Munio Badian
Mundek (Munio) Badian was a young Jew, in his mid-20s, born in Drohobycz, blond, tall. According to his sister Czesława Galica, his parents owned a large “ business“ in the countryside [due to the translation it is unclear whether this means an inn or an agricultural property]. In 1939 Munio lived with his wife Jenta and daughter (born in 1940) in the small village of Łąka (ukr.: Luka) near Sambor. After the German invasion in 1941, the family moved to Drohobycz. As a Jewish forced labourer, he was obliged to work there by the Gestapo. He worked as an assistant to Naftali Backenroth (Bronicki), who was the Gestapo’s Jewish contact person for the labour deployment of Jews. The SS Scharführer Paul Behr treated Badian as his „Leibjuden“ – he had to get or buy various items for Behr and other Gestapo people.
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Backenroth and Badian also set up the Dobrowlany (ukr. Dobrovlyany) agricultural estate for the Gestapo. Since Munio Badian knew many farmers well and they trusted him, he was assigned by the security police to buy food in the countryside. He therefore had an exit permit and could move relatively freely in the countryside. Munio was befriended by the Ukrainian Jan Sato [Sało], who helped him with the purchases in the villages.
Munio overheard two SS Privates talking one day. They were talking about the transports of Jews to the Bełżec death camp and laughed uproariously. Until then there had been rumours that these transports did not take the Jews to a work camp but to a death camp, but most Jews did not want to believe these rumours spread by Aryans. Munio reported this to the son of the Drohobycz rabbi Avigdor and then, at his request, to the rabbi himself – now they had the sad certainty that the thousands of their relatives and friends from Drohobycz and the surrounding area had been exterminated (Avigdor, One oft the Holy Cast, p. 75).
Through his close contact with the Gestapo, he was able to save Jews several times by bribing the responsible Gestapo officials with so-called „presents“. This was not uncommon – the German Eberhard Helmrich, for example, achieved the release of imprisoned Jews several times in the same way. Munio Badian knew, however, that he himself and his family were under constant threat. Therefore, in 1943 he arranged a hiding place for his wife and daughter with his friend’s brother, the farmer Stanisław Sato in the village of Łąka, who had previously given shelter to his sister Czesława and her family. One evening his wife Jenta and his relatives heard from Stanisław: Munio was murdered today.
First hints about Paul Behr
In 1960, the former Gestapo officer Paul Behr was interrogated several times during investigations against other police officers for Nazi violent crimes. Behr stated that in 1941 he had first worked for the Gestapo in Lublin, Cholm branch, in the Abwehr department. He then joined the security police in Lemberg, and from there the Kolomea field office. He was then in charge of the Sniatyn border police post, which belonged to the Kolomea field office, for four months. The Jews in Cholm, Lemberg and Sniatyn were always well off: they could move freely and only had to wear a Jewish star. „In Sniatyn there was a small voluntary ghetto. I never had anything to do with the ghetto … Actions against Jews were not carried out during my stay in Sniatyn.“ (LASH, Dept. 352.4 Lübeck, Vol. 1731, Bl. 682)
At the end of 1958, the Central Office of the State Justice Administrations for the Investigation of National Socialist Crimes was founded in Ludwigsburg (ZStL for short). The ZStL had the task of bundling and further processing prosecutorial investigations of the federal states into the same Nazi crime complexes. It then forwarded the results of its preliminary investigations to the competent public prosecutor’s offices of the federal states for a decision, which investigated further and decided on an indictment. The Central Office Ludwigsburg opened a preliminary investigation into Nazi crimes in the Drohobycz area (Drohobycz, Sambor, Stryj districts) under file number 2 AR-Z 8/62. In this context, it also investigated Paul Behr.
