Seven Members of the British Parliament, including Sir Barnett Janner, appealed today to the West German Government to extend the deadline for the prosecution of Nazi war criminals beyond next May 8.
The appeal was made in a joint letter to The Times, in which the Parliamentarians said that if the statute of limitations was allowed to go into effect on that date, thousands of Nazi criminals would be free to remain in or return to West Germany without fear of prosecution. The West German Cabinet said on November 11 it could not extend the deadline for constitutional reasons but there have been hints that the deadline may be extended in some way.
The British deputies said the possibility that some Nazi criminals would escape prosecution was “a situation which must be repugnant to the seared conscience of the world that lived through a period of the most atrocious crimes of man against man.” The MP’s appealed to the West German Government and “to all those who share the revived spirit of democracy in Germany to ensure that those who have been responsible for mass murder or other atrocities will be brought to just retribution.”
They added that they felt confident that the needed extension of the deadline would have the support “of all who wish to see that justice is done.” The signators included also A. E. Cooper, Archie Manuel, T. L. Iremonger, Simon Mahon, Stephen Mcadden and Feter Shore.
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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.
