Historical events connected in German History to the 9th of November, the history that connects them and the history of my family that connects me with those.

1. 9th of November
A date a German will not and
others should not forget
70 years of German History
A personal perspective
Cornelio Hopmann
9th of November 2000
Disclaimer: I’ve never done this before, less in foreign language. Hence apologies for
orthographic, grammatical and idiomatic errors. History is just not my field of expertise.

2. Historic events – a 9th of November
1918 - Republic
1923 – Hitler Putsch
1939 – Bomb
fails Hitler
1938 – Night of Broken Crystals

3. My Grand Family
My
Grandparents
Prof.
Dr. Josef & Dr. Maria Hopmann
– 1975, 1898 - 1980
Catholic, with family trees documented back to 1694 Rhineland
Astronomer, classical philology (Greek, Latin)
Great Grandfathers: Dr. jur. Hopmann, Dr. jur. Horster
1890
Bishop
Johannes & Lic. Charlotte Beermann
– 1958, 1888 – 1956
Lutheran, with family trees documented back to 1742 Estonia
MStheol, Graduated in Pedagogy
Great Grandfathers: G. Beermann (Architect), H. Scheel (Merchant)
1878

4. My Great Great Granduncles
Joseph Hopmann, City Lawyer & Emma Satorius ~ 1850
Emma a descendant of a French - most probably Jewish - family

5. My Great Grandfather

6. Another German – Heinrich Himmler
1900 – 1945
Conservative, Academic Catholic Parents
High school-Principal G. Himmler
Godfather Heinrich Prince of BavArya
Candidate for Officer 1918
MSC Agriculture 1922
Excellent Administrator and Organizer

7. Another German - 1942
It is absolutely wrong to project our own harmless
soul with its deep feelings, our kindheartedness, our
idealism, upon alien peoples. This is true, beginning
with Herder, who must have been drunk when he
wrote the Voices Of The Peoples, thereby bringing
such immeasurable suffering and misery upon us
who came after him. This is true, beginning with the
Czechs and Slovenes, to whom we brought their
sense of nationhood. They themselves were
incapable of it, but we invented it for them.

8. Another German – 1942
One principle must be absolute for the SS
man: we must be honest, decent, loyal and
friendly to members of our blood and to no
one else. What happens to the
Russians, what happens to the Czechs, is a
matter of utter indifference to me. Such good
blood of our own kind as there may be
among the nations we shall acquire for
ourselves, if necessary by taking away the
children and bringing them up among us.

9. Another German - 1942
Whether the other races live in comfort or
perish of hunger interests me only in so far
as we need them as slaves for our culture;
apart from that it does not interest me.
Whether or not 10,000 Russian women
collapse from exhaustion while digging a
tank ditch interests me only in so far as the
tank ditch is completed for Germany.

10. Another German - 1942
We shall never be rough or heartless
where it is not necessary; that is clear.
We Germans, who are the only people
in the world who have a decent attitude
to animals, will also adopt a decent
attitude to these human animals, but it
is a crime against our own blood to
worry about them and to bring them
ideals.

11. Another German - 1942
I shall speak to you here with all
frankness of a very serious subject. We
shall now discuss it absolutely openly
among ourselves, nevertheless we
shall never speak of it in public. I mean
the evacuation of the Jews, the
extermination of the Jewish race.

12. Another German - 1942
Most of you know what it means to see a
hundred corpses lying together, five
hundred, or a thousand. To have gone
through this and yet - apart from a few
exceptions, examples of human weakness to have remained decent fellows, this is what
has made us hard. This is a glorious page in
our history that has never been written and
shall never be written.

