Correspondence with Langbein, Hermann
Extent and Medium
43 letters
Biographical History
Hermann Langbein (1912-1995) was an Austrian Anti-Nazi resistance fighter and survivor of the concentration camps Dachau, Auschwitz and Neuengamme. From 1954-1961 he served as general secretary of the International Auschwitz Committee. A prolific writer and editor, he campaigned intensively to bring crimes committed in the camps to public notice. He also played an eminent role in establishing the first German Auschwitz Trial in Frankfurt am Main. In 1967 Yad Vashem honoured Langbein as 'Righteous among the Nations' for having helped saving numerous Jewish concentration camp inmates.
See Stengel, K.,Hermann Langbein: ein Auschwitz-Überlebender in den erinnerungspolitischen Konflikten der Nachkriegszeit, Frankfurt am Main, Campus, 2012.
Scope and Content
The correspondence centres on three major subjects including: former SS-physician Horst Schumann and his potential extradition from Ghana; the upcoming Auschwitz trial in Frankfurt am Main (including a list of defendants and potential defendants) and pretrial investigations for a similar case in Vienna; and the exchange of information material and research assistance. The Wiener Library provided Langbein with source material for books he was working on and helped placing an article in the Jewish press in England. Briefly debated is Langbein’s withdrawal from the International Auschwitz Committee (1961).
Conditions Governing Reproduction
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People
- Schumann, Horst
- Langbein, Hermann
Subjects
- Frankfurt Trial
- War crime trials
- Survivors
- Perpetrators
- Nazis
- Jewish press
- Auschwitz (entire camp complex)
Places
- West Germany [1949-1990]
- Austria
- Ghana