The Rosenburg Files - The Federal Ministry of Justice and the Nazi-Past
Apr 05, 2017
Lecture and Panel Discussion at the Goethe-Institut Washington | Speakers: Manfred Görtemaker (University of Potsdam), Richard F. Wetzell (GHI), Andrew Baker ( American Jewish Committee), Christoph Safferling (University of Erlangen-Nuremberg), Elizabeth B. White (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum)
In January 2012, the German Federal Ministry of Justice tasked an Independent Academic Commission with investigating the Ministry’s national-socialist legacy during the early years of the newly founded Federal Republic of Germany. The Ministry wanted to know whether, and to what extent, continuities existed in terms of personnel between the Nazi regime and the Federal Republic of Germany in its founding years, and in what ways this had had an effect on the Ministry's substantive work in both law-making and the prosecution of Nazi criminals. Under the direction of Professor Manfred Görtemaker (University of Potsdam) and Professor Christoph Safferling (University of Erlangen-Nuremburg), the Commission was given unrestricted access to the Ministry's files, and the Ministry supported the Commission's work actively and without reservation.
A few months ago, the Commission published its concluding report in a book entitled Die Akte Rosenburg: Das Bundesministerium der Justiz und die NS-Vergangenheit [The Rosenburg Files: The Federal Ministry of Justice, and the Nazi-Past] (named after the first official seat of the Ministry), following a launch in Berlin. The report generated considerable interest among the German general public and was widely covered in the media. It casts a dark shadow on the first decades in the history of the Federal Ministry of Justice. Numerous members of the Ministry's executive staff had been involved in the power apparatus of the “Third Reich,” and this had had far-reaching consequences with regard to the Federal Republic’s dealing with the legacy of Nazism: Nazi laws were corrected only in a superficial manner, there was ongoing discrimination against former victims, and the prosecution of Nazi criminals was thwarted. Yet today, the Federal Ministry of Justice is facing up to its history. The Ministry believes it is an important task for it to relate the findings to the victims of National Socialism and their descendants, and to enter into a dialogue with them about the consequences that must be drawn.
During his official state visit to the United States, the Parliamentary State Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection Christian Lange will draw particular attention to the Rosenburg Project.