The West German Justice Ministry has reported that, since the end of the war, 6375 defendants have been convicted for Nazi crimes by West German courts, with 12 sentenced to death and 141 to life imprisonment. More than 6000 Nazis received shorter sentences, 114 were fined and one was warned under West German youth laws.
The Ministry data indicated that 77,820 cases had been opened and of these 67,422 were closed with no punishments imposed because of acquittals, deaths of defendants and similar reasons. Last Jan. 1, 4023 cases were pending. Meanwhile, the Ludwigsburg Center for the Investigation of Nazi Crimes, near Stuttgart, announced it would stop tracing former Nazis in 1980, when, it said, the statute of limitations for crimes committed during the Nazi period comes into force.
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