Frankfurt Auschwitz trials
The Frankfurt Auschwitz trials, known in German as Der Auschwitz-Prozess, or Der zweite Auschwitz-Prozess, (the "second Auschwitz trial") was a series of trials running from 20 December 1963 to 19 August 1965, charging 22 defendants under German criminal law for their roles in the Holocaust as mid- to lower-level officials in the Auschwitz-Birkenau death and concentration camp complex. Hans Hofmeyer led as Chief Judge the "criminal case against Mulka and others" (reference number 4 Ks 3/63).
| Frankfurt Auschwitz trials | |
|---|---|
Buergerhaus at Frankenalle in Frankfurt am Main-Gallus. Courthouse for the first Frankfurt Auschwitz trial in 1963–65, 2009 photo | |
| Court | Frankfurt, West Germany |
| Full case name | Second Auschwitz trial (der zweite Auschwitz-Prozess) |
| Indictment | 20 December 1963 |
| Decided | 19 August 1965 |
| Case history | |
| Subsequent action(s) | Verdict in the last Auschwitz/Lagischa case: September 1977 |
Overall, only 789 individuals of the approximately 8,200 surviving SS personnel who served at Auschwitz and its sub-camps were ever tried, of whom 750 received sentences. Unlike the first trial in Poland held almost two decades earlier, the trials in Frankfurt were not based on the legal definition of crimes against humanity as recognized by international law, but according to the state laws of the Federal Republic.