Walther Funk, the man who as Minister of Economics under Hitler ordered the confiscation of billions of dollars worth of Jewish property, was fined $2, 560 today for “active support of the Nazi regime.” The fine was levied by the West Belin Denazification Court against Funk’s property in Berlin, but “for legal reasons,” the court ruled, it could not levy any fine against his vast estate and other holdings in Bavaria.
The Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal which tried the top German war criminals in 1946 ruled that Funk was one of the seven top-most of the criminals in that category, and sentenced him to life imprisonment. In 1957, he was released from the Allied prison for war criminals at Spandau because it was claimed that his health was failing. He is now 67. Funk was responsible for the issuance, in 1938, of the Nazi decree which expropriated the property of every Jew in Germany.
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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.
