40,000 Demonstrate Against Planned Pardon of Nazis

Approximately 40,000 people demonstrated here Friday night against the plans of Queen Juliana to pardon the last three Nazis still in Dutch jails. The occasion for the protest against the pardons was the annual commemoration of the “February Action” of the Nazis 31 years ago, when the first deportation of Jews from Holland took place.

Meanwhile, it was learned that the three ex-Nazis–Franz Fischer, 70, Joseph Kotaella, 65, and Ferdinand Aus Den Fuenten, 73–had sent a joint letter from jail expressing regret for their crimes and asking for clemency. During their trials in 1948 and 1949, the three war criminals had denied their guilt, and apparently their recent self-critical letter altered the Dutch government’s attitude toward pardoning them.

Premier Barend Biensheuvel said on Friday that a Parliamentary rejection of the government’s decision to pardon the three would not be considered by the Cabinet as a vote of “no confidence” and would not result in the resignation of either the government as a body or of Justice Minister Andries Van Agt.

On Thursday, 41 organizations testified before a committee for juridical affairs which began hearings dealing with the planned pardon. Thirty-five organizational representatives opposed the release of the Nazis and six favored it, but political circles here pointed out that many of the organizations expressing their views on the matter lack influence or importance. One of those who opposes keeping the three Nazis in prison is the veteran Zionist leader, author and lawyer, Abel Herzberg, who spent 15 months in Bergen-Belsen. He said the best thing for all concerned would be to free the three and expel them from The Netherlands.