13. Heinrich Himmler - Organizer
Joins Hitler 1923
Organizes
SS 1927
Gestapo 1933
KZ 1934
RSHA 1939
Taskforces 1941
Endlösung 1942

14. Administrator
Himmler

15. Structure of the presentation
Before
Holocaust
German
„Revolution‟
The golden twenties
Nazi
& Holocaust
After Holocaust
The
Nuremberg Trials
The long silence
The Auschwitz Trial
When
I got older

16. 11/09/1918 German „Revolution‟
Wilson
14 points for a Cease Fire (01/08)
German HQ declares internally war lost (08/14)
Germany asks for Cease Fire (10/04)
Revolt of Marines in Kiel (10/29)
Worker & Soldier Committees take over local powers (10/29-11/08
Phillip Scheidemann declares Germany Republic (11/09)
Cease Fire, accepting the Wilson Conditions (11/11)
German troops still outside, no foreign troops in Germany
Birth of the November-Treason legend

17. Lost territories

18. My grandparents at that time
J.
Beerman
Returns
from Petersburg, where he worked at private
noble high schools, earning personal nobility
Tries as „undercover‟ to rescue a German
princess, married to a cousin of the Czar
J.
Hopmann
 Returns
as Colonel from WW I
 Finishes his tenure - thesis in astronomy
M.
Horster
Earns
as first German women ever a doctorate classical
philology

19. 11/09/1923 Hitler Putsch
Munich
In
the beginning 20
Versailles
treaty quits parts of Germany
Very high War compensation
Coal & Iron Zone Ruhr occupied by French
Situations near to civil war in many parts of Germany (origins on
left and right)
Luddendorf
On
(Ex-Chief of Staff Army) & Hitler
occasion to recall the November-treason they try to install a
right populist government in Munich.
Attempt put down the next days
Hitler sentenced to 5 years
Serving 8 month he writes Mein Kampf

20. My grandparents at that time
J.
Hopmann marries M. Horster
Tenure
in astronomy at Bonn
Elected secretary general of the German/Austrian
Astronomical Society
Proposes an observation based alternative to Einstein‟s Math
based „Jewish‟ General Relativity
Nobel
Franck put „German‟ Matrix-QM against „Jewish‟ Wave-QM
Honored
1924
as an Asteroid is named Hopmann
– Birth of my father

21. My grandparents at that time
J.
Beerman marries Ch. Scheel
His
Father invented the current Estonia Flag
Organizes German Schools
Organizes German Chamber of Business
Is elected top representative and government
member for the German minority in Estonia
– Birth of my mother
1930 the family moves to East Prussia
1923

22. Hitler and his party grow
Hitlers
NSDAP obtains the greatest share
in a series of national elections
National
Socialist German Workers Party
Against
(Jewish)
Plutocrats
(Jewish) Communists
(Jewish) Foreign Intervention
For
a great, strong and unified Germany

23. 01/30/1933 Machtergreifung
President
Hindenburg
appoints Hitler Chancellor of
the Reich
8
conservatives & liberals
„we control & use Hitler‟
Only 3 Nazi-Members
Nazi control Police

24. 03/23/1933 Empowerment Act
02/27/33
Reichstag burns down
02/28/33 State of exception declared
03/23/33 Empowerment Act
Suspension
of legislation for 6 years
Legislative power to the Reichskanzler
Most members of parliament agree
Conservatives,
Catholic Party, Liberals
Except
Communist
Party (in prison or underground)
Social Democrat Party (some in prison)
3 others (left liberal)

25. My parents & grandparents
My
parents start their primary that year
J. Hopmann
Appointed
Director Observatory Leipzig
Elected Dean of Sci-Math Faculty Leipzig
J.
Beermann
Elected
Lutheran Bishop of Danzig
Free
City (independent state) by Versailles
Borders with German East Prussia (West Prussia Polish)
No land connection to Germany
German Majority
Principal port of Poland
Activist
They
for integration with Germany
vote (probably): Zentrum, NSDAP

26. Achievements
Cut
down of unemployment
National
Work Service
Autobahn Construction
Financial Support to
Agriculture
Arms
relevant industry
Ignores
Versailles Treaty
Stop
to compensation payments
Reestablishment of Navy, Air Force
Buildup of Army
„strong
and respected Germany‟

