FRANKFURT TRIAL. A trial... of the chief SS officers who worked at the
extermination camp of Auschwitz. Also known as the Auschwitz Trial, it
took place from December 20, 1963, to August 20, 1965, the longest
legal case in German records. Robert Karl Mulka and other SS
defendants came mostly from middle-class families. Eight had a higher
education. Most claimed that they were as innocent as their victims;
"I only knew one mode of conduct; to carry out the orders of superiors
without reservations" (Boger). "I had nothing to do with it" (Hoecker).
"I believed in the Fuehrer. I wanted to serve my people" (Stark). "I
naturally sought to save as many Jewish lives as possible" (Dr.
Lucas). "No one died by my hand" (Hantl).
The testimony brought out such items as these:
Barracks were horse stables with a capacity for 500 people, into which
1200 prisoners were crammed.
Clerks worked night and day in shifts at seven typewriters making out
death reports.
The lockers of SS men contained a fortune in jewelry belonging to the
victims.
A main concern of the SS guards was that "new-born infants should have
a prisoner number tattooed on their thighs immediately because the arm
of an infant was too small."
Jewish prisoners in the yard of the crematories circled the doctor who
was making selections for life or death, all eager to read the least
wish on his face.
Women and children on their knees cried: "Take pity, take pity on us!"
No mother let her child go alone to the gas chambers. All mothers went
with their children.
Above the front gate through which new arrivals marched was written
the slogan "Arbeit Macht Frei", or "Labor Liberates."
The charges brought against the accused (see the book for sentences
imposed) include:
"5 murders, 11 joint murders, complicity in deaths of 3000 persons"
"14 murders"
"144 murders, 10 joint murders, complicity in deaths of 1000 persons"
"22 joint murders, complicity in deaths of 1000 persons"
"Complicity in joint murder on at least four separate occasions, of
2,000 deaths each."
"Complicity in joint murder on at least thirty-two separate occasions,
two involving the murder of 750 persons each."
"Complicity in join murder on at least six separate occasions of at
least 1,000 deaths each."
"Complicity in joint murder on at least forty occasions of at least
170 deaths each."
"Complicity in murder of at least 1,000 persons each on three separate
occasions."
"1 murder, 30 joint murders, joint murder on three separate occasions
of 750 deaths each."
"10 murders, joint murder of 1,000 persons"
"475 murders"
"Complicity in murder of 750 persons"
"Complicity in joint murder of 700 persons"
"Complicity in joint murder on eighty separate occasions"
"Joint murder on forty-four separate occasions, one involving 200
persons and one involving at least 100 persons."
Taken from the ...----------------------------------------------------
Encyclopedia of the Third Reich, by Dr. Louis L. Snyder, Professor of
History, The City College and The City University of New York. Paragon
House, New York, 1989. ISBN 1-55778-144-3
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