Justice - The first Auschwitz trial began 60 years ago
It began 60 years ago: According to experts, the first Frankfurt Auschwitz trial on the atrocities committed in the German concentration and extermination camp was an important step towards coming to terms with National Socialist crimes. "It provided the decisive impetus for the political and social debate about the Nazi era," said the Director of the Fritz Bauer Institute in Frankfurt, Professor Sybille Steinbacher.
The first Auschwitz trial in Frankfurt - the largest criminal trial of the post-war period in Germany - began on December 20, 1963. The 23 men on trial were former members of the SS and lived unchallenged in the middle of society at the time. The verdicts were handed down 20 months after the trial began. Six of the accused were sentenced to life imprisonment for murder. Three men were acquitted.
At least 1.1 million people were murdered in the German concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz, most of them Jewish prisoners. The initiator of the Frankfurt Auschwitz trials - the first was followed by two more - was the Frankfurt public prosecutor Fritz Bauer.
Tape recordings from the Fritz Bauer Institute trial
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Source: www.stern.de
