View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Carolina Digital Repository CROSSROADS AT ULM: POSTWAR WEST GERMANY AND THE 1958 ULM EINSATZKOMMANDO TRIAL Patrick Tobin A dissertation submitted to the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of History. Chapel Hill 2013 Approved by: Christopher Browning Chad Bryant Karen Hagemann Konrad Jarausch Donald Reid © 2013 Patrick Tobin ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii ABSTRACT PATRICK TOBIN: Crossroads at Ulm: Postwar West Germany and the 1958 Ulm Einsatzkommando Trial “Crossroads at Ulm” examines the intersection of politics, society, culture, and law in the 1958 Ulm Einsatzkommando trial. The largest Nazi crimes trial in West Germany since the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, the Ulm case convicted ten men for crimes of the Holocaust in 1941 Lithuania. The dissertation looks at different perspectives that various subcultures held on the trial. By exploring the involvement and attitudes of victims, perpetrators, investigators, prosecutors, public, media, and state and federal officials, the dissertation tells a broader story about conflicting and evolving West German attitudes towards the Nazi past in the 1950s. This multiperspective view of the trial offers insight into how and why West Germany came to rely upon its courts to address the aftermath of the Holocaust in the late 1950s. In the wake of the trial, the West German states created an agency for Nazi crimes investigations, appointing the Ulm trial’s prosecutor as its leader. Rather than explain this development as a result of top-down federal actions or bottom-up public criticism, the Ulm trial reveals a middle-out approach. Through the creation of a transnational network of critical voices, the Ulm trial prompted change first in the halls of local government offices. This then percolated to the top of government before filtering back down to the German streets. This study thus offers a new conceptualization of the relationship between government institutions, individual actors, and the formation of memorial cultures. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The completion of this dissertation is, in the end, more than the completion of a manuscript. It is the culmination of an entire academic career, a string of attending classes and doing work in pursuit of some kind of grade or degree stretching back as far as I can recall. As such, the origins of this project – and the debts of gratitude I owe for its completion – stretch well beyond the archives, the seminar table, and the advisor’s office. They begin, most importantly, with my family. They have kindled and sustained in me a passion for learning, research, and writing that I don’t fully understand myself. But what I know for certain is that none of this would have been possible without them. I would like to thank Christopher Browning, who has provided invaluable mentorship, oversight, and encouragement over these past six years. The other members of my committee – Chad Bryant, Konrad Jarausch, Karen Hagemann, and Don Reid – have all transformed my thinking about this dissertation more than once. I have also been generously supported over the years by the Fulbright Foundation, the Social Sciences Research Council, the European Holocaust Resource Infrastructure, the Holocaust Education Foundation, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Yad Vashem. These sources of funding have enabled the project to change from simply an idea to a concrete dissertation. I would also like to thank the many scholars and archivists who assisted in this project, in particular, Ivan Ermakoff, Norbert Frei, Paul Jaskot, Stathis Kalyvas, Klaus Michael-Mallmann, Michaela Mingoia, Eliot Nidam, Sabrina Müller, and Annette Weinke. iv I have also benefitted tremendously from the many colleagues and friends who have aided in no small number of ways at various points in this project’s evolution. Many graduate students have provided both academic and social support over the years. I would like to especially thank the members of my writing group, Matt Feminella, Steve Milder, and Emma Woelk, who all patiently suffered through numerous drafts, and Brad Proctor, who has helped me along through graduate school since the very beginning as both a scholar and a friend. Finally, Kelly Morrow’s impact on this project is visible on every page. She kept me sane while I was spending months in the archives, listened to me as I tried to articulate my thoughts, and encouraged me through her words and actions everyday to become a more thoughtful, responsible, and engaged historian. Her influence on this dissertation and on my life cannot be overstated. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter I. PROLOGUE: THE DESTRUCTION OF THE JEWISH COMMUNITY IN GARSDEN, JUNE 24, 1941................................................1 II. INTRODUCTION: THE 1958 ULM EINSATZKOMMANDO TRIAL...............................................................................................................18 The Ulm Trial in Legal, Cultural, and Transnational History........................22 Sources...........................................................................................................38 Organization...................................................................................................41 III. REINTEGRATION: A PERPETRATOR’S HISTORY OF POSTWAR WEST GERMANY.......................................................................46 The Zero Hour................................................................................................51 A New Germany.............................................................................................80 The End of Reintegration…….....................................................................103 Conclusion....................................................................................................114 IV. INVESTIGATION: THE BERNHARD FISCHER-SCHWEDER CASE...............................................................................................................119 In Ulm, about Ulm, and all around Ulm.......................................................123 The Banker and the Mechanic......................................................................132 Pressure from the Jewish Community..........................................................143 “A Seedy and Questionable Impression” ....................................................149 “Infected by the Pessimistic Attitude of the Ulm Prosecutor’s Office”..........................................................................................................161 vi The Memel Police Director..........................................................................167 Conclusion....................................................................................................172 V. INVESTIGATION: THE CASE OF EINSATZKOMMANDO TILSIT.............................................................................................................177 The Independent Attorney............................................................................180 Schüle and the New Approach.....................................................................187 The Search for Survivors..............................................................................193 Scholars and their Sources...........................................................................207 From One to Ten..........................................................................................219 Ghosts in the Machine..................................................................................231 Conclusion....................................................................................................241 VI. TRIAL: CONFRONTATION ON THE DANUBE........................................246 The Trial Begins...........................................................................................249 Defendants on the Stand...............................................................................260 The Selective Memories of Ex-Nazis...........................................................268 The Prosecution Builds and Rests................................................................277 Defending the Accused................................................................................288 Verdict in Ulm..............................................................................................297 Conclusion....................................................................................................303 VII. LEGACY: A CENTRAL AGENCY FOR NAZI CRIMES INVESTIGATIONS........................................................................................308 The Public Response....................................................................................311 The Justice Ministry.....................................................................................324 The Bavarian Summer..................................................................................329 vii Lessons from Ulm........................................................................................333 Swallowing Camels, Straining at Gnats.......................................................341 “Is Baden-Württemberg Ready to Take on This Agency?”.........................351 Designing the Zentrale Stelle.......................................................................360 Conclusion....................................................................................................365