Ludicrous Bonn Law: Most Nazi Criminals Will Go Scot Free

By ALFRED WOLFMANN
Jewish Telegraphic Agency Corre-
spondent in West Germany

Minister of Justice made it clear
that Nazi criminals were excluded
from amnesty under article 50,
(Copyright 1969, JTA, Inc.)
paragraph two, no court in West
BONN—An innocuous amendment Germany would decree otherwise.
to West Germany's penal code
But the unbelievable occurred.
Which originally applied mainly to
In May, the fifth Senate of the
traffic violators has shattered the
Bundesgerictshof in Berlin, West
entire structure of war crime
Germany's highest court, decided
prosecutions and negated the elab-
that article 50, paragraph two,
orate evidence amassed over the
applied to defendants of the Nazi
years by state prosecutors against
era-1933-1945. The court had been
Nazis accused of mass murder.
asked to pass a "final and bind-
ing judgment" on the issue. By
It renders academic all the heat-
its decision, all Nazi war crim-
ed debates which had been held
inals
accused of "aiding" in mur-
over abolition of the statute of limi-
der received automatic amnesty
tations on war crime prosecutions;
so long as the investigation of
and it shows up as an unmitigated
their crimes had not commenced
fraud the recent action by the
after Oct. 1, 1960.
Bundestag in extending the effec-
The volumes of evidence pain-
tive date of the statute from Dec.
stakingly
compiled against them
31, 1969 to the end of 1979.
For all practical purposes a sta- suddenly became worthless. Per-
tute of limitations governing the haps most shocking was the way
crime of murder is now in effect the court rushed to its decision at
and has been since Oct. 1, 1960. It a moment when the entire question
applies to virtually all war crimi- of the statute of limitations was
nals save a handful of known being debated in the Bundestag. In
sadists who killed out of pure effect, parliament and theoretical-
bloodlust and are unable to prove ly, the will of the people, was by-
passed on this burning moral and
otherwise.
legal issue.
There is a nightmarish quality
first result of the court's rul-
to this story and a lesson to all ing The
was the release of eight former
men who love justice to be con-
Gestapo leaders who had served in
stantly vigilant against those who Adolf Eichmann's notorious "Jew-
would pervert it.
ish Department" which was re-
At the end of 1968, Dr. Gustav
sponsible for the liquidation of mil-
Heinemann, then Minister of Jus-
lions of Jews. They were charged
tice and now president of the West
" in mass murder, but
German Federal Republic, promul- wlth "aiding
since amnesty was granted under
gated a far-reaching reform of
West German law. Tucked away in article 50, paragraph 2, their trials

During the Budestag debate on
the measure, Minister of Justice
Horst Ehmke regreted the high
court's interpretation of the now
famous article. He said neither he
nor his predecessor, Bundespresi-
dent Heinemann, nor the legislative
branch, had intended amnesty for
Nazi criminals. He said it was re-
gretable that the author of article
50, paragraph two, had not foreseen
its possible consequences.
But if an error was made, why
was it not rectified by passing an
amendment to the law stating
clearly that Nazi war criminals
charged with aiding in murder
should not benefit from amnesty?
Nobody in Bonn came forward
with such an amendment. Indeed,
it seems that with the parliamen-
tary elections only a few months
away, politicians are quite satisfied
with the turn of events.
As far as they are concerned,
world opinion has been mollified by
abolishing the statute of limitations
for genocide and postponing it for
murder.
And the wind has been taken out
of the sails of the ultra right-wing
an dneo- Nazi elements. After all
why should they complain. Most
Nazi war criminals will go scot
free.

this massive document was article were suspended.
State prosecutor Hans Dietrich
50, paragraph two, which con-
cerned offenses against order in Nagel was obliged to end his pre-
parations
for the trial which had
general and specifically traffic vie-
taken years. Only one of Eich-
la tions.
mann's former aids, accused of
It stated that a person who vio-
lated a traffic code without wilfully participation in murder, will go to
court.
intending to do so would receive
Mr. Nagel charged that the State
amesty. The article was made re-
troactive to Oct. 1, 1960. Dr. Heine- made a gift of freedom to these
major
Nazi offenders. He com-
mann's reform bill was passed by
mented that at least the legislative
the Bundestag (lower house) with- branch
of government should have
out special note being taken of it.
But it contained ominous portents. been given responsibility for such
Article 50, paragraph two, legally a sweeping deci sion. But what of
established the principle that an I the legislative branch? Although
offender could not be prosecuted amnesty was already in effect for
for an act that he did not commit more than 90 per cent of all Nazi
purposefully and of his own free war criminals facing trial, the
will. No one ever dreamed that Bundestag staged a "show" which
such a principle would be applied managed to fool most of the world.
impartially to one man who acci- I In June 1969, Chancellor Kurt
dentally passed a red light and to Georg Kiesinger's Christian Demo-
another who slaughtered men, I cratic Union reached agreement
women and children on orders from with its coalition partner, the Social
Democrats to abolish the statute
his superiors.
But the sharp-eyed editors of Der of limitations for genocide and to
Spiegel, crusading West German postpone the statute of limitations
weekly, saw the possibility. Several for murder for 10 years.
weeks after the legal reform bill The agreement was touted as a
was passed, Der Spiegel declared "compromise" hammered out by
that article 50, paragraph two. Chancellor Kiesinger and Foreign
spelled amnesty for Nazis accused Minister Willy Brandt, leader of
the Social Democrats. The chancel-
of "aiding" in mass murders as lor's
party had been pressing for
opposed to actually participating in
exemption for so-called minor of-
them.
fenders
who committed war crimes
There is a legal nicety between
"aiding" and "participating." under orders. Now, apparently, it
The "aid" may involve pulling was yielding.
When the Bundestag passed the
the trigger but the aide is not a
participant because he is acting government's measure on the first
under orders and ostensibly not reading on June 11, it was applaud-
of his own free will. As Der Spie- ed all over the world, from Israel
gel pointed out, 97 per cent of all to the United States, from Italy to
Nazi killers convicted to date Sweden. But the cheering world
were found to have only "aided" seems to have been the victim of
in murder and this accounts for an unconscionable propaganda play.
the ridiculously mild sentences The satisfied onlookers, many Jew-
imposed on them—a few months ish leaders among them, failed to
in jail or a year or two at most. read the small print. What sort of
The penalty for wilful murder in measure did the Bundestag pass?
For one thing, the generous deci-
West Germany is life imprison-
ment. Relatively few war criminals sion to abolish the statute of limi-
have gotten the maximum sentence tations for genocide applies only to
although state prosecutors have de- possible future instances of geno-
cide. The Bundestag explicitly ex-
manded it in countless cases.
Shortly after Der Spiegel's bomb- empted past cases of genocide—
shell, Dr. Heinemann categorically Nazi genocide—from prosecution
denied that such conclusions could on the grounds that abolition of
be drawn from article 50, para- the statute of limitations could not
graph two. He insisted that the be applied retroactively. This was
article applied only to minor offend- ignored in most newspaper ac-
ers and declared that when the counts.
Postponement of the statute of
Bundestag passed his reform bill,
limitations for murder until 1979
it had no intention of abandoning
is
virtually meaninglless because
the prosecution of "aids" to mur-
very few Nazis have been ac-
der.
cused of "participation" in mur-
Dr. Heinemann is an honorable
der. The vast majority were only
man and one of the foremost ad-
"helpers" and they enjoy immu-
vocates of abolition of the statute
nity under article 50, paragraph
of limitations on war crimes. Most
two,
of the new penal code.
experts were confident that if the

