Introduction

In January 1967, Courtroom 270 on the second floor of the Munich Justizpalast became the focal point for a high-profile public protest against the murderous legacy of the Third Reich. Inside, three former members of the SS, Wilhelm Harster, Wilhelm Zoepf and Gertrud Slottke, stood before a packed court to face charges of complicity in the murder of more than 105,000 Dutch Jews deported to Sobibor and Auschwitz between 1940 and 1945. The highly charged trial received sensational coverage in the West German press, with Die Zeit heralding its significance as the first prosecution of three prominent ‘desk murderers’ in the history of Nazi war crimes trials. ¹ Eventually convicted of aiding and abetting the Nazi genocide, the defendants received prison sentences ranging from five to fifteen years, a result greeted with shouts of ‘string them up’ from spectators in the public gallery and the attempted assault of Slottke by the crowds waiting outside the courthouse. ²