In his first interrogations, Behr did not mention Drohobycz at all, but presented it as if he had been in Lemberg the whole time until the retreat. Later he corrected this account: around August 1942 he had been transferred to the Drohobycz field office, where he remained until the collapse of the front. He admitted that there had been a ghetto in Drohobycz, but the Jews had been relatively free. They worked for the oil companies – not voluntarily, but according to his impression gladly. He had never heard of any attacks on Jewish people, and he had never experienced such attacks himself. „I would never have tolerated such a thing in my office either.“ (LASH vol. 1731, pp. 664-686). But then old and new testimonies became known in which Behr himself was accused of participating in mass murders and several individual murders.
On 24 April 1961, the then 52-year-old carpenter Abraham Schleier, resident in Philadelphia (USA), had testified before the German consulate there. The witness said about Paul Behr: „Another Gestapo official who murdered numerous Jews in Drohobycz, as I know from a reliable source, was called Bär [phonetically correct; meaning Paul Behr]. Bär also killed my wife and my two children.“ Truthfully, Schleier adds, „However, I myself was not present at this.“ (LASH vol. 1731, pp. 517-518r; here: 518r).
Behr was also incriminated by a former member of the Drohobycz security police, the Berlin Kriminalobermeister Rudolf Sokoll, born on 1 November 1904. SS-Hauptscharführer Sokoll worked as a criminal secretary in Dept. V (criminal police) in Drohobycz from July 1941 to September 1942. In 1962 he described the murder of the Jew Hennefeld (Henefeld) in several interrogations and named Behr as the murderer [we will deal with this murder later in a separate article on this website]. In a letter dated 31 March 1962, Sokoll also stated that Behr had frequently travelled to Popiele (an SS estate near Boryslaw) for executions and named Ida Rubinstein and the ethnic German family Precht as further witnesses against Behr (BArch, Bd. 5831, Bl. 133). Sokoll could not be questioned further, as he died in the same year (1962).
The survivor Wolf Herz, born on 20.5.1917, called Behr Badian’s murderer in a detailed testimony on 6.3.1962. Almost all witnesses who were questioned in the early 1960s knew from hearsay that Behr was supposed to have been Badian’s murderer. There could be no direct eyewitnesses, since only Behr and another Gestapo official are said to have been present at the crime in a forest. So how could such a crime be solved more than twenty years later?
Further witness hearings on Paul Behr
On the basis of Wolf Herz’s testimony, on 21 May 1962 the ZStL named for the first time the Gestapo member Paul Behr as a possible murderer of Munio Badian in a list of individual crimes in Drohobycz (BArch B162, Bd. 5831, Bl. 160). Witnesses were now being sought for Badian’s murder and other crimes committed by Behr.
On 21 June 1962, the Israeli police questioned Jakub Goldstein, born in Lublin in 1917, who had fled from the German troops to Drohobycz in 1939. He was a forced labourer at the Gestapo in Drohobycz until the end of 1943 – his „boss“ was first Felix Landau, then Paul Behr. Later he was sent to the Mrasznica camp of the Carpathian Oil Company in Boryslaw, to the Plaszów concentration camp, and finally to Mauthausen, Melk/Obersee camp, where he was liberated by the Americans. Goldstein lived with Badian for some time in a room next to the Gestapo riding hall. In August or September 1943 Badian gave him a card with the request to bring it to his room in Drohobycz when he came to town. Goldstein had not read the card himself. „Since I worked for the Gestapo, I had permission to walk around without a white armband. On the street I was seen by the chief of the gendarmerie (I don’t remember the name), who arrested me on suspicion that I was not wearing a armband. At the gendarmerie I was revised [i.e. strip-searched] and they found the card Badian had given me earlier. The contents of the card were read out to me at the gendarmerie. The card said: ‚Mr Badian, please get me out of prison by all means‘. I don’t remember today who signed the card. They began to beat me … I got the impression that the gendarmerie was looking for material that could incriminate the Gestapo … Since I couldn’t give anything concrete, they kept me in custody. After four days I managed to escape. However, I did not return to the Gestapo. I learned that in the meantime Badian had been shot by Behr. It seems to me that the Gestapo was afraid that the gendarmerie could arrest Badian and that they would learn corrupt things about the Gestapo from him (acceptance of bribes, etc.)“ (BArch, B 162, Vol. 5832, Bl. 259f.) Here we find out a possible motive for the murder of Badian, who obviously wanted to keep the card as a bargaining chip against the Gestapo. However, Goldstein only learned about the murder from hearsay, as did several other witnesses (e.g. David Backenroth and Abraham Schleier).
