Strauss Leads Opposition to Abolition of West German Statute of Limitations

The prospect arose today that the West German Government may not get the required majority vote in the Bundestag (lower house) to abolish the statute of limitations on prosecution of Nazi war criminals and other murderers. The measure has many opponents including the Christian Socialist Union (CSU), the Bavarian sister party of Chancellor Kurt Georg Kiesinger’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU). The CSU’s leader Franz Josef Strauss said he would vote against abolition.

In a related development, the German trade union movement expressed “great concern and disappointment” that the Government had “not found it necessary to request a ban on the National Democratic Party” despite Interior Minister Ernst Benda’s assertion that he had adequate evidence to justify a ban. Mr. Benda contends that he can prove the right-wing NPD, seen by many as neo-Nazi, is anti-democratic and unconstitutional. The movement said the German worker would not understand how a party which pursued non-democratic policies and a number of whose members had supported the Nazi regime could be permitted to function. The unionists saw the decision as having possible world-wide repercussions.

Meanwhile, the NPD, which is seeking Bundestag seats in this year’s Federal election, set for September, has made “victory” statements and has attacked Mr. Benda and West Berlin Mayor Klaus Schutz, who has renewed his demand that the three Allied powers in West Berlin outlaw the NPD chapter there because of the sensitive position of the city, which is deep in East Germany. The United States, Britain and France, whose authority over the city stems from World War II, has rejected that bid.

The Munich state prosecutor has brought a lawsuit aimed at seeking a ban on the Deutsche National Zeitung, a right-wing paper. The charges were filed, at the Government’s request, against Dr. Gerhard Frey because the paper has allegedly printed anti-Semitic news and features over a long period of time.

The Cabinet’s decision to drop the statute of limitations that deals with murder and genocide was taken Thursday when Chancellor Kiesinger’s conservative forces capitulated to the demand of Social Democratic Justice Minister Horst Ehmke that there be no modification of the bill to codify certain circumstances under which an accused Nazi could be excused for having been forced or ordered to commit his punishable acts. Guenter Diehl, the chief Government spokesman, said that the Cabinet had decided that “codification would have resulted in serious legal problems…important groups of criminals would escape.” The Christian Democrats and Christian Social Union had pressed hard for the “codification” guidelines, presumably to establish a standard distinguishing between deliberate Nazi criminals and those who were “victims” of the system and were acting under orders.

The 20-year statute is scheduled to go into effect on Dec. 31, after which no new cases against Nazi criminals and other murderers could be opened. The statute was drawn up in 1945 and extended for five years in 1965. Mr. Ehmke declared that 10,000 cases of Nazi criminals were currently under investigation and that there are 16,000 to 18,000 accused who would face trial. It would be unjust, he said, for those caught before the end of 1969 to be punished while those caught afterward would not stand trial. He noted that the Bonn Government could not subscribe to a United Nations convention on the non-applicability of statutory limitations on war crimes and crimes against humanity which would punish those whose crimes had already been deemed by law not punishable. Adherence to the convention would be contrary to the Constitution, he said.