The German House

Author’s Note

I would like to express my gratitude to the staff at the Fritz Bauer Institut in Frankfurt. Their remarkable work, and in particular, the extensive archive of materials from the first Auschwitz trial were indispensable to my research. Over the years, the transcripts and sound recordings of witness testimony (https://www.fritz-bauer-institut.de/mitschnitt-auschwitz-prozess.html) became the springboard and source of meaning for my artistic work. The fictitious witnesses who appear in the novel exemplify the fate of survivors in my mind. To create them I sometimes quoted excerpts from original testimony. In other cases I merged statements; this creative consolidation represents an effort to provide a platform for as many voices as possible. I bow to those individuals in the trial who revisited their traumatic experiences and confronted the perpetrators. They provided the world with comprehensive, lasting testimony of what Auschwitz was.

The following participants in the trial were quoted directly:

Mauritius Berner

Josef Glück

Jan Weis

Hans Hofmeyer (chief judge)

Fritz Bauer (attorney general)

Hildegard Bischoff (witness for the defense)