultural identity and politics, Steinke also explores Bauer's personal and family life and private struggles, including his participation in debates against the criminalization of homosexuality—a fact that only came to light after his death in 1968. This new biography reveals how one individual's determination, religion, and dedication to the rule of law formed an important foundation for German post war society.

Forgotten Trials of the Holocaust

Forgotten Trials of the Holocaust PDF Author: Michael J. Bazyler
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 1479886068
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 384

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Book Description
"In the wake of the Second World War, how were the Allies to respond to the enormous crime of the Holocaust? Even in an ideal world, it would have been impossible to bring all the perpetrators to trial. Nevertheless, an attempt was made to prosecute some. Most people have heard of the Nuremberg trial and the Eichmann trial, though they probably have not heard of the Kharkov Trial--the first trial of Germans for Nazi-era crimes--or even the Dachau Trials, in which war criminals were prosecuted by the American military personnel on the former concentration camp grounds. This book uncovers ten "forgotten trials" of the Holocaust, selected from the many Nazi trials that have taken place over the course of the last seven decades. It showcases how perpetrators of the Holocaust were dealt with in courtrooms around the world--in the former Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, Israel, France, Poland, the United States and Germany--revealing how different legal systems responded to the horrors of the Holocaust. The book provides a graphic picture of the genocidal campaign against the Jews through eyewitness testimony and incriminating documents and traces how the public memory of the Holocaust was formed over time. The volume covers a variety of trials--of high-ranking statesmen and minor foot soldiers, of male and female concentration camps guards and even trials in Israel of Jewish Kapos--to provide the first global picture of the laborious efforts to bring perpetrators of the Holocaust to justice. As law professors and litigators, the authors provide distinct insights into these trials. "--

Reckonings

Reckonings PDF Author: Mary Fulbrook
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019068125X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 608

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Book Description
A single word--"Auschwitz"--is sometimes used to encapsulate the totality of persecution and suffering involved in what we call the Holocaust. Yet focusing on a single concentration camp, however horrific the scale of crimes committed there, leaves an incomplete story, truncates a complex history and obscures the continuing legacies of Nazi crimes. Mary Fulbrook's encompassing book explores the lives of individuals across a full spectrum of suffering and guilt, each one capturing one small part of the greater story. Using "reckoning" in the widest possible sense to evoke how the consequences of violence have expanded almost infinitely through time, from early brutality through programs to euthanize the sick and infirm in the 1930s to the full functioning of the death camps in the early 1940s, and across the post-war decades of selective confrontation with perpetrators and ever-expanding commemoration of victims, Fulbrook exposes the disjuncture between official myths about "dealing with the past" and the extent to which the vast majority of Nazi perpetrators evaded responsibility. In the successor states to the Third Reich -- East Germany, West Germany, and Austria -- prosecution varied widely. Communist East Germany pursued Nazi criminals and handed down severe sentences; West Germany, caught between facing up to the past and seeking to draw a line under it, tended toward selective justice and reintegration of former Nazis; and Austria made nearly no reckoning at all until the mid-1980s, when news broke about Austrian presidential candidate Kurt Waldheim's past. The continuing battle with the legacies of Nazism in the private sphere was often at odds with public remembrance and memorials. Following the various phases of trials and testimonies, from those immediately after the war to those that stretched into the decades following, Reckonings illuminates shifting public attitudes toward both perpetrators and survivors, and recalibrates anew the scales of justice.