International Auschwitz Committee

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International Auschwitz Committee
logo
legal form International umbrella organization
founding 1952. The founding meeting took place on May 22nd and 23rd, 1954 in Vienna
founder Auschwitz survivors:
Seat Vienna , AustriaAustriaAustria 
people PolandPoland United StatesUnited States Roman Kent
(President of the IAK, since 2011)
Website www.auschwitz.info

The International Auschwitz Committee (IAK) was founded in 1952 by survivors of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp . Many of the leadership members were former prisoners of the concentration camp, who, as founders and members of the IAK, saw it as their task to speak for “all of the survivors and victims of Auschwitz”. The committee served and still serves as a “representation of the interests of its members, to coordinate the activities of national Auschwitz committees and to promote the memory of the Holocaust”.

The IAK was founded as an international umbrella organization to coordinate the national camp committees and associations of Nazi survivors. The committee consists of organizations from 19 countries ( Australia , Belgium , Germany , France , Greece , Israel , Italy , Luxembourg , the Netherlands , Austria , Poland , Romania , Russia , Slovakia , Slovenia , Czech Republic , Ukraine , Hungary and the USA ).

In June 2002 it was decided in Oświęcim to set up an IAK coordination office in Berlin. Since 2004, the work of the IAK has been institutionally and financially supported by the Federal Ministry of the Interior and since 2003 the IAK office has been located in the premises of the German Resistance Memorial Center in Berlin. Kurt Goldstein was the honorary president, and Roman Kent (New York) has been the president of the IAK since 2011 .

Foundation of the IAK

The “landscape” of the associations and organizations of the victims of Nazi persecution in the post-war period was large and varied. 1947 in Warsaw , the Fédération Internationale des Anciens Prisonniers Politiques (FIAPP) , based in Paris founded and Secretariat in Warsaw, which was halfway politically open, but undoubtedly antifascist oriented. At the second "World Congress" of FIAPP with the aim of " centralizing the campaign against the rearmament of West Germany and against equating the Soviet Union with National Socialism and removing it from being too close to the Eastern European governments", a new one was launched in July 1951 Organization founded, the Fédération Internationale des Résistants (FIR) . Its seat was neutral Austria and the organization was supposed to represent the interests of victims of Nazi persecution, deal with issues of compensation and their social and legal situation. In 1952 Warsaw was the place where representatives of Nazi survivors from numerous European countries gathered for a conference that also dealt with the campaigns against the remilitarization of the Federal Republic. There it was decided to join forces under the umbrella of the FIR, which was to carry out campaigns and actions that would endanger peace, to serve as an information point about missing persons and to deal with all events in the Auschwitz concentration camp. Although a committee was elected, there was no evidence of the work that had been started. At the end of 1953, the FIR convened another international conference, which was held in Vienna in March. The Polish journalist Henryk Korotinsky was elected as president, Hermann Langbein as general secretary and the Frenchwoman Louise Alcan as secretary. Langbein was voted out of office in 1961 for political reasons - initially he was expelled from the KPÖ and then lost the function of General Secretary because of criticism of the communist parties. This led to conflicts between the communist country committees and the management of the IAK, which resulted in Langbein being dismissed from his functions. Langbein's commitment was enormous, and numerous committee activities were the result of his initiative. At the time of his testimony in the 1st Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial in March 1964, he was 51 years old and was living as a writer in Vienna. His successor as General Secretary at the IAK was Tadeusz Hołuj.

The work of the IAK in the post-war period

The activities and tasks that the IAK members engaged in were numerous, varied and significant. In the few years between 1956 and 1961, the committee had established itself as an international organization and developed its main areas of work in many directions. Baron Maurice Goldstein, then President, sums up the objectives of the organization as follows:

“ The International Auschwitz Committee was founded [...] with different objectives: To let the world know what happened in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp. To represent the interests of the survivors. To promote and support contact between the national Auschwitz committees.
Against the background of the increased emergence of discrimination, racism and anti-Semitism and especially the growing denial of what happened in Auschwitz, it was decided at the General Assembly of 1992 that all organizations that are actively working on 'Auschwitz' an important position in the moral and to secure political debate and in the education of younger generations, to open up the possibility of membership in the IAK. [...]
[...] remember that with the defeat of the Third Reich, the Nazi ideology did not disappear, that fascist and neo-Nazi movements, organizations and parties are ready to bring new calamities to the people. "

At this point it becomes clear that the IAK had played an important role in the past, but it also becomes clear that its goals lie in the future. The political and social role, especially when it comes to the younger generation, is a clear focus in the work of the IAK.

