DOCSLIB.ORG

The Legal and Historical Significance of the Munich Trial of John Demjanjuk

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Legal and Historical Significance of the Munich Trial of John Demjanjuk ‘A Trial By History’ The Legal and Historical Significance of the Munich trial of John Demjanjuk Guy Elston 12277916 Thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts History - Holocaust and Genocide Studies Universiteit van Amsterdam Thesis Advisor: Dr. Karel Berkhoff Second Reader: Prof. Dr. Nanci Adler June 30th, 2020 1 ABSTRACT The Munich trial of John Demjanjuk of 2009-2011 was the final act in the defendant’s decades of legal travails. It was widely covered and commented upon by an international academic and media audience. Reaction to the trial was highly divided, thanks in large part to the exceptional nature of its legal processes in comparison to previous German trials of low-ranking perpetrators of the Holocaust. This thesis questions what the trial’s significance was both in terms of its place in the legal record of German Holocaust prosecutions, and also in German collective memory of the Holocaust. A brief history of German coming-to-terms with the Holocaust is established, as well as the legal record of Holocaust trials in Germany, to set the context for the Munich trial. Separate historiographies cover Demjanjuk’s wartime activities, his previous trial in Jerusalem, and the Munich trial. Particular attention is given to legal scholars, helping to determine the legally noteworthy aspects of the Munich trial. These include the treatment of the matters of functional participation and putative necessity. The most significant aspects of media and academic reaction to the trial are established. These include the defendant’s age and infirmity, his alleged victimisation during the Second World War, his alleged revictimisation by the trial’s processes, and the alleged political motives of the trial. The trial brought about a confrontation with matters of functional participation and collaboration in the perpetration of Holocaust, and its verdict exemplified the societal developments in German attitudes towards the Nazi era. The conviction relied in large part upon the involvement of historical expert testimony in the courtroom, meaning that both retributive and didactic aims were met with some success. The trial’s greatest significance is in representing a legal institutionalisation of a functionalist interpretation of Holocaust perpetration, grounded in decades of developments made in Holocaust research. The highly belated nature of the trial ultimately limited its success, however, as the legal developments came too late to take on much more than a largely symbolic significance. 2 Table of contents Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………………………. 4 1. Holocaust memory and Holocaust prosecution in Germany in context…8 1.1 A history of Vergangenheitsbewältigung............................................ 9 1.2 German prosecution of the Holocaust............................................... 12 1.3 Memorial success; legal failure.......................................................... 16 2. A brief biography of John Demjanjuk................................................... 18 3. The legally significant aspects of the trial …………………………………………….. 23 3.1 The hybrid international and domestic nature of the trial.................. 23 3.2 A new legal framework........................................................................ 24 3.3 Putative Necessity................................................................................ 26 3.4 Victim testimony – the role of the Nebenkläger.................................. 28 3.5 The verdict and lack of appeal............................................................. 29 3.6 Further prosecutions........................................................................... 29 3.7 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………………. 30 4. Media and academic reaction to the trial ……………………………………………. 32 4.1 Age and infirmity……………………………………………………………………………… 32 4.2 Political motives of the trial................................................................. 36 4.3 Demjanjuk’s alleged victimhood during the Second World War......... 39 4.4 Demjanjuk’s alleged victimisation by the trial...................................... 43 4.5 Conclusion............................................................................................ 48 5. The trial in retrospect……………………………………………………………………………….. 