The West German Bundestag this week-end approved a bill to grant amnesty to thousands of “minor offenders” including many convicted Nazis and to free from threat of prosecution tens of thousands of other former Nazis who are still in hiding. The measure has been sent to the Bundesrat, the upper house of the Bonn Parliament, for approval.
The measure is designed to give a “fresh start” to Nazis and members of the Wehrmacht who had been given sentences of three years or less for crimes committed during the last stages of the war and during the immediate postwar period. It also frees from threat of prosecution those who illegally adopted false names and identities to avoid Allied arrest and prosecution for war crimes; it is estimated that there are still some 60,000 Germans in this category.
The bill also removes from the records of Nazis any notation of criminal conviction placed there by denazification courts. This provision is expected to benefit all except some 15 or more than 25,000 former Nazis. The bill also amnesties foreign currency violators who are not subject to more than three months’ sentence for their violations, or–in the event violators are in financial distress–it amnesties those whose sentences might have run up to one year. A small number of Jews are included among the Germans and others who will benefit from this provision.
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.
