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23. Quotes in ITS, 1.1.6.0/folder 21, Bl. 2–3: Lagerälteste to Blockältesten, May 1, 1945; E. Fleck and E. Tenenbaum, “Buchenwald,” April 24, 1945, in Niethammer, Antifaschismus, 196. See also Greiser, “‘Sie starben,’” 122–23; Benz, “Befreiung,” 39–42, 47, 53; Maršálek, Mauthausen, 338–39; Freund, Zement, 434–35.
24. Quote in Benz, “Befreiung,” 51. In Belsen, the prisoner organization was weaker; Kolb, Bergen-Belsen, 165.
25. Szeintuch, “‘Tkhias Hameysim,’” quote on 215 (translation by Kim Wünschmann); Poljan, “‘Menschen,’” 87; Mankowitz, Life, 39; Königseder and Wetzel, Lebensmut, 19–20.
26. Gross, Fünf Minuten, 214, 217, 244, 263–64, quote on 216; Overesch, “Ernst Thapes,” 666–68; idem, Buchenwald, 121; Freund, Zement, 429; Hammermann, “‘Dachau.’”
27. Benz, “Befreiung,” 54, 59, quote on 61; Poljan, “‘Menschen,’” 86–87.
28. WL, P.III.h. No. 494, A. Lehmann, “Im Lager Bergen Belsen,” 1946, quote on 6; MacAuslan, “Aspects,” 134–59; D. Sington report, 1948, in Niedersächsische Landeszentrale, Bergen-Belsen, 202–203.
29. J. Pogonowski to his family, n.d. (November 1942?), in Piper, Briefe, 36–39.
30. Hördler, “Ordnung,” quote on 313; Schelvis, Sobibor, 2.
31. Bessel, 1945, 255–62; Shephard, Road, 63–64; Judt, Postwar, 29.
32. Laqueur, Bergen-Belsen, 139; WL, P.III.h. No. 494, A. Lehmann, “Im Lager Bergen Belsen,” 1946, p. 5; Sellier, Dora, 333; Judt, Postwar, 29–30; Rovan, Geschichten, 256–76. On France, see also Koreman, “Hero’s Homecoming”; Dreyfus, “Aufnahme”; Bauerkämper, Gedächtnis, 227–28; Michelet, Freiheitsstraße.
33. Poljan, “‘Menschen,’” quote on 84; Distel and Zarusky, “Dreifach,” quote on 101; Shephard, Road, 78–83; Erpel, Vernichtung, 211–14.
34. Shephard, Road, 100–101; Gerlach and Aly, Kapitel, 409.
35. BoA, interview with L. Stumachin, September 8, 1946.
36. Gross, Fear. See also Zaremba, “Nicht”; Königseder and Wetzel, Lebensmut, 47–57; Shephard, Road, 185–87; Michael, Davidstern; Szita, Ungarn, 211, 216; Ellger, Zwangsarbeit, 254–55.
37. Königseder, “Aus dem KZ,” 226–28, 231; Shephard, Road, 83–94, 200–211; Holian, Between, 213–36; Pilecki, Auschwitz, liii–liv; Debski, Battlefield, 245; Lowe, Savage, 212–29. For background, see Stone, Goodbye.
38. Quotes in BoA, interview with L. Stumachin, September 8, 1946. See also Buergenthal, Child, 134–65; Segev, Million, 118–19, 153–86.
39. Kogon, Theory, 300.
40. Quote in WL, P.III.h. No. 795, “Gipsy-Camp Birkenau,” January 1958. See also Pilichowski, Verjährung, 166–69; Cohen, Human, 63–81; Langbein, Menschen, 549–50; Helweg-Larsen et al., Famine, 418.
41. Levi, “Memory,” 12. More generally, see Langer, Holocaust.
42. Nyiszli, Auschwitz, 158; Evans, “Introduction,” xvii. He died of a heart attack in 1956.
43. Helweg-Larsen et al., Famine, quote on 436; Delbo, Auschwitz, 257–67; Leys, Guilt; Niederland, Folgen, 8–9, 229–35; Jureit and Orth, Überlebensgeschichten, 166–70.
44. Freund, “Mauthausenprozess,” quote on 43. More generally, see Pick, Wiesenthal; Segev, Wiesenthal.
45. For example, see Stengel, Langbein.
46. Wachsmann, “Introduction” (2009), xviii–xxii; Todorov, Hope, 148–58.
47. Quote in author’s interview with K. Kendall, June 1996. See also Gilbert, Boys, 140–41, 203–204, 385; Jureit and Orth, Überlebensgeschichten, 56–57; Ellger, Zwangsarbeit, 261.
