The German parliament voted on Tuesday to lift Nazi-era convictions of wartime “traitors” whose names have still not been cleared 70 years after the fighting started.
The law passed the Bundestag lower house by an overwhelming majority and marked the culmination of a decades-long fight for justice on behalf of those who turned their backs on Hitler’s forces in a genocidal war.
“It took far too long,” deputy Wolfgang Wieland of the Greens told the chamber.
He apologized to a campaigner for the bill, 87-year-old Ludwig Baumann, who attended the vote at the Reichstag parliament building to savor his victory.
“Many of his comrades are dead and never lived to witness their rehabilitation,” Wieland told deputies.
Just a week after solemn commemorations to mark the start of World War II on Sept. 1, 1939, with the German invasion of Poland, members of parliament finally closed the book on what campaigners called an enduring injustice.
Nazi military tribunals sentenced some 30,000 people to death for desertion or treason during the war, of whom 20,000 were executed, said historians Wolfram Wette and Detlev Vogel, whose work was cited in the bill.
Approximately 100,000 men were sentenced to prison. The victims were not only Germans but also citizens of Austria, Denmark, Norway, Romania and Luxembourg.
All who survived had a criminal record, often could not find jobs and even faced death threats for their “betrayal of the Fatherland.”
In 2002, parliament wiped the convictions of conscientious objectors and deserters from the books but not those of “wartime traitors.”
These included soldiers and officers accused of crimes including political resistance — even critical remarks about the Nazis made in private — or helping persecuted Jews.
Since then, there had been repeated attempts to erase the convictions but no clear majority in parliament.
Conservatives had long opposed an across-the-board rehabilitation, calling for a case-by-case review to determine whether there had been “legitimate” convictions.
However, a justice ministry review conducted by a former constitutional court judge found that the Nazis’ treason law dating from 1934 was a clear instrument of repression, so vague as to be open to capricious rulings.
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
RISING TENSIONS: The nations’ three leaders discussed China’s ‘dangerous and unlawful behavior in the South China Sea,’ and agreed on the importance of continued coordination Japan, the Philippines and the US vowed to further deepen cooperation under a trilateral arrangement in the face of rising tensions in Asia’s waters, the three nations said following a call among their leaders. Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and outgoing US President Joe Biden met via videoconference on Monday morning. Marcos’ communications office said the leaders “agreed to enhance and deepen economic, maritime and technology cooperation.” The call followed a first-of-its-kind summit meeting of Marcos, Biden and then-Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida in Washington in April last year that led to a vow to uphold international
US president-elect Donald Trump is not typically known for his calm or reserve, but in a craftsman’s workshop in rural China he sits in divine contemplation. Cross-legged with his eyes half-closed in a pose evoking the Buddha, this porcelain version of the divisive US leader-in-waiting is the work of designer and sculptor Hong Jinshi (洪金世). The Zen-like figures — which Hong sells for between 999 and 20,000 yuan (US$136 to US$2,728) depending on their size — first went viral in 2021 on the e-commerce platform Taobao, attracting national headlines. Ahead of the real-estate magnate’s inauguration for a second term on Monday next week,
CYBERSCAM: Anne, an interior decorator with mental health problