A retired woman from Duesseldorf, Josephine Juergens, has been in the center of public attention since the end of the Maidanek trial a few weeks ago, where former SS officials of the concentration camp were charged with the murder of thousands of inmates. Juergens last January received one of the state’s highest decorations, the Bundesver-dienstkreutz, from President Karl Carstens for her volunteer work in taking care of prisoners. She was honored at the recommendation of the government of the federal state of North Rhine Westphalia, where Duesseldorf is located.
In an ironic twist, Juergens turned out to be a dedicated neo-Nazi who has never hidden her hostile view towards Jews, although at the time she received her award no one in the federal state government seemed to know about her views. For the last five years she was involved in helping the former SS officials who were tried in Duesseldorf.
In a radio interview, Juergens declared that Duesseldorf is governed by Jews, hence, she explained, the lack of public sympathy for the SS officials during the trial. In a letter to the judge who presided at the trial, she said that it is imperative for him, as it is for every German, to resist Jewish influence in similar court trials in the future and in the country’s judicial system.
After some attempts to play down the matter, officials of the North Rhine Westphalia government realized that the award to Juergens had become a public scandal. In a recent letter to Carstens, Johannes Rau, the head of the Duesseldorf government, acknowledged that his administration was not aware that Juergens was a dedicated neo-Nazi. He recommended that the decoration she received be taken back.
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.
