Conference and Inquiry
28-29 October 2010, Vienna

Majdanek on Trial
Polish, German and Austrian Judiciary and the Prosecution of Crimes at the Lublin-Majdanek Concentration Camp

Witnesses Symposium
Inquiry "Confrontation:
Confronting Victims and Perpetrators in Post-War Nazi Trials"

Thursday, 28 October 2010
Venue: Federal Ministry of Justice, Großer Festsaal
Museumstraße 7, 1070 Wien
6 - 9 p.m.

PROGRAM

Addresses of Welcome:
° Constanze Kren, Federal Ministry of Justice, General Director for Personnel and Administration (representing the minister, Claudia Bandion-Ortner)
° Hubert Christian Ehalt (City of Vienna, Department for Research and Science)

Video:
° Interview with survivor Danuta Brzosko-Mędryk, Warsaw (physician, author)

Statements:
° Public Prosecutor (retired) Dieter Ambach (Prosecuting Counsel at the Majdanek Trial in Düsseldorf, Germany)
° Hildegard Schlachter (Caretaker for the witnesses at the Majdanek Trial in Düsseldorf, Germany)
° Hans Maršálek (Honorary President of the Austrian survivor organization "KZ-Verband", former "Lagerschreiber" [prisoner detached to the Camp office] of the Mauthausen Concentration Camp, witness for Allied and Austrian Mauthausen trials and for the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg )

Discussion

Pause

Statements:
° Frank Höpfel (Professor at the Institute for Criminal Law und Criminology at the University of Vienna, 2005 Ad-litem Judge at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia / ICTY in The Haag)
° Gabriela Mischkowski (Contributor/Specialist for Gender Justice at "Medica Mondiale", Cologne)

Discussion

Moderators:
° Claudia Kuretsidis-Haider und Winfried R. Garscha (Austrian Research Centre for Post-War Trials)

Conference
Concentration Camp Lublin-Majdanek and the Judiciary. Polish, German and Austrian Trials – a Comparison

Friday, 29 October 2010
Venue: Vienna Centre of the Polish Academy of Science
Boerhaavegasse 25, 1030 Vienna
9 a.m. - 6 p.m.

PROGRAM

9 – 9:30 a.m.:

Addresses of Welcome:

° Bogusław Dybaś
(Director of the Vienna Center, Polish Academy of Science)

° Martin F. Polaschek
(President of the Austrian Research Centre for Post-War Trials, Vice-Rector of the University of Graz)

Introduction:

° Winfried R. Garscha
° Claudia Kuretsidis-Haider
(Austrian Research Centre for Post-War Trials)

9:30 – 10:15 a.m.:

Introduction

Tomasz Kranz, Lublin
(Director of the Research Centre of the State Museum in Majdanek)
Lublin-Majdanek. History and Crime

10.15 – 10.45 a.m.:
Coffee break

10.45 a.m. – 12 p.m.:
Panel 1 (Lectures and Discussion)

Poland

° Winfried R. Garscha, Vienna
° Andrzej Selerowicz, Vienna
(both: Austrian Research Centre for Post-War Trials)
The Polish Majdanek Trials: Overview, Legal Foundation, Application of Law

12 – 1 p.m.:
Lunch

1– 3 p.m.:
Panel 2 (Lectures and Discussion)

Germany

° Claudia Kuretsidis-Haider, Vienna
German Majdanek Trials. Legal Preconditions, Overview and Comparison with Austria

° Senior Public Prosecutor (retired) Wolfgang Weber, Cologne
(Prosecuting Counsel at the Majdanek Trial in Düsseldorf)
The Majdanek Trial in Düsseldorf: Preparation by the Central Office in Cologne and the Co-operation with the Austrian Judiciary

° Elissa Mailänder Koslov, Paris
(Centre interdisciplinaire d’études et de recherches sur l’Allemagne / CIERA – Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales / EHESS)
The Case of Hermine Braunsteiner and its Impact on Austrian Investigations

° Julia Hartung, Wien
(Austrian Research Centre for Post-War Trials)
The Role of Majdanek Survivors at the Court (shown by the example of the documentary on the Düsseldorf Trial, directed by Eberhard Fechner)

3 – 3.30 p.m.:
Coffee break

3.30 – 4.30 p.m.:
Panel 3 (Lectures and Discussion)

Austria, Part I

° Bertrand Perz, Vienna
(Institute for Contemporary History, University of Vienna )
Crimes in the Lublin Area and the Criminal Retributions in Austria

° Siegfried Sanwald, Vienna
(Austrian Research Centre for Post-War Trials)
The Austrian Investigations concerning the Lublin-Majdanek Complex

4.30 – 4.45 p.m.:
Break

16.45 – 18 Uhr:
Panel 4 (Lectures and Discussion)

Austria, Part II

° Florian Klenk, Vienna
(Deputy Chief Editor and Head of Political Affairs of the Viennese weekly "Falter")
The Case of Erna Wallisch

° Senior Public Prosecutor Viktor Eggert, Vienna
(Federal Ministry of Justice, Section IV/3)
Last Investigations. The Austrian Judiciary and the Lublin-Majdanek Complex

All papers will be given in German. The results of conference will be published in June 2011.