The public prosecutor in Trier, who made a habit of singing the Nazi “Horst Wessel Lied” in local restaurants, has been given low-profile assignments out of the public eye.
But Heinz Galinski, chairman of the Central Council of Jews in West Germany, has demanded to know why it was decided not to take legal action against him for violating laws banning Nazi propaganda.
Galinski has protested to Hans Seeliger, state prosecutor for Rhineland-Palatinate. Seeliger said there were no grounds to prosecute, because his Trier colleague sang at “closed” gatherings, not in public.
The matter was brought to light by the news media, which observed that the prosecutor, an employee of the Justice Minisery, was singing one of the most noxious songs of the Nazi era.
Horst Wessel was a Brown Shirt thug killed in a street brawl. The Nazis made a martyr of him. The song that bears his name has a lyric that calls for spilling Jewish blood.O
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