27. Terror
Autodafé
Books
40%
of Contemporary Literature
General Relativity Einstein
Campaign leaded by students and
faculty
Don‟t
buy at Jews
Jewish public servants are
removed (including universities)
About 35% of the intellectuals Jewish or other nonconforming –
leave Germany

28. Laws to protect the „Aryan‟ race
09/15/35
Nuremberg Rasse Gesetze
Jews
are no longer citizens
No marriage between Jews & Aryans
Nor
extra-martial relations
Female Aryan employees of Jews have to be older than 45
Jews
From
not permitted in „German‟ education
Kinder to Universities
Jews
not permitted as lawyers & physicians
Special Passport for Jews (Big J)
Partially
on request by GB, Switzerland, USA
Most countries deny entry to Jewish refugees

29. German Law: Who is a Jew ?
1.Who
once in his life professed Jewish religion
2.Whose parents were/are Jews
3.½ Jew = one parent is/was Jew or two grandparents
4.¼ Jew = one grandparent
5.1/8 Jew = one great grandparent
6.Persecution applies from ½ Jew onward
7.Professional inhibitions apply from ¼ Jew onward
8.Jews have to add Sara or Israel to their names
Notes: This is not a racial definition
About 30% of Germans were at least 1/8 Jew

30. Diagrams to the law

31. School Scene

32. Public Scenes

33. An announcement - elsewhere
Washington
Holocaust
Museum
Olympics - 36
During the 1930s prejudice toward Jews was widespread in American culture
and everyday social life. Universities limited the admission of Jewish students
through informal quotas, and certain neighborhoods and social clubs
excluded Jews

34. Forced Jewish Migration in Europe

35. Olympics – Berlin 1936
Despite
…..
49
nations participate in the Olympics
All use the German Greeting
Germany
appears
wealthier, stronger and more
respected than ever

36. Munich Treaty –1938
03/13
Austria annexed
Versailles
09/29
prohibited union
Munich Treaty
Czechoslovakia
divided
Sudeten annexed
Great
Britain, France, Italy, Germany sign
Czechoslovakia– not invited

37. 11/09/1938 Reichskristallnacht
11/07
Shooting of German delegate in Paris
11/09 Celebration of November Putsch
Hitler
calls for vengeance
11/09
– 11/10
Synagogues
vandalized and burned
Thousands of Jewish Business destroyed
Thousands put into custody (Police, KZ)

38. Reichskristallnacht – a map

39. Reichskristallnacht
The Jewish community has
•To pay 1 Billion Marks as
compensation (250 Million US$)
•Assurances confiscated
•To sell out their businesses to
Germans at lowest prices
•Were no longer allowed to use
public transportation

40. Pogroms – frequent in 1800

41. Emigration to the US - impossible

42. 09/01/39 World War II begins
Westerplatte - Danzig
Germany
attacks Poland
SU advances west according
Hitler/Stalin Pact
France & GB declare war but
nothing happens
Poland surrenders after 20
days of war
War in west starts with Hitler
attacking 05/10/1940
Warschau – German Parade

43. Danzig 1939

44. Consequences – Germany wins
Czechoslovakia
divided
½
Satellite state with pro Nazi Government
1/3 annexed (mainly Germans)
Remainder as Protectorate under SS control
The above German-Austrian until 1919
Poland
1/3
- divided
annexed and germanized (Prussian until 1919)
Non
German inhabitants driven out
Germans from Estonia, Lithuania, Latonia occupy their houses etc
½
annexed to SU (border according Versailles)
Remainder as territory for the expelled under SS control
Generalgouvernement
Warschau

