The World Jewish Congress disclosed here today it had made a protest to the West German Government against the rally of Waffen SS veterans in Rendsburg in North Germany, last week. The Waffen SS was a branch of Hitler’s Elite Guard which was in active service during World War II.
The WJC said in a message to West German officials that it felt “great disquiet” that the federal government did not take measures “to prevent this assembly of members of the Nazi organization which took a prominent part in and was responsible for the murder of millions of European Jews and the persecutions in the Nazi horror camps in the execution of Hitler’s plan for the final solution of the Jewish question?”
One of the objectives of the 11th annual meeting of HIAG, the welfare organization of the Waffen SS veterans was to obtain veterans veterans pensions. The WJC said, in its message, that any acceptance of that proposal by the federal government, and of similar proposals from Germans “who were members of an SS organization, would be regarded not only as condoning but as rewarding crimes against humanity which their organization committed.”
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