Dr. Erwin Schuele, who said in Warsaw earlier this week that East German charges that he had a Nazi past were “a pack of lies,” admitted yesterday that he had joined the Nazi party in 1937. However, the head of the Central Agency for the Uncovering of Nazi Crimes contended he had never been active in any Nazi group.
Dr. Schuele made the statement at a press conference in Stuttgart, on his return from Warsaw where, at the invitation of the Polish Government, had sifted captured Nazi documents for new evidence against Nazi war criminals. The news conference was convened by Dr. Wolfgang Haussmann, Justice Minister of Baden-Wurttemberg.
Dr. Schuele said he had not known about his party membership until a few days ago. He said that, as a student, he had joined the Storm Troopers “which I have never denied.” He added that he had considered himself only an applicant for Nazi party membership, further stating that, since he had not been given a Nazi party membership book, he believed he had not been accepted. However, he added, he had received information from the Allied Documents Center in Berlin, where there are personal files on millions of party members, which convinced him he had been accepted.
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.