On 28.6.1962 Ida Rubinstein, maiden name Henefeld (born 1922 in Drohobycz), testified in Haifa. She lived with her parents at 27 St. Johann Street (ul. Jana 27) at the beginning of the German occupation. Her grandfather Josef Henefeld and his Jewish housekeeper Etka Schmaus lived in the front villa on the property, and Ida and her parents lived in a smaller house on the same property. Ida Rubinstein gave a detailed account of the murder of her grandfather, her uncle Samuel Henefeld and the housekeeper. They were picked up by Behr and the Ukrainian policeman Temnyk, and Josef and Samuel Henefeld were shot. She was convinced that it was a robbery-murder because during the action in August 1942, which lasted several days, Jews were not shot on site but driven to the transport wagons that took them to the Bełżec extermination camp. Shortly afterwards, Behr returned to the villa with the housekeeper – probably to be shown the hiding places of the jewellery and valuables. Then Behr shot the housekeeper as well. Ida could now no longer stay in Drohobycz, as she feared that, as a Henefeld, she would also be murdered by Behr. She did not return to her job in the Gestapo gardening department, but came to the SS estate Popiele near Boryslaw through the arrangement of the estate leader and former owner Sascha Kilian, a half-Jew. Here she witnessed how Paul Behr, together with the Austrian estate manager Czudaj, selected Jews who were unable to work and emaciated. „These people were led out into the field. After some time Behr and Czudaj came back and ordered the Jews to go out with spades and bury the bodies.“ (BArch, Vol. 5832, Bl. 261-265; here: Bl. 264)
Rena Fleischer had to work as a forced labourer for the Gestapo in Drohobycz: first she had to take care of the Gestapo’s rabbit hutch, then she managed a workshop for handicrafts, and from autumn 1942 she worked in the Gestapo’s nursery on Jana Street. In a witness examination on 22.11.1962 she reported that „Behr came to our camp (nursery) in the summer of 1943, I saw and heard Behr calling the Jew Badian and ordering him to go hunting with him. Badian was the Gestapo men’s ‚go-to guy‘, he took care of their various private affairs and so he did for Behr. For this reason he knew many of the Gestapo men’s secrets. After Behr took Badian away for this reason, he shot him.“ (BArch B162, vol. 5832, sheet 351). She later hears Behr himself boasting that he „got rid of“ Badian, and Behr’s wife, with whom Rena Fleischer had a good contact, also confirmed this to her.
On 4 January 1963, the ZStL turned to the North Rhine-Westphalia State Criminal Police Office with a request for information about Paul Behr. Reason: Paul Behr from Recklinghausen „is probably identical with the former SS-Sturmscharführer Behr from the Security Police field office Drohobycz/KdS Lemberg. This former Sipo member is accused by the Jewish side and also by a former colleague of having murdered several Jews in … Drohobycz. Behr is described as a particular sadist and Jew-hater who committed his acts without orders to do so. In one case he is charged with murder out of greed.“ (LASH vol. 1731, sheet 492).
