THE RUDOLF REPORT

GERMAR RUDOLF · THE RUDOLF REPORTmade in regards to the persecution of the Jews inevitably come tomind.First political thoughtsThe year 1985 was marked by two events:First, the so-called Engelhard 533 Law was discussed and finallyenacted, according to which the offense to dispute, diminish, or justifythe crimes of the National Socialist regime, or any other tyrannical regime,will be prosecuted automatically, without anybody needing tofile a complaint. The original intention of those who started this discussion—theleftist Social-Democrats—was to make it easier for thelegal system to prosecute ‘Holocaust deniers’, without the necessity ofa complaint by some Jewish individual or organization. Certain segmentsof Germany’s semi-conservative party—especially those lobbyingfor the German expellees—demanded that this law should also applyto anyone minimizing or justifying the crimes of other dictatorships,for example, those who minimized or justified the criminal postwarexpulsion of Germans from east Germany and eastern Europe.In this discussion, I vigorously took sides on the wing of the conservativesoften disparagingly referred to as the ‘steel helmet fraction’.By then, I had frequently experienced that those working and arguingon behalf of the German expellees are confronted with the argumentthat the Germans in general and the German expellees in particularhave no right to insist on their claims, even if they were supported byinternational law.After all, since Germany under Hitler had wanted war and startedwar, and since so much guilt had accumulated as a result of the ‘extermination’or ‘intended extermination’ of the Jews and Slavs, any subsequentcrimes committed against Germans by the peoples of EasternEurope must be viewed as mere recompense. One had to take this viewfor the sake of a peaceful life. But by so doing, crimes, when committedagainst Germans by non-Germans, are considered to constitute acounterbalance to German crimes against other nationals, and are thusaccepted as ‘fair punishment’. This is common practice, it is a matterof good conduct in Germany to see it this way. But you will be sorry,should it ever enter your mind to turn this argument around and compareand counterbalance German crimes, actual or alleged, with those533 Named after the then German Secretary of Justice.300