45. Territory recovered

46. My parents & grandparents
J.
Hopmann joins the army reactivated as member of a
division command (Artillery commander)
J. Beermann
Celebrates
with a thanksgiving service at St. Mary Cathedral the
integration of Danzig to the Reich
Includes recovered West-Prussia to his bishop domain
Assumes control over former Polish catholic churches, assigning
Lutheran pastors for the resettled Germans from the Baltic
Beate
Helps
Sabine Beermann (my mother, 16 years)
as BDM president & „volunteer‟ to resettle
Germans, receiving them in Danzig Harbor
BDM Nazi Youth Organization for girls

47. My Grandparents & my mother

48. 11/09/1939 Carpenter against Hitler
Georg
Elser
During
6 months preparation and
installation of the bomb
Completely alone
“To avoid more bloodshed”
Every
8 of November
Hitler
gives an
„Eve of 9 of November‟ speech
Bomb explodes at 21:24
Hitler had left at 21:05
Afterwards
caught
by border officer 11/10/39
Send to KZ Sachsenhausen without
trial or publicity

49. 06/21/41 – Attack on USSR
Germany
Most
opens war without declaration
Germans, including clergy, agree ..
It‟s against satanic (Jewish) Bolshevism
German
allies & satellites participate
Many in the territories occupied before by force by the
soviets initially collaborate (Baltic, Byelorussia, Ukraine)
Einsatzgruppen
7
(Task Forces) cleanup
Million civilians including 2 million Jews killed
5 Million Prisoners of War killed
2 Million partisan fighters or suspects killed

50. 01/20/1942 Wannsee Meeting
Meeting
of top officials
Office
of Chancellor (Head of Government)
Interior, Exterior, Economy, Justice
Police, Reichs-Security, Occupation-Forces
Topic:
Final solution to the Jewish Problem
in Europe
537.000
Jews forced to emigration until 10/31/41
How to eliminate the remaining more than
11.000.000
Most
efficiently and effectively
Involving local governments & allies & satellites
Respecting the needs and limits of war
Without affecting economy & war production

51. Jewish Population 1939

52. The Enterprise “Final solution”
Gathering
Ghettos
of Jews by country
(walled city – districts)
Construction
of special camps
Transport to special camps
Selection
Unqualified
for labor
Immediate
evacuation
Qualified
for labor
Forced
labor
appropriate final treatment for survivors

53. Top Executives “Final solution”
Heinrich Himmler
Reichsführer SS
Supreme Executive
Suicide 1945
Reinhardt Heydrich
Chief RSHA
Organizer until 1942
(killed in assault)
Adolf Eichmann Chief
Jewish Section RSHA
Organizer since 1942
Hanged (1961! Israel)

54. Concentration Camps

55. The Railroads of Holocaust

56. The only non-collaborating
country
In all countries local police & volunteers help to identify and gather
Jews, transport & railway -officials & -workers help in transportation
In Denmark
King & ordinary
citizens wear in
public the Star of
David
Local authorities
and civilians hide
Jews
Together they
organize rescue in
fisher boats

57. Plan of Auschwitz/Birkenau

58. Extermination Camp Operation
Mass Grave
Undressing
Room
Gas
Chamber
Mortuary
Crematory
Ramp
Selection
Registration
Recycling
Personal
Values
Slave
Labor
Death by
Exhaustion, Disease
Beaten, Hanged or Shot
‘Medical’ Experiments
Gas Chamber

59. Central Feature
Within
those crematories, all stations of the extermination
process were geographically centralized and mechanized.
Each station had undress rooms, gas chambers and ovens to
incinerate the bodies.

