Frankfurt/Main (dpa/lhe) - The former Hessian Attorney General and initiator of the Auschwitz trials, Fritz Bauer, is posthumously awarded the highest award in the state of Hesse. Prime Minister Boris Rhein (CDU) will present the Wilhelm Leuschner Medal to Bauer's great-niece, Marit Tiefenthal, who lives in Sweden, at the ceremony on December 1 in Frankfurt, the State Chancellery in Wiesbaden announced on Tuesday.
Bauer was born in 1903 and died in 1968. In 1933 he had to resign his position as a judge. He spent the Second World War in Denmark and Sweden, returning to Germany in 1949. In 1956 he became Hessian Attorney General in Frankfurt and in this position was responsible for the Auschwitz trials in the 1960s. "The Auschwitz trial led to a public discussion of the Holocaust in Germany for the first time," said the prime minister. He praised Bauer as an "uncomfortable admonisher".
The Wilhelm Leuschner Medal is awarded every year to people who have done exemplary work for democracy, freedom and social justice. Previous winners include former Chancellor Angela Merkel and the murdered district president of Kassel, Walter Lübcke, who was also awarded the medal posthumously.