50 5.1 Retribution vs education: The trial in the legal record......................... 50 5.2 The trial and Vergangenheitsbewältigung………………………………………… 54 5.3 The trial and closure………………………………………………………………………… 57 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………………….. 60 3 Introduction The Munich trial of John Demjanjuk, formerly Ivan Demjanjuk, took place between November 2009 and May 2011. He was tried as an accessory to murder and convicted on 12 May 2011 on 27,900 counts of that charge. The crimes for which he was convicted were committed at the Sobibor death camp in 1943. This trial was the last act in decades of legal travails. Demjanjuk had first been deported from his adopted home of the United States of America in 1986, already after almost a decade of deportation processes, and tried in Jerusalem for crimes against humanity. Sentenced to death, then subsequently exonerated in 1993 on the grounds of mistaken identity and returned to the USA, the court in Munich charged him in 2009 with crimes committed in a different location and under a different identity than those at issue in Jerusalem. His conviction, sixty-eight years after those crimes, technically never came into effect, as he died before his appeal could be heard. American legal scholar Lawrence Douglas described Demjanjuk’s legal saga as “the most convoluted, lengthy, and bizarre criminal case to arise from the Holocaust”.1 The Munich trial of John Demjanjuk gained “worldwide attention from the very beginning”, as German public-funded broadcaster Deutsche Welle reported2, for it had generally been believed that with it, the prosecution of Nazi criminals in Germany came to an end. The trial was therefore commonly described as the last Nazi trial, and its significance to the legacy of German prosecution of Nazi criminals was widely commented upon. The media in Germany, the Netherlands, Ukraine, the US and Israel gave the trial extensive coverage, and the discourse took place over a range of media, particularly in newspapers and online.3 Although interest in the case declined as the trial proceedings dragged on,4 the conclusion of the trial again brought about mass coverage in the international media and in Germany, where Demjanjuk’s conviction precipitated a “confrontation with the Nazi past” of the nation.5 Reactions to the trial were many and divided, and the significance and value of the trial was highly debated. From both the quantity and the force of reactions to the trial, both German and international, it was clear that the Demjanjuk Munich trial captured popular and scholarly attention and took on great significance to a wide variety of observers. To them the trial forced a confrontation 1 Lawrence Douglas, The Right Wrong Man: John Demjanjuk and the Last Great Nazi War Crimes Trial, (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2016), 3 2 Cornelia Rabitz, ‘Accused Nazi helper John Demjanjuk: Murderer or Victim?’. Deutsche Welle, May 11, 2011 3 Christian Pentzold, Vivien Sommer, Stefan Meier and Claudia Fraas, ‘Reconstructing media frames in multimodal discourse: The John/Ivan Demjanjuk trial.’ Elsevier, 12 (2016), 33 4 Douglas, The Right, 246 5 Jennifer Clibbon, ‘What the Demjanjuk verdict means for war crimes prosecutions’. CBC, May 13, 2011 4 with both the history of how the Holocaust had been prosecuted, and the history of how the Holocaust had been remembered. Prosecutions of Nazi crimes in Germany faced myriad legal obstacles since the dissolution of the Third Reich. It has generally been considered that the Federal Republic of Germany, and subsequently the reunified German state, failed to convict Nazi criminals to an appropriate extent or severity; the German Holocaust survivor and writer Ralph Giordano described this failure as the nation’s “second guilt”.6 Conversely, the German nation, after a long period of obfuscation of the societal knowledge of, and role in the perpetration of, the Holocaust, is widely admired for ultimately facing up to the atrocities of the Third Reich, and for having institutionalised the memorialisation of the Holocaust in German society. The term Vergangenheitsbewältigung is used to refer to this ‘coming- to-terms with the past’ that German society has undergone, regarding the crimes of the Third Reich. Scholarship has demonstrated that earlier Nazi trials in Germany stimulated public debate and influenced the development of Vergangenheitsbewältigung; and, in turn, that changes in societal opinion regarding the Holocaust, and a sense of responsibility for its perpetration, helped to bring about criminal trials of Nazi crimes. The separate processes of judicial and societal reckoning with the crimes of the Third Reich therefore have had a great influence on each other, despite the difference in their levels of perceived success. One reason why the debate surrounding the Munich trial reached great intensity was the exceptional nature of the processes and verdict, that broke with long-established legal precedents of Holocaust trials in Germany. The trial resurrected debates over the very possibility of justice after genocide, and stimulated recognition of the societal, extra-legal functions of a criminal trial of a genocidal atrocity. It raised questions of whether
Load more

Recommended publications
  • An Analysis of the Acquittal of John Demjanjuk and Its Impact on the Future of Nazi War Crimes Trials Lisa J
    Boston College International and Comparative Law Review Volume 18 | Issue 1 Article 4 12-1-1995 Not Guilty – But Not Innocent: An Analysis of the Acquittal of John Demjanjuk and its Impact on the Future of Nazi War Crimes Trials Lisa J. Del Pizzo Follow this and additional works at: http://lawdigitalcommons.bc.edu/iclr Part of the Criminal Law Commons Recommended Citation Lisa J. Del Pizzo, Not Guilty – But Not Innocent: An Analysis of the Acquittal of John Demjanjuk and its Impact on the Future of Nazi War Crimes Trials, 18 B.C. Int'l & Comp. L. Rev. 137 (1995), http://lawdigitalcommons.bc.edu/iclr/vol18/iss1/4 This Notes is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Journals at Digital Commons @ Boston College Law School. It has been accepted for inclusion in Boston College International and Comparative Law Review by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @ Boston College Law School. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Not Guilty-But Not Innocent: An Analysis of the Acquittal of John Demjanjuk and Its Impact on the Future of Nazi War Crimes Trials INTRODUCTION On July 29, 1993, the Supreme Court of the State of Israel acquit­ ted John Demjanjuk of charges that he was "Ivan the Terrible," a sadistic Nazi gas chamber operator who assisted in the extermina­ tion of thousands of Jews at the Treblinka death camp in Poland during World War II.! The acquittal, which overturned the district court's 1988 conviction and death sentence,2 was based on new evidence which created a "reasonable doubt" that Demjanjuk was "Ivan the Terrible" of Treblinka.3 The acquittal of John Demjanjuk comes after a sixteen year legal battle which began in the United States in 1977, when the U.S.
    [Show full text]
  • Holocaust Archaeology: Archaeological Approaches to Landscapes of Nazi Genocide and Persecution
    HOLOCAUST ARCHAEOLOGY: ARCHAEOLOGICAL APPROACHES TO LANDSCAPES OF NAZI GENOCIDE AND PERSECUTION BY CAROLINE STURDY COLLS A thesis submitted to the University of Birmingham for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Institute of Archaeology and Antiquity College of Arts and Law University of Birmingham September 2011 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. ABSTRACT The landscapes and material remains of the Holocaust survive in various forms as physical reminders of the suffering and persecution of this period in European history. However, whilst clearly defined historical narratives exist, many of the archaeological remnants of these sites remain ill-defined, unrecorded and even, in some cases, unlocated. Such a situation has arisen as a result of a number of political, social, ethical and religious factors which, coupled with the scale of the crimes, has often inhibited systematic search. This thesis will outline how a non- invasive archaeological methodology has been implemented at two case study sites, with such issues at its core, thus allowing them to be addressed in terms of their scientific and historical value, whilst acknowledging their commemorative and religious significance.
    [Show full text]
  • Hannah Garza, Mechelen, Belgium, January 2016
    Understanding the Recent Phenomena of Holocaust Remembrance in the Form of National Holocaust Museums and Memorials in Belgium, France, and Germany Hannah Elizabeth Garza Universiteit van Amsterdam Graduate School of Humanities A thesis submitted for the degree of Masters in Holocaust and Genocide Studies Spring 2017 !1 Abstract This thesis will focus on national Holocaust museums and memorials in Europe, in specific regards to the national Holocaust museums of Belgium and France, and the national Holocaust memorial of Germany. This dissertation will begin with a brief overview of the scholars used within each chapter, along with a discussion on the development of national Holocaust museums in Europe in the introduction chapter. Following the introduction, the first chapter will discuss the Kazerne Dossin Memorial Museum in Mechelen, Belgium. Chapter two will then cover the Mémorial de la Shoah in Paris, France. Finally, chapter three will then focus on the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in conjunction with its underground information center in Berlin, Germany. This thesis will endeavor to explore the themes represented in each museum in relation to German compliance, and the role of the bystanders from each Nation. The goal is to understand how each of these national institutions discussed within the text, portray their involvement in the events of the Holocaust and Second World War by way of State compliance and the actions of their bystanders. Through the initiatives of the museum and memorials published catalogs, personal
    [Show full text]
  • Ignoramus Et Ignorabimus: German Sociologist Peter Ullrich Will Never Know If Left-Wing Antisemitism Really Exists
    Ignoramus et ignorabimus: German sociologist Peter Ullrich will never know if left-wing antisemitism really exists The Times of Israel, October 16, 2013 The Center for Research on Antisemitism (ZfA) at Technical University in Berlin has generated a long list of controversies in recent years, take the views of its former head Wolfgang Benz for example. In 2011 he was followed by historian Stefanie Schueler-Springorum, a newcomer in the field of research on antisemitism. On November 8–9, 2013, Schueler-Springorum, the Jewish Museum Berlin, and the foundation Remembrance, Responsibility, and Future (EVZ) will hold an international conference dedicated to antisemitism in Europe today. Among many very troubling speakers at this event, one new German voice will be heard: Peter Ullrich. Ullrich, born 1976, is a sociologist, and recently employed as a co-worker in a project of the Center for Research on Antisemitism (ZfA). In October 2013, he published a book (in German) by well-known publishing house Wallstein dedicated to the analysis of left-wing antisemitism, Germans, Israel, Palestine, and remembrance of the Holocaust. In his book, Peter Ullrich attacks political scientist Samuel Salzborn (born 1977), who is a professor at Goettingen University, and historian Sebastian Voigt, for their criticism of left-wing antisemitism. In 2011, Salzborn and Voigt published an article about troubling tendencies in the party of the Left in Germany, Die Linke. For example, two Members of Parliament and one former Member of Parliament, Inge Höger, Annette Groth, and Norman Paech, respectively, were on the Mavi Marmara in May 2010. This terror vessel was part of the so-called Gaza Flotilla, dedicated to ending the blockade of the Hamas-ruled Gaza strip and to destabilizing Israel.
    [Show full text]
  • Appendix 1: Sample Docum Ents
    APPENDIX 1: SAMPLE DOCUMENTS Figure 1.1. Arrest warrant (Haftbefehl) for Georg von Sauberzweig, signed by Morgen. Courtesy of Bundesarchiv Berlin-Lichterfelde 129 130 Appendix 1 Figure 1.2. Judgment against Sauberzweig. Courtesy of Bundesarchiv Berlin-Lichterfelde Appendix 1 131 Figure 1.3. Hitler’s rejection of Sauberzweig’s appeal. Courtesy of Bundesarchiv Berlin-Lichterfelde 132 Appendix 1 Figure 1.4. Confi rmation of Sauberzweig’s execution. Courtesy of Bundesarchiv Berlin- Lichterfelde Appendix 1 133 Figure 1.5. Letter from Morgen to Maria Wachter. Estate of Konrad Morgen, courtesy of the Fritz Bauer Institut APPENDIX 2: PHOTOS Figure 2.1. Konrad Morgen 1938. Estate of Konrad Morgen, courtesy of the Fritz Bauer Institut 134 Appendix 2 135 Figure 2.2. Konrad Morgen in his SS uniform. Estate of Konrad Morgen, courtesy of the Fritz Bauer Institut 136 Appendix 2 Figure 2.3. Karl Otto Koch. Courtesy of the US National Archives Appendix 2 137 Figure 2.4. Karl and Ilse Koch with their son, at Buchwald. Corbis Images Figure 2.5. Odilo Globocnik 138 Appendix 2 Figure 2.6. Hermann Fegelein. Courtesy of Yad Vashem Figure 2.7. Ilse Koch. Courtesy of Yad Vashem Appendix 2 139 Figure 2.8. Waldemar Hoven. Courtesy of Yad Vashem Figure 2.9. Christian Wirth. Courtesy of Yad Vashem 140 Appendix 2 Figure 2.10. Jaroslawa Mirowska. Private collection NOTES Preface 1. The execution of Karl Otto Koch, former commandant of Buchenwald, is well documented. The execution of Hermann Florstedt, former commandant of Majdanek, is disputed by a member of his family (Lindner (1997)).
    [Show full text]
  • The 2015 Auschwitz-Trial of Lüneburg
    Human Rights III, Spring 2016 Astrid Juckenack (930613-T005) The 2015 Auschwitz-trial of Lüneburg: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Collective Memory of the Holocaust in Nazi-trials in Modern-day Germany. Author: Astrid Juckenack Malmö Högskola Human Rights III; MR106L Spring 2016 Supervisor: Malin Isaksson 1 Human Rights III, Spring 2016 Astrid Juckenack (930613-T005) Abstract The points of departure in this thesis are the reciprocal relationship between the memories of human rights violations, the application of the relevant law and the understanding of what is criminal, as well as the recent trend in German courts to belatedly try low-profile Nazi- criminals. To explore these phenomena further, a critical discourse analysis incorporating historical elements is conducted on the 2015 trial of “the bookkeeper of Auschwitz” Oskar Gröning and the related media-reports. By identifying and investigating the expression of collective memory therein, a shift is revealed in that low-level participation in the Holocaust is no longer remembered as a moral infringement exclusively, but accepted as a criminal act for which a perpetrator ought to be held liable. Alongside Holocaust-focused collective memory, there are further tendencies toward a distinct memory of the prolonged failure of the German judiciary. It was thus found that long-term societal change can prevail against a deeply ingrained culture of impunity. Keywords: human rights, collective memory, Holocaust, Germany, Auschwitz, Auschwitz trial, Oskar Gröning, SS, accessory to murder, impunity Wordcount: 16,497 words 2 Human Rights III, Spring 2016 Astrid Juckenack (930613-T005) Table of Contents Abstract 2 Abbreviations 6 1. Introduction 7 1.1 Introduction to the Problem Area 7 1.2 Research Problem, -Questions and –Aim 8 1.3 Relevance for the Field of Human Rights 9 1.4 Delimitations 9 1.5 Ethical Considerations 10 1.6 Disposition 10 2.
    [Show full text]
  • Peter Black Odilo Globocnik, Nazi Eastern Policy, and the Implementation of the Final Solution
    www.doew.at – Dokumentationsarchiv des österreichischen Widerstandes (Hrsg.), Forschungen zum Natio- nalsozialismus und dessen Nachwirkungen in Österreich. Festschrift für Brigitte Bailer, Wien 2012 91 Peter Black Odilo Globocnik, Nazi Eastern Policy, and the Implementation of the Final Solution During the spring of 1943, while on an inspection tour of occupied Poland that included a briefing on the annihilation of the Polish Jews, SS Personnel Main Office chief Maximilian von Herff characterized Lublin District SS and Police Leader and SS-Gruppenführer Odilo Globocnik, in the following way: “A man fully charged with all possible light and dark sides. Little concerned with ap- pearances, fanatically obsessed with the task, [he] engages himself to the limit without concern for health or superficial recognition. His energy drives him of- ten to breach existing boundaries and to forget the boundaries established for him within the [SS-] Order – not out of personal ambition, but much more for the sake of his obsession with the matter at hand. His success speaks unconditionally for him.”1 Von Herff’s analysis of Globocnik’s reflected a consistent pattern in the ca- reer of the Nazi Party organizer and SS officer, who characteristically atoned for his transgressions of the National Socialist code of behavior by fanatical pursuit and implementation of core Nazi goals.2 Globocnik was born to Austro-Croat parents on April 21, 1904 in multina- tional Trieste, then the principal seaport of the Habsburg Monarchy. His father’s family had come from Neumarkt (Tržič), in Slovenia. Franz Globocnik served as a Habsburg cavalry lieutenant and later a senior postal official; he died of pneumonia on December 1, 1919.
    [Show full text]
  • Vergangenheit Darf Nicht Totgeschwiegen Werden
    Gastbeitrag von OE: Vergangenheit darf nicht totgeschwiegen werden Am 27. Januar 2015 jährt sich der Tag der Befreiung so vieler Menschen aus dem Konzentrationslager Auschwitz zum siebzigsten Mal. In den folgenden Monaten 1945 wurden die Überlebenden auch aus den anderen Konzentrationslagern befreit. Sechs Millionen Juden waren ermordet worden. Welche das große Glück hatten, wieder frei zu kommen, wussten zwar, dass sie überlebt haben, jedoch wussten sie nicht, was sie nun erwartete. Fanden sie vielleicht noch die Partnerin oder den Partner, waren da vielleicht noch Geschwister oder andere Verwandte, gab es noch vereinzelt einen guten alten Freund oder einen der damals in der NS-Zeit seltenen guten Kollegen oder der ganz wenigen ehemaligen hilfreichen Nachbarn? Diese bangen Fragen wurden nicht immer schnell beantwortet. Oft vergingen Monate oder Jahre, oft fanden die Menschen, die das unvorstellbare Leid in den Konzentrationslagern überlebt hatten, kaum jemanden, der ihnen nahe stand. Wo war wer geblieben? Glückliches Wiedersehen Anfang der 1950er Jahre ging ich in Düsseldorf mit meiner Mutter durch den Kaufhof. Vor der Uhren-Abteilung blieb meine Mutter plötzlich stehen, fasste mich am Arm und sagte: „Da steht ein älterer Herr. Ich glaube, den kenne ich von früher. Vielleicht ist das Herr Dalibor !“ „Wer ist Herr Dalibor ?“, fragte ich meine Mutter. „Herr Dalibor ist ein früherer Mitarbeiter im Uhrengeschäft, in dem ich bis 1938 gearbeitet habe. Ich habe ihn damals das letzte Mal gesehen ! Wenn es wirklich Herr Dalibor ist, würde ich mich sehr freuen ! Er ist Jude ! Ein sehr freundlicher Herr ! Ich muss unbedingt wissen, ob er es ist !“ Dann ging meine Mutter auf eine Verkäuferin in der Abteilung zu und fragte sie: „Der ältere Herr in Ihrer Abteilung: Ist das vielleicht Herr Dalibor ?“ Die Verkäuferin nickte überrascht.
    [Show full text]
  • Trawniki-Männer Im Holocaust
    Angelika Benz. Handlanger der SS: Die Rolle der Trawniki-Männer im Holocaust. Berlin: Metropol Verlag, 2015. 309 S. gebunden, ISBN 978-3-86331-203-9. Reviewed by Kimberly Allar Published on H-Soz-u-Kult (July, 2015) The trial of Ivan Demjanjuk opened in Mu‐ ning the extermination machinery. In all, between nich on 30 November 2009. This was to be the last one and two million Jewish men, women, and trial for Demjanjuk, the culmination of a legal children would perish under their supervision. odyssey that began in the late 1970s which Despite the international attention to Demjan‐ stretched over three decades and involved many juk’s trial, and the trials of a few other Trawniki years of statelessness, a stint on death row in Is‐ men by various governments during the past four rael, and numerous civil and criminal trials. Tried decades, little is known about this group of men with 28,060 counts as an accessory to murder, and the camps in which they operated. Scholar‐ Demjanjuk was found guilty and sentenced to fve ship has largely been hindered by both a scarcity years in prison in May 2011. While appealing his of materials, as well as appropriate access to ex‐ conviction, Demjanjuk died one year later. Angeli‐ isting records from the former Soviet Union. As a ka Benz, Der Henkersknecht. Der Prozess gegen result, only a few articles and book chapters have John (Iwan) Demjanjuk in München, Berlin 2011. dealt exclusively with the Trawniki men. Peter Demjanjuk belonged to the group of SS auxil‐ Black, Foot Soldiers of the Final Solution.
    [Show full text]
  • Romani Identity and the Holocaust in Autobiographical Writing by German and Austrian Romanies
    This thesis has been submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for a postgraduate degree (e.g. PhD, MPhil, DClinPsychol) at the University of Edinburgh. Please note the following terms and conditions of use: • This work is protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights, which are retained by the thesis author, unless otherwise stated. • A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. • This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the author. • The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author. • When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given. Journeys into Memory: Romani Identity and the Holocaust in Autobiographical Writing by German and Austrian Romanies Marianne C. Zwicker Doctor of Philosophy University of Edinburgh 2009 Abstract This PhD thesis examines the ‘working through’ of traumatic memories of the Holocaust and representations of Romani cultural identity in autobiographical writing by Romanies in Ger- many and Austria. In writing their memories in German, these Romani writers ended the ‘muteness’ previously surrounding their own experiences of persecution in the Third Reich and demanded an end to the official silence regarding the Romani Holocaust in their home countries. The thesis aims to explore how the writing of these narratives works to create a space for Romani memories within German language written tradition and to assert a more positive Romani identity and space for this identity in their homelands.