60. Core Installations
Bunker
I
Two
gas chamber for 800 people, undress rooms, mass
graves
Since 1941
Bunker
II
Four
gas chambers for 1.200 people, undress rooms
1942; reconstructed spring 1944 and used as reserve
during daytime
Crematorium
Subterranean
II
gas chamber for up to 3.000
people, surface five ovens for daily 1.440 bodies
March 1943 till November 1944

61. Core Installations
Crematorium
III
Subterranean
gas chamber for up to 3.000 people, surface five
ovens for daily 1.440 bodies
June 1943 till November 1944
Crematorium
IV
4
gas chambers surface for some 3.000 people, two ovens for
768 bodies daily
since March 1943, destroyed by inmates on Oct. 7, 1944
Crematorium
4
V
gas chambers surface for some 3.000 people, two ovens for
768 bodies daily
April 1943 till November 1944

62. Capacity
According
to technical
calculations, 4.756 bodies could be
burnt in the crematories. But this
was just a theoretical factor, which
included the time for maintenance
and purge of the fire-places.
Practically, up to 5.000 bodies
were burnt in the crematories II and
III every day, 3.000 in crematorium
IV and V.

63. Capacity
The
capacities of the funeral piles at the bunkers was
unlimited. In summer of 1944, during the deportation of
Hungarian Jews, the SS put bunker II into operation again. At
this time, up to 24.000 people could be killed and burnt.
The ashes of the dead were used as fertilizer on the
surrounding fields, to dry swamps or they were just scattered
out into rivers and lakes around the camp.

64. Camp Executives
Rudolf Höß
Commander Auschwitz
Hanged Auschwitz 1946
{Bach Lover}
Dr. Josef Mengele
Chief physician Selections
Chief ‘Medical Experiments’ (Twins)
Died in late 70’s in Argentina

65. Identification
Star of David obligatory since 1941 everywhere

66. Gathering

67. End of Warszawa Ghetto

68. Transport

69. Arrival & Ramp

70. Selection
To Death

71. Last Walk

72. Gas-chamber
Patented

73. Corps burning & Crematory

74. Recycled values

75. Registration

76. Slave Labor

77. Survived

78. My parents at that time
My
Mother (18 – 21)
1941
mother finished High school
1942 Enrolled for Medicine – Marburg
1943 Assigned as DRK medical „fieldpractise‟ during 2
summer month to KZ-Buchenwald (SS Guards-Hospital )
Dec 1944 Assigned as DRK support to German „Last-Call‟
Troops (under 16/over 65) in Poland
Feb 1945 Evacuation with the remainders of KZ-Stutthof to
Lower Saxiona
DRK – German Red Cross

79. High School Bachelors - 1942
Unofficial and illegal Photo, the official was in BDM Uniform

80. My parents at that time
My
father (18 – 22)
1942
Finished High school
1942 Enters Military Academy Dresden
1943 Assigned as Radio specialist to fieldtroops in Ukraine
1944 Participates in ending of Warszawa
uprising with later complete destruction of
the center (Operation Carthago)
1945 stays with German troops in
Czechoslovakia

81. 08/05/1945 German Surrender
04/15/45
Soviet troops circle Berlin
04/21/45 Hitler commits suicide
05/08/45 Unconditional surrender of Germany
Most
Germans think that Germany suffered more but
enough
Many Germans and some US – GN. Patton – express
that it had been the wrong war:
together they should have fought against Bolshevism

82. Danzig - 1945

83. Germany 1945 – Dresden
Destroyed by British and US Bombers
02/13/45 35,000 - 135,000 Dead

84. 11/21/1945 The Nuremberg Trials
International
Court to „state an example‟
British,
French & Soviet preferred summary
justice, US prevail with their point
Crimes of war and against peace
Den
Haag Conventions
Crimes
No
against humanity
applicable positive law or treaty
Judges
from all 4 nations
German and other lawyers as defense
The majority – not all – sentenced to death
After first trial against Top – Nazi only US judges
continue trials against
Industrials,
Scientists & Physicians, Judges & Lawyers

