Somewhere in the world about 23,000 Nazi criminals are hiding out from justice, the World Jewish Congress reported here today. The report is based on statistics published by the West German Central Agency for the Prosecution of Nazi Criminals at Ludwigsburg. Since World War II, the German report states, proceedings have been started against 61,761 persons. The WJC claims that about 85,000 Nazi criminals should be tried, and thus about 23,000 are still missing.
Of the 61,761, a total of 41,212 were acquitted by the end of 1964. Of the remaining 20,549, more than 13,890 cases were still pending in 1965, 12 persons were sentenced to death before this penalty was abolished by law, 77 went to life imprisonment, 5,911 received shorter prison sentences, 114 were fined and one person was put on probation when it was revealed that he had been a juvenile at the time of the crime with which he was charged.
The German authorities report that they have been unable to locate 542 persons wanted in connection with the present trials. These cases “could not be pursued because the suspects lived abroad or at an unknown address.”
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