Democracy, Nazi Trials, and Transitional Justice in Germany, 1945–1950

235 Pages·2020·2.232 MB·English

by  Devin O. Pendas

Democracy, Nazi Trials, and Transitional
Justice in Germany, 1945–1950
Postwar Germany has been seen as a model of “transitional justice”
in action, where the prosecution of Nazis, most prominently in the
NurembergTrials,helpedpromoteatransitiontodemocracy.However,
this view forgets that Nazis were also prosecuted in what became East
Germany,andthestoryinWestGermanyismorecomplicatedthanhas
beenassumed.Revisingreceivedunderstandingofhowtransitionaljust-
iceworks,DevinO.PendasexaminesNazitrialsbetween1945and1950
to challenge assumptions about the political outcomes of prosecuting
mass atrocities. In East Germany, where there were more trials and
stricter sentences, and where they grasped a broad German complicity
inNazicrimes,thetrialsalsohelpedtoconsolidatetheemergingStalinist
dictatorshipbylegitimatinganewpolicestate.Meanwhile,opponentsof
Nazi prosecutions inWestGermany embraced the language offairness
anddueprocess,whichhelpedde-radicalisetheWestGermanjudiciary
andpromotedemocracy.
Devin O. Pendas is Professor of History at Boston College. He is the
author of The Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial, 1963–1965: Genocide, History,
andtheLimitsoftheLaw(2010),andcoeditorofPoliticalTrialsinTheory
andHistory(2017)andBeyondtheRacialState:RethinkingNaziGermany
(2018)aswellasnumerousarticlesonthehistoryofHolocausttrialsand
internationallaw.

Democracy, Nazi Trials,
and Transitional Justice
–
in Germany, 1945 1950
Devin O. Pendas
BostonCollege
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Names:Pendas,DevinO.(DevinOwen)author.
Title:Democracy,Nazitrials,andtransitionaljusticeinGermany,1945–1950/
DevinO.Pendas,BostonCollege.
Description:Cambridge,UnitedKingdom;NewYork,NY:Cambridge
UniversityPress,2020.|Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
Identifiers:LCCN2020013018(print)|LCCN2020013019(ebook)|
ISBN9780521871297(hardback)|ISBN9781108820585(paperback)|
ISBN9781139021074(epub)
Subjects:LCSH:Warcrimetrials–Germany–History–20thcentury.|
Transitionaljustice–Germany–History–20thcentury.|Transitional
justice–Germany(West)–History–20thcentury.|Transitional
justice–Germany(East)–History–20thcentury.|Warcrimetrials–Germany
(West)–History–20thcentury.|Warcrimetrials–Germany
(East)–History–20thcentury.
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DDC345.43/023809044–dc23
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Contents
Acknowledgments page vi
Introduction: The Promise and Perils ofTransitional Justice 1
1 Allied Justiceand Its Discontents 23
2 Allied Policy toward German Courts 65
3 Debating Crimes against Humanity in the West 104
4 Debating Democracy in the East 138
5 TheTrials That DidNot Happen 165
Epilogue 192
Bibliography 202
Index 216
v
Acknowledgments
This book has been a long time in the making. Along the way, I have
received direct and indirect assistance from numerous individuals and
institutions,andIowethemadebtofgratitude.Iwouldliketostartby
thanking those institutions that provided the financial assistance that
made the research and writing of this book possible. Boston College
provided me with not one but two Research Expense Grants for travel
toEuropeanarchives.Iwasextremelyfortunatetohavetheopportunity
to spend an academic year at the United States Holocaust Memorial
MuseumonaJudithB.andBurtonP.ResnickPostdoctoralFellowship
attheCenterforAdvancedHolocaustStudies.Iwasalsoabletospend
an academic year at the Kluge Center of the Library of Congress with
the support of a Frederick Burkhardt Residential Fellowship for
Recently Tenured Scholars from the American Council of Learned
Societies.TheCenterforContemporaryHistory(ZentrumfürZeithis-
torisches Forschung) in Potsdam provided me with a summer fellow-
ship.Lastbutfarfromleast,IwasprivilegedtoserveasGuestProfessor
forInterdisciplinaryHolocaustStudiesattheFritzBauerInstitutatthe
J.W.GoetheUniversitätinFrankfurtamMain.Withoutthesupportof
these institutions, this book would have been impossible, and I am
deeply grateful.
Various sections of this research were presented on numerous occa-
sions at a wide variety of conferences and workshops, and I am deeply
grateful to the many participants who provided feedback, too numerous
to mention. Many individuals also read, critiqued, and improved drafts
of different chapters and sections. First and foremost, I would like to
thank my colleagues in the Boston Area European Workshop: Julian
Bourg,TimBrown,FelixJimenez,StacyKent,JulieKeresztes,Shannon
Monaghan, Uta Poiger, and Jonathan Zatlin. Their critical feedback on
multiple drafts of multiple chapters went above and beyond the duty of
collegial fellowship. Other colleagues have offered invaluable feedback,
in conversation or by reading chapter drafts: Doris Bergen, Donald
Bloxham, Jonathan Busch, Alon Confino, Lawrence Douglas, Gabriel
vi
Acknowledgments vii
Finder, Kevin Jon Heller, Laura Jockusch, Lisa Moses Leff, Michael
Marrus, Dirk Moses, Douglas Morris, Jörg Osterloh, Werner Renz,
Mark Roseman, Warren Rosenblum, Joachim Savelsberg, Sybille Stein-
bacher, Adam Tooze, Annette Weinke, and Christiane Wilke.
Portions of several chapters have appeared previously in various jour-
nals or edited volumes, although all have been significantly modified to
fit the narrative of the present volume. Parts of Chapter 1 appeared as
“The Fate of Nuremberg: The Legacy and Impact of the Successor
Trials in the Postwar Era” in Kim C. Priemel and Alexa Stiller eds.,
TheNurembergTrialsRevisited:NewAnalysesandInterpretations.Elements
ofChapters2and3appearedas“RetroactiveLawandProactiveJustice:
Debating Crimes against Humanity in Germany, 1945–1950” Central
European History 43 (September 2010). Finally, a version of Chapter 5
waspublishedas“AnatomieeinesSkandals:dieErmittlungenimMord-
fallDr.HansHannemannimKontextderdeutschenNachkriegsjustiz,”
KritischeJustiz46/3 (2013).
Finally, I would like to offer my deepest gratitude to my family.
Christine, Olivia, and Owen tolerated my extended travels and my late
nightswithgraceandgoodcheer.Theysupportedandinspiredme.This
book is dedicated to them.

