East Germany's Handling of the Holocaust

Christian Dirks. "Die Verbrechen der anderen": Auschwitz und der Auschwitz-Prozess der DDR. Das Verfahren gegen den KZ-Arzt Dr. Horst Fischer. Paderborn: Ferdinand Schöningh Verlag, 2005. 408 pp. EUR 42.90, cloth, ISBN 978-3-506-71363-6. Harald Schmid. Antifaschismus und Judenverfolgung: Die "Reichskristallnacht" als politischer Gedenktag in der DDR. Hannah- Arendt-Institut für Totalitarismusforschung Berichte und Studien. Göttingen: V&R unipress, 2004. 153 pp. EUR 16.80, paper, ISBN 978-3-89971-146-2. Jan Philipp Spannuth. Rückerstattung Ost: Der Umgang der DDR mit dem "arisierten" und enteigneten Eigentum der Juden und die Gestaltung der Rückerstattung im wiedervereinigten Deutschland. Essen: Klartext Verlag, 2007. 255 pp. EUR 27.90, paper, ISBN 978-3-89861-656-0. Reviewed by Andrew Beattie Published on H-German (May, 2009) Commissioned by Susan R. Boettcher In the decade after 1989, the German Demo‐ handling of the National Socialist past.[1] Defi‐ cratic Republic's (self-)image as the "better Ger‐ ciencies and blind spots in its treatment of victims many"--the negation of fascist Germany and the of the Holocaust were exposed, as was its prag‐ embodiment of the antifascist resistance--was vig‐ matic integration of former Nazis. A new consen‐ orously contested. Scholars, politicians, intellectu‐ sus held that, in contrast with its self-depiction, als, and publicists critically scrutinized the GDR's the GDR was by no means "better" than the Feder‐ H-Net Reviews al Republic of Germany, which it had mercilessly gest ambiguous and complex answers to these attacked as the barely tamed continuation of fas‐ questions. cist interests. Instead, the many shortcomings of The ostensible focus of Christian Dirks's well- West Germany's efforts to "come to terms" with written work is an examination of the East Ger‐ the Nazi past now appeared as unfortunate man counterpart to the famous and much-studied bumps on the road to an honest, self-critical ap‐ Frankfurt am Main "Auschwitz trial" of 1963-65. proach to German responsibility for Nazi geno‐ [4] Dirks treats the "GDR's Auschwitz trial" not cide, while the GDR's mendacious antifascism, only as a component of East German judicial his‐ having amounted to little more than an instru‐ tory, but also as an aspect of East Germany's and ment for regime legitimation, met its deserved West Germany's Beziehungsgeschichte. Yet these end in 1989-90.[2] are not Dirks's only aims. He also seeks to contrib‐ By the turn of the millennium at the latest, re‐ ute to research into Nazi perpetrators by examin‐ searchers interested in more complex accounts ing the roles of SS doctors at Auschwitz, in partic‐ identified deficiencies in the prevailing under‐ ular that of the trial's defendant Horst Fischer, standing. These included its primary focus on the who served there from late 1942 and from 1943 as 1940s and 1950s, its overwhelming focus on the deputy chief SS doctor. Accordingly, the actual tri‐ communist regime, and its treatment of the GDR al is addressed only in the fnal of three sections, in isolation from (or at best in isolated compari‐ which, although it spans about 140 pages, almost son with) the Federal Republic.[3] Numerous seems brief after nearly 200 pages of what might questions remained: to what extent did the otherwise constitute background information, regime control and manipulate efforts to address were it not for Dirks's ambitions with regard to (or ignore) the past? Were such efforts merely "in‐ perpetrator research. strumentalized" for political ends, or was there a The frst section provides an overview of genuine interest in facing up to (aspects of) prosecutions of Nazi criminals by Soviet tribunals Nazism and if so, where? Is it possible to speak of and East German courts between 1945 and 1955. East German antifascisms beyond the official doc‐ It also discusses East Germany's propaganda cam‐ trine (which might conceivably have persisted af‐ paigns against the Federal Republic in the 1950s ter 1989)? To what extent did change occur over and 1960s over its unmastered Nazi past and the the decades? And what was the nature of the in‐ compromised pasts of its elites. Drawing on exten‐ teraction of the two Germanys in this area--their sive secondary literature, this section, like the Beziehungsgeschichte? A further question that is whole book, is systematic and thorough. At times worth posing at the end of the second decade af‐ it seems excessively so, although some points that ter 1989 concerns the possibility of moving be‐ initially seem superfluous (such as somewhat con‐ yond the predominantly judgmental post-Wende fused references to Soviet internment camps) do discourse to write the history of East German han‐ fall into place eventually. Dirks might have taken dling of the Nazi past, indeed the history of post‐ a little more care with his use of contested terms war Germany in general, without the highly nor‐ such as "collective guilt" (p. 35), but he convinc‐ mative and evaluative approach that dominated ingly draws out the early and enduring "instru‐ the scholarship of the 1990s. In addressing di‐ mentalization of prosecutions of Nazi crimes for verse dimensions of East Germany's handling of the political-propagandistic goals of the rulers" in the legacies of Nazi persecution and genocide of the Soviet Occupied Zone (SBZ) (p. 37), including the Jews, the three books under discussion sug‐ their timing in conjunction with trials of similar crimes in the western zones, the absence of sys‐ 2 H-Net Reviews tematic prosecutions, and a preference for a small "selections" on the ramp at Birkenau and in the number of highly publicized trials. The discussion hospital at the Monowitz satellite camp run by the also suggests, more implicitly, the relative absence SS for IG Farben; conducting experiments on pa‐ of prosecutions of crimes directly associated with tients; supervising mass murder in the gas cham‐ the Holocaust. In discussing the SED's propaganda bers; and overseeing the death march following campaigns against the Federal Republic, Dirks the camp's evacuation. This section offers valu‐ stresses the basic accuracy of many of East able insights into the power struggles both within Berlin's charges against Bonn, due to the fact that the SS and between the SS and IG Farben at the denazified old "elites in the state, the econo‐ Auschwitz, as well as into the selection processes my, the academy, and the military were almost from the perspective of an SS doctor. Dirks also completely reinstated" in the 1950s (p. 55), in con‐ discusses Auschwitz's SS doctors' social and fami‐ trast to which the GDR claimed to have expunged ly life. While Fischer was clearly not one of the fascism, root and branch. most brutal SS doctors or officers, he made no se‐ Yet, as Dirks argues in his conclusion, "the rious attempt to be transferred away from only thing systematic about the criminal prosecu‐ Auschwitz. Dirks's attribution to him of "a pro‐ tion of Nazi crimes in the GDR was the consistent nounced sense of injustice" while there (p. 186) oversight of its own deficits in this area" (p. 330). comes somewhat as a surprise, partly because we As is well known, many former Nazis integrated never really get inside Fischer's head, despite his themselves into East German society, with or extensive subsequent testimony. Dirks's plausible without undergoing denazification. Fischer final assessment is that Fischer was "no small cog (1912-66) is an example. Dirks's second section ad‐ within the National Socialist machinery of exter‐ dresses Fischer's path from petit bourgeois origins mination, of which he became a part through a fa‐ and early orphanhood in Dresden, via a medical tal mix of antisemitism, indifference, careerism, degree at Berlin University and membership in and enrichment" (p. 168). the SS since late 1933, to Auschwitz. It also Although several of his colleagues had faced presents his avoidance of detection at war's end trial, by the late 1940s Fischer believed he had and his 1946 move to Spreenhagen in provincial evaded responsibility for his actions. Dirks stress‐ Brandenburg, where he practiced as the local es that such optimism was not unjustified, be‐ physician until his arrest in 1965. This section is cause Fischer's whereabouts were unknown to perhaps the book's strongest; it provides a grip‐ the authorities outside the GDR that were investi‐ ping account of one individual's path to becoming gating him. Indeed, only Fischer's negative atti‐ a professional killer, as well as a detailed exami‐ tude toward the GDR and frequent visits to West nation of doctors' roles within the SS machinery Berlin attracted the attention of the district Stasi of exploitation and extermination. That Dirks's ac‐ office in the early 1960s. In 1965, he was identified count is so rich is due not least to extensive state‐ as the SS doctor about whom Stasi headquarters ments Fischer made in custody, Dirks's examina‐ had, coincidentally, only recently registered in‐ tion of which--combined with his utilization of ex‐ criminating material. His arrest was announced isting literature, including that produced by pris‐ after a delay of several months, just as the second oner-functionaries such as Hermann Langbein, Frankfurt Auschwitz trial began. Such timing re‐ who worked alongside Fischer--constitutes a sig‐ flected East Berlin's desire to gain influence over nificant contribution to the literature. Fischer's and pursue a counter-trial to the proceedings in various activities and responsibilities at Frankfurt. After plans to transform the frst Auschwitz included combating typhus epidemics Frankfurt trial into a "tribunal against IG Farben" (among SS personnel and prisoners); undertaking and its successor companies failed (p.

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