Legal proceedings against a Nazi diplomat convicted of responsibility for the killing of thousands of Serbian Jews have been suspended by the Bamberg Court of Assizes because “the defendant cannot be found.”
The fugitive from justice is Counsellor of Legation Franz Rademacher, who headed the Jewish section of the German Foreign Office and was instrumental in drafting the abortive Nazi plan to ship the Jews of Europe to Madagascar.
In early 1952 a local court convicted him of having been an accessory to manslaughter in 1,300 proven instances, with thousands of other killings not being taken into account. He was released from custody pending appeal – a most unusual step in an affair of such gravity. When the German Supreme Court referred the case back to the Bamberg Court for retrial, Rademacher disappeared. At various times, he was reported to have been seen at Bonn and in South America.
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.
