Fritz Bauer (1903-1968), a Jew and social democrat, had been forced to flee Germany in 1936. He survived the war in Scandinavia.
He returned to Germany in 1949 and rose through the ranks of the German judiciary to become attorney general in the state of Hesse.
Facing opposition from all sides, he campaigned for the imprisonment and punishment of Nazi criminals. His efforts led to the Auschwitz trial in Frankfurt am Main in 1963.