Finally, Behr was accused of several individual murders, including the murder of Badian, by another member of the Drohobycz Security Police, the head of the Security Service (SD), Benno Paulischkies. Summoned as an accused, Paulischkies was questioned at length at Karlsruhe police headquarters on 24 September 1963. The SD played a special role within the security police because it could conduct its own investigations against security police officers. In the district of Galicia, the main focus was on widespread corruption and arbitrary acts of violence such as robbery and unauthorised killings by security police officers, as there was a fear of unrest among the Ukrainian and Polish population. The SD was no less involved in mass killings than the Gestapo and other divisions of the Security Police, but internally within the Security Police the SD was feared: therefore most Security Police officers avoided the SD as much as possible. Based on his reports to the SD headquarters in Lemberg about random acts of violence, robbery and corruption, two Gestapo officers from Lemberg had come to investigate in the spring of 1943 without revealing the purpose of their visit. Behr had invited them to his flat in the evenings and had caroused with them. After they had left his flat, there had suddenly been a shootout – one officer lay shot in the street in front of Behr’s flat, the other life-threateningly injured. Behr claimed that both officers had been attacked and shot down by Jews after leaving his flat. Paulischkies did not believe this and was convinced that Behr had known about the mission of the two officers and that he therefore wanted to eliminate them. On the basis of Behr’s false account, the Sipo launched an action in Drohobycz the next day in which Jews were shot indiscriminately in the open street. The „doctored crime report“ of the Sipo was then accepted as fact.
Paulischkies, asked whether he was aware of Badian’s murder, said: „I can confirm this and remember having written a report about it, naming Behr as the suspected perpetrator. I was told by Ukrainians at the time that Behr had invited Badian for a ride in a carriage and then shot him on the way…. … Since Badian apparently knew too much, he was eliminated by Behr.“ (LASH, vol. 1731, pp. 552-581, here: p. 571)
In the final report of the ZStL (Ludwigsburg, 29.11.1963) Paul Behr is named as an accused, but still only in connection with Sniatyn. Since the exact period of his activity in Sniatyn was still unclear at that time, „there are therefore no concrete charges, apart from the fact that the Jewish inhabitants of Sniatyn were deported to Kolomea on 2 April 1942, thus possibly during Behr’s time. If it is true that Behr came to Sniatyn as early as March 1942, then his claim … not to have noticed anything about Jewish actions cannot be taken seriously.“ (LASH, vol. 1734, pp. 1152f.) Jews from Sniatyn and other localities were herded into the Kolomea ghetto and transported to the Belzec extermination camp on 3.4.1942 (Kuwałek, p. 339). In fact, Behr, as head of the Sniatyn outpost, was significantly involved in these actions.
The final report and the results of the ZStL’s investigations to date were sent to the Dortmund Public Prosecutor’s Office, where a „Central Office in the State of North Rhine-Westphalia for the Handling of National Socialist Mass Crimes“ (ZStNRW) had been established since October 1961. The ZStNRW had already been involved in the investigations by the ZStL; it was here at the ZStNRW that the preliminary investigations into Behr were now continued, especially into his deeds in Drohobycz.
Behr’s interrogations and going underground
Since several witnesses saw him driving away with Munio Badian before his murder, Behr was summoned for further questioning. Since he did not appear at the appointment, he was “ fetched“ from his flat by the police. During this interrogation on 18 June 1964, Behr told the following tall tale:
„One afternoon, the head of the department, Block, called me … Block explained to me that Badian had a special assignment. I was to take Badian in a hunting car [carriage] in the direction of Borislav. Then I was to drop him off halfway and leave him to his own devices. Badian was to reach the railway in Borislav. He was to see how he got on. Badian spoke many languages, including a clear German. As a result, he would never have been noticed during a check. Badian kept quiet on the way. It was important for the mission that Badian was seen in the vehicle by as many people as possible. I have not seen Badian since that time. He was such a clever little man that I would like to think he would still be alive today.“ (LASH, Vol. 1758, p. 20)
Confronted with the testimonies of the witnesses Herz, Goldstein, Rena and Helena Fleischer, Behr embellished his story further: He claimed that Badian had been a police informer. He himself had only done good to Badian. The gendarmerie and the Schutzpolizei, however, had taken all the Jews away from the security police wherever they could. He also could not explain why his name appeared on a list of nominees for the KVK (War Merit Cross) on 28 May 1944 – because of his „services to the resettlement of Jews“.
