— A bi-partisan bloc of 104 members of the House has written President Reagan asking him to set aside $3 million in the new U.S. budget for the continuing prosecution of 18 cases against alleged Nazi war criminals living in the U.S. which are now before the courts and 210 other cases presently under investigation.
The investigations, the letter pointed out, are under a special unit–the Office of Special Investigations–established in the Criminal Division of the Justice Department. The letter initiated by Reps. William Lehman (D. Fla.) and Hamilton Fish Jr. (R. NY), which was sent last Friday, said that the proceedings are being directed “by an extremely competent and dedicated attorney, Allan Ryan.”
The letter said that “Because of the ages of the suspects and witnesses and the extremely complex evidentiary and logistics problems involved in these cases, it is essential that prosecution be brouht expeditiously and professionally.”
SMALL PRICE TO PAY
The Congressmen noted that the money involved “is a small price to pay for reaffirming our nation’s commitment at Nuremberg that none of those who participated in Nazi attrocities should excape being called to account. It will also serve as a warning that civilized nations will never again tolerate such base inhumanity.”
Emphasizing that “Our government must not revert to the intolerable situation of years past when it seemed to be condoning by inaction the horrors of the Holocaust, “the letter concluded: “We must, in the limited time remaining, make clear to the world that the U.S. has not forgotten this unparalleled tragedy.”
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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.
