Foreigners of German stock who volunteered for the military SS acquired German nationality by virtue of a 1943 “fuehrer decree,” provided they measure up to the racial standards of the infamous Nuremberg Laws, asserts the Supreme Court of the West German Federal Republic in a decision that has just become known.
The case before the court was that of W.A. Polak, 38, a Dutch-born war criminal and SS volunteer who is a Dutch citizen. Together with a group of six other Dutch Nazis, he fled from a Netherlands jail at Breda, where he was serving a life term for having killed four Dutch resistance leaders. The group escaped to West Germany, from which Holland is seeking Polak’s extradition.
Although he had never applied for German citizenship, Polak now lays claim to it. The reason is that Germany does not extradite her own nationals, no matter what their crime.
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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.
