One of the two final Nazi war criminals released from Dutch jails in January has reportedly died in West Germany, according to a director at the Dutch prison.
Ferdinand aus der Funten, 79, who was released Jan. 27, is reported to have died from a brain hemorrhage, according to Alexander Schoonen, deputy director of Koepel Prison in Breda.
The news comes on the heels of a report that seven Dutch groups that provide material aid to victims of World War II have demanded some $75 million annually to compensate for psychological damage caused by the release of aus der Funten and Franz Fischer, as well as the official Dutch representation at the funeral of Japanese Emperor Hirohito.
Aus der Funten, a captain in the SS, was deputy director of the office responsible for deporting Jews to death camps, overseeing all Jewish deportations from the Netherlands from 1941 to the end of the war.
Schoonen said aus der Funten died sometime in the last few weeks. He said he did not know where he had died, saying only that he knew the German had “changed hiding places” frequently after being released.
The Dutch groups dealing with wartime reparations have requested the additional $75 million to use in each of the next two to three years.
The release of aus der Funten and Fischer, as well as the Dutch presence at Hirohito’s funeral, evoked an emotional outpouring here from those who were prisoners of the Nazis in Europe and of the Japanese in what were then the Dutch East Indies.
The seven organizations say they received many thousands of calls for help from war victims who were seriously disturbed by the two events, and that as a result, the organizations had to engage additional professional staff.
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.