48. LSW, Bl. 44–66: Vernehmung S. Dragon, May 10, 11, and 17, 1946, quote on 66; Fings, Krieg, 297; Jureit and Orth, Überlebensgeschichten, 170; Niederland, Folgen, 170.
49. Jagoda et al., “‘Nächte,’” 222.
50. Greif, Wir weinten, 50, 122–24.
51. Langbein, Menschen, quote on 540; Fröbe et al., “Nachkriegsgeschichte,” 547.
52. Lichtenstein, Majdanek, 82–85.
53. DAP, Aussage L. Schlinger, September 14, 1964, quote on 17788; Renz, “Tonbandmitschnitte.”
54. Schmidt, Justice, quote on 237. The ex-prisoner was sentenced to three months’ imprisonment for dishonoring the tribunal, though later freed on bail.
55. DA, A 3233, A. Carl to H. Schwarz, November 19, 1967; Lasker-Wallfisch, Inherit, 128.
56. Letter M. Nadjary, November 1944, in SMAB, Inmitten, 270–73; Nadjary survived and emigrated to the United States. See also Bacharach, Worte, 60–65; Roseman, “‘… but of revenge,’” 79–82; Langbein, Menschen, 133; Stoop, Geheimberichte, 52; LBIJMB, MF 425, L. Bendix, “Konzentrationslager Deutschland,” 1937–38, vol. 4, 59, 64.
57. Bohnen, “Als”; Gutterman, Bridge, 224.
58. Bárta, “Geschichte,” quote on 161; Freund, Zement, 419–20; Liblau, Kapos, 144; Niethammer, Antifaschismus, 65; Wagner, Produktion, 445; Szita, Ungarn, 192–93; Goldstein et al., Individuelles, 84; Stiftung, Bergen-Belsen, 231; Cramer, Belsen, 88–89.
59. There were fewer than eighty vigilante killings in the first days after the liberation of Buchenwald (which held over twenty thousand inmates); Abzug, Inside, 52.
60. Quote in Heberer, Children, 381. See also BoA, interview with I. Unikowski, August 2, 1946; Gutterman, Bridge, 224; Todorov, Facing, 216–20.
61. The best account of the events is Zarusky, “Erschießungen.”
62. Kielar, Anus Mundi, 405; BoA, interview with B. Piskorz, September 1, 1946.
63. Hammermann, “Kriegsgefangenenlager”; Jardim, Mauthausen, 22; Sigel, Interesse, 38. For the early arrival of war crimes investigators, see Wickert, “Aufdeckung”; DaA, A 3675, testimony Colonel Chavez, n.d.; Jardim, Mauthausen, 62–63; Cramer, Belsen, 47–92.
64. Quote in Orth, SS, 286. See also Sigel, Interesse, passim; Jardim, Mauthausen, 10–50; Yavnai, “U.S. Army.” Of the thirty-six defendants sentenced to death, eight later had their sentences commuted.
65. Cramer, Belsen. See also Jardim, Mauthausen, 36–37; OdT, vol. 1, 348–49.
66. Form, “Justizpolitische,” 58–61; Paetow, “Ravensbrück-Prozess.”
67. OdT, vol. 1, 350–51; Eiber, “Nürnberg,” 45–48; Morsch, Sachsenburg, 46; Sigl, Todeslager.
68. Prusin, “Poland’s Nuremberg.” See also Struk, Photographing, 119–23; BArchL, B 162/1124, Bl. 2288–316: Volkstribunal Krakow, Urteil, September 5, 1946; IfZ, G 20/1, Volkstribunal Krakow, Urteil, December 22, 1947; Marszałek, Majdanek, 248; Harding, Hanns, 240–45; Rudorff, “Strafverfolgung,” 337–38, 346. After his release from Polish captivity in 1958, Dr. Kremer was tried once more in West Germany, but barely served any of his ten-year sentence, as it was set off against the time he had served in Poland. He died later in the 1960s; Rawicz, “Dokument,” 11–16.
69. Weckel, Bilder, 115–23, 219–26, quote on 222; Indictment, n.d. (October 1945), IMT, vol. 1, 27–92; Orth, SS, 282; Broszat, Kommandant, 226–27; Rudorff, “Strafverfolgung,” 333.
70. The harshest penalty was eight years in prison. See Lindner, “Urteil”; Wagner, IG Auschwitz, 297–311. Not all managers with links to the KL system were as fortunate: the owner of the Zyklon B supplier Tesch & Stabenow and his second-in-command were sentenced to death by a British court in March 1946; UN War Crimes Commission, Law Reports, 93–103.
