The Frankfurt Auschwitz Trials, known in German as der Auschwitz-Prozess or der zweite Auschwitz-Prozess, (the "second Auschwitz trial") was a series of trials running from December 20, 1963 to August 10, 1965, charging twenty-two defendants under German penal law for their roles in the Holocaust as mid- to lower-level officials in the Auschwitz-Birkenau death and concentration camp complex (most of the senior leaders of the camp, including Rudolf Höss, the longest-standing commandant of the camp, were turned over to Polish authorities in 1947, following their participation as witnesses in the Nuremberg Trial, at which time they were tried in Kraków and many sentenced to death -- that earlier trial in Poland is usually known as the first Auschwitz Trial; Richard Baer, the last camp commandant died in detention while still under investigation as part of the trials). Defendants ranged from members of the SS to kapos, German criminals responsible for low-level control of camp internees, and included some of those responsible for the process of "selection," or determination of who should be sent to the gas chambers directly from the "ramp" upon disembarking the trains that brought them from across Europe ("selection" generally entailed inclusion of all children held to be ineligible for work, generally under the age of 14, and any mothers unwilling to part with their "selected" children). In the course of the trial, approximately 360 witnesses were called, including around 210 survivors. Proceedings began in the "Bürgerhaus Gallus", in Frankfurt am Main, which was converted into a courthouse for that purpose, and remained there until their conclusion. December 20 is the 354th day of the year (355th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1963 (MCMLXIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (the link is to a full 1963 calendar). ... August 10 is the 222nd day of the year (223rd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1965 (MCMLXV) was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1965 calendar). ... Concentration camp inmates during the Holocaust The Holocaust was Nazi Germanys systematic genocide (ethnic cleansing) of various ethnic, religious, national, and secular groups during World War II. Early elements include the Kristallnacht pogrom and the T-4 Euthanasia Program established by Hitler that killed some 200,000 people. ... The title given to this article is incorrect due to technical limitations. ... A death camp is either a concentration camp, the important (though not necessarily single) function of which is to facilitate mass murder of the people deported into such a camp (such as the Nazis Auschwitz and Majdanek, which acquired their murderous functions only some time after they had been... It has been suggested that Internment be merged into this article or section. ... Year 1947 (MCMXLVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1947 calendar). ... The Nuremberg Trials is the general name for two sets of trials of Nazis involved in World War II and the Holocaust. ... Wawel Hill. ... Capital punishment, or the death penalty, is the execution of a convicted criminal by the state as punishment for crimes known as capital crimes or capital offences. ... On Novembe 24, 1947, Polish authorities tried forty-one former members of staff from the Auschwitz concentration camps in a Krakow courtroom. ... Richard Baer (September 9, 1911 - June 17, 1963) was a Nazi official with the rank of SS-Sturmbannführer and commander of the Auschwitz I concentration camp from May 1944 to February 1945. ... The double-Sig Rune SS insignia. ... Kapo can refer to several things: In Polynesian mythology (specifically: Hawaii), Kapo is a goddess of fertility, sorcery and dark powers who can assume any shape she wills. ... For other uses, see Europe (disambiguation). ... Frankfurt am Main [ˈfraŋkfʊrt] is the largest city in the German state of Hessen and the fifth largest city of Germany. ...

Hessian Generalstaatsanwalt (State Attorney General) Fritz Bauer, himself briefly interned in the concentration camp at Heuberg in 1933, led the prosecution. Bauer was perhaps at least as concerned with establishing the character of the camps at Auschwitz-Birkenau as he was with pursuing individual defendants, which may explain in part why only twenty-two of an estimated six to eight thousand SS members thought to have been involved in the administration and operation of the camp were charged. Bauer is said to have been opposed in the former purpose by the young Helmut Kohl, then a junior member of the Christian Democratic Union. In furtherance of that purpose Bauer sought and received support from the Institute for Contemporary History in Munich. Hesse (German: Hessen) is a state of Germany with an area of 21,110 km² and just over six million inhabitants. ... Fritz Bauer, born on July 16, 1903 in Stuttgart, Germany -- died on July 1, 1968 in Frankfurt am Main, was a German judge and prosecutor. ... Dr. Helmut Josef Michael Kohl (born April 3, 1930) is a Catholic German conservative politician and statesman. ... This article needs cleanup. ...

Information about the actions of those accused and their whereabouts had been in the possession of West German authorities since 1958, but action on their cases was delayed by jurisdictional disputes, among other considerations. The court's proceedings were largely public and served to bring many details of the Holocaust to the attention of the public in the Federal Republic of Germany, as well as abroad. Six defendants were given life sentences and several others received the maximum prison sentences possible for the charges brought against them.

Outcomes

The Deaths Head emblem similar to skull and crossbones, often used as the insignia of the Gestapo The   (contraction of Geheime Staatspolizei; Secret State Police) was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. ... The Deaths Head emblem similar to skull and crossbones, often used as the insignia of the Gestapo The   (contraction of Geheime Staatspolizei; Secret State Police) was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. ... The Deaths Head emblem similar to skull and crossbones, often used as the insignia of the Gestapo The   (contraction of Geheime Staatspolizei; Secret State Police) was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. ... NCO may mean: a numerically-controlled oscillator in electronics a non-commissioned officer in the military   This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Obersturmführer collar insignia Obersturmführer was a paramilitary rank of the Nazi party that was used by the Schutzstaffel and also as a rank of the SA. Translated as “Senior Storm Leader”, the rank of Obersturmführer was first created in 1932 as the result of an expansion of... SS-Oberscharführer insignia SA-Oberscharführer insignia Oberscharführer was a Nazi Party paramilitary rank that existed between the years of 1932 and 1945. ... SS-Oberscharführer insignia SA-Oberscharführer insignia Oberscharführer was a Nazi Party paramilitary rank that existed between the years of 1932 and 1945. ... The Deaths Head emblem similar to skull and crossbones, often used as the insignia of the Gestapo The   (contraction of Geheime Staatspolizei; Secret State Police) was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. ...

1977

In 1977 an additional trial was held in Frankfurt against two former members of the SS for killings in the satellite camp of Lagischa (polish: Lagisza) and on the "evacuation" (i.e. death march) from Golleschau to Wodzisław Śląski ( german Loslau). In World War II history, a death march was a march or excursion in extremely harsh conditions with disregard to life and health of marchers, who were usually prisoners, and often resulted in numerous deaths, hence the name. ... WodzisÅ‚aw ÅšlÄ…ski is a town in south Poland with 68,600 inhabitants (1995). ...

References

• Essay (in German) from the Fritz Bauer Institute
• Part One of World Socialist Web Site coverage
• Part Two of World Socialist Web Site coverage
• Part Three of World Socialist Web Site coverage
• Summary of Sentences from Jewish Virtual Library

• Fritz-Bauer-Institut (Frankfurt) / Staatliches Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau (Hrsg): Der Auschwitz-Prozeß. Tonbandmitschnitte, Protokolle, Dokumente. DVD/ROM. Directmedia Publishing, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-89853-501-0 (also via D. Czech: Kalendarium)

Further reading

• Devin O. Pendas,The Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial, 1963–65: Genocide, History and the Limits of the Law (Cambridge University Press, 2006)
• Rebecca Wittmann, Beyond Justice: the Auschwitz Trial (Harvard University Press, 2005)

External links

• Frau Braun and The Tiger of Auschwitz California Literary Review

• (http://www.fritz-bauer-institut.de) Fritz Bauer Institute
• (http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5909179/site/newsweek/) Mary Dirkx Newsweek essay about trial