Hopes that the Christmas Eve desecration of the synagogue at Cologne would motivate West German authorities to “take more effective measures to root out the centers of Nazi infection in the German schools and among officials high and low in all departments of public life,” were expressed here today in a statement by the Board of Deputies of British Jews.
The Cologne incident, which has “shocked the Western world into expressions of abhorrence, is evidence that the ugly spirit of Nazism is still abroad in the country of its origin,” the Board declared.
“At various periods since the end of the war,” it said, “the Board has had occasion to draw attention to the general inadequacy of the denazification procedures in West Germany. We have called attention to the continuance in high office of State, and in the judiciary, of former Nazis, We have pointed out the continuance in employment of teachers imbued with Nazi views, and the manner in which Hitler’s crimes and the crimes of his regime are glossed over in German textbooks,
“We pay tribute to the immediate actions taken by the German authorities as a result of the Cologne synagogue desecration, and to the vigorous steps taken, as well as to the sense of outrage expressed by a large section of the German population. But only effective measures to root out all centers of Nazi infection can bring vindication for Germany in the eyes of the world. The fear that the ideology, which brought Europe to the verge of destruction, may be revived must be removed.”
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