While an investigation by a special committee of prominent jurists is still under way into charges that Attorney General Wolfgang Fraenkel had served in Hitler’s Peoples Court–and had altered court rules so as to result in death sentences for minor crimes –the Federal Ministry of Justice here was determined today to push the Fraenkel probe to a quick conclusion. Fraenkel has been suspended, and there were rumors that he may resign.
Some of the charges are that Fraenkel had been a member of the Nazi Party from 1933 on. He was an assistant to the prosecutor of the Hitlerian Peoples Court at Leipzig, Dr. Wolfgang Stammberger, Minister of Justice, appointed him only recently to the post of Attorney General. In that position, he served as West Germany’s Chief Federal Prosecutor until his suspension.
The charges against Fraenkel had first been made by East German Communist sources and were, therefore, suspect. However, over the weekend, original documentation from the old Leipzig Peoples Court, which is in East Germany, were supplied to the Justice Ministry here, strengthening the accusations against Fraenkel despite the Communist sources. It was expected today that the three-man committee of jurists probing the Fraenkel case would report before the week is over.
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