A spokesman for the Catholic Munich diocese asserted today that a former Nazi official accused of ordering the murder of 30,000 Jews was living as “a respected businessman” in West Germany.
The Bavarian Catholic Action magazine, “The Living Cell,” identified the man as Franz Hofer and said he was living in Mutheim in the Ruhr district. The magazine said that Hofer was named the Nazi commander for the Innsbruck area and became known as “Hitler’s most faithful follower.” He escaped from American forces who had detained him at the former Dachau death camp. He was sentenced later by a German court to ten years at hard labor, escaped and managed to hide himself until 1953 under the name of Franz Leitner.
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