Language:
German
Year of publication:
2008
Titel der Quelle:
Jahrbuch für Antisemitismusforschung
Angaben zur Quelle:
17, (2008) 243-268
Keywords:
Bosshammer, Friedrich
;
War crime trials
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
Abstract:
Analyzes the arguments of prosecution and defense in the war crimes trial (1971-72) in Berlin of Bosshammer (1906-1972), a member of Eichmann's staff, who organized the internment and deportation of Italian Jews in 1944. Bosshammer represented himself, in accordance with current "functionalist" images of the perpetrators, as a cog in the machine, who carried out orders and did not even know that the Jews he deported were going to their deaths. Such arguments led to the acquittal of many accused war criminals or to a halt in the proceedings, as, for instance, in the case of Bosshammer's subordinates, whose prosecution in Dortmund was discontinued at about the same time. Moreover, in German judicial practice, a person could be convicted of murder only if it could be shown that he acted from base motives and with special cruelty and perfidiousness. Exceptionally, the prosecution was able to prove that these conditions obtained, by showing that Bosshammer had exceeded his orders by deporting also Jews from "mixed" families, who were suppposed to be spared; and that the conditions in the transports he organized were even harsher than was generally true. He was sentenced to life in prison, but died while awaiting the hearing of his appeal.
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