West Germany’s election campaign has generated new heat over allegations that Hans-Jochen Vogel, the opposition Social Democratic Party’s (SPD) candidate for Chancellor, was an ardent Nazi when he was a member of the Hitler Jugend, the Nazi youth movement, during World War II. Most political observers dismiss the charges as without serious consequences, although a spokesman for Vogel promptly denied them. But the injection of that issue into the campaign has triggered public discussion of the political involvement of West Germany’s current leaders during the Nazi era. Vogel, born in 1926, was a member of the Hitler Jugend between 1941-43, after which he served as a soldier in the Wehrmacht. The weekly Bild Am Sonntag reported that another former Hitler Jugend member, Ernst Holler, charged at an election campaign meeting that Vogel would intimidate his comrades in the youth movement and preached to them about loyalty to the Fuehrer.
Holler, a veterinarian, is an active member of the Christian Socialist Union (CSU), the Bavarian sister party of the ruling Christian Democratic Union (CDU). He made his charges against Vogel at a CSU party rally. He claimed that Vogel once had him reduced in rank in the Hitler Jugend and stated in writing that he was unsuitable to participate in building up National Socialism.
Vogel’s brother, Bernhard Vogel, a member of the CDU and Prime Minister of Rhineland-Palistinate, said it was ridiculous to claim Han-Jochen Vogel was a Nazi loyalist on the basis of an incident 40 years ago when his brother was only 16.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