85. The long silence 1947 - 1965
Cold
War supersedes Holocaust
Most
sentenced in Nuremberg freed 1952
1952 London agreements inhibit individual judicial actions
New Bundeswehr with old officers (1955), Gehlen (BND)
OSS special commands against SU with SS-volunteers
Cases
Belarus, Hungary, Lithuania, Rumania
„Racism‟
Most
anywhere (Blacks, Goks, Indians, Japs, Jews … )
West-German Society leaders continue
Judges
& Higher public servants (no Judge lost office)
Globke,
chief advisor of Adenauer, first West-German head of
government, wrote the official explanations of the Rasse Gesetze
Industrial
Leaders (Abs, Krupp, Thyssen, Siemens …)
Technical specialists continue in the US and SU
Rocket
& Space Programs (v. Braun – NASA)
University
Faculty & School Teachers

86. My parents at that time
– Released from custody
1947 – both start to study in Gotinga (Göttingen)
1949 – Married
03/13/1950 – my birth date
1946
From
a text (1994) of my father about that time
Most of us – returned from war and sitting in university
classrooms hungry and freezing – were only interested in
starting a new civil live, away from what ever type of politics
They
in
graduate
1954 (MSc – Parts of 1st German Electronic Computer)
1956
(Dr. med, Child disorders caused by mistreatment)
At that time I had already 2 brothers & 1 sister

87. Wedding Day

88. My Grandparents at that time
J.
Beermann & his wife Charlotte
01/21/45
Leave Danzig, refugees in Gotinga
1946 Formal Retirement
1956 Death of my Grandmother
1958 Death of my Grandfather
I
was too young then for serious conversation
But he left some 80 pages of memories

89. My Grandparents and I
Hopmann
Beermann

90. My grandparents at that time
J.
Hopmann & his wife Maria
1946
Reach Göttingen as refugees from Leipzig
1952 Appointed Director of Observatory – Wien
Recovers his “damaged” reputation rapidly
Specializing
on Double Star Systems & Moon Observation
1965
Retired and returned to Bonn
1975 Dies of Cancer
1980 Lunar Crater is named Hopmann As Austrian Astronomer
1985 – Death of My Grandmother
(1)They
lost their eldest son, missing in Action, 03/45
(2)The
youngest son, affected by Encephalitis, had to be protected against
the Nazi Euthanasia Program
had talks with him about 19 – 45 only during his last weeks, when he
knew that he was dying. He began himself, accepted the criminal, but still
insisted that Germany was forced into that situation.
(3)I

91. The memory image

92. The Auschwitz Trial 1962-1965
Until
1959 (west-) allies regulations do not permit that
German Law-system investigates and judges NaziCrimes. Most Germans agree with that regulation.
1962 First Trial at a German Court
20 SS lower officials
& service-men
from Auschwitz
1965
6
The Sentences
life-term sentences for personally committed and by witness
testimony documented first degree murder in individual cases
11 sentences with 3 to 14 years for second degree murder in an
undefined number of cases but „under military obedience‟
All sentences based on German Criminal Code as of 1941

93. At home at that time
When the trial started I was 12, when it ended 15
At home
My
mother
collected
all press information related to Auschwitz
asked us (me and my brother) to read
and to ask questions
My
parents started talking
about
their experiences without getting specific
why it could happen
why it can happen again
about those „above‟ and others not on trial

94. At school at that time
– 49 Not a topic before 1965 in education at all
Not a topic now for you
1933
we‟re
talking about Egypt, Athens, Sparta, Rom .....
When
it got a topic in 1965
it
is about the equally bad red and brown totalitarians
where the really bad nazi-leaders are already dead
And
Germany is now a good democracy
are good friends with all good ones – even Israel
And we fight –even if not military- all bad ones
Together with our strong and good ally, the United States
We

95. 1968 – my turning year
The
wrong history told
Universities
started expulsing Jews before Hitler
Not a single reference to Jews in cities and public places
Nazi White Collar Criminals living among us without a problem –
the „good‟ allies helped some to escape
Can
it happen again ?
Rights Movement: Martin Luther King – shot
German Student leader – nearly killed after Press-Campaign
East-German troops help to end Political Spring of Prague
War in Vietnam: Each evening in TV – Napalm, Agent
Orange, Mylai ...
Civil
It
will happen again unless we stand up now !
I was elected part of SG of Georgia Augusta – University
Göttingen
1969
students interest & in humanity interest – politics to Campus now !
Together with the today German Chancellor Schröder
In

