Assistant Professor Of Law Gives Presentation At Symposium
By STEVEN M. SWEENEY
Symposium participants enjoyed a brief escape to the Jackson Center on Tuesday night for dinner and a paper presentation by Christoph Safferling, a Universitat Erlangen-Nuremberg assistant professor of law.
He has done extensive research on the process and aftermath of the Nuremberg trials which took place 60 years ago.
He commented before his presentation that the German psyche has changed its attitude of the trials from a victor’s justice to one accepting their role exposing a national crime, which has led to a certain amount of national guilt.
Some may try to cheer up such conversations with consoling talk about German-made automobiles, German precision engineering, advances in production and industry. He replies that Germans today see little of which to be proud.
‘‘We produced 6 million dead Jews,’’ he said, ‘‘and with similar precision.’’
He pointed to the case of Rudolph Hoes, commandant of the Auschwitz concentration camp. He made Auschwitz notorious with his plan to methodically exterminate Jews and other Nazi-declared undesirables. Gas chambers, cremation ovens and the like were the commandant’s creation, in an attempt to streamline and make death as painless and efficient as possible.
‘‘‘I was ordered to eliminate them, so I did. I made it much more efficient. Nobody suffered,’’’ Safferling said. ‘‘If you read the transcripts of the trial, it was so methodical, so calculated. I don’t have the words to express what I feel when I hear that.’’