schwarzbaum: German Holocaust survivor Schwarzbaum dies aged 101

BERLIN: German Holocaust survivor Leon Schwarzbaum, a key witness in current trials of alleged Nazi conflict criminals, has died aged 101, the Worldwide Auschwitz Committee (IAC) advised AFP on Monday.
Schwarzbaum died on Sunday night time, in response to Christoph Heubner, government vice chairman of the IAC.
“His loss of life represents a terrific loss to the collective reminiscence. We’ll all miss his anger and humanity,” Heubner stated.
Schwarzbaum testified in 2016 towards former Auschwitz camp guard Reinhold Hanning, who was sentenced to 5 years in jail however died just a few months after the decision earlier than he may go to jail.
In late 2021, Schwarzbaum additionally appeared as a witness within the trial of Josef Schuetz, a 101-year-old former guard on the Sachsenhausen camp.
He had been as a consequence of take part in an extra listening to of that trial this week, Thomas Walther, a lawyer specialising in Nazi conflict crimes, advised AFP.
In a written assertion as a consequence of be learn by Walther, Schwarzbaum had deliberate to ask the accused to “inform us the historic fact”.
“Communicate right here on this place about what you skilled — as I’ve carried out in my opinion,” he wrote.
Schwarzbaum had typically expressed anger and remorse that so few Nazi conflict criminals had been dropped at justice, particularly in Germany.
He “didn’t need hatred, he wished justice”, the IAC stated in a press release.
Schwarzbaum was born in 1921 right into a Polish Jewish household in Hamburg however grew up in Bedzin, Higher Silesia, in present-day Poland earlier than his household was deported to Auschwitz in 1943.
He was the one member of his household to outlive the camps of Auschwitz, Buchenwald and a sub-camp of the Sachsenhausen advanced north of Berlin.
He later labored in Berlin as an artwork and antiques supplier, whereas additionally campaigning tirelessly to maintain the reminiscence of the Holocaust alive via lectures and talks world wide.
“It’s with nice disappointment, respect and gratitude that Holocaust survivors everywhere in the world bid farewell to their pal, fellow sufferer and companion Leon Schwarzbaum, who within the final many years of his life grew to become probably the most vital up to date witnesses of the Shoah,” Heubner stated in a press release.