West German Parliament Brands Anti-jewish Incidents As ‘disgrace’

The West German Parliament today went unanimously on record in condemnation of anti-Semitic incidents in West Germany as a “disgrace” to the German nation. Government and opposition members supported a declaration read in Bundestag by Prof. Carlo Schmid, Acting President of the Lower House, stating that “it is a disgrace” that such incidents could take place now in Germany.

The disgrace, Prof. Schmid declared, was not diminished by the fact that similar incidents have taken place in other countries. “We, Germans, do not have the right to point our finger at others, ” he said. “In Germany under the sign of the swastika, six million Jews were murdered. Therefore, what happens here is more disgraceful than elsewhere.

“If these young people who some people say are responsible could realize the harm they are doing to their country, perhaps they would think twice, ” he continued. “These new incidents have brought back on Germany all the accusations of evil which we have had to endure in the past. The Federal Republic is being smeared in the eyes of the world. “

(The American Jewish Committee issued a statement saying that it was “gravely disappointed and deeply concerned” that neither the West German Government nor the Buddestag had proposed any positive, long range plan to deal with education for democracy. “While we welcome this statement by Vice President Schmid in the Bundestag for its condemnation of anti-Semitic vandalism, it is clear that condemnation and indignation do not suffice,” the AJC statement said.)

Chancellor Konrad Adenauer’s Cabinet meanwhile took a position today that Communists have had a greater role than neo-Nazis in the wave of anti-Semitic incidents. The Cabinet met to consider the outbreaks.

West German Minister of Interior Gerbard Schroeder declared today that no evidence of ties with world Communism was found in an investigation of the Christmas Eve desecration of the Cologne synagogue “but nevertheless there is a Communist background” to the spate of anti-Semitic incidents in West Germany “which must be investigated.”

BONN GOVERNMENT TO ISSUE ‘WHITE BOOK’ ON THE ANTI-SEMITIC INCIDENTS

The Minister said that the Cologne synagogue smearing, which touched off a wave of similar incidents in the Federal Republic and throughout the world, was the only one which might have political implications. The Bonn Government would issue a “White Book” on the excesses, he announced.

Dr. Theodor Oberlander, West German Minister for Refugees who is under fire for alleged participation in war crimes, will resign his post as soon as an inquiry into one of the charges is completed, the usually well-informed West German newspaper, Die Welt, reported today.

Die Welt said he would resign regardless of the findings of a committee of former resistance fighter, now sitting in The Hague. The committee is investigating a charge that the West German Cabinet Minister took part in the 1942 massacre of the Jews of Lemberg in what was then Nazi-occupied Poland. He has denied the charge.

Meanwhile, it was reported today that the Jewish community in Amberg in Bavaria yesterday revealed an attempt was made last Wednesday to fire its synagogue. The announcement was withheld for a week because Amberg Jewish leaders felt the publicity would encourage similar incidents elsewhere. The blaze, in the arson attempt, which was carefully planned, was put out before it could do any damage.

From Munich it was reported that Richard Bugdalle, former block leader of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, was sentenced today to life imprisonment for the murder of nine camp prisoners and complicity in the murder of nine others. He was found guilty after a trial which was surprisingly brief. The hearings, which had been expected to last for three weeks, ended in three days.

In find testimony, today, witnesses said that in the summer of 1940, Bugdalle locked fourteen prisoners into a room closet and turned a cold water hose on them until they were dead. Other witnesses testified that Bugdalle trampled a Jewish opera singer to death.