Interpreter Of Silence

The Interpreter of Silence

I am watching this Mini-Series on Hulu.

Originally titled “The German House” it is based off of Anette Hess’ Novel “The German House.”

 “The Interpreter of Silence” follows 24 year old Eva (played by Katharina Stark), a young Polish Woman in 1963 Frankfurt, West Germany as she takes a job as the Interpreter for the first Auschwitz Trial of Former SS Officers.

 

The First Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial (1963-1965) was the first time the West German/German Legal System took on the Mass Murder committed under Nazi Germany.

Before the 1^st Frankfurt Auschwitz Trials the West Germans recreated Law No. 13 of the Council of High Commissioners in 1950 which lifted restrictions on the prosecution of Nazi Criminals by West Germany Initially, only crimes committed by Germans against Germans were tried.

In 1958, the Central Office of the State Justice Administrations for the Investigation of National Socialist Crimes was founded in Ludwigsburg.

Initially, its task was to investigate Nazi Homicides committed against Civilians outside Germany. These included crimes that had taken place outside of the actual acts of war, i.e. in Concentration Camps or so-called Jewish Residential Districts ("Ghettos"), as well as the mass homicides committed by the Einsatzgruppen Mass Murder Squads.

From 1945-1961 most of the Trials carried out in West Germany were done with little to no “fanfare” or press. The West Germans wanted to conveniently forget their crimes and focus on the Post-War Prosperity happening in West Germany.

 

All of that changed in 1961 during the internationally televised Eichmann Trial in Jerusalem, Israel where Adolf Eichmann (the main Organizer of the Holocaust) was found guilty of the Mass Murder of the Jews as well as being a War Criminal and was hanged in 1962.

 

After 1961 the Younger Generation of Children (born in the 1930s) started to question what their Grandparents and Parents did during the War.

 

22 Defendants were tried during the First Frankfurt Auschwitz Trials (1963-1965) under West German Criminal Law for their roles in the Holocaust as mid- to lower-level Officials in the Auschwitz-Birkenau Death and Concentration Camp Complex in Nazi-Occupied Poland during World War 2.

The Trial had 183 days of hearings with 430 hours of Testimony of 319 Witnesses including 181 Survivors of Auschwitz and 80 Nazi Camp Staff.

Of the 20 Defendants: 16 were sentenced to Prison (6 to Life-In-Prison) the rest with Prison Terms ranging from 3 ¼ years to 14 years. Hans Stark (who was 19 years old when worked at Auschwitz) received 10 years in a Juvenile Prison.

3 of the Defendants were acquitted for lack of evidence.

 

There was a Second Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial (1965-1966) and a Third Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial (1967-1968.)

 

In 1979, the Statute of Limitations for Murder was abolished by the West German Bundestag allowing for the prosecution of murder carried out during the Holocaust to expand.

 

Since the Cold War ended in 1991 and the Former Communist Countries have been freed and have opened their Archives to the West more and more evidence of the Nazi Crimes committed from 1933-1945 have been found.

 

Internationally only 789 of the 8,200 SS Personnel (Male and Female) who survived World War 2 were ever tried from their crimes at Auschwitz.

750 of those 789 received Sentences.

 

Since 2015 German Law has allowed for the Non-Direct Murder Conviction of Nazis.

From 1945-2015 you had to prove each Individual Nazi had actually, personally committed the murder they were charged with and provide evidence and Witnesses for each one.

Since 2015 you now only have to prove the Individual Nazi was in the location of the murders (ie. worked as an Accountant at Auschwitz during the War rather than the Nazi personally pouring the gas into the Gas Chamber.

 

1.3 Million Men, Women and Children were sent to Auschwitz from all over Europe from May 1940 until January 1945 where 1.1 Million of them were killed by Gas, Torture, Starvation, Beatings, being Shot, Medical Experiments, etc.