In recent years, scholars and the public alike have often claimed that the history of National Socialism and thus of the Holocaust has been largely explored. This lecture challenges that assumption by examining the role of recent judicial proceedings in generating new historical insights into Nazi crimes. Drawing on trials of the past decade, it highlights how court investigations have opened up blind spots in historiography, especially regarding subaltern perpetrators in concentration camps.
The lecture will address the heterogeneity of camp personnel – including SS guards, so-called ethnic German volunteers, Wehrmacht soldiers, auxiliary troops such as Trawniki men, and civilian employees – and show how their everyday routines and incorporation into the SS system shaped the machinery of violence. The talk also reflects the camp’s staff opportunities for disengagement without personal disadvantages. Far from being redundant, these late trials have inspired new perspectives on Nazi violence, the transformation of camps in the Second World War, and the diverse actors who sustained the concentration camp system.
Dr Stefan Hördler is Lecturer at the University of Göttingen and Visiting Professor at the University of Huddersfield. Previously he worked at universities and research institutes in Germany, Austria, and the United States. Hördler is the author and co-editor of numerous international publications and prize-winning books. In one of his most recent publications, he explores together with Tal Bruttmann and Christoph Kreutzmüller Lili Jacob’s Auschwitz album. Hördler is member of several international academic advisory boards. For the past decade, he served as expert consultant in various international investigations against former Nazi camp personnel. His current project examines the industrial transformation and deindustrialization since the 1970s.
*Please note: Purchasing a ticket to attend Day 1 + Day 2 or Day 1 of the After Genocide and Mass Violence: What Comes Next grants access to this keynote. Additional tickets for Dr Stefan Hördler’s keynote will be available to non-conference attendees. If you already have a Day 1 + Day 2 or Day 1 admission ticket, you do not need to book a separate ticket for the keynote.