Philosophy 26

“If the state is criminal because it violates human rights and freedoms […], then participation is criminal.”

Quote translated after: Fritz Bauer (1964): „Warum Auschwitz-Prozesse?“, in: Neutralität. Kritische Schweizer Zeitschrift für Kultur und Politik, Jg. 2 (6/7), p. 9. Picture: Fritz Bauer Institut / A. Mergen. Wikimedia, Creative Commons.

Fritz Bauer (1903-1968) was a German lawyer. As Attorney General, he brought the crimes committed in the Auschwitz extermination camp to justice. He stands for the tireless fight for the investigation and legal prosecution of Nazi crimes.

Fritz Bauer comments on the German controversy over the reason for and purpose of the Frankfurt Auschwitz trials (1963-1965). In this controversy, it is argued, among other things, that the crimes are now time-barred. Fritz Bauer, on the other hand, still considers the legal prosecution of Nazi injustice to be necessary in order to show the historical truth about the crimes, accomplices and confidants. He argues that the lessons that needed to be learned were still relevant. For him, this includes social recognition and legal protection of the right to resist legal injustice. In this context, he also speaks of a "virtue of disobedience" in the face of laws and orders that violate human dignity.

*Ronen Steinke (2022): Fritz Bauer: The Jewish Prosecutor Who Brought Eichmann and Auschwitz to Trial. Indiana: Indiana University Press. *Suparna Banerjee (09.02.2023): The man behind the Auschwitz trials.

1964