World Jewish Congress Criticizes U.S. Authorities for Mitigating Sentences of Nazis

The action of American authorities in mitigating the sentences of German war criminals was criticized by the World Jewish Congress as a development which “threatens to turn the vital code of offenses against mankind, established at Nuremberg, into a travesty.”

Dr. Israel Goldstein, chairman of the Western Hemisphere executive of the World Jewish Congress, said that a panel of legal experts of the W.J.O. have established that executive clemency was granted to virtually 90 percent of the Nazi war criminals whose cases were reviewed. “This action,” he said, “lightening the sentences of men convicted of slaughtering hostages, indulging in mass murder or carrying out slave labor policies, was taken despite the fact that neither the evidence in the original trials nor the justice of the original sentences were challenged by the American authorities.”

Dr. Goldstein pointed out that, even before the recent acts of mitigation, American authorities had released a total of 109 war criminals before the expiration of their jail terms. “Today only 51 war criminals remain in prison in the American zone out of nearly 1,300 sentenced to prison, and if the present rate of pardons continues the number will dwindle rapidly,” Dr. Goldstein said.

The Society For the Prevention of World War III today made public a letter it addressed to U.S. High Commissioner John J. McCloy declaring that “every American who values the good name and moral standing of the United States” will challenge the action taken by the American authorities in Germany in mitigating the sentences of Nazi war criminals. “It is our considered judgment that your decision helps to under mine the foundations of international law as implemented by the Nuremberg verdicts and rums counter to the expressed determination of the President of the United States to punish international lawlessness,” the letter said.