The Daily Mail reported today from Bonn that the Hamburg magazine, Der Stern, had been warned not to print the name of a former SS leader now in a high government post in Cologne on pain of being charged with treason.
The West German press reported that nine former SS officers were holding key posts in the Cologne Central Office for the Protection of the Constitution, a West German secret service center. The West German Foreign Ministry was reported to be making inquiries into the Nazi past of the Cologne secret service officials.
The warning, according to Der Stern, was given by a senior official of the Interior Ministry. The Daily Mail, however, named some of the alleged former Nazis. One was listed as former SS Captain Johann Stroeing, who was on the British and French wanted lists for wartime crimes. The unofficial excuse given for employing such men was that they had indispensable knowledge for security duties.
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