Until then Badian had claimed that there had been no actions against Jews in Drohobycz – at least he could not remember any. In the continuation of the interrogation the following day, he recalled darkly: „When actions against the Jews were planned, the head of the office, Sturmbannführer Block, had the oldest officers come to him. On such occasions I was also summoned. I had a good relationship with Block. I was his right-hand man. He wanted to see me at the meetings. At these meetings it was decided who was to take part in the shooting operations, where the operations were to take place and how the operation was to be carried out in detail … The operations were carried out almost on schedule. Everyone drank like pigs. I also drank.“
When asked, he partly described in great detail how the shootings were carried out, but then claimed again that he had not shot himself and had only observed from afar. Behr became more and more entangled in a web of lies from which he could no longer escape.
Behr’s involvement was also further investigated elsewhere. On 26 May 1966, an application was made to the Darmstadt Regional Court to extend the investigation against the former precinct captain of the Schutzpolizei Herbert Härtel for Nazi violent crimes in Kolomea and the surrounding area to include other persons – among them Paul Behr as the former post leader of the Sniatyn outpost (LASH vol. 1758, pp. 42-45). The ground under Behr’s feet was now too hot – he did not want to be found in his flat. He gave up his permanent residence and went into hiding.
As a result, he was put on the wanted list in July 1966. Only three days later, on 25.7.66, he was recognised on the basis of the wanted sheet and arrested in the restaurant „Zur Höhle“ in Landau. (As an aside: Landau/Waldeck used to be an independent town and has been a district of Bad Arolsen since 1974. It had a small Jewish community since the 16th century). „During the physical search of Mr Behr, a pistol Astra, No. 78534, calibre 6.35 was found loaded and unlocked in his right trouser pocket. The full magazine contained eight live cartridges … Mr Behr, who was informed of the reason for his provisional arrest, stated during the arrest that he had intended to shoot himself with this weapon, in the event of his arrest.“ (From a telegram from the Arolsen police station; text transferred from telegram style to normal spelling. LASH, Vol. 1758, Haftsonderheft Behr, Arrest).
On 31.8.1966, Behr finally admitted his involvement in mass shootings and asked to be spared from prison.
„I admit that I was involved in actions. Yes, I was involved in many actions, probably not in every single one, but essentially in those that took place between my arrival – about June 1942 – and my departure – about July/August 1944. My participation spatially extends to all the localities which came into consideration for actions by the Sipo D[rohobycz] in the Drohobycz field office. As to the nature of my participation, I state the following: I was basically involved from the beginning to the execution of the action, i.e. together with my colleagues or Ukrainians etc. I led the Jews to the assembly points, took part in the drive to the execution site (mostly the forest near D.) by driving ahead or behind with the Sipo colleagues. I lined up at the pits and also shot with them. I shot to the same extent as the other people who had been detached for this purpose. There was no need for a special order when one relieved the other. In the course of time, this came about quite naturally and was essentially determined by how long a shooter had already been shooting. Like me, all Sipo members in D. were involved in the actions, of course not always all at the same time, but according to the need for people.“ (LASH vol. 1736, pp. 1966f.)
A poisoned confession
Behr was transferred to the Bochum remand centre. There, on 6 September 1966, he was again questioned about the murder of Badian. He now admitted to the murder.
„I am willing to give up my previous denial. Badian had become disagreeable as an informer. I think he worked too much for the opposite side and was therefore no longer interesting for Lemberg. One day … Block [SS-Sturmbannführer Hans Block, head of the Drohobycz Sipo] and Heckl [SS-Untersturmführer Lukas Heckl, head of the Drohobycz criminal police, Block’s representative] gave me the order to see to Badian’s liquidation. Badian was ’now overdue‘. Why was I given the task? Because I worked with Badian all the time and could therefore handle the whole affair more quietly … In any case, Badian, I and the Sipo colleague Schretz [meaning SS-Oberscharführer Willibald Schretz] drove off in a hunting carriage. Badian was the coachman, as usual … The journey went in the direction of Popiele, which was the easiest for me, because I always drove that way, since my hunting ground was in that area. We stopped in a forest near the Popiele estate at a kate [hut]. It was used by the game warden. Badian and we got out. Badian made a beeline for the left horse, he untied the horses. Schretz got off behind him on the left. Schretz – or maybe I – called Badian. When Badian turned to look at us, Schretz shot him with his pistol. He shot him fatally in the head. It was natural that Schretz should shoot. He was the younger one and also lower in rank. We buried Badian 5-6 m away in a pit … It may be that we searched Badian for valuables after the deed … I remember clearly that we found a watch and small items on Badian and later had them preserved.“ (LASH vol. 1736, pp. 1971f.)
