From Humiliation to Humanity
Rescuing Helen Goldmann’s Testimony from the Forensic Strictures of the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.23777/SN.0121/ART_AWIS01Keywords:
Baeyer, Walter Ritter von (1904-1987), Bonhoeffer, Emmi (1905-1991), Goldmann, Helen (b. 1925), Lucas, Franz Bernhard (1911-1994), Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial (1963-65), eyewitness testimonyAbstract
On 3 September 1964, during the Frankfurt Auschwitz trial, Helen Goldman accused SS camp doctor Franz Lucas of selecting her mother and siblings for the gas chamber when the family arrived at Birkenau in May 1944. Although she could identify Lucas, the court considered her information under cross-examination too inconsistent to build a case against Lucas. To appreciate Goldman’s authority, we must remove her from the humiliation of the West German legal gaze and inquire instead how she is seen through the lens of witness hospitality (directly by Emmi Bonhoeffer) and psychiatric assessment (indirectly by Dr Walter von Baeyer).
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