Robert Kempner

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Robert Max Wasilii Kempner (17 October 1899 – 15 August 1993) was a German-born Jewish lawyer and later a USA citizen. He was an influential opponent of the NSDAP before World War II. After the war, he was a notorious American counsel and prosecutor playing a key role during the Nuremburg Show Trials. Holocaust revisionists have extensively studied, researched and criticized the "evidence" presented by Kempner and his prosecution staff.

Before WWII

As a law student Kempner sat as an observer in the Turkish trial against Soghomon Tehlirian, who had assassinated Talaat Pasha in 1921, and made his defence proposals at Nuremberg an impeachment on the Armenian genocide and Talaat's involvement in it.[1] After completing his legal studies Kempner became firstly a journalist, and then an official in the Prussian Ministry of the Interior. He had belonged to the German Human Rights League (Deutsche Liga fur Menschenrechte) and, as a lawyer and a friend of Bernhard Weiß, was advanced to Chief Legal Advisor to the Prussian police in 1928 (unsurprising given his friend's position). He was an influential opponent of National Socialism during the Weimar Republic recommending it be banned.[2] In 1933, Kempner was fired by Hermann Göring, Prime Minister of Prussia. He was held for two months in a concentration camp, after being accused of leaking information about Germany's rearmament activities forbidden under the post-World War I Treaty of Versailles.[3]

In 1935 Wilhelm Frick, German Minister of the Interior, revoked Kempner's German citizenship under The Denaturalization Law of 14 July 1933, and in 1936 Kempner emigrated initially to Florence, Italy, and then to Nice where he and his wife made applications for permission to stay in France. These were rejected, and on 25 August 1939 they boarded a ship to the United States where they had Jewish friends who would help them.[4] There he did research on European dictatorships at the University of Pennsylvania and was employed as a consultant to the Department of Justice and other government agencies.[5][6] These included the FBI where he concentrated on National Socialist activities and emigré prosecutions in the USA.[7]

After WWII

After World War II, Kempner returned to Germany as an important U.S. counsel and prosecutor during the Nuremberg Show Trials. He was then involved in the prosecution of two of his former superiors — Göring and Frick. More familiar with the German legal system than any other member of the Allied staff, Kempner headed the Defense Rebuttal Section, the team responsible for anticipating the defense strategies of the accused and for preparing cross-examinations.[8]

The Americanized methods used and the evidence "discovered" by Kempner and his prosecution staff have been extensively criticized. For example, he and his staff were involved in "discovering" both the Wannsee Protocol and the first Posen Speech, as well as Alfred Rosenberg's 'missing' diary. He has been accused of being involved in and/or covering up the coercion of witnesses, the theft of material, and the forgery of material supporting the claims of the prosecution.[9][10] See also the "External links" section.

After the Nuremberg trials, Kempner split his time between the United States and West Germany, where he represented Jewish clients in claims cases against Germany. He also appeared as an "expert" witness at the trial of Adolf Eichmann in Israel.

See also

Other Nuremberg prosecutors

External links


References

  1. Kempner, Robert, Ankläger einer Epoche, Lebenserinnerungen, Frankfurt-am-Main, Berlin and Vienna: Ullstein, 1983, pp. 44seqq. ISBN|3-550-07961-3.
  2. Priemel, K.C., & Stiller, A., editors, Reassessing the Nuremberg Military Tribunals, Berghahn Books, New York & Oxford, U.K., 2012/14, p.31. ISBN: 978-0-85745-530-7
  3. The is casually alluded to in the film of the book Babylon Berlin (2018).
  4. Reversal of Fortune: Robert Kempner.
  5. Pace, Eric (August 17, 1993). "Robert Kempner, 93, a Prosecutor at Nuremberg". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1993/08/17/obituaries/robert-kempner-93-a-prosecutor-at-nuremberg.html. Retrieved 9 February 2016. 
  6. http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007164
  7. Priemel & Stiller, 2014, pps:27-33.
  8. « Reversal of Fortune: Robert Kempner », site of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
  9. The Hoax of the Twentieth Century http://holocausthandbooks.com/index.php?page_id=7
  10. Index to documents relating to Dr Robert Kempner http://www.fpp.co.uk/Germany/Kempner/index.html
  • Priemel, K.C., & Stiller, A., editors, Reassessing the Nuremberg Military Tribunals, Berghahn Books, New York & Oxford, U.K., 2012/14, "The Trials of Robert Kempner, from Stateless Immigrant to Prosecutor", pps:23-46, ISBN: 978-0-85745-530-7</ref>