The former prisoners of the concentration and extermination camps and other persecuted people organized themselves into one structure - the International Auschwitz Committee (IAK). In many ways, you created considerable post-war work that continues to have an impact today. The victims of Nazi persecution researched and published on the history and effects of the concentration camps, collected reports, information, documents and photos, developed forms of remembrance and created places for it. Their most significant successes, however, were educating the public about the crimes of National Socialism, the struggle for compensation for the victims and the work they did in the area of ​​prosecuting the perpetrators.

The importance of the work of the IAK is made clear by the bridging function it had during the Cold War between Eastern and Western Europe. Katharina Stengel describes the work of the IAK in the post-war period as follows: " At the height of the Cold War, this committee, with its cross-border networks and activities and its proclaimed non-partisanship, was an almost unique experiment ". The successes in all these areas and his uninterrupted work to this day show that the IAK was not just an experiment, but achieved something important for posterity.

Most of the members of the IAK and other organizations for which it was the umbrella organization were former concentration camp prisoners . Their path to recognition of the injustice and suffering that has been inflicted on them has not been easy and has always been linked to their active political role as actors in post-nationalist society. They persistently tried "to articulate their experiences, to represent their interests in public and to prevent the Nazi past from being kept silent". Their role as political actors created critical approaches to “coming to terms” with the past and showed the importance of those persecuted by the Nazis in the disputes over reparations, the legal punishment of Nazi crimes or in the area of ​​sociopolitical and socio-psychological discussion of the foundations of National Socialism . The Nazi survivors or the IAK campaigned for the construction of a new world, for peace and freedom, in order to prevent such terrible events from returning. In this context, the IAK made a remarkable contribution to the following generations and endeavors to continue to do justice to this.

Compensation for victims of Nazi persecution

From 1956 onwards, the IAK dealt intensively with the question of compensation for former concentration camp prisoners by German authorities and companies. This agenda was on the committee's agenda from the start, but only a very small fraction of the Auschwitz survivors were able to receive compensation. One of the problems why no compensation could be paid was the Federal Supplementary Law (BErG) passed in 1953, then the Federal Compensation Law (BEG) of 1956, which was aimed at persecuted people living in West Germany “who were persecuted for political , ideological or racial reasons ” were. The foreign persecuted had to turn to their states in order to get compensation from the reparations payments to the respective countries. These were postponed by the London debt agreement until the conclusion of peace treaties and so the reparations and thus the compensations lasted for decades. Katharina Stengel says the following about the work of the IAK in the area of ​​compensation for victims of Nazi persecution:

“ In its efforts to obtain compensation for Auschwitz prisoners, the IAK confronted industrial companies, German authorities and ministries, but also - in no less conflictual relationship - representatives of other groups of victims. The successes that the committee was able to achieve in the negotiations were only made possible by the enormous expenditure of time and financial resources for the many negotiations, delegation trips, meetings, legal advice and assistance for the applicants. Very few organizations of former concentration camp prisoners had such resources. "

The legal prosecution of Nazi criminals

The possibly most significant successes of the IAK in the post-war period can be seen in the area of ​​legal prosecution. Katharina Stengel describes the work of the committee in post-war Germany as extremely important and necessary. That was an important step in the extensive work against the National Socialist criminals that slowly emerged afterwards:

“In the Federal Republic of Germany, hardly any of the SS members from Auschwitz had been accused or convicted until the early 1960s. Investigations were only accidental or on the initiative of the victims. In 1955, the IAK joined the criminal complaint of the Central Council of Jews in Germany against the notorious Auschwitz SS doctor Carl Clauberg and thus began its extensive »action against the SS«. "

The work of the members and founders of the IAK was extensive and difficult and dangerous. They collected information about the camps and the crimes to determine who was responsible. They filed a criminal complaint on their own initiative and tried to find out personal information about the Nazi perpetrators. They gathered evidence, tried to track down witnesses, and then turned the information over to the appropriate authorities.

The IAK played a very important role during the Cold War . It had a bridging function in that contacts could be established between West German and Polish investigative authorities - and between West and East in general. It wasn't just communication, however, but also the gathering of evidence beyond the Iron Curtain . In addition, the members were able to find witnesses and Nazi criminals all over the world.

