German Jewish judge and prosecutor Fritz Bauer (1903-1968) played a key role in the arrest of Adolf Eichmann and the initiation of the Frankfurt Auschwitz trials. Author Ronen Steinke tells this remarkable story while sensitively exploring the many contributions Bauer made to the postwar German justice system. As it sheds light on Bauer's Jewish identity and the role it played in these trials and his later career, Steinke's deft narrative contributes to the larger story of Jewishness in postwar Germany. Examining latent antisemitism during this period as well as Jewish responses to renewed German cultural identity and politics, Steinke also explores Bauer's personal and family life and private struggles, including his participation in debates against the criminalization of homosexuality-a fact that only came to light after his death in 1968. This new biography reveals how one individual's determination, religion, and dedication to the rule of law formed an important foundation for German post war society.
Ronen Steinke is editor at Sueddeutsche Zeitung and author of The Muslim and the Jew (in German). Sinead Crowe divides her time between teaching English at the University of Hamburg and translating. She is translator (with Rachel McNicholl) of Pierre Jarawan's The Storyteller.
Foreword by Andreas Vosskuhle Acknowledgments 1. The German who Brought Eichmann to Justice: His Secret 2. The Secret Jewish Life of Post-War Germany's Most Controversial Jurist 3. The University Years (1921-1925): A Gifted Student 4. Judge in the Weimar Republic: Bauer's Attempts to Ward off Catastrophe 5. Concentration Camp and Exile (1933-1949) 6. Rehabilitating the Plotters of July 20, 1944 7. "Murderers Among Us": The Psychology of a Prosecutor 8. Bauer's Greatest Achievement: The Auschwitz Trial (1963-1965) 9. The Fight for Gay Rights: Bauer's Dilemma 10. Bauer's Path to Isolation 11. 1968: The Body in the Bathtub Bibliography Index
"Illuminates the biography of a central actor in Germany's coming to terms with its Nazi past."-Jacob S. Eder, author of Holocaust Angst "Ronen Steinke has a refreshingly non-biased approach and present Bauer as the hero that he was, but also as a human being who was not always able to communicate well with friends, subordinates, and enemies."-Jenny Hestermann "What is clear - and what this book makes clear - is that without people like Fritz Bauer there would have been none of this prosecution of Nazi atrocities, no trials for Auschwitz camp guards or Adolf Eichmann, no rehabilitation of the German resistance against Hitler. Ronen Steinke deserves thanks for bringing this message of Fritz Bauer back to light in such an accessible form, balancing professional distance and sympathy."-Kai Ambos, Criminal Law Forum "This book is an important contribution as there aren't many rel-evant materials available in the English language."-Association of Jewish Libraries "Ronen Steinke's biography of Bauer gives a masterful account of the jurist's dramatic life, drawing on a wealth of primary sources, including court proceedings, private letters, and press reports"-New York Review of Books
