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German Chief Prosecutor Faces Trial for Hiding Past Nazi Record

July 23, 1962
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Disciplinary proceedings were started yesterday by the West German Justice Ministry against Wolfgang Fraenkel, who was retired as Federal Chief Prosecutor after disclosure of participation in Nazi court judgments. He will stand administrative trial for hiding his past Nazi activities.

A Justice Ministry spokesman said the proceedings could cause Fraenkel the loss of his pension rights. He is drawing the equivalent of about $450 a month. His “compulsory retirement” followed presentation by East German Communist officials of documentary evidence against him.

The Chief Public Prosecutor of East Germany sent additional material this weekend on other former Nazi judges and prosecutors now holding posts in the West German judiciary. He also implied that Fraenke’s Nazi record had been known when he received his first appointment to office in West Germany, with the assertion that Fraenkel’s personnel file had been turned over to legal authorities in Kiel in 1946.

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