After the murder followed the character assassination. The claim that Badian was an informer is implausible – even and especially after all the testimonies of surviving Jews. It is a typical protective claim with which perpetrators try to justify an individual murder by disparaging the victim. In any case, according to this testimony it was clear that Badian was murdered insidiously and with premeditation by Behr and Schretz. Which of the two fired the fatal shot could no longer be clarified, but both were involved in the crime.
Interrogations in 1968
The investigations against Paul Behr continued and the ZStNRW (Dortmund Public Prosecutor’s Office) sent a request for an investigation to the Israeli police on 12 October 1967.
On 6 February 1968, Benjamin Bohrer, born on 17 June 1908, testified in Passau. He worked in the Gestapo nursery on Jana Street. Until the retreat of the Germans in the summer of 1944, there was a smaller Gestapo camp in Jana Street next to the large SS forced labour camp of Karpathen-Öl in Drohobycz, where the witness Bohrer was also barracked. He witnessed how Behr asked Badian to go away with him on the carriage. There seemed nothing unusual about this. „From that point on we did not see Badian again. About an hour after the departure, the Gestapo officer Günther came to our camp in a hurry – he was our boss – and took a locksmith from the workshop with him. With him he went to Badian’s flat, had the locksmith open it and – as we learned later – had all Badian’s personal belongings taken out of there.“ (LASH, Vol. 1737, Bl. 2212f.)
On 9 February 1968, the pharmacist Jonas Fleischer, born 24 June 1904, was questioned as a witness by the Israeli police in Bejt Dagan. His sister-in-law, Lusia Bein, married Freud (died in the USA in 1967) worked as a maid for Behr. „She told us that Behr had his victims come to his flat (he lived on ulica Jana in Dr Chajes‘ house opposite Henefeld’s house). There he murdered the Jews and ordered the victims to be buried in the yard space of his house. The victims buried Ukrainian militia men, the so-called ‚black militia men‘.“ Jonas Fleischer knew about Badian’s murder, but not from his own experience either. „According to my wife’s [Helene Fleischer’s] account, and incidentally also according to the accounts of the other Jews living in the camp, Behr hitched up a two-wheeled carriage (so-called ‚gig‘), in which Behr and another Gestapist and finally Badian took their seats. Badian was supposed to go hunting with Behr and this other Gestapist. Badian did not return from this hunt. Behr, on the other hand, did return from it, and Badian’s boots and clothes were lying on the wagon.“ (LASH, Vol. 1737, Bl. 2260)
On 11 February 1968, Abraham Gotteswald, born on 7 August 1913, described Behr in an interrogation as one of the „very worst Gestapists“. The murders of Henefeld and Badian by Behr were known to him, but only from hearsay. He was sure that Badian was not an informer for the Gestapo and emphasised that Badian had succeeded several times in getting Jews free by bribing the Gestapo. This had been the general opinion of the Jews in Drohobycz about Badian. (BArch, vol. 1737, sheet 2250)
A month later, the dentist Galica Czesława was heard as a witness by the Israeli police. Galica, born on 7.2.1913, is the sister of Munio Badian. In hiding with the farmer Stanisław Sato, the Badian family learned of Munio’s death through Jan Sato. „The latter told us that he had come from Drohobycz from the Gestapo, where he had brought food … Jan Sato wanted to see my brother again after he had taken the food to the Gestapo. There he was told that Munio Badian had gone hunting with BEHR (as his coachman). Sato waited for them. BEHR returned without Badian … According to Sato’s report, Badian’s skirt [jacket] was brought back and he had seen it with his own eyes … – As far as I can remember … my brother went hunting with BEHR and another Gestapo officer … My brother knew a lot about the Gestapists, about their … ‚unclean‘ business, about the acceptance by them of bribes, etc. I am of the opinion that the Gestapists feared that all this would be discovered and that they would be held responsible for it by their authorities. – For this reason, ‚for the sake of security‘, they decided to get rid of a witness who was inconvenient for them.“ (LASH, Vol. 1737, Bl. 2267f.)
