Ambassador’s S.S. service unknown to N.Z. Govt

Press, 13 June 1979, Page 3

Ambassador’s S.S. service unknown to N.Z. Govt

The New Zealand Foreign Ministry did not know of the S.S. service in the Second World War of the West German Ambassador to New Zealand (Dr Karl Doering) when his credentials were accepted, said the Secretary of Foreign Affairs (Mr F. H. Corner) in Wellington yesterday. The Ministry had learned about it only on Monday. On the questions of whether Dr Doering would have been acceptable and would still be acceptable, Mr Corner said the first was hypothetical and it was too early to comment on the second.

Mr Corner said that the Foreign Ministry was in regular contact with West German Foreign Office officials and he was sure the subject would be discussed. He expected the initiative to come from the West Germans.

He did not know whether the West Germans had a policy of not employing former S.S. officers in foreign posts, but was convinced that they would be utterly scrupulous on the matter. An official ot the West Germany Embassy in Wellington last evening said he had received a telegram from Bonn saying that the Federal Government had nq reason to doubt the integrity and loyalty of Dr. Doering. Regarding the Ambassador’s past, reference was made-to the judgement of the “denazification” authority, according to which he had been classified “exonerated.” He said he could not disclose Dr Doering’s present whereabouts beyond say ing

that he was at a health spa in West Germany. An NZPA staff correspondent in London reports that a New Zealander’s suspicions led to. Dr Doering’s past being uncovered by the top Nazi-hunter, Simon Wiesenthal.

Mr Wiesenthal said yesterdays from Vienna that he had checked Dr Doering’s background at the request of someone in New Zealand. “I cannot tell you who it was,” he said, “But I received a letter from this person and he said he was suspicious of Dr Doering’s past.

“We checked through our files and found there had been a Karl Doering in the Waffen S.S. (an elitist military grouping within the S.S.) and that he finished the war as a captain.” said Mr Wiesenthal. “Checks on records ot birth and other details showed that the S.S. captain and the Ambassador are the same man. There can be no contusion. '

Mr Wiesenthal, who was responsible for the capture by Israeli agents in the 1960 s of the former top Nazi, Adolf ‘ Eichmann,' said it was the first time he had heard bf a former S.S. officer gaming high diplomatic rank.

Mr Wiesenthal said the first the ’ Foreign Ministry knew bf Dr Doering’s past was when he telephoned it from Vienna. “They checked their personal records and they were incomplete,” he said. “They started in 1951. They were surprised to learn he had been in the S.S. and a Nazi party member, but

they now confirm that this was so."

Dr Doering’s precise movements during the war were not known, but Mr Wiesenthal said it was known he had spent 1942 at university in Berlin, study? ing political science. “We must not speculate on what he did or where he was during the war,” he said. “But he must have done something other than study.

“He finished the war at the age of 28, which was very young for a Waffen S.S. captain.” Mr Wiesenthal said thousands of former Nazis wore exonerated by Allied tribunals in the years immediately after the war. “They were like production lines,” he said. “The examinations could not have been very thorough, particularly in 1948 when everyone was more concerned about the Soviet threat and the Berlin airlift." Mr Wiesenthal said he would make no representation to the Bonn Government or to Dr Doering personally. “The first step was for me to confirm that Dr Doering was a member of the Nazi Party, labelled by the Allies as international criminals. The next step is up to Dr Doering. “He must say what he was doing during the war. It is now up to him to say what part he played,” said Mr Wiesentnal. The Israeli Ambassador (Mr Yaakov Morris) last evening said he was very concerned that a former S.S. captain was the West Ger-

man Ambassador to New Zealand. Mr Morris said it was unusual for someone of Dr Doering’s age — he was born on May 28, 1917 — to have been a captain in the S.S. “That might suggest zeal, I don’t really know, but it is a surprise,” he said. Mr Morris said he believed there were “significant gaps” in the official biography of Dr Doering, issued when he came to New Zealand last year. “I thought about it at the time, but 1 did not do anything about it,” he said. Mr Morris said Dr Doering had very cordial relations with the Jewish community in Wellington. The German Embassy’s, Charge d'Affaires (Mr W. Friedel) said Dr Doering was in West Germany receiving, medical treatment at a health spa. He was expected to return to New Zealand in August.