NAZIS' PRISONERS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22404, 28 April 1936, Page 11

NAZIS' PRISONERS

AMNESTY GRANTED THREE CLASSES AFFECTED (Received April 27, 7.15 p.m.) LONDON, April 26 A message from Berlin states that Herr Hitler has granted an amnesty to three classes of political prisoners as follows: — (1) Persons who overstepped the law out of " excessive zeal " in the fight for Nazi-ism. (2) " Political grumblers and gossipers " who were sentenced to less than six months' imprisonment for insulting remarks about the Nazi leaders or party. (3) Persons sentenced to a month's imprisonment or less for minor political offences. The amnesty does not appear sufficiently far-reaching to benefit the real opponents of the Nazi regime, such as Herr Thaelmann, the Communist leader, Herr Ossietsky, pacifist writer, and priests and clergymen sentenced for attacking the regime from the pulpit. The Berlin correspondent of the Times says that in addition to thp amnesty the Minister of Church Affairs, Herr Kerrl, quietly informed the pastors of the confessional movement that the orders for expulsion or forbidding preaching and speaking in public had been cancelled, and that all action against pastors begun before March 29 would be stopped. Herr Kerrl has given a similar order regarding the Catholic clergy, and most of the banned Catholic Youth publications have been allowed to reappear.