Massive Drive to Bring Thousands of Former Nazi War Criminals to Justice

In her one-hour address, Mrs. Meir declared that Israel stands alone in a hostile world and can depend only on itself–and the support of world Jewry–for survival. “I believe the world owes us something,” she said, “all those who have harmed us and those who sat by and did not try to help us.” She asked: “Why is it so difficult for the world to understand that Israel is a nation like other nations and entitled to the same elementary rights of other nations?” Replying to her own question, Mrs. Meir said that last week, Israel’s Foreign Minister Abba Eban “quoted a prominent statesman who said, ‘I live by principle. My first principle is expediency.'” The Premier added, “Israel no longer has swamps. But it has no oil.”

UN GUARANTEES INEFFECTIVE

She drew prolonged applause when she said “We will not put the fate of the existence of Israel and the people of Israel in the hands of anybody else but our own.” She stressed the ineffectiveness of United Nations guarantees. “Where did they ever work?” she asked. “We have accepted guarantees. We have signed truce agreements. Now people tell us to return to the June, 1967 lines–lines that were destroyed for no good reason whatsoever by Russian tanks in Egyptian hands.”

Mrs. Meir declared that UN resolutions notwithstanding, Israel would not go back to the pre-June, 1967 borders. She said that the Arab states, “some born only yesterday, with vast territory and fantastic oil wealth, and many tens of millions of people, do not yet recognize our right to live. When they acquiesce to our existence, there will be peace.”

The Israeli Premier spoke scornfully of India, now involved in a war with Pakistan. “How many volumes the moralists of India spoke to us about the immorality of reprisals against the fedayeen. When we retaliated, they told us it wasn’t right. Never did India fail to tell us we were wrong. Now I say nothing. I Just quote (Premier) Indira Ghandi.” Mrs. Meir touched only briefly on Israel’s economic problems, the subject most pertinent to the UJA audience. “We are struggling with our budget,” she said. “Where can we cut. Can we tell the Russian Jews seeking to come to Israel there are no homes? Can we tell the army veteran seeking to get married, we have no apartments for you? Can we tell the dwellers in the slums we cannot place you in larger apartments? Our economic problems are our problems, yours and ours,” she concluded.

The West German state of North Rhein-Westphalia has taken the lead in a massive drive to bring thousands of Nazi war criminals to justice. During 1971, that state opened the files of 3,400 former Nazis suspected of murder or complicity in murder compared to only 434 files opened in 1970. The North Rhein-Westphalian Ministry of Justice has established a special center for the investigation of former Nazis and has appointed prosecutors specializing in war crimes investigations.

Under the 1969 statute of limitations, only persons accused of genocide, murder or complicity in murder may be brought to trial. The vigor with which North Rhein-Westphalia is pursuing these cases has been attributed to Premier Heinz Kuhn, a veteran anti-Nazi fighter who spent the war years in exile in London, and its Minister of Justice, Dr. Joseph Neuberger, a former Israeli whose two sons have served in the Israel army. Both officials belong to the Social Democratic Party (SPD) of Chancellor Willy Brandt.

Josef Kubitsch, a senior West German police officer, went on trial in Moechnengladbach this week on charges of complicity in the murders of 400 Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto during World War II. Kubitsch served in the Gestapo and the SS during the war. Most recently he commanded the Grevenbruich police district.