Jenta Sojbel, born 25.8.1912, wife of Munio Badian, cook, confirmed the report of her sister-in-law Galica Czesława in all its details on 14.4.1968 in Jerusalem.
End without Judgement
On 26 and 27 September 1967, Willibald Schretz was questioned in Duisburg. The tenor of his statement was that he had known nothing about the murder of Jews and had done nothing himself. He was confronted with statements by Jewish survivors and his own colleagues and probably realised that denial was futile. A few weeks later the Criminal Investigation Department Hedarp informed the ZStLu and ZStNRW: the SS-Oberscharführer Willibald Schretz, born on 28 January 1914, „committed suicide by hanging on 13 November 1967“. (BArch Bd. 5837, Bl. 1448)
The interrogations of the former SS-Sturmscharführer Paul Behr also could not be continued because he had been certified incapable of being interrogated. Paul Behr died in custody on 6 July 1969.
For this reason, the head of the ZStNRW could only resignedly state the following regarding Behr and Schretz, as well as many other accused who had died in the meantime, on 24 July 1969 in a decree on the status of the investigations into Nazi violent crimes in the Drohobycz area: „The accused listed as dead were either killed in action or died after the war. Their deaths are to be regarded as proven on the basis of corresponding documents or statements. The proceedings against them have therefore been disposed of.“ (BArch, Bd. 5837, Bl. 1574).
Addendum
The crimes of Paul Behr, Willibald Schretz and Hans Block could not be dealt with in a public trial and concluded with a verdict. Thus, the murder of Munio Badian was not atoned for either. Nevertheless, such investigations have contributed to the clarification of many mass and individual murders. That is why I dedicate this article to all the prosecutors and criminal investigators who tirelessly and fearlessly tried to solve Nazi violent crimes. They worked in an often hostile environment, since most judges and officials in the judicial system had still served in the Third Reich, regarded them as defilers of their nests and often obstructed their work. Investigators of Nazi violent crimes could expect neither career nor honour. They often had to experience how the results of their investigations did not lead to trials in which justice was done. Nevertheless, their work was not in vain – as a result, we know much more and in greater detail about the Holocaust and its perpetrators. They are, as Andrej Umansky aptly put it, „historians against their will“.
Sources: Federal Archives Ludwigsburg (BArch), B 162, volumes 5831, 5832, 5834, 5836, 5837.
Schleswig-Holstein State Archives (LASH), Dept. 352.4 Lübeck, volumes 1731, 1734, 1736, 1738, 1758
Sandkühler, Thomas, „Endlösung in Galizien“, Bonn 1996
Friedman, Tuviah, Die Tätigkeit der Schutzpolizei, Gestapo und ukrainischen Miliz in Drohobycz, Haifa, 1995
Umansky, Andrej: Geschichtsschreiber wider Willen?, in: Nussberger (ed.), Bewusstes Erinnern und bewusstes Vergessen, Tübingen 2011, pp. 347-374
Avigdor, Isaac C, One of the Holy Cast, Seite 75. Retrieved 1.3.2021 from: https://www.drohobycz-boryslaw.org/en/families/drohobycz/badian-godorov
>> A chapter from the book “One Of The Holy Cast” in English
Kuwałek, Robert: Das Vernichtungslager Bełżec, Berlin 2014