One hundred and twenty thousand investigations of suspected Nazi activities are still pending in Germany, the Minister of Justice in North Rhine-Westphalia, Dr. Joseph Neuberger, told a group of German judges today.
Dr. Neuberger revealed that up to January 1, 1967, 6,179 persons had been found guilty by the courts and 47,000 others were either acquitted or had died. Of those found guilty prior to 1949, 12 were sentenced to death. Up to January 1967, 85 others were sentenced to life imprisonment and 5,957 were given lesser prison terms. The death sentence was abolished in Germany in 1949.
The minister said there was no denying that lenient sentences had been imposed in a number of Nazi trials and said that the reasons advanced for these easy sentences were unacceptable.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
