Fritz Bauer

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.

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., This book is an important contribution as there aren't many rel-evant materials available in the English language., 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

Ronen Steinke is editor at Süddeutsche 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.