A Cologne policeman and official of a police union has protested the appointment of former Gestapo officials to responsible police jobs in the German states and cities.
Georg Buerke, chairman of the local police division of the Public Services Union, termed “intolerable” the appointment of ex-Gestapo men to executive positions in the police hierarchy. He said the trade unions would never agree that such people were “acceptable” for top jobs.
Mr. Buerke was followed by Samuel Kessler, one of the few surviving Cologne Jews and now a Social Democratic municipal councilman, who appealed for support of all citizens and the police in efforts to prevent neo-Nazi activities.
A local court sentenced Wolgang llges, an attorney, to four years in prison, after finding him guilty of being an accessory in the murder of 120 prisoners of war, most of them Jews. Ilges was Gestapo chief in the East Prussian city of Tilsit.
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.
