West German Free Democrat deputy Ernst Achenbach, a leading figure in blocking German court prosecution of French-convicted Nazis, resigned yesterday from his key position in the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Bundestag. This committee is responsible for the eventual approval of the 1971 France-German treaty making such Nazi convictions possible in West Germany.
A campaign to oust Achenbach from the committee because he was alleged to have blocked the treaty’s ratification and because he called for an amnesty for all Nazi criminals was sparked in July by the trial in Cologne of Beate Klarsfeld for attempting to kidnap former Paris gestapo chief Kurt Lischka.
Achenbach was closely connected in war-time Paris with Lischka, who was sentenced to death in France in absentia after the war for his part in deporting French Jews to concentration camps. Lischka would be one of a number of Nazi criminals who could be re-tried in West Germany when the treaty is ratified.
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.
