Dr. Hans Globke, State Secretary and aide to Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, today denied reports that he had asked the Chancellor to allow him to retire “for reasons of health.” He has been under heavy attacks from East Germany and other Soviet bloc sources charging him with direct participation in the extermination of European Jewry.
A Government spokesman confirmed today that Dr. Fritz Schaeffer, West German Justice Minister, was informed last September 5 that a preliminary investigation had been opened against Dr. Globke by the Frankfurt prosecution office. In connection with that probe, Christian Democratic Union party members have accused Hessian State Attorney General Fritz Bauer with having violated Dr. Globke’s civil rights by allegedly informing the press about the investigation before notifying Dr. Globke and Chancellor Adenauer.
The Frankfurt office refused to give any details of the investigation but it was believed the probe was connected with charges by Dr. Max Merten, former Nazi wartime administrator in Greece, that Dr. Globke, as a former Ministry of the Interior official, prevented the liberation of 10,000 Greek Jews in 1943.
Merten, who served a prison term on conviction of war crimes by a Greek tribunal, charged that Adolf Eichmann, the S.S. Colonel who implemented the extermination of the 6,000,000 European Jews, had consented to the transport of the 10,000 Jews to Palestine. Dr. Globke has denied the charge that he had prevented them from leaving Greece.
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