71. Weindling, Nazi Medicine; Schmidt, Justice.
72. Schulte, “Zentrum”; Von Kellenbach, Mark, 88–97; Orth, SS, 282–86.
73. For Camp SS defense strategies (also used below), see Jardim, Mauthausen, 115–67; Cramer, Belsen, 193–234; Hammermann, “Verteidigungsstrategien.”
74. Quotes in JVL, JAO, Review of Proceedings, United States v. Weiss, n.d. (1946), p. 136; NAL, WO 235/19, statement J. Kramer, May 22, 1945, p. 14.
; 75. Von Kellenbach, Mark, quote on 95; Cramer, Belsen, 260.
76. Wolfangel, “‘Nie,’” quote on 76; Von Kellenbach, Mark, quote on 91 (my translation); Hammermann, “Verteidigungsstrategien,” 90–95; Cramer, Belsen, 199–201; Kretzer, NS-Täterschaft, 336–37; Roseman, “Beyond Conviction?”
77. NARA, M-1174, roll 3, Bl. 1428–36: examination of O. Moll, December 5–6, 1945, Bl. 1431, 1434. Initially, Moll had worked in agriculture in Auschwitz, but he was soon transferred to the gas chambers (Hördler, “Ordnung,” 152). He was hanged in May 1946.
78. BArchB, Film 44837, Vernehmung A. Liebehenschel, September 18, 1946, quote on 26; USHMM, 1998.A.0247, reel 15, NTN 169, Bl. 52–53: Gnadengesuch A. Liebehenschel, December 24, 1947; IfZ, G 20/1, Volkstribunal Krakow, Urteil, December 22, 1947, p. 102.
79. JVL, JAO, Review of Proceedings, United States v. Weiss, n.d. (1946), 106; Sigel, Interesse, 71–75. See also Jardim, Mauthausen, 107; Cramer, Belsen, 201–208; Hammermann, “Verteidigungsstrategien,” 86, 91, 95.
80. Broszat, Kommandant, 79, 229–35; Orth, SS, 282–83; Prusin, “Poland’s Nuremberg,” 11–12.
81. Quote in USHMM, 1998.A.0247, NTN 169, Bl. 60: Gnadengesuch Aumeier, December 24, 1947. See also ibid., reel 15, Bl. 184–93: statement of H. Aumeier, December 15, 1947; Hördler, “Ordnung,” 49; APMO, Proces Liebehenschel, ZO 54, Bl. 19–29: interrogation H. Aumeier, August 10, 1945; ibid., Bl. 33–39: questionnaire H. Aumeier; NAL, WO 208/4661, statement H. Aumeier, July 25, 1945; Langbein, Menschen, 559–60.
82. Sigel, Interesse, 196; Greiser, Todesmärsche, 449; Cramer, Belsen, 390–91.
83. Schulte, Zwangsarbeit, 434; Tuchel, Inspektion, 217–18; Orth, “SS-Täter,” 55–56; Riedel, Ordnungshüter, 338. Probably the most senior WVHA official to get away, escaping from Allied captivity in 1946, was August Harbaum, Glücks’s former deputy.
84. Jardim, Mauthausen, 82–83, 165–67, 206–207, 213–14, 216; Greiser, “Dachauer,” 166; Cramer, Belsen, 245–46; Pohl, “Sowjetische,” 138.
85. Jardim, Mauthausen, 96, 102, 202; Hammermann, “Verteidigungsstrategien,” 88–89; Eisfeld, Mondsüchtig, 164–73; Klee, Auschwitz, 90, 253. More generally, see Jacobsen, Paperclip.
86. Just one example: Obersturmbannführer Mummenthey, the former head of DESt in charge of all SS quarries, was sentenced to life in November 1947 and released early in 1953, while Rottenführer Klimowitsch, a regular sentry who had patrolled the Mauthausen quarry, was sentenced to death in May 1946 and executed; Schulte, Zwangsarbeit, 473; JVL, DJAO, United States v. Altfuldisch, RaR, March 1946, p. 46.
87. Sigel, Interesse, 160, 194; idem, “Dachauer,” 77; Bryant, “Militärgerichtsprozesse,” 120–22; Wagner, Produktion, 568. According to a U.S. poll in late 1944, most respondents demanded that Germans guilty of KL murders should be executed, preferably “in poison gas chambers, by hanging, electrocution, or by firing squad”; Gallup, Poll, 472.
