“Auschwitz Was Just a Word” – 60 Years Since the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial

“The world would breathe a sigh of relief. I believe Germany would breathe a sigh of relief, and the entire world, and the relatives of those who perished in Auschwitz. The air would be cleansed if, for once, a human word were spoken. But it was not spoken, and it will never be spoken.” – Fritz Bauer on the lack of remorse shown by the defendants during the Auschwitz trial, Heute Abend Kellerclub, Hessischer Rundfunk, 1964

Sixty years ago, the first Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial came to an end. In what was the largest criminal proceeding of postwar Germany, 22 members of the former Auschwitz concentration camp staff were accused. The trial was initiated by Hesse’s Attorney General Fritz Bauer, a Jewish Social Democrat who had himself been imprisoned for three months in 1933 and emigrated to Denmark in 1936. The starting point for the trial were execution lists that had been secretly passed on to Bauer.

The Frankfurt Trial took place in a societal climate that was largely reluctant to confront its own Nazi past. Symbolically, this was shown when some police officers saluted as the accused former SS members left the courtroom.

As a result, the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial, while an important step in confronting Nazi crimes, achieved only limited legal outcomes. Sixteen defendants were convicted, and further trials followed, yet the vast majority of Auschwitz SS perpetrators were never held accountable. What the trial did achieve, beyond individual verdicts, was to make the crimes of Auschwitz publicly visible and to make their denial impossible.

On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the first Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial, we will look back on these historic proceedings together with the German Resistance Memorial Center and the Museum Blindenwerkstatt Otto Weidt. Against this background, we are very pleased to welcome historian Dr. Beate Kosmala on Monday, November 3, 2025, at 6:00 p.m. at the Museum Blindenwerkstatt Otto Weidt.

Together with Dr. Kosmala, we will discuss the following and other questions: What conditions made the Auschwitz trials possible? What role did they play in Germany’s confrontation with the Holocaust? To what extent did the trials reflect the societal debate on Nazi crimes at the time? How do the trials continue to shape public understanding of guilt and responsibility? What significance did the trial have for coming to terms with National Socialism up to the present day?

We look forward to your participation and kindly ask you to register by November 2, 2025.

Dr. Beate Kosmala is a historian. She translated the articles written by Holocaust survivor Inge Deutschkron on the first Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial, which Deutschkron reported on as Germany correspondent for the Israeli newspaper Maariv, and published them in a collection titled “Auschwitz Was Just a Word: Reports on the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial 1963–1965.”