The significance for the coming about of the 1st Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial

The fact that the 1st Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial was able to take place is largely thanks to the investigations of the IAK. But it would not have been possible without the personal commitment of Hermann Langbein, who was its general secretary. Langbein was voted out of office in 1961 for political reasons and in 1963 was one of the founders of the Comité International des Camps in Warsaw , of which he was secretary in the following period. Thanks to his excellent contacts, Langbein was able to find witnesses for the Frankfurt public prosecutor's office in Poland , and also had connections with Polish lawyers, although there were no diplomatic relations during the Cold War. He promoted the investigation by the IAK and made it possible to locate witnesses who had dispersed in various countries after the end of the Nazi era and to persuade them to testify for a trial. At this point it becomes apparent that Langbein's role in the investigation was a leading one for the process, as he acted beyond the activities of the IAK.

The importance of the 1st Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial is first and foremost that it came about at all because there were enormous difficulties and obstacles to overcome that stood in its way. The former Hessian attorney general Fritz Bauer , who is considered to be the initiator of the process, played a central role . However, without the necessary information, certain documents, or locating witnesses who testified for the trial, the trial would have been impossible. Here the importance of Hermann Langbein for the realization of the 1st Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial comes to the fore. He achieved a remarkable achievement, but not only immediately before the trial; his commitment goes back to the investigations for the Eichmann trial .

Langbein had made the arrest and conviction of Adolf Eichmann his personal goal and filed a criminal complaint against him in Austria in 1959. In the same year Fritz Bauer contacted Langbein through Henry Ormond , who had been working as a lawyer in Frankfurt since 1950, because he had offered to make it possible to visit Auschwitz. According to information from Henry Ormond's correspondence, there was a memorable meeting in a Frankfurt hotel between March 3 and 6, 1961. Hermann Langbein from Vienna, Thomas Harlan from Warsaw and Henry Ormond from Frankfurt, who personally tried to obtain information for a trial in the Adolf Eichmann case, made available to Fritz Bauer the most extensive copy of the Argentina Papers at the time , the one from Robert shortly before Eichmann - the brother - had lain. They were examined on May 6th and the result was that they were genuine and the handwriting clearly came from Eichmann. These documents put an enormous strain on Eichmann.

A former Auschwitz prisoner, who was in the state penal institution in Bruchsal at the time, filed a complaint in March 1958 against Wilhelm Boger , SS-Oberscharführer and former member of the political department in Auschwitz , and knew where Boger lived. He also informed the IAK in Vienna . Hermann Langbein turned several times to the public prosecutor's office in Stuttgart and to the central office of the state justice administrations for the investigation of National Socialist crimes in the Boger affair and declared his willingness to provide further material, as he also remembered the acts of the Nazi criminal. Langbein feared that Boger would try to escape if the investigation were further delayed, and gave the prosecution other witnesses who could testify in the case. Boger was finally arrested in 1958 and the Auschwitz trial was slowly set in motion.

In the course of the investigation, it was possible to locate numerous Auschwitz perpetrators, mainly with the help of the IAK and the personal commitment of Hermann Langbein. The acquaintance Langbein made with Fritz Bauer in 1959 certainly played a role in the investigation into the Auschwitz trial. Langbein also made it possible to establish contact with the People's Republic of Poland , with which the Federal Government had no diplomatic relations at the time. This “German-Polish cooperation” made it possible for the court to meet on site on the grounds of the Auschwitz extermination camp. Hermann Langbein worked personally to find enough witnesses for the trial and to encourage them to come to Germany.

The work of the IAK today

The work of the International Auschwitz Committee is primarily dedicated to the culture of remembrance in Germany, but also around the world. Their efforts to keep the public informed about the crimes of National Socialism are confirmed by the continuing anti-Semitic attitudes in society that pose a threat to the culture of remembrance. Christoph Heubner expresses his concerns and confirms the need to continue to deal with this topic and to inform the public about it:

“And today anti-Semitism and anti-Jewish stereotypes are creeping out of the corners again in Germany - sometimes in the familiar way. What is new, however, is that anti-Semitism is growing in the middle of society, that it is becoming more and more socially acceptable. This is desperate for the survivors: If thirty percent of the respondents in a study recently published in Germany think that “the Jews are today using the memory of the Holocaust for their own benefit”, this is an attack on their dignity and a blow to them Face of every person who survived Auschwitz and other German concentration camps. "

Anti-Semitism is not only present in Germany, but in many other countries. The IAK and the country committees therefore do not carry out their work in a limited way to individual countries, but throughout the world. The work of the committee focuses on young people. They should know what happened and be responsible for ensuring that such acts never happen again. Christoph Heubner says:

“ The survivors did not remain silent. They passed on their memories in countless conversations with young people. I know many young people for whom these encounters with survivors are part of a very formative part of their growing up, which they will not forget: They became the witnesses of contemporary witnesses . "

The IAK continues to research the topic of Auschwitz and the culture of remembrance and has published numerous publications on it. There is also the “Remember to Think” newspaper, which is dedicated to this topic.

