The Auerbach Case: Part Four-Other views of Dr. Philipp Auerbach

by Marc Masurovsky

Benjamin Ferencz at the IMT, Nurnberg

Benjamin Ferencz, former prosecutor at the International Military Tribunal of Nürnberg:

“One flamboyant German official, Philip Auerbach, in charge of compensation claims in Bavaria, was quite a bizarre figure. It was rumored that he had been interned by the Nazis because he was tainted by Jewish blood. It was known that he paid little attention to formalities. I always considered him neurotic. On several occasions he sought me out for a donation from the JRSO for some strange scheme he concocted. I always refused. I recall a detailed plan he had for shipping Hitler’s stolen art works to the United States for exhibitions in museums that would pay well for the privilege. The money would then go back to the compensation fund. He had the name of the ship, the museums, and the amounts payable. I was not really surprised when, after I checked it out, I learned that it was all a figment of his imagination. When he and the head of a local Jewish community announced that they were establishing a Jewish Restitution Bank to receive deposits from concentration camp victims, I immediately cabled Jewish organizations throughout the world to beware. Exactly one year later, the police closed down the so-called bank; the finances of the Auerbach office were under investigation, and he committed suicide. It was a crazy time with crazy people doing crazy things.”

Le Monde, 19 August 1952, “Suicide of a former Bavarian commissioner on refugee matters provokes general consternation. »

Since Bavaria refused for a long time to elevate the Compensation and Restitution Office and its Director to a legally recognized status, Auerbach was not under any parliamentary oversight and did not benefit from a regular budget. He had to find another way to raise compensation funds using shortcuts and indirect pathways. “He reveled in using expedients, he had a predilection for shady and complex dealings, which allowed him to assert his authority and to engage in opaque and interwoven financial arrangements which would get him into a heap of trouble. No one contests these facts.”

Conclusion:

Was Dr. Philipp Auerbach a victim or a criminal? Did he concoct his outlandish scheme to sell off confiscated Jewish paintings acquired for Hitler and Goering for the purpose of enriching himself? Or was it more of a case of using whatever means necessary to ensure that Holocaust survivors would receive their due, regardless of the legality and reasonableness of his tactics. As Benjamin Ferencz said, “it was a crazy time with crazy people doing crazy things.”

One thing is certain: the Auerbach scandal exposed many of the fault lines that have since haunted the international debate over what to do with unclaimed Jewish cultural assets. Since Auerbach’s death in 1952, Jewish groups have never ceased to look at “unclaimed Jewish cultural assets” as fodder to be sold and monetized for the benefit of Holocaust victims’ heirs. It still remains that nothing is unclaimed unless you declare it to be so. And, if you do, under whose authority and on what grounds?

Sources for Part One-Part Four

Primary sources

National Archives, College Park, MD

Indemnisation des victimes du nazime, 14 mars 1949, RG 59, Lot 62D4, Box 26, NARA

Eric Gration, secrétaire du bureau du Haut Commissariat américain en Allemagne, à George Eric Rosden, 21 janvier 1950, Confidential, 007 Fine Arts, USACA, NARA; [Faison à Hanfstaengl, 11 juin 1951, RG 59 Lot 62D 4, Box 17, NARA

S. Lane Faison, Jr., HICOG, Prop. Div. OEA, Collecting Point Munich to Dr. Eberhard Hanfstaengl, general manager, Arcisstrasse 10, Munich, 11 June 1951, Ardelia Hall Collection, RG 59 Lot 62D4 Box 17, NARA.

Archives du Ministère des Affaires Etrangères et Européennes (AMAE), La Courneuve, France

Doubinsky to Colonel Bonet-Madry, head of the French restitution mission, Frankfurt, 25 May 1949, RA 237, AMAE 
Doubinsky to Valland, 28 October 1949, RV 237, AMAE
Rose Valland to Munsing, 10 november 1949, Berlin, RV 237, AMAE
Munsing to Valland, 13 February 1950, RV 237, AMAE

Other archives

Auerbach's rich correspondence and other personal material from the years 1946 to 1951, which are stored in Bavaria's Hauptstamtsarchiv, are now open to researchers. The Staatsarchiv in Munich holds the complete court records of the April 1952 trial.

Books, journals and newspaper articles

Brady, Kate
https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2022/06/26/schloss-elmau-castle-g7-germany/

Brenner, Michael and Kronenberg, Kenneth
https://www.scribd.com/book/392107133/A-History-of-Jews-in-Germany-Since-1945-Politics-Culture-and-Society

Ferencz, Benjamin B.
https://benferencz.org/stories/1948-1956/implementing-compensation-agreements/

Klare, Hans Hermann
https://www.jmberlin.de/en/reading-auerbach

Ludi, Regula
https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/reparations-for-nazi-victims-in-postwar-europe/germany/667D60BE8D2B06D1D50BC2B50D94D7CF biblio

Ludyga, Hannes
https://buchhandlung-buchner.buchkatalog.at/philipp-auerbach-1906-1952-9783830510963

Sabin, Stefana
https://faustkultur.de/literatur-buchkritik/opfer-und-taeter/


Other links
https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Subsequent_Nuremberg_trials
https://www.jta.org/archive/philip-auerbach-commits-suicide-act-due-to-verdict-of-german-court
https://nataliereardon.weebly.com/victims.html
https://www.lemonde.fr/archives/article/1952/08/19/le-suicide-de-l-ancien-commissaire-bavarois-aux-refugies-provoque-une-grande-emotion-en-allemagne_1999225_1819218.html
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/philipp-auerbach
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1952/08/17/110062774.html?pageNumber=1