The Federal Republic of Germany has made the United Nations Genocide Convention effective in West Germany and West Berlin, thus outlawing the crime which Germany originated–genocide.
The provisions of that Convention have now been incorporated into the German Penal Code. It provides a life term at penal servitude, the highest punishment that can now be imposed in West Germany, on anyone “who, with the intent to destroy in whole or in part, a group of the population distinguished by descent, origin or religion of its members, deliberately: 1, Kills members of the group; 2. Causes them serious bodily or mental harm; 3. Inflicts on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; 4. Imposes measures designed to prevent births within the group; 5. Forcibly transplants the children of the group to another group.”
The bill providing for West Germany’s accession to the Convention was approved by both houses of the Bonn Parliament last July, after several changes of the original draft had been made upon the suggestion of Prof. Rafael Lemkin, “father” of the Convention. The instrument of ratification was deposited with the UN Secretariat last November, but announcement of the date on which the Convention is to be put into effect within Germany was inexplicably delayed until questions began to be asked.
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.
