The West German Government has no intention of considering a general amnesty for war crimes and crimes against humanity, a Ministry of Justice spokesman said today. An amnesty, covering all such crimes prior to 1945,was demanded last week by the right-wing German Party.
The demand was made on Chancellor Konrad Adenauer by Dr. Herbert Schneider, chairman of the German Party, who proposed that when Dr. Heinrich Luebke took office as president this week, he use the occasion to declare a general amnesty.
The Free Democratic Party, a member of Dr. Adenauer’s coalition, was said today to be prepared to discuss the possibility of an amnesty which Dr. Schneider said should apply for “all acts whose origins are found in National Socialism and the chaos of war. “
Members of all parties in the Federal Parliament were described today as sympathetic to an appeal from the HIAG, the welfare organization of the SS, the Hitler Elite Guard, that some 1,500 former high-ranking SS officers be considered eligible, under section 131 of the German basic law, for government pension.
A paragraph of that section, gave general amnesty to Nazi Party members who had not been convicted of crimes against humanity and who had occupied lesser positions in the Nazi hierarchy, thus permitting them to qualify for pensions and other benefits.
In a petition circulated to all members of the Federal Parliament, the HIAG claimed that the regular SS force the Waffen-SS, had not been involved in crimes against humanity. Members of the Gestapo–the Nazi secret police–and other key units in the Hitler organization, were drawn from the SS.
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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.
