The Dutch Justice Ministry has rebuffed efforts by a group of Dutch citizens to reduce the life terms of four former Nazis who held key positions in the wartime occupation of the Netherlands, the West German Government has been informed. Queen Juliana has concurred with the decision.
The four, held in Breda prison, are Willi Larges, 61, wartime chief of the German security police and a high-ranking SS officer, Ferdinand Aus Der Fuenten, 64, an SS officer who was chief of the Amsterdam Branch of the program for the murder of Jews, Joseph Kotaella, 55, commandant of the Amersfoort concentration camp, and Franz Fischer, 61.
Larges directed the central “Office for Jewish Emigration” in Amsterdam and was convicted of sending 70,000 victims to concentration camps. Aus Der Fuenten organized deportations. Kotaella personally killed many Amersfoort camp inmates. Fischer helped to kill 12,000 Jews.
The decision to keep the men jailed for life was the second such decision. An effort to win parole for the four Nazis failed several years ago. In line with standing policy, the West German Government did not make any representations on behalf of the effort to get parole for the four Nazis.
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