»Then I am a Murderer! «

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It was not difficult to find Adolf Storms in the summer of 2008. The name of the former SS Unterscharführer was in the German telephone directory.
On March 29, 1945, three members of the »Wiking« division of the Waffen SS shot down at least 57 Hungarian-Jewish forced labourers in Deutsch Schützen in the Province of Burgendland. The name of one of the alleged perpetrators was Adolf Storms. 63 years after the mass murder, Walter Manoschek succeeded in speaking to Storms and two other Hitler Youth leaders involved. He interviewed Storms for approximately 15 hours in front of the camera, having previously informed the public prosecutor’s office. In autumn 2009, Adolf Storms faced charges of murder and being accessory to murder in Dortmund. He died shortly before the start of legal proceedings in June 2010.
The basic structure of the book is provided by discussions with Adolf Storms, the two Hitler Youth leaders and three Jews who survived the massacre.

The multi-perspective approach allows a dense description of the procedures to emerge.

Manoschek reconstructs the homicide in Deutsch Schützen, then turns his attention to Austria’s judicial handling of Nazi perpetrators. The enclosed documentary film from the year 2012, »Dann bin ich ja ein Mörder (Then I am a Murderer) « gives both perpetrators and survivors of the massacre in Deutsch Schützen the chance to speak.

»I find this film excellent, especially because of its objectivity. It is a great achievement on the part of Walter Manoschek to document the event so precisely, so to speak without hate and zealousness. «.
Elfried Jelinek on the film »Then I am a Murderer«.


The Author
Walter Manoschek, born 1957, associate professor for political science at the University of Vienna, has for many years researched and published on the themes of National Socialism and the Holocaust; 1995 –1999 co-designer of the exhibition »Vernichtungskrieg. Verbrechen der Wehrmacht 1941 –1944 (War of Extermination. Crimes of the Wehrmacht 1941 –1944«.
Publications include: Der Fall Rechnitz. Das Massaker an Juden im März 1945 (The Rechnitz Case. The Massacre of Jews in 1945, ed., 2009); Opfer der NS-Militärjustiz. Urteilspraxis – Strafvollzug – Entschädigungspolitik in Österreich (Victims of Nazi Military Justice. Legal Practice – Penal System – Compensation Policy, ed., 2003).