Funding: Ökohaus Frankfurt Foundation Doctoral Scholarship
Despite the central importance of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp as the site of the National Socialist genocide of Sinti and Roma, research into the legal examination of these crimes has remained marginal to date. In particular, the in-depth investigation of individual proceedings concerning the crimes committed against Sinti and Roma in Auschwitz-Birkenau represents a research desideratum.
At the center of the project is the trial of former SS officer Ernst August König, which took place at the Siegen Regional Court from 1987 to 1991. It was the first trial to focus exclusively on the murder of Sinti and Roma. Although incriminating material was collected against König during the investigations into the first Auschwitz trial in Frankfurt am Main (1963–1965), this track was not followed up later. It was only through the initiative of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma that a trial was held in the 1980s, which was largely supported by the efforts of the survivors and their relatives. König was finally sentenced to life imprisonment, the maximum sentence rarely imposed in trials for National Socialist crimes of violence.
The aim is to work out the significance of the König trial and its role in the context of the legal and social confrontation with National Socialist crimes against Sinti and Roma. A micro-historical analysis of the trial makes it possible to examine aspects that have received little attention to date, such as the role of those involved in the trial, the spectators and the public. In addition, proceedings that were connected to or initiated by the König trial will also be considered.