Sculpture and Prize "to B remembered"

Since 2010 the miniature sculpture “to B remembered” has been awarded by the IAK to personalities “who, according to the survivors of Auschwitz, 'Never again!' act. ”In 2013, apprentices from VW works in Berlin created a public memorial after the upside-down B at the main gate of the Auschwitz concentration camp as a sculpture“ to B remembered ”based on an idea by French Michéle Déodat . On the vertical leg of the letter is only the English inscription International Auschwitz Committee. The two meter high metal statue "to B remembered" first stood on Berlin's Wittenbergplatz . The inverted "B" has stood in front of the European Parliament in Brussels since January 30, 2014. The five-ton plastic has been back in Berlin since September 10 2015 again on Wittenbergplatz.

Detail on the main gate

Since then:

See also

literature

  • Andreas Eichmüller: "The murderers are among us" - the second half of the 1950s . In: No general amnesty. The state prosecution of Nazi crimes in the early Federal Republic . Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-486-70412-9 , pp. 135–142 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  • Ingrid Heinisch: The center of world conscience. (On the history of the IAK) In: Neues Deutschland . October 13, 2005.
  • Thomas Irmer: "Your long silence is certainly resignation ..." Norbert Wollheim, Edmund Bartl, Hermann Langbein and the dispute over compensation for Nazi forced labor after 1945 . In: Fritz Bauer Institute (ed.): Victims as actors. Interventions by former Nazi victims . Campus Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2008, ISBN 978-3-593-38734-5 , p. 87-106 .
  • Philipp Neumann: Review of: Katharina Stengel: Hermann Langbein. An Auschwitz survivor in the postwar memory-political conflicts. Frankfurt am Main 2012 . In: H-Soz-u-Kult . April 29, 2013 ( hu-berlin.de [accessed June 1, 2013]).
  • Devin O. Pendas : The Auschwitz Trial. Genocide in court . 2013, p. 40 ( PDF [accessed June 1, 2013]).
  • Bettina Stangneth: “No, I didn't say that”. A Brief History of the Argentina Papers . In: Fritz Bauer Institute (Hrsg.): History and effects of the Holocaust. Adolf Eichmann in court. The trial in Argentina (=  inspection 05th bulletin of the Fritz Bauer Institute ). S. 18-26 .
  • Katharina Stengel: Auschwitz between East and West. The International Auschwitz Committee and the genesis of the Auschwitz anthology. Witnesses and reports . In: Fritz Bauer Institute (ed.): Victims as actors. Interventions by former Nazi victims . Campus Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2008, ISBN 978-3-593-38734-5 , p. 174-197 .
  • Katharina Stengel: The former victims of Nazi persecution - witnesses, plaintiffs, reporters . In: Jörg Osterloh, Clemens Vollnhals (Hrsg.): Nazi Trials and the German Public - Occupation, Early Federal Republic and GDR (=  publications of the Hannah Arendt Institute for Research on Totalitarianism . No. 045 ). 1st edition. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2011, ISBN 978-3-525-36921-0 , p. 307–323 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  • Katharina Stengel: The First Years of the International Auschwitz Committee . In: Hermann Langbein: an Auschwitz survivor in the political memory conflicts of the post-war period (=  scientific series of the Fritz Bauer Institute ). Campus Verlag, Frankfurt et al. 2012, ISBN 978-3-593-39788-7 , p. 143–280 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  • Irmtrud Wojak: The wall of silence broken through . In: Fritz Bauer Institute (ed.): Judgment day hold over ourselves ... History and impact of the first Frankfurt Auschwitz trial . Campus Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2001, p. 21-31 .
  • Irmtrud Wojak: Fritz Bauer and the reappraisal of the Nazi crimes after 1945 (=  Focus on Hessen . Volume 2 ). S. 1–20 ( Hessian State Center for Political Education (PDF) [accessed on June 4, 2013]).