NEW YORK—India's official pol-
icy of opposition to Israel is not
shared by the vast majority of the
people in that country, a writer in
the New York Times stated:
Khushvant Singh of Swarthmore,
Pa. said in his statement:
Pa., United Nations Human Rights
Commission's resolution (news
story March 4) castigating Israel
for "continuing violations of human
rights," particularly its sponsor-
ship by India, calls for comment.
The Indian government's cham-
pionship of the Arab cause against
Israel is one of the many aspects
of its foreign policy which does not
have the support of the Indian peo-
ple. A public opinion poll clearly
showed that 65 per cent supported
Israel against the Arabs.
This support is not limited to
rightwing Hindus (as is often stated
by the administration) but em-
braces many Indian intellectuals,
novelists, poets and journalists.
The government adopts a pro-Arab
stance for economic reasons—India
sells many of its products to Arab
countries—and in the hope of neu-
tralizing pro-Pakistan Arab votes
in the United Nations.
India and Pakistan have often
accused each other of maltreating
their minorities. Pakistan has even
charged India with genocide of its
Moslem population. Neither coun-
try has thought it politic to have
the charges investigated by the Hu-
man Rights Commission.
Furthermore, only two years ago,
when Pakistani saboteurs infiltrat-
ed the Indian part of Kashmir,
Indians felt justified in striking
them in their hideouts in Pakistani
territory. It does not lie in the
mouths of Indians to accuse the
Israelis for acting likewise with
Arab commandos.
I have been fortunate enough to
travel extensively in both the Arab
countries as well as Israel. I have
seen Jewish business houses in Al-
geria, Egypt and Aden dwindle to
extinction.
On the other hand, whatever
other discriminations the Arabs
living in Israel may have suffered,
I saw new stores, hotels, and res-
taurants open under Arab owner-
ship.
Surely the real test would be to
allow those who feel discriminated
against freedom to sell their prop-
erties and leave. This freedom is
denied to Jews living in Arab (and
Communist) countries. It is granted
to Arabs living in Israel.

India's Opposition
to Israel Is Called
Popularly Rejected

Fame is climbing a greasy pole
for $10 and ruining trousers worth
$15.—Josh Billings.

Friday, August 1, 1969-17

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

Chilean Leftist Leaders
Form M.E. Peace Group

in Emergency Income
$20,000,000 Hike Noted

(Direct JTA Teletype Wire
to The Jewish News)

JERUSALEM — Finance Minis-
ter Pinhas Saphir told the Knesset
Finance Committee Wednesday that
Israel Emergency Fund income
has reached $74,000,000 in the
past six months—a rise froth $54,-
000,000 compared to the same pe-
riod last year.
Saphir recently returned from
a trip to the United States and
Canada on behalf of the emergency
fund drive and the Israel Bond
campaign.
Saphir estimated that funds
raised for Israel in the United
States will reach $150,000,000 this
year as compared with $120,000.-
000 last year. He expressed the
hope that bond sales would reach
$170,000,000 compared with S130.-
000,000 in 1968 and $217,000,000
in 1967.
On Capital for Israel shares,
Saphir said the corporation sold
industrial development bank shares
worth $18,000,000. He described
the preliminary reaction to the
Israel corporation shares as -ex-
cellent.

SANTIAGO (JTA) — Announce-
ment of formation of a committee
for peace in the Middle East, com-
prised of leading leftists among
Chilean intellectuals, was published
Sunday in El Mercurio, a leading
Santiago daily newspaper.
The proclamattion asserted that
a just and stable peace in the Mid-
dle East required Arab acknowl-
edgement of the right of existence
for Israel and national self-determ-
ination for the "Arab peoples."
The statement also proposed direct
negotiations between Israel and the
Arab states without intervention of
any third powers.
The signatories included the
noted Communist writer, Manuel
Rojas, and many Marxist Social-
lists, some of Arab origin and
some Jews.

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