The Social Democratic Party today accused the North-Rhine Westphalia Ministry of the Interior of failing to take action against former SS leaders now occupying important posts in that state.
Three weeks ago, the Public Workers Union charged that the police in Dusseldorf, Cologne, Bonn, Essen, Dortmund and other cities were headed by former high-ranking SS officers. According to the Union, some of the police officials had forged their records to conceal their Nazi past. Others had been reinstated because the Ministry claimed that their membership in the SS had been “a mere formality.”
The Union, however, charged that the chief of the police criminal division of Essen, Dr. Kennecke; Karl Kielne, chief in Cologne and Dr. Menke, police chief in Dortmund, had all voluntarily entered the Nazi elite corps and had taken part in the special SS training program.
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.
