Theodor Oberlaender, who is quitting his post as West German Minister for Refugees, was cleared indirectly today of charges of complicity in Nazi war crimes by a commission of Chancellor Konrad Adenauer’s Christian Democratic party.
Oberlaender, who has been under fire for months on charges he took part in the Lemberg massacre of Jews in what was then Nazi-occupied Poland, will start a vacation this week from his Ministerial post to which he will not return. He becomes eligible for a pension May 1. The opposition Social Democrats reached an agreement with the Christian Democrats providing for Oberlaender’s retirement by vacation and dropped their fight for his ouster.
The Christian Democrats named the commission to investigate the Lemberg charges and came to the unanimous conclusion that there were no grounds for recommending that Oberlaender should be expelled from the party’s group in Parliament.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
