The 2015 Auschwitz-trial of Lüneburg: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Collective Memory of the Holocaust in Nazi-trials in Modern-day Germany

The points of departure in this thesis are the reciprocal relationship between the memories of human rights violations, the application of the relevant law and the understanding of what is criminal, as well as the recent trend in German courts to belatedly try low-profile Nazi-criminals. To explore these phenomena further, a critical discourse analysis incorporating historical elements is conducted on the 2015 trial of “the bookkeeper of Auschwitz” Oskar Gröning and the related media-reports. By identifying and investigating the expression of collective memory therein, a shift is revealed in that low-level participation in the Holocaust is no longer remembered as a moral infringement exclusively, but accepted as a criminal act for which a perpetrator ought to be held liable. Alongside Holocaust-focused collective memory, there are further tendencies toward a distinct memory of the prolonged failure of the German judiciary. It was thus found that long-term societal change can prevail against a deeply ingrained culture of impunity