The man who put Germany on trial
#312
Friends of Democracy,
Today, a book tip:
A biography about an important person in post-war Germany: Fritz Bauer (16 July 1903 – 1 July 1968).
Bauer was a German Jewish judge and prosecutor and, among others, played an instrumental role in the post-war capture of Adolf Eichmann, one of the major organisers of the Holocaust.
The book The Prosecutor: One Man's Battle to Bring Nazis to Justice is written by the British journalist Jack Fairweather.
Fairweather describes the situation in Germany after World War II. How difficult it was to come to terms with the Nazi era. Only a minority wanted to reprocess the past. Too many were involved in the atrocities. Too many had supported the Nazis. From the very beginning. Fourteen million Germans alone had voted for the Nazis in the last free election in July 1932.
Gary J. Bass, an American academic specialised in international security, international law, and human rights, reviewed the book in the New York Times (🗞️ Link without paywall):
"Fairweather's book arrives as major political parties are working to stamp the memory of the Holocaust out of public consciousness. Last year, the immigrant-hating extremist party Alternative for Germany became the first far-right group to win a plurality in a state election since the fall of Nazi Germany. The party was led to victory by Björn Höcke, who has scorned the prominent Holocaust memorial in Berlin and said that Germany needs a "180-degree" turn in remembering its history.
In 2023, the billionaire mogul Elon Musk endorsed as "the actual truth" an antisemitic online post that blamed Jewish communities for pushing "dialectical hatred against whites" and flooding Western countries with "hordes of minorities"; earlier this year, he took time out from his new role as a powerful adviser to President Trump to tell an AfD rally by video that Germany has "too much of a focus on past guilt." Trump won his second term as president despite having dinner at his Florida estate with Kanye West, an outspoken antisemite, and Nick Fuentes, a white supremacist and Holocaust denier. Fairweather's book would be haunting to read at any time; it is especially bitter today."
Could be a good book to learn about German history, right? It can also help us to prevent history from repeating itself.
See you in Germany,
Johannes Eber
PS: There is also a movie about Fritz Bauer.