On this day in 1963, the second of the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trials, began in Frankfurt, Germany in 1963. Unlike the first Auschwitz trial, which took place in Kraków, Poland, in 1947 and only lasted from November 24 to December 22, this trial lasted for a year and a half. It concluded in August 1965 and tried 22 Nazis who served at Auschwitz. Of the 22 men who were tried, 17 were found guilty. Of the 17 found guilty, 11 received a range of sentences between three and 14 years. The other six received life sentences and another five were either acquitted or released. Beginning in 1958, the Central Office of the State Justice Administrations for the Investigation of National Socialist Crimes, along with the German Supreme Court, launched an investigation into Auschwitz. It took them five years to go through the evidence; during this time, more than 800 people were probed. A crucial distinction between the Nuremberg Trials and the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trials is that the latter were rooted in the state law of Germany, as opposed to the international law used to carry out The Nuremberg Trials in 1945. This was reflected in their charges which were “either murder or accomplice to murder” rather than that of crimes against humanity. The trial totaled approximately 430 hours of testimony which featured 319 witnesses; 181 of whom had survived Auschwitz, and an additional 80 SS staff and police, each of their accounts being documented on 103 tapes. After the trial ended, a poll in Germany was conducted to gauge public opinion of whether more Nazi trials should be held, with 57% saying no.