Introduction
The Promise and Perils of Transitional Justice
The experience of Germany after the Second World War marks the
largest and the most systematic effort at whatwould subsequently come
to be called transitional justice ever undertaken. Much of the literature
on transitional justice treats the German experience – often focused on
“Nuremberg” – as an origin story.1 Sometimes, this is told as a success
story.Otherobserversviewitasacaseofunfulfilledpromise.Andafew
view it as acautionary tale.
Those who view transitional justice in Germany as a success tend to
link it to the subsequent consolidation of liberal democracy and market
prosperityintheFederalRepublicofGermany(FRG)(WestGermany).
TheNurembergTrialsareoftengivencredit.KingsleyChieduMoghalu,
for instance, has argued that
the Nuremberg Trials were perhaps the most important postwar factor that
shaped a democratic and prosperous Germany (West Germany) that became a
key member of the Western alliance during the cold war that divided Germany
betweenEastandWest.Bydemonstratingsovividlythecrimescommittedbythe
Nazi party, the trials effectively banished Nazi ideology from the domestic
political sphere. The deep introspection it generated in subsequent years …
helpedmakeroomforrealdemocracy.2
Similarly,GeoffreyRobertsonclaims:“Nurembergstandsasacolossus
in the development of international human rights law, precisely because
1 See for instance: Howard Ball, Prosecuting War Crimes and Genocide: The Twentieth-
Century Experience (Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1999); Yves Beigbeder,
Judging War Criminals: The Politics of International Justice (New York: St. Martins,
1999); Heimo Halbrainer and Claudia Kuretsidis-Haider eds., Kriegsverbrechen, NS-
Gewaltverbrechen und die europäische Strafjustiz von Nürnberg bis Den Haag (Graz: Clio
Verlag, 2007); Gerd Hankel and Gerhard Stuby eds., Strafgerichte gegen
Menschheitsverbrechen: Zum Völkerstrafrecht 50 Jahre nach den Nürnberger Prozessen
(Hamburg:HamburgerEdition,1995);andPhillippeSandsed.,FromNurembergtothe
Hague: The Future of International Criminal Justice (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press,2003).
2 KingsleyChieduMoghalu,GlobalJustice:ThePoliticsofWarCrimesTrials(Westport,CT:
PraegerSecurityInternational,2006),p.39.
1