Government authorities here were investigating today charges made by the East German Communist news agency, claiming that Dr. Erwin Schuele, head of the Central Office for the Prosecution of Nazi War Criminals, at Ludwigshaven, had been a member of the Nazi Party under Hitler’s regime, served as a judge in a Nazi court, and belonged to the SS.
Dr. Schuele is in Poland now, probing into documentary materials on Nazi activities made available to West Germany by the Polish Government. The Ministry of Justice of the State of Baden-Wurttemberg said today that it is awaiting his return from Poland before it goes into the Communist charges. Dr. Schuele was quoted here as saying that the charges constituted “a pack of lies” and that he had been merely a candidate for Nazi Party membership.
The Baden-Wurttemberg Ministry said that membership in the Nazi Party had been compulsory for all students under the Hitler regime, and the Dr. Schuele was a student at the time. In any event, the Ministry stated, Dr. Schuele’s party membership had been only “nominal.”
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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.
