Tape recording

of the 1st Frankfurt Auschwitz trial

The recording is preserved in the Fritz Bauer Institute archive on 366 audio CDs as well as in mp3 format. It contains examination of 321 witnesses, the »last word« of the 20 defendants, the pleadings of public prosecutor Kügler, the closing statements of the 10 members of the defence counsel (closing statements of lawyers Eggert (representing Mulka and Höcker), Joschko (representing Schoberth), Schallock (representing Boger), Erhard (representing Stark), Laternser (representing Capesius), Zarnack (representing Breitwieser), Göllner (representing Hofmann), Staiger (representing Hofmann), Laternser (Frank and Schatz), Reiners (representing Kaduk), Göllner (representing Klehr), Naumann (representing Hantl), Reiners (representing Scherpe) and Laternser (Schatz, Frank and Capesius) as well as the eleven-hour oral reasons presented for the judgment by the presiding judge. The original tapes are kept at the Hessian State Archive, Wiesbaden.

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Website

Tape recordings of the Auschwitz trial (1963–1965)

Recording of examination of witnesses in the »Criminal case against Mulka et al.« heard by the Frankfurt am Main Regional Court.

www.auschwitz-prozess.de

The Frankfurt am Main Regional Court transferred custody of the tape recordings of the witness examinations in the Frankfurt Auschwitz trial to the Hessian State Archive in 1989.  The recordings were used for the first time in 1993 in Hessischer Rundfunk public broadcaster’s three-part documentary STRAFSACHE 4 KS 2/63. The recordings contain the testimonies of 318 witnesses, including 181 Auschwitz survivors. Lauritz  Lauritzen, Hessian Minister of Justice, issued a decree in September 1965, ordering that the recordings be kept and preserved for archiving. 

In 2004, the Fritz Bauer Institute in cooperation with the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum, the Hessian State Archive and the German Broadcasting Archive (DRA) published the transcription of the 430-hour recording as well as 100 hours of selected original-sound testimonies.

By means of this website, the entire audio recordings including transcriptions in two formats (html and pdf) are now freely accessible via Internet. You can hear the voices of the victims who witnessed the crimes committed at Auschwitz and you can hear the SS witness excuses and the statements of the defendants who all deny sharing any responsibility for the crimes. The recording brings to mind in a haunting manner the efforts of the Frankfurt jury court (Schwurgericht) to determine individual guilt of the defendants in criminal proceedings according to the law. The »investigation of the truth« set out in section 24 of the German Criminal Procedure Code (StPO) also brought about comprehensive clarification of the mass crimes committed in Auschwitz.

The texts and materials on the history of the Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp, the Auschwitz trials as well as the tape recordings enable contextualisation of the audio source. Additional materials serve as a guide and informational aids. With the end of the prosecution and punishment of Nazi crimes in the Federal Republic of Germany, the audio source of the 1st Frankfurt Auschwitz trials is an extraordinary document of extremely high socio-political and legal-historical importance.

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