88. Kretzer, NS-Täterschaft, 131–33; JVL, JAO, Review of Proceedings, United States v. Weiss, n.d. (1946), p. 162; Sigel, Interesse, 57; Jardim, Mauthausen, 47.
89. Cramer, Belsen, 114–15. The prisoner was found not guilty.
90. Yavnai, “U.S. Army,” 62–63. Israeli judges often handed out lighter sentences in trials of former KL Kapos during the 1950s and 1960s; Ben-Naftali and Tuval, “Punishing.”
91. Cramer, Belsen, 115, 249, 257. See also Raim, Dachauer, 248; Bessmann and Buggeln, “Befehlsgeber,” 540.
92. Brzezicki et al., “Funktionshäftlinge,” 238; Wagner, IG Auschwitz, 200, 321–22.
93. NARA, M-1174, roll 3, examination of L. Knoll, December 7, 1945, quote on 1593 (“capo” in the original); JVL, JAO, Review of Proceedings, United States v. Weiss, n.d. (1946), pp. 107–108, 155–56; Zámečník, Dachau, 154–55; Sigel, Interesse, 57–63, 75. Knoll was also known by the first names Christian and Ludwig.
94. Between 1945 and 1953, just 673 of around 6,400 surviving Auschwitz SS officials were sentenced by Polish courts, which conducted most Auschwitz trials; Lasik, “Apprehension.”
95. Eiber, “Nürnberg,” 43–44; Jardim, Mauthausen, 30–32, 112–13.
96. Beischl, Wirths, 212–16, quote on 228; Klee, Personenlexikon, 112.
97. Keller, Günzburg, 60; Stangneth, Eichmann, 377. More generally, see Schneppen, Odessa; Stahl, Nazi-Jagd.
98. Raim, Justiz, 647–53, 1007–39; Wieland, “Ahndung,” 15–51, 57; Eichmüller, “Strafverfolgung”; Eschebach, “Frauenbilder.” Mennecke was sentenced primarily for his part in the general “euthanasia” program; he died before the death penalty was executed; LG Frankfurt, Urteil, December 21, 1946, JNV, vol. 1, 143–44; Klee, Personenlexikon, 403, 601.
99. Kuretsidis-Haider, “Österreichische,” quote on 257.
100. Schley, Nachbar, 1–3.
101. Hertz-Eichenrode, KZ, vol. 1, 344–52, quote on 351; OdT, vol. 5, 546; Greiser, Todesmärsche, 297–315; Wagner, Produktion, 565; Raim, Dachauer, 276–77; Erpel, Vernichtung, 200; Perz, KZ-Gedenkstätte, 34–35.
102. Brink, Ikonen, 23–78, quote on 46; Weckel, Bilder, 151–72, 418–56; Peitsch, “Deutschlands,” 107.
103. Cramer, Belsen, 271; Erpel, “Ravensbrück-Prozesse”; Urban, “Kollektivschuld.”
104. Greiser, “Dachauer,” 170; JVL, DJAO, United States v. Prince zu Waldeck, RaR, November 15, 1947, p. 95. See also Heschel, “Atrocity”; Kretzer, NS-Täterschaft; Jaiser, “Grese.”
105. Brink, Ikonen, 84, 89; Weckel, Bilder, 517–18; Neitzel, Abgehört, 313–15.
106. Peitsch, “Deutschlands,” 102–103; Schulze, Zeiten, 76, 286; Marcuse, Legacies, 80–81.
107. Schley, Nachbar, quotes on 4, emphasis in the original; Knigge, “Schatten,” 156; Weckel, Bilder, 170–72, 493, 528; Chamberlin, “Todesmühlen”; Brink, Ikonen, 84–93; Peitsch, “Deutschlands,” 96, 131, 142; Steinbacher, Dachau, 220; Johe, “Volk,” 332; Rüther, Köln, 908–10. More generally, see Frei, Vergangenheitspolitik; Moeller, War Stories; Marcuse, Legacies.
108. Stone, Goodbye, chapters 1 and 2.
109. Marcuse, Legacies, 151–57; Kansteiner, “Losing,” 108–12.
110. Sigel, Interesse, 159–93; Jardim, Mauthausen, 208–11; Urban, “Kollektivschuld.”
111. Klee, Auschwitz, 385–88; Segev, Soldiers, 228.
112. Eichmüller, Keine Generalamnestie, 226, 425, 428–30.
113. Steiner, “SS,” 432–33, 441; Mallmann and Paul, “Sozialisation,” 19–20.
114. Orth, SS, quote on 291; Mailänder Koslov, Gewalt, 230–31, 299, 488; Steiner, “SS,” 441; Schwarz, Frau, 162; Dicks, Licensed.
