The Wurtemberg Ministry of Justice has announced that it will drop disciplinary proceedings against Judge H. Kettnacker who was suspended several months ago for making anti-Semitic statements in court.
What brought on the original disciplinary suspension was Judge Kettnacker’s statement in court that it made no difference to him whether a defendant is “a former gauleiter or had thrice unsuccessfully gassed a rabbi.”
Commenting on this statement, the Ministry of Justice said that while it was “a serious mistake if committed by a judge,” there were mitigating circumstances. The Ministry found that the statement had been used by the judge to give “drastic expression” to the fact that the litigants involved in the case must not argue matters which were not germane to the issue. The Ministry declared that it had not been proved that the statement was “prompted by an anti-Semitic attitude.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
