Many War Criminals May Not Be Tried

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31028, 6 April 1966, Page 6

Many War Criminals May Not Be Tried

(N I P A Reuter) WEST BERLIN. One of the problems facing the West German Government is whether Nazi officials responsible for war-time atrocities will die of old age before they can be brought to trial. All Hitler’s machinery for the extermination afid persecution of Jews and political opponents is now being slowly and laboriously laid bare.

Eleven prosecutors are searching mountains of documents of the notorious Reichssicherheitshauptamt—the German security headquarters—home of the Gestapo.

While many Gestapo and S.S. officials have already been tried and punished for carrying out its programme in the field, few of the "desk murderers" who worked out and ran the death machinery have been brought to justice. Many of the papers were destroyed at the end of the war on Himmler’s orders and those that still existed remained until recent years uninvestigated. in the hands of the Allies or Communist countries.

The 11 prosecutors have now completed the first stage of their investigations—sorting out the various “complexes” of crimes such as the organisation of death camps and mobile execution squads and establishing who was involved in them. They have compiled a list of 1000 former S.S. men who worked at the headquarters. About a third of these are believed to be dead or living under assumed names.

The task of the prosecutors is now to establish how much guilt they share for the persecution and murder of millions of Jews and other victims.

Mr Hans Guenther. West Berlin's Prosecutor General in charge of the tnvestiga tions said: “It is an enormous undertaking. We have had to read tens of thousands of documents We have to check on each and every person who once worked in the security headquarters." The prosecutors are working against time. Not only does the statutory period for prosecution of Nazi murders expire in 1970, but the former Gestapo men are now old and may die before justice can be done.

"One ot our oldest suspects is 93,” said Mr Guenther. He doubts that the investigations will be completed before 1970 and is reluctant to predict how many people will actually be brought to trial. Besides his organisation problem, he has many moral ones. He has to draw the lines between various shades of guilt. “Is the secretary who typed the order for the deportation and murder of victims guilts ' A just measure has to be found," he added.