Customer Reviews

The Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial, 1963-1965: Genocide, History and the Limits of the Law

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I picked up this book while writing a review of Rebecca Wittmann's on the same subject, and found that I couldn't put this one down. Pendas used a wide array sources and secondary literature as the basis for this book, and he has a knack for clear and engaging narrative. Telling anecdotes, like the dramatic arrest of former Auschwitz commandant Baer in 1960, and the Frankfurt court's visit behind the Iron Curtain in Auschwitz in December 1964, make this book well worth the purchase price. My detailed review can be found on my university web site.

Pendas's book does something rare in academic publishing: it deals intelligently and responsibly with a very complex topic (the intersection of German law, crimes against humanity, and the Cold War) in a way that is accessible and even compelling to read. His understanding of the German legal context is nicely passed along to his readers, and makes the outcomes of the Auschwitz Trial (often confusing and disappointing to Anglo-American observers) much more understandable. (It is worth noting, btw, that a number of those who managed and staffed Auschwitz, including its first commandant, were arrested and tried (and many executed) by the Polish government in the immediate aftermath of the war.)

This book can be gainfully read in conjunction with Whitmann's book, Beyond Justice: The Auschwitz Trial. Both cover the 1963-5 Auschwitz trial, held in Frankfurt.

Pendas' account is heavily footnoted, demonstrating a lot of scholarship in this terrible subject. The entire book tends to focus on the legal maneuverings of the trial. By comparison, the actual events at Auschwitz seem to take second place. The biggest shortcoming was the inadequacy of German law, which at that time was largely the case law as existed before the war, to fully prosecute genocide. There is a stark and dreadful contrast between the measured and protracted tactics used by the defense and the mass murders summarily conducted at Auschwitz.

Also greatly inadequate were the numbers of SS prosecuted. In part due to some reluctance by Germans at that time to fully confront their recent past. Under these conditions, the Frankfurt prosecutors did a commendable job with the resources they had.