Bundestag Backs Statute Extension, Leaves Details to Committee

The Bundestag, West Germany’s lower house of Parliament, voted today by a substantial majority to refer to its Justice Committee the problem of working out a specific procedure to extend West Germany’s statute of limitations on prosecutions for murder. The present law would bar such prosecutions after next May 8.

The Bundestag took the action after a day of debate on a measure which would simply extend the effective date for 10 years after May 8, and thus permit continued prosecutions of Nazi war criminals after that date. The only votes against the action were cast by the Independent Democrats, including Justice Minister Ewald Bucher, and the Bavarian section of Chancellor Ludwig Erhard’s Christian Democratic Union, which is headed by Joseph Strauss, former West German Defense Minister. The debate took place before packed galleries and with reporters present from many parts of the world, indicating the world-wide interest in the issue. Television and radio coverage also was thorough.

The first speaker in the debate was Justice Minister Bucher, who delivered in the name of the West German Cabinet a report on the status of prosecutions of Nazis which had been requested by the Bundestag. Dr. Bucher, a determined foe of extension, said each member of Parliament should decide the question on its legal basis and by “his individual conscience.” He emphasized that Chancellor Erhard, who has consistently spoken for prolongation, was not dictating the “political line” on the question.

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While there was strong support for the principle of extension manifested in the debate, questions were also raised as to how best to achieve it. Some members noted that a Parliamentary passage might be subject to court review and upset. It was also proposed that the extension be not for 10 years but indefinitely.

Ernest Benda, a leader of the CDU, the first Parliamentarian to propose an extension, said that, while he had originally been in the minority, he seemed now to be in the majority. It was Benda who proposed an indefinite extension of the cut-off date for prosecutions. He said that, on this issue he was unable to speak without emotion. He declared that, since there was a majority for passage, the only task was to agree on the length of the prolongation and its conditions.

M. Hirsch, a Social Democrat, hailed a decision of his party last night to propose a constitutional amendment for prolongation rather than a Parliamentary motion. He said his party feared that a Parliamentary decision could be declared unconstitutional by the courts. But, he added, everything should be done to assure that Germans would not live with murderers in the future.

Dr. Bucher spoke a second time, as an Independent Democrat member of the Bundestag, and defended his opposition to extension. He was answered by Social Democratic Jeader Jahn who expressed “deep disappointment” over Dr. Bucher’s stand and said he was “not sure what Dr. Bucher’s real motives are.”

All members of the Bundestag who have come out for extension of the statute of limitations received mail threats of murder, it was reported here today.

The threatening leaflets here swastikas and declared that “Deputies who are submissive to Tel Aviv and New York and who work against the May 8 expiration of the statute of limitations for so-called Nazi crimes will be sentenced to death on the date of the vote. The fuehrer of Brigade District 3 will be responsible for carrying out the sentences.” Police immediately opened an investigation and indicated they regarded the matter as serious.