    [Show full text]
  • Daniel Stahl. Nazi-Jagd: Südamerikas Diktaturen Und Die Ahndung Von NS-Verbrechen
    Daniel Stahl. Nazi-Jagd: Südamerikas Diktaturen und die Ahndung von NS-Verbrechen. Göttingen: Wallstein-Verlag. 2013. Reviewed by: Christiane Grieb, UCL Stahl’s Nazi-Jagd (Nazi Hunt) investigates the responses of South American governments to international requests for cooperation in the search for Nazi war criminals from 1945 through 2011. The Allied war crimes trial programs in Europe were largely limited to the trial of those Nazis identified and arrested in Allied detention centres in Europe. About many of the most atrocious war crimes and its perpetrators though, the public learned of only years or even decades later, and owed only to the locating or capture of Nazis like Mengele, Eichmann, Priebke or Barbie in South American countries. Previous research on escaped Nazi war criminals often focused on: the clandestine organisation of networks (ODESSA) that helped war criminals to thwart prosecution, provided fastidiously reconstructed operations of ‘ratlines’ out of Allied occupied Europe and into the safe havens of South America. Other more recent biographical studies crafted accounts of the social-nationalist careers and personal lives of war criminals in hiding. The German-based historian Daniel Stahl now complements these insights with his studies of judicial attempts to locate and to bring to justice those Nazi war criminals who had escaped to South America. Most capturing are his accounts of the resistance and diplomatic jiggery-pokery that West German prosecutors faced in South America. For decades, the majority of these efforts were foiled and Nazi war criminals could live unmolested in South America. Stahl did not just offer narratives of events, but in fact sought to establish an historical account of the achievements and failures to identify and repatriate Nazi war criminals for trial for a period of 50 years.
    [Show full text]
  • VI. Plädoyers Und Urteil – Die Finale Verwirrung
    VI. Plädoyers und Urteil – die finale Verwirrung 1. Zeitspiel – aus den Tiefen der Ebene zum Ende Für die Berichterstattung über den Demjanjuk-Prozess hatte ich mich im Spätsommer 2009 freiwillig gemeldet, obwohl es für einen fest angestellten Redakteur der ARD eher ungewöhnlich ist, langfristig Reporteraufgaben zu übernehmen. Mir schien das Verfahren zeithistorisch interessant, auch wenn niemand wusste, wie lange es sich hinziehen würde. Allerdings gab es später auch Tage, an denen ich die Freiwilligkeit bereute. Vor allem wäh- rend der Beweisaufnahme, als scheinbar nichts vorwärts ging im Gerichtssaal. Andererseits war das Geschehen auch faszinierend: Das stete Kräftemessen zwischen Anklage, Richterbank und Verteidigung, die Prozessführung, die juristische Anwendung der Täterforschung zum Holocaust. Ein Neugier- Faktor mag auch das Gerichtsgebäude als solches gewesen sein. Der neue Münchner Justizpalast, eine grau-grüne Betonburg aus den 1970er Jahren, bot jeden Tag ein Kaleidoskop unserer Gesellschaft. Es genügte, sich still diejenigen anzuschauen, die morgens an der Sicherheitsschleuse standen. Wer war als Zeuge geladen, wer kam als Beschuldigter? Wenn nur ein Ende absehbar gewesen wäre! Anfangs hatte das Gericht nur bis Mai 2010 geplant. Danach begannen die Verlängerungen: Diese Verhandlungstage wurden durch Gerichtsmitteilungen bekannt gegeben: am 3. März und am 24. No- 1 vember 2010, am 3. Februar 2011 und am 18. März 2011 . Obwohl Straf- prozesse immer wieder Unwägbarkeiten mit sich bringen, war dies doch eher ungewöhnlich – und das umso mehr, als die Ungewissheit sogar bis zum letzten Prozesstag anhielt. Denn erst am Mittag des 12. Mai 2011 war allen klar, dass sie an diesem Tag auch das Urteil hören würden. Bis zuletzt hoffte ich mit anderen Zuhörern und Prozessbeteiligten, den einen historischen Augenblick zu erleben, wenn John Demjanjuk sein Schweigen brechen und berichten würde, was sich ereignet hatte nach seiner Gefangennahme durch die Wehrmacht im Frühjahr 1942.
    [Show full text]