A demand that Germany abolish, “at least until the year 2000,” the statute of limitations that will protect Nazi war criminals from prosecution after Dec. 31, 1969, was made here today by Tuvia Friedman, the man who set in motion the events that led to the capture and trial of Adolph Eichmann.
Mr. Friedman, an Israeli, is touring the United States with an exhibit titled “from the days of the holocaust in Europe to the Israeli victory in June, 1967.” It was displayed here yesterday at a meeting attended by 1,200 persons representing Jewish fraternal, religious and service organizations and concentration camp survivors. Mr. Friedman is seeking their support to bring pressure on the Bonn Government to abolish the statute of limitations and to revise its laws of 1955 and 1960 which exempted large categories of Nazi war criminals from facing trial. Mr. Friedman told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that a demonstration will be held in front of the German Consulate here on March 10, the 30th anniversary of the Nazi occupation of Austria.
Mr. Friedman contended that the German Government had no right to establish a statute of limitations for the crime of genocide-the murder of Jews and other minorities and nationals of conquered nations-committed outside of Germany’s borders. He also called for revision of the law of May 1955 which exempted from prosecution SS and Gestapo men who brutally beat concentration camp victims and the May 1960 law which did the same for Nazis whose victims died of beatings, but not immediately.
Mr. Friedman said he will demand that transcripts of Nazi war crime trials be provided in copy to Israel and other countries whose nationals give evidence. Up to now, the German practice has been to refuse copies of trial proceedings against war criminals.
Mr. Friedman, a native of Radom, Poland, spent nearly five years in Nazi concentration camps and has devoted his life ever since to tracking down Nazis. His persistence and the voluminous records he compiled on Eichmann are credited with motivating the search that brought to justice the architect of the Nazis’ mass extermination program. Mr. Friedman also contributed to the arrest of several hundred lesser Nazi criminals. An account of his activities since the end of World War II is contained in his book, “The Hunt,” published here in 1961.
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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.
