West German Chancellor Kurt Georg Kiesinger declined to predict today whether his country would abolish the statute of limitations on Nazi war criminals if the United Nations voted to abolish such statutes with respect to genocide. Chancellor Kiesinger was asked the question at a press conference. He said a UN decision on a statute of limitations would be of great importance for Germany but that he could not anticipate what the decision of the Bonn Government and Parliament would be in such an instance.
Meanwhile, Israel’s Ambassador to West Germany, Asher Ben-Nathan, addressing the Protestant Academy in Puetzingen, said that the impression in his country was that Nazi war criminals would no longer be punished once the statute of limitations went into effect. He also said that the extreme right-wing National Democratic Party, described as neo-Nazi by many, was a burden on relations between Israel and West Germany.
The statute of limitations on Nazi war criminals accused of murder is scheduled to go into effect on Dec. 31, 1969 after which suspects cannot be brought to trial. There has been widespread sentiment inside and out of Germany for an extension of the period before the statute becomes effective or for its outright abolition. But of West Germany’s three major political parties, the Christian Democratic Union and the Free Democrats are opposed to an extension while the Social Democrats are split on the subject. A statute of limitations barring the prosecution of Nazis accused of crimes of a lesser degree than murder has been in effect for a number of years.
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.
