Extended Search For Nazis

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30711, 29 March 1965, Page 11

Extended Search For Nazis

(N.Z. Press Assn—Copyright) BONN (Germany), March 28. The West German Bundestag (lower house) has voted to extend the search for Nazi murderers until December 31, 1969. It approved by 344 votes to 96 a draft law extending the deadline for the opening of cases against Nazi criminals from May 8 this year.

The bill now goes to the Bundesrat (upper house) where it will be discussed on April 9. It is expected to be approved there. The Opposition Socialist Party voted for the bill. Chancellor Ludwig Erhard’s Christian Democrats, the dominant party, were divided.

The Free Democrats, a smaller group, opposed it. The Socialists won a point when a loophole for war criminals who occupied minor posts was cut out of the bill and sent back to the legal committee. Varying Views The bill was the weakest of those considered by Parliament to deal with the situation. One section of Dr. Erhard’s party wanted to extend the hunt for 10 years.

The Socialists wanted indefinite extension. The solution arrived at was essentially the one suggested by the former Chancellor, Dr. Konrad Adenauer.

German law says a murder cannot be prosecuted

more than 20 years after it was committed.

Up to now, these 20 years have been considered to run from the end of World War 11. The West German Justice Minister, Dr. Ewald Bucher, tendered his resignation after the Bundestag (lower house) passed the law. Political observers said his resignation would cause a Cabinet crisis and further damage the reputation of Dr. Erhard’s Government, already under fire both for its handling of the statute of limitations issue and for its policy in the Middle East and towards France. Dr. Bucher is one of five Free Democratic Ministers in the 21-member Cabinet. There was no indication that any of his party colleagues intend to follow his example, but the resignation would worsen relations between Dr. Erhard’s Christian Democrats and the Free Democrats, who have always had an uneasy coalition, the observers said. Legal Question

Dr. Bucher’s decision to resign was based on his differing legal view of the question of extending the statute of limitations. The Minister could not find it possible to sign the law, when it meets with final approval, in accordance with the requirements of his office.

The Minister, who became a centre of controversy when he recently declared “we must learn to live with murderers,” believes it is better to let killers escape justice than to pass special laws to prosecute a special section of the population.

Dr. Bucher, aged 50, has been Justice Minister since December, 1962.

IN STRASBOURG, the European “parliament” of the six Common Market countries has agreed to an association between Israel and the E.E.C.