Around 8,000 criminal proceedings that were heard before the former Mannheim Special Court during the Nazi era are now part of the holdings of the Karlsruhe General State Archive. As part of the Education Agenda project Denunciation-Repression-Persecution, a selection of exemplary Nazi special court files is being compiled and digitized with the involvement of schoolchildren.
How did the idea come about, and why did you choose this approach in particular?
From 2015 and 2019, my colleagues Marion Bodemann, Hendrik Hiss and I were running an inter-school seminar course on the topic of National Socialism in Karlsruhe. Together with artists at ZKM | Center for Art and Media, the Karlsruhe Youth Association, the General State and City Archives, and Schülerakademie Karlsruhe, we worked with young people to look at specific aspects of the city’s history and presented the results in the form of art exhibitions. This five-year collaboration also gave rise to a partnership with Professor Frank Engehausen of the University of Heidelberg.
After the COVID-19 pandemic, we wanted to build on what had been achieved in the seminar course, but this time with three new goals in mind. Firstly we wanted to connect the topic to young people’s lived experience and secondly, the project was to be adaptable beyond Karlsruhe. Thirdly, we realized that we needed to stay aware of current debates.
The key idea came from Frank Engehausen: from 1933 to 1945, Nazi special courts tried cases that clearly exposed the regime’s injustices. These were everyday incidents – things that happened right on people’s front doorsteps. The archive record “507 – Special Court Mannheim” includes around 8,000 cases from across Baden, with about 900 more from the Freiburg special court. That inspired us to move forward with the idea: to work with young people locally and, through digitized records, provide access to regional history for those without direct access to archives.
How do you make working with files interesting for students – and what kind of feedback do you get in the workshops?
Every file tells the story of a person who came into conflict with the Nazi regime – often because someone in their circle reported them, sometimes anonymously, for something like a conversation at a pub, a rumor, or a political opinion.
Since there was no functioning rule of law under National Socialism, the injustice becomes especially tangible for students today. It helps them understand the value of democratic structures and encourages them to reflect on justice, injustice and the law.
The files often contain deeply personal documents and testimonies: petitions for clemency, personal letters, a note from a child to the Führer asking for the release of their father or mother.
Some cases read like crime stories. In our workshops, we explore the question of how to bring history to life – and how it relates to the present.
Is there a file or ruling that had a particular impact on you?
There are a lot of cases that I found very moving: the fate of those accused is something you simply can’t ignore. The inhuman language used in the Nazi-era transcripts still leaves me speechless.
One case that touched me personally was when I came across the file of my great-uncle. He was investigated for making an inappropriate political joke, but the case was dropped due to lack of evidence.
Another shocking story was that of a woman who lived just a few streets away from where I live today. She was deported to Auschwitz after a special court ruling – and murdered there.
For further information, see: www.sondergericht-mannheim.de
