Belsen Trial 1945:A lesson in democracy

The first Nazi war crimes trial becomes a democratic "lesson". In court in Lüneburg:the guards of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. On November 17, 1945, the verdicts come down - with death sentences and imprisonment, but also acquittals.

Two months earlier, September 17, 1945, marked the start of a process that was unique to date. The crimes of National Socialism are tried for the first time before a British military court in Lüneburg. The liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp was just under six months ago. Now the guards of the concentration camp are on trial. Originally, 48 members of the camp administration were charged, but three did not have to answer because of illness. 44 SS members, concentration camp guards and so-called prisoner functionaries are now being held accountable - and:camp commandant Josef Kramer.

Commander of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp:"Josef Kramer, whom the world calls the beast"

In the newsreel it says:"This is Josef Kramer, whom the world calls the beast of Belsen." Many of the accused had already served in the same capacity in the Auschwitz extermination camp. They had hoped to just get away with it. This first war crimes trial on German soil to be held by a British military tribunal will crush hope.

Witness Lasker-Wallfisch:"Suddenly on the other side"

Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who was deported to Auschwitz in 1943 and later to Bergen-Belsen, is a witness in the so-called Belsen trial. A few years ago she spoke to the NDR about the procedure:"I see them in front of me, I see the hall as I went in there. (...) Suddenly I'm on the other side. That was a lot of fun for me , I have to say."

The extent of the catastrophe in the concentration camps was unknown to the general public - at least according to their own statements. Until this process. "It was necessary to show that there are laws in the world," said Lasker-Wallfisch. "But I found it impossible to apply laws to something so outside of any law, which was like Bergen-Belsen."

The prosecution and the difficult witness stand

The charges in September '45 are:war crimes, violation of the laws of war, ill-treatment resulting in death. The British strictly adhere to the law in order to send a clear signal against the tyranny of the Nazi regime and to punish the crimes committed. But the judiciary is reaching its limits when it comes to precisely clarifying the course of events. "What day of the week was that? I don't know. And what time? I don't know either. Then you're no longer a strong witness," Lasker-Wallfisch said. A procedure that is supposed to come to a conclusion based on the facts, but negotiates facts that the victims can only with difficulty break down into their individual parts afterwards - that too is a novelty. "That annoyed me. I didn't have a watch," says Lasker-Wallfisch. "Beating someone dead. It's three o'clock in the afternoon. Tuesday. I'll have to remember that. - Those are normal questions to ask in a court of law. But there was nothing normal."

In the spotlight:Irma Grese and Josef Kramer

Two defendants in particular are at the center of the trial:Irma Grese, supervisor of the concentration camps in Ravensbrück, Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen, and Josef Kramer, camp commander of Bergen-Belsen and before that of Auschwitz-Birkenau.

"How did they act? They just sat there. Very still," Lasker-Wallfisch recalls.

Kramer presents himself as an exemplary father

The journalist Axel Eggebrecht, who died in 1991 and had observed the trial as one of three authorized German press representatives, remembered Kramer's appearance in particular:"I will not forget this interrogation until the end of my life," said Eggebrecht and quoted from it the memory:"Where did you live? In the camp? - No outside. - Right next to the camp? - Yes, next to the camp. The barbed wire fence was right behind our garden." About 100 yards from this garden the heaps of dead must have been lying in the camp. "Your children played there? - Yes, that may have been. - Are you a good father? - Yes, of course."

Eleven death sentences, 18 prison sentences, 15 acquittals

Between September and November 1945, the newspapers reported new details of the trial every day. The detailed reporting is part of the general "reeducation". Everyone should know what happened. The verdicts will be pronounced on November 17:death penalty for eleven defendants, imprisonment for 18 defendants - including one life sentence - and acquittal for 15 defendants. Both the duration of the trial and the verdicts are sometimes heavily criticized in the Allied countries - from the point of view of most observers, however, they prove the fairness of the procedure and the fact that the verdicts were not determined before the trial began.

Belsen trial:"A lesson in democracy"

The journalist Eggebrecht was also impressed by the fact that "this really became a lesson in democracy. A military court! You imagine that things are pretty arbitrary there. No!" Looking back, the then witness Lasker-Wallfisch was also moved by the process:"There was no other method. And Lüneburg can be proud that it was the first process (...) It was the first attempt to turn a completely lawless society into a kind of system." The first step in coming to terms with the National Socialist crimes:From then on nobody could look the other way.

Occasional trials are still taking place against the perpetrators and accomplices from back then, but due to their age only very few of them can be held accountable. In July 2020, the Hamburg Regional Court sentenced a 93-year-old former concentration camp guard to a suspended sentence for being an accessory to murder in 5,232 cases in the Stutthof camp. For his involvement in the crimes in the Auschwitz death camp, the late Oskar Gröning was sentenced to four years in prison by the Lüneburg Regional Court in 2015 for being an accessory to murder in 300,000 cases.