The West German Cabinet today approved an amnesty bill to free Nazis who assumed false names to escape Allied authorities. Approval of the measure by Parliament is considered certain.
Designed to clear up “legal injustices of the late Nazi era and the early postwar period,” the bill provides that those who adopted false names during and after the war to avoid prosecution can assume their old names without punishment until July 1, 1954. Those who committed minor crimes during the last months of the war would be forgiven and Germans still in prison would be freed. Criminals already released would have conviction entries removed from their personal papers.
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.