Web links

Commons : International Auschwitz Committee  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Katharina Stengel: Auschwitz between East and West. The International Auschwitz Committee and the genesis of the Auschwitz anthology . 2008, p. 177-179 .
  2. ^ International Auschwitz Committee. The committee  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed June 4, 2013.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.auschwitz.info  
  3. ^ International Auschwitz Committee. The committee  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved June 4, 2013.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.auschwitz.info  
  4. ↑ Katharina Stengel: Hermann Langbein. An Auschwitz survivor in the postwar memory-political conflicts . 2012, p. 127 .
  5. ↑ Katharina Stengel: Hermann Langbein. An Auschwitz survivor in the postwar memory-political conflicts . 2012, p. 143 .
  6. ↑ Katharina Stengel: Hermann Langbein. An Auschwitz survivor in the postwar memory-political conflicts . 2012, p. 460-463 .
  7. ↑ Thomas Irmer: "Your long silence is certainly resignation ..." Norbert Wollheim, Edmund Bartl, Hermann Langbein and the dispute over compensation for Nazi forced labor after 1945. Fritz Bauer Institute (ed.) . 2008, p. 100-104 .
  8. ↑ Katharina Stengel: Auschwitz between East and West. The International Auschwitz Committee and the genesis of the Auschwitz anthology . 2008, p. 178 .
  9. ↑ Devin O. Pendas: The Auschwitz Trial. Genocide in court . 2013, p. 40 .
  10. ↑ Baron Maurice Goldstein, then President of the International Auschwitz Committee on January 27, 1995 in Birkenau on the occasion of the ceremony to mark the 50th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. International Auschwitz Committee. History of the IAK  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed June 4, 2013.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.auschwitz.info  
  11. ↑ Katharina Stengel: Hermann Langbein. An Auschwitz survivor in the postwar memory-political conflicts . 2012, p. 9 .
  12. ↑ Katharina Stengel: Auschwitz between East and West. The International Auschwitz Committee and the genesis of the Auschwitz anthology . 2008, p. 8 .
  13. ^ International Auschwitz Committee. The legacy of the survivors. Berlin, January 25th, 2009  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed June 4, 2013.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.auschwitz.info  
  14. ↑ Katharina Stengel: Hermann Langbein. An Auschwitz survivor in the postwar memory-political conflicts . 2012, p. 223 .
  15. ↑ Katharina Stengel: Hermann Langbein. An Auschwitz survivor in the postwar memory-political conflicts . 2012, p. 276 .
  16. ↑ Katharina Stengel: The former Nazi persecuted - witnesses, plaintiffs, reporters. 2011, p. 181 .
  17. ↑ Katharina Stengel: Auschwitz between East and West. The International Auschwitz Committee and the genesis of the Auschwitz anthology . 2008, p. 181-183 .
  18. ↑ Katharina Stengel: The former Nazi persecuted - witnesses, plaintiffs, reporters. 2011, p. 318 .
  19. ↑ Bettina Stangneth: “No, I didn't say that”. A Brief History of the Argentina Papers. Fritz Bauer Institute . S. 22 .
  20. ↑ Thomas Irmer: "Your long silence is certainly resignation ..." Norbert Wollheim, Edmund Bartl, Hermann Langbein and the dispute over compensation for Nazi forced labor after 1945. Fritz Bauer Institute (ed.) . 2008, p. 101 .
  21. ↑ Irmtrud Wojak: Fritz Bauer and the processing of Nazi crimes after 1945. Focus on Hessen . 2011, p. 6 .
  22. ↑ Bettina Stangneth: “No, I didn't say that”. A Brief History of the Argentina Papers. Fritz Bauer Institute . S. 22-25 .
  23. ↑ Irmtrud Wojak: "The wall of silence broken through". Fritz Bauer Institute (Ed.) . Campus Verlag, Frankfurt am Main. 2001, p. 7 .
  24. ↑ Irmtrud Wojak: "The wall of silence broken through". Fritz Bauer Institute (Ed.) . Campus Verlag, Frankfurt am Main. 2001, p. 22 .
  25. ↑ Irmtrud Wojak: Fritz Bauer and the processing of Nazi crimes after 1945. Focus on Hessen . 2011, p. 7 .
  26. ^ International Auschwitz Committee. Current  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved June 4, 2013.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.auschwitz.info  
  27. ^ International Auschwitz Committee. Current  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved June 4, 2013.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.auschwitz.info  
  28. ^ International Auschwitz Committee. B-the sculpture ( Memento of July 3, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ), accessed on June 4, 2013.
  29. ↑ PM of the committee , accessed March 4, 2017.
  30. ↑ Anti-Semitism. Auschwitz Committee honors pianist Igor Levit. In: Spiegel Online , accessed on January 12, 2020.
  31. ↑ https://www.mdr.de/sachsen/chemnitz/zwickau/findeiss-zwickau-auszeichnung-auschwitzkomitee-100.html , accessed on November 18, 2019.
  32. ↑ Gunnar Kilian receives honorary gift from the Auschwitz Committee. In: waz-online.de. December 7, 2012, accessed February 5, 2020 .
  33. ↑ International Auschwitz Committee honors Van der Bellen on ORF accessed on January 18, 2018.