The opposition Social Democratic party decided today to raise in the Bundestag the issue of the escape of Hans Walter Zech-Neentwich, the Nazi who fled a maximum security jail in Brunswick to asylum in Cairo.
The former SS cavalry officer made his escape last month, four days after he received a four-year prison term for complicity in the wartime murder of 5,200 Jews in the Nazi-held Pinsk Ghetto. The West German Government has asked Egypt for his extradition but Egypt is expected to ignore the request since there is no extradition pact between the two countries.
The Social Democrats plan to ask the Government how it was possible for the former Nazi to have had his passport with him in prison, which facilitated his escape to Switzerland. They also plan to seek to learn who owned the private airplane in which the Nasi made his escape to Switzerland.
Passover may be over, but your chance to support independent Jewish journalism isn't. Help JTA keep reporting the stories that define our era.
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.