115. Goschler, Schuld; idem, “Wiedergutmachungspolitik.”
116. Wollheim instructed his lawyer in 1958 to end the legal proceedings; Rumpf, Fall Wollheim. For an unsuccessful civil case, see Irmer, “‘Stets.’”
117. Distel, “Morde,” 113. Steinbrenner was released in 1962 and committed suicide two years later.
118. Van Dam and Giordano, KZ-Verbrechen; Gregor, Haunted, 250–55; Eichmüller, Keine Generalamnestie, 155, 174–81, 214–19, 430; “Charge of Killing 11,000 Prisoners,” The Times, October 14, 1958; LG Bonn, Urteil, February 6, 1959, JNV, vol. 15.
119. Dicks, Licensed, quote on 100; AEKIR, 7 NL 016 Nr. 95, Sorge to Schlingensiepen, March 3, 1965, January 4, 1970, March 1, 1970; Riedle, Angehörigen, 203, 219.
120. K. Adenauer, “Geleitwort,” in Michelet, Freiheitsstrasse, 5–6.
121. Pendas, Frankfurt, 20–21, 249–52, quote on 256; Wittmann, Beyond, 3, 174–90; Orth, SS, 289–90; Weinke, Verfolgung, 82–93, 333; Horn, Erinnerungsbilder; Wolf, “‘Mass Deception.’”
122. Some cases, including the 1970s proceedings against the Auschwitz sterilization doctor Horst Schumann, collapsed because the defendants were judged too ill (Schilter, “Schumann,” 106–107). Others never came to court because the offenses were judged to fall under the statute of limitations, as in th
e case of a lengthy investigation of former WVHA-D managers, finally abandoned in 1974 (BArchL B 162/7999, Bl. 768–937: StA Koblenz, EV, July 25, 1974).
123. Zimmermann, NS-Täter, 169–93.
124. Przyrembel, “Transfixed,” quote on 396; LG Augsburg, Urteil, January 15, 1951, JNV, vol. 8; StAMü, Justizvollzugsanstalten Nr. 13948/2, Vermerk, ORR Meyer, February 1967. The focus of later trials on the bestial behavior of defendants was a result of homicide falling under the statute of limitations in 1960, which meant that prosecutors had to prove “bloodlust” or “base motives” to secure a murder conviction; Pendas, Frankfurt, 56–61; Wittmann, Beyond, 36–53.
125. Gregor, Haunted, 265; Pendas, Frankfurt, 253–54; Wittmann, Beyond, 271–72.
126. Marcuse, Legacies, 335–71; DaA, 14.444, Die Vergessenen, Nr. 3, July 1946; Ayaß, “Schwarze”; Baumann, “Winkel-Züge”; von dem Knesebeck, Roma; Mussmann, Homosexuelle. The failure of the 1946 journal owed something to the political extremism of one of its founders, Karl Jochheim-Armin, a former member of Otto Strasser’s Nazi breakaway Schwarze Front, who remained a far-right activist until his death in 1984; Schwarze Front 3 (2008); Eiber, “Ich wusste,” 128–29.
127. Silbermann and Stoffers, Auschwitz; Paul, “Täter,” 33–67.
128. Kuretsidis-Haider, “Österreichische Prozesse,” 250–52, 263–65, quote on 252; idem, “Verfolgung”; Uhl, “Victim”; Allen, “Realms.”
129. Wieland, “Ahndung,” 60–90; Bauerkämper, Gedächtnis, 132–37, 195–97; Weinke, Verfolgung, 344–54; Diercks, “Gesucht”; Stone, Goodbye, chapter 1.
130. KPD Leipzig, Buchenwald!, quote on 96; Niethammer, Antifaschismus, passim; Goschler, Schuld, 407–11; Overesch, Buchenwald, 101; Langbein, Menschen, 22; Hartewig, “Wolf,” 941–43; Gring, “‘zwei Feuern’”; Schiffner, “Cap Arcona-Gedenken”; Borodziej, Polens, 270.
131. Overesch, Buchenwald, 62–63, 78–81, 261–328, quote on 326. See also OdT, vol. 1, 317–18; Niven, Buchenwald, 56–71; Reichel, Politik, 101–106; Endlich, “Orte,” 354–58; Knigge, “Schatten,” 165–69; Marcuse, Legacies, ill. 74; idem, “Afterlife,” 200.