Sprache:
Deutsch
Erscheinungsjahr:
2007
Titel der Quelle:
Zeitgeschichte
Angaben zur Quelle:
34,6 (2007) 323-336
Schlagwort(e):
Engerau (Concentration camp)
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Influence
;
War crime trials
;
World War, 1939-1945 Conscript labor
;
Jews
;
Petržalka (Bratislava, Slovakia)
Kurzfassung:
In June 1945 the Austrian provisional government passed a law for the prosecution of war criminals for crimes specific to the Nazi regime and not covered by the ordinary criminal code. These were tried in "people's courts" consisting of two professional judges and three laymen. At this time, there was strong popular demand, as well as pressure by the media and the occupying powers, for speedy justice. The first war crimes trial, of four SA guards of the Engerau labor camp, accused of the murder of Hungarian Jews who worked under inhuman conditions on the construction of Austria's "southeast barrier" against the Red Army, began in August. In just two days the court condemned three of the accused to death; the sentence was promptly carried out. Because of the demand for haste, instead of one comprehensive Engerau trial there were six, each dealing with a small number of accused, as the prosecution succeeded in locating and investigating them. Only the third trial, in October 1946, dealt with the two commanders of the camp and the engineer in charge of that section of the barrier. The last trial took place in July 1954 and was also the last war crimes trial by the people's courts. While there was widespread interest in the first trial, both in Austria and internationally, interest in the subsequent Engerau trials and in other war crimes trials flagged rapidly.
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