Kiesinger, Heinemann Say Statute of Limitations Issue Must Be Settled Before Election

West German Chancellor Kurt Georg Kiesinger and Minister of Justice Gustav Heinemann said in separate interviews today that the question of the statute of limitations on Nazi war crimes prosecutions will have to be settled before the elections to the Bundestag (Lower House) next September. The statute, to take effect on Dec. 31,1969, will bar trials of war criminals involved in murder. There is a large body of opinion in Germany and abroad favoring abolition of the statute or postponement of its effective date. Dr. Heinemann said any person who aided in mass murders under the Nazi regime will continue to be prosecuted despite a recent amendment to the law which exempts so-called “desk killers”–those who signed documents which sent Jews and others to their death but did not participate directly in their execution.

Meanwhile, the State Prosecutor announced today that an investigation will begin into the wartime activities of Herbert Muller Roschach, West Germany’s Ambassador to Portugal, who has been accused of having signed documents relating to the deportation of Jews when he was a high official of the Jewish section of the Nazi Foreign Ministry. The probe will seek evidence of alleged perjury by Herr Roschach when he swore at the trial of Nazi war criminal Adolf von Beckerle that he was unaware of the mass murder of Jews, the prosecutor said.