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| Ernst Klee obituary | Ernst Klee obituary |
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| The journalist Ernst Klee, who has died aged 71 after a long illness, uncovered – in the face of many obstacles – the part taken by the German medical and social work professions in the mass murder of disabled, mentally ill and disadvantaged people during the second world war. Klee's book Euthanasia in the Nazi State (1983) exposed the willing participation of German medics in identifying and rounding up the men, women and children who fell victim to the extermination programme, carried out in specially created gas chambers in isolated mental hospitals in many parts of Germany. | The journalist Ernst Klee, who has died aged 71 after a long illness, uncovered – in the face of many obstacles – the part taken by the German medical and social work professions in the mass murder of disabled, mentally ill and disadvantaged people during the second world war. Klee's book Euthanasia in the Nazi State (1983) exposed the willing participation of German medics in identifying and rounding up the men, women and children who fell victim to the extermination programme, carried out in specially created gas chambers in isolated mental hospitals in many parts of Germany. |
| Up to this point West German doctors had succeeded in concealing all this. Only a perverted handful, it was asserted, had taken part in such crimes. Klee exposed this myth and identified a wide range of medics involved. His book became a bestseller and went through 11 editions in Germany in two years. Klee followed it with a comprehensive collection of related documents and other books indicting lawyers and judges, priests and pastors, soldiers and army officers for their part in Nazi crimes. | Up to this point West German doctors had succeeded in concealing all this. Only a perverted handful, it was asserted, had taken part in such crimes. Klee exposed this myth and identified a wide range of medics involved. His book became a bestseller and went through 11 editions in Germany in two years. Klee followed it with a comprehensive collection of related documents and other books indicting lawyers and judges, priests and pastors, soldiers and army officers for their part in Nazi crimes. |
| Those Were the Days: The Holocaust As Seen by the Perpetrators and Bystanders (1988), written with Willi Dressen and Volker Riess, is the only one of Klee's books to be translated into English. It presents a series of horrifying personal testimonies of murder and brutality carried out by SS men, soldiers, administrators and others in eastern Europe during the war – horrifying not least because of the enthusiasm which they showed for their actions in the letters, diaries and other documents reproduced in the volume. | Those Were the Days: The Holocaust As Seen by the Perpetrators and Bystanders (1988), written with Willi Dressen and Volker Riess, is the only one of Klee's books to be translated into English. It presents a series of horrifying personal testimonies of murder and brutality carried out by SS men, soldiers, administrators and others in eastern Europe during the war – horrifying not least because of the enthusiasm which they showed for their actions in the letters, diaries and other documents reproduced in the volume. |
| Klee also began to challenge the complacency of German society in his own time. In this he succeeded not least because of the thoroughness of his research, exemplified by his biographical dictionary of the Third Reich (2003), with 4,300 entries and startling details about the postwar lives of its subjects, which had been hidden from view by many academic works of reference. His last book, published in 2007, extended this treatment to the world of culture and the arts. | Klee also began to challenge the complacency of German society in his own time. In this he succeeded not least because of the thoroughness of his research, exemplified by his biographical dictionary of the Third Reich (2003), with 4,300 entries and startling details about the postwar lives of its subjects, which had been hidden from view by many academic works of reference. His last book, published in 2007, extended this treatment to the world of culture and the arts. |
| Born in Frankfurt, Klee left school early and became an apprentice plumber before deciding to study for the university entrance examination, the Abitur. This enabled him to take courses in Protestant theology and social work training at Frankfurt Technical College, where he taught courses on education for disabled people from 1973 to 1982. | Born in Frankfurt, Klee left school early and became an apprentice plumber before deciding to study for the university entrance examination, the Abitur. This enabled him to take courses in Protestant theology and social work training at Frankfurt Technical College, where he taught courses on education for disabled people from 1973 to 1982. |
| This work brought him into contact with pressure groups for rights for disabled people, and he began writing books and articles exposing the situation of disadvantaged groups in West Germany, including homeless people, prisoners, foreign "guest workers" and others from what he called, in the title of one of his books, the "scrapheap of humanity". Through interviews and accounts of personal experiences, he presented a radically different image of the Federal Republic from the affluent society created by the "economic miracle". Klee's Protestant conscience shone through this work, and led him later to pillory the church for its acquiescence in Nazi racism and criminality. | This work brought him into contact with pressure groups for rights for disabled people, and he began writing books and articles exposing the situation of disadvantaged groups in West Germany, including homeless people, prisoners, foreign "guest workers" and others from what he called, in the title of one of his books, the "scrapheap of humanity". Through interviews and accounts of personal experiences, he presented a radically different image of the Federal Republic from the affluent society created by the "economic miracle". Klee's Protestant conscience shone through this work, and led him later to pillory the church for its acquiescence in Nazi racism and criminality. |
| Klee made many enemies, but also won an enormous reputation, becoming in the 1990s something akin to the conscience of a reunited Germany. He played an important role in Germans' belated recognition of the breadth and depth of their parents' and grandparents' participation in the horrors of the Hitler regime. | Klee made many enemies, but also won an enormous reputation, becoming in the 1990s something akin to the conscience of a reunited Germany. He played an important role in Germans' belated recognition of the breadth and depth of their parents' and grandparents' participation in the horrors of the Hitler regime. |
| In 1997 he was awarded the Scholl Siblings prize, named after the young resisters Hans and Sophie Scholl in Nazi Germany, for a book on medical experimentation in Auschwitz. In 2001 he received the Goethe medal of the city of Frankfurt for a book on the postwar careers of Nazi doctors. A school for disabled people in Mettingen, near Osnabrück, was renamed in his honour in 2005. | In 1997 he was awarded the Scholl Siblings prize, named after the young resisters Hans and Sophie Scholl in Nazi Germany, for a book on medical experimentation in Auschwitz. In 2001 he received the Goethe medal of the city of Frankfurt for a book on the postwar careers of Nazi doctors. A school for disabled people in Mettingen, near Osnabrück, was renamed in his honour in 2005. |
| Klee was not an academic – indeed it is hard to imagine anyone less like the conventional German professor. With his informal manner, his tousled, shoulder-length hair and his casual dress, he signalled to the end of his life his loyalty to his origins in the Rhenish working class. His career showed that where academic historians in Germany did not care to venture, a courageous and determined journalist could awaken the national conscience in a manner that put them all to shame. | Klee was not an academic – indeed it is hard to imagine anyone less like the conventional German professor. With his informal manner, his tousled, shoulder-length hair and his casual dress, he signalled to the end of his life his loyalty to his origins in the Rhenish working class. His career showed that where academic historians in Germany did not care to venture, a courageous and determined journalist could awaken the national conscience in a manner that put them all to shame. |
| • Ernst Klee, journalist, born 15 March 1942; died 18 May 2013 | • Ernst Klee, journalist, born 15 March 1942; died 18 May 2013 |
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