Max Täubner

Max Täubner (sometimes Taubner in English) was an SS-Untersturmführer.

Wikipedia states that Täubner was part of a Waffen-SS unit conducting anti-partisan operations and assisting the Einsatzgruppen (also part of the SS) in the Soviet Union. Täubner, together with subordinate SS-personal, were defendants at an SS court in 1943, for atrocities against Jews and for Täubner taking photos of atrocities and showing them to his wife and friends. He was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment, while the case against his subordinates was dismissed.

Holocaust revisionism and anti-revisionism

Holocaust revisionists have not disputed that the Einsatzgruppen killed certain Jews, as discussed in the article on this topic. That Täubner was punished does not fit well with the politically correct view that the Einsatzgruppen were conducting indiscriminate atrocities. See also World War II German punishments for mistreatment of Jews.

However, Holocaust anti-revisionists have been more interested in an alleged and arguably strange, confusing, and contradictory part of the 1943 judgment, as stated in the book "The Good Old Days": The Holocaust As Seen by Its Perpetrators and Bystanders and translated as "The accused shall not be punished because of the actions against the Jews as such. The Jews have to be exterminated and none of the Jews that were killed is any great loss. Although the accused should have recognized that the extermination of the Jews was the duty of Kommandos which were set up especially for this purpose, he should be excused for considering himself to have the authority to take part in the extermination of Jewry himself. Real hatred of the Jews was the driving motivation for the accused. In the process he let himself be drawn into committing cruel actions in Alexandriya which are unworthy of a German man and an SS-officer. These excesses cannot be justified, either, as the accused would like to, as retaliation for the pain that the Jews have caused the German people. It is not the German way to apply Bolshevic methods during the necessary extermination of the worst enemy of our people. In so doing the conduct of the accused gives rise to considerable concern. The accused allowed his men to act with such vicious brutality that they conducted themselves under his command like a savage horde... (...)". The book also rather strangely states that "Taubner had neither been accused or judged for the murder of Jews".

Holocaust revisionists have questioned the authenticity of the supposed quote. One problem is the absence of written genocidal order to Einsatzgruppen. See Einsatzgruppen: Not genocidal orders to the Einsatzgruppen. One non-revisionist explanation for this is that subordinates started genocidal killings on their own initiative (see "Holocaust functionalism"). However, the alleged judgment quote alleges that "the extermination of the Jews was the duty of Kommandos which were set up especially for this purpose". Another non-revisionist explanation for the absence of written orders to the Einsatzgruppen is supposed use of oral-only orders for secrecy. However, this makes it unclear how the court knew about and could authenticate these secret oral-only orders and also raises the question of why the court did not continue to conceal these secret oral-only orders.

Wikipedia states that there are different versions on what occurred at the trial.

The judge at the trial, Günther Reinecke, in 1946 stated that during his activities as SS-judge he never gained any knowledge of mass extermination of Jews. It has also been argued that Reinecke, with a Ph.D. in law, would not have used the language style claimed in the alleged quote, with German judicial language being very formal and dry.

Allegedly, Himmler advised the court on orders issued on his behalf on 26 October 1942, despite that the case concerned events before this in 1941.

Revisionists have quoted the 1942 orders by Himmler and stated that "It can be deduced from this that single shootings did require a specific “order and authority,” outside of which killings were allowed only based on certain motivations. This was in effect for the Eastern territories in the battle against “Judeo-Bolshevism” but not for example for the concentration camps, starting with Auschwitz, where a different norm was in force for everybody, including Jews:

“It is known to me that the Führer alone decides about life or death of an enemy of the State. I am not allowed to physically harm any State enemy (inmate) or to cause his death. Every killing of an inmate in a concentration camp requires the personal approval of the Reichsführer-SS.”"

See also Auschwitz camp: General description of the Auschwitz punishment system.

Various other criticisms have also been made. See the "External links" section.

Röttgermann trial

Another German trial, that is sometimes mentioned in association with the Täubner trial, is the 1942 trial of the Unteroffizier Hans Röttgermann. He was a member of the regular army and not the SS. Röttgermann had shot several Jews in a military prison. The judgment, which found him guilty, stated that "Therefore the shootings of Jews by the SD [one part of the SS] are also in the end acts of the State, which ordered the destruction of these enemies in a certain way and which also allowed for it to be undertaken. For these measures deemed necessary by the State dedicated institutions are established. These institutions are themselves subject to tight bylaws."

As stated above, Holocaust revisionists have argued that the SS had (tight) non-genocidal orders to kill certain Jews, which fits with the quote from the judgment. Furthermore, the quote is problematic for claims that the regular army was sanctioned to participate in killings of Jews.

See also

• National Socialist Germany and partisans/resistance movements
• World War II German punishments for mistreatment of Jews

External links

• The “Extermination Camps” of “Aktion Reinhardt" - Täubner and Röttgermann are discussed in section "5.5. The “Gas Vans”"
• 'Irrefutable Response' Falls Flat, Book Review - review of "The Good Old Days"

Forum threads

• Nizkorite Taubner
• Taubner Verdict - Proof of extermination?
• SS-Untersturmführer Max Taubner's Court Decision