The Bavarian provincial Government disclosed today it had started an investigation of charges that Dr. Wilhelm Harster–who quit his post as an adviser to the provincial Interior Ministry yesterday–was a key Nazi figure in the wartime deportation of 110, 000 Jews from Holland to Nazi murder camps.
Dr. Harster, who was an SS major general during the war, admitted yesterday that he had been involved in the roundups of Dutch Jews but insisted all he had done was to “supervise” their transfer to a Nazi camp in Holland and that he had not taken part in further deportations.
The involvement of the Bavarian official came to light following the Flight of Erich Rajakovic, wartime aide to Adolf Eichmann, from Italy to Switzerland, from which he was expelled. In his statement, Dr. Harster said that Rajakovic, who has been charged by the Dutch with a leading part in the deportations, was one of his aides.
The former SS officer, who is 59, asked the Ministry yesterday to pension him because of ill health. He said in his statement that because of the publicity attendant on the Rajakovic case, he had decided to apply for a retirement pension.
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