96. High school - 1968
That’s
me

97. Rediscovery of my history
Not
Hitler, a few leading Nazi & some criminals +
betrayed majority, but
overwhelming support of most Germans until 1942
No resistance, public declaration or private action of
official Churches (Catholic & Protestant) against
Holocaust itself.
Almost all German Industry, Banks & Assurance
Corporations earned Billions by Holocaust
Before Jews were the most important part of our
cultural and scientific wealth

98. From 1969 to 1989
1969
Brandt Chancellor
During
campaign attacked as Traitor
Was
as German part of the Norwegian resistance
against German Occupation
Establishment
of new relations with
eastern Europe
Recognizing
the past
Without compromising the present
But accepting the new borders and states
Communication instead of Confrontation
init that – quitting fear –
eventually led to 11/09/89
An
Brandt – Ghetto Memorial
Warschau

99. 11/09/2000 –News from Germany
BERLIN, Germany (CNN) -- Tens of thousands of
Germans, headed by political and religious
leaders, have staged a rally in Berlin to condemn neoNazi violence.
Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and leaders of all the
other major political parties joined trade
unionists, bishops and Jewish leaders in a march against
intolerance through the center of the capital.
Chancellor Schroeder called the rally against the rising
number of racial attacks in his country as a "revolt of
the decent."
Celebrities joined politicians in the march, including
tennis greats Steffi Graf and Boris Becker, as well as
Nobel prize winning writer Guenter Grass.
Thousands marched from one of Berlin's most historic
synagogues in the former eastern half of the city, to the
rally at the Brandenburg Gate.
CNN's Chris Burns described the rally as "a
demonstration of collective anger at the rising number
of racist and anti-Semitic attacks this year." .

100. 2000 – Why now and again
Almost all active politicians & leaders
They are not even involved in the operation „silence‟
are born after
Significant
exception Pope John Paul II
Civil & Human Rights movement
Revisionists & New Right
Reunified
Germany and collapsed USSR
No
„friend – enemy‟ pressure & No „good – evil‟ bias
Personal claims possible (since 1990)
Mass
killings & Ethnic cleansing
Cambodia,
Uganda, Yugoslavia
UNO admits to have failed in prevention
International Courts for humanity crimes
Nuremberg
rulings as model and example (50 years later!)
Torture, Unjustified killing by public power, Genocide
Treaty not signed by some states (US) arguing national sovereignty

101. What I learnt as person
I learnt
To
say „No‟
Arms
aren‟t toys and killing is no game
Never,
even as joke, equal a person to an animal
We‟re
not called to be Lords of Life
Deciding is a gift and an obligation
Silence may imply approval
Objectives never justify means
Personal responsibility can not be assumed by someone else, nor
delegated nor taken away
that‟s what I try to transmit to next generations

102. One next generation

103. A Sidebar on Nicaragua
– The German Club Managua still had a
Jewish Vicepresident
1941 – Somoza G. declares war on Germany
1936
Most
„Germans‟ & male descendants up to the 3rd
generation put in custody and transferred to the US.
„German‟ property confiscated (most end up as
Somoza)
Jewish Germans not affected
Today
Both
communities disappeared as cultural-religious
communities

104. What I learnt as political person
The German constitution (1949, Art. 1)
Human dignity is untouchable,
her protection is the first obligation of all public power.
The Declaration of Independence (1776)
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that
they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that
among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving
their just powers from the consent of the governed.
That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these
ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new
government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its
powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety
and happiness.
Take these basic principles literally, always, anywhere !

105. My „Men of the XX century‟
Responsibility for consequences
Non Violence
Civil Rights