An officer of engineers in the new West German Army was found guilty in the county court today of “technical insult” in using abusive, anti-Semitic language towards a non-commissioned officer of half-Jewish origin and ordered to pay a fine equivalent to $100. The case was the first known incident of anti-Semitism in the Bundeswehr.
According to testimony heard in the court, Captain. Heinrich Neimann, 36, of an engineer training battalion, used vile anti-Jewish invective toward Corporal Eugen von Elmpt, who is half-Jewish, and a Bundeswehr volunteer. Neimann, an officer in the Wehrmacht, was awarded the Knight’s Cross by Hitler.
When Niemann subsequently failed to apologize for his remarks, von Elmpt filed a formal complaint. Neimann was suspended from duty and disciplinary proceedings commenced. As the new German army does not yet have a court martial procedure, the case went to the county court where the prosecutor asked for a five-month prison sentence. A charge of “humiliating abasement of a subordinate” was dropped on technical grounds.
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