Researchers and scholars will soon have access to files containing all of the decisions made by West German courts in the trials of Nazi war criminals, the West Berlin authorities announced Saturday.
The files were compiled by a Dutch institution called the Foundation for Scientific Research of Nazi Crimes.
They are expected to shed light on the evolution of West Germany’s legal system, which had to adapt to political changes while handling the delicate task of meting out justice to Nazi criminals.
The records, in fact, trace a complicated history. Directly after World War II, Nazi criminals faced Allied courts, not German ones.
Shortly after the Federal Republic was founded 40 years ago, the Western Allies seemed to weary of bringing war criminals to justice. They began to concentrate instead on winning the hearts and minds and economic potential of West Germans for the cold war against the Soviet Union and its Eastern European satellites.
The prosecution of war criminals remained dormant until the late 1960s and 1970s, when the pressure of German opinion forced the state to take action. By that time, it was extremely difficult to find sufficient evidence to convict those war criminals who could still be found.
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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.
