Despite the atrocities Nazi Germany committed, the state maintained a legal system and legislation. SS officer Konrad Morgen used this system to bring Nazi Germany’s most heinous murderers to justice from the inside. Learn more from this Q&A with historian and author David Lee, who explores Morgen’s story in Hitler’s Crime Fighter.

 

What inspired you to write about Morgen, who is a relatively unknown figure in Nazi Germany’s history?

I have always enjoyed reading Philip Kerr’s books featuring Bernie Gunther, a police detective in Nazi Germany. I was curious about real-life SS and police officers working in the Third Reich, which led me to Konrad Morgen – here was an SS investigating judge and police official bringing some of the very worst murderers and sadists in the SS to justice.

Why is Morgen not particularly well regarded in some academic circles?

Some academics and historians don’t acknowledge the legal situation in Nazi Germany, which then means they don’t understand how Morgen operated and they criticise him unfairly. In Nazi Germany, there were two legal systems in place alongside each other: a normal legal system where murder and theft were crimes and a second system where orders from Hitler were legal. This meant that under Nazi law, the Holocaust and the Final Solution were legal. So, Morgen’s approach was to use the laws of the normal legal system against members of the SS when they murdered innocent people or stole their possessions.

Many academics and historians talk about the Nazis murdering the Jews, which reflects the post-war judgments in the Nuremberg tribunals, but then they omit to mention the fact that under Nazi law, these killings were legal. Understanding how the legal situation in Nazi Germany contributed to the Holocaust and the Final Solution and how Morgen used that legal system is vital for our understanding, and it’s a real shame that some historians and academics ignore this.

What do you think motivated Morgen to pursue his fellow SS officers?

He was outraged by behaviour in the SS. Firstly, by the corruption he encountered and then he had a real crisis of conscience when he discovered the Final Solution. After thinking through his options, he decided not to leave Germany but to stay as an investigating judge and police official and use his position to disrupt the work of the SS.

Were there any moments in Morgen’s story that you found particularly poignant?

Individual stories about the victims of the SS always have an impact – one of the chapters in the book is about Majdanek concentration camp and Morgen’s investigation into the mass extermination of the Jews there in 1943. I include the story of survivor Ludwika Fiszer, who wrote a very moving account of being taken naked to the execution pits at the sub-camp at Poniatowa with her daughter and how she held her daughter as the SS shot her and for a long time afterwards.

Where has your research for this book taken you?

I went to the Fritz Bauer Institute at the Goethe University Frankfurt to research this book. It exists to ‘pursue the study, research, and documentation of National Socialist mass crimes, especially the Holocaust’. It holds the Konrad Morgen estate with all his papers, photographs, letters and official documents. They were very welcoming and helpful, and I enjoyed my time there.

Who do you think would play a good Morgen in a biopic film?

I’m a big fan of foreign language films and any biopic of Morgen would have added authenticity if it were filmed in German. One actor who could really carry this off is ex-Downton Abbey actor Dan Stevens, whose performance in the German language film I’m Your Man was very authentic.

 

Hitler’s Crime Fighter: The Extraordinary Life of Konrad Morgen by David Lee is out on 1 August.

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