Bernd Schmalhausen | What is it to us today? Dealing with the Essen justice system under National Socialism

Former public prosecutor Bernd Schmalhausen reports on his dispute with the administration of justice over the removal of a portrait of a court president who was accused of Nazi persecution from the gallery of ancestors at Essen District Court. A memorial plaque for murdered Jewish judges and lawyers also met with fierce resistance from parts of the Essen judiciary 25 years ago.

Bernd Schmalhausen studied law at the University of Münster and received his doctorate there with a dissertation on police law. He then worked as a public prosecutor in Essen. In addition, he dealt with topics relating to the history of justice, primarily Nazi justice crimes and questions of how the German post-war justice system dealt with the past. Schmalhausen has published biographies of the painter Max Liebermann, the Jewish doctor Rolf Bischofswerder and the North Rhine-Westphalian Minister of Justice Josef Neuberger. He also published a study on the role of Berthold Beitz, who later became Krupp’s chief representative, as a rescuer of Jewish forced labourers.

An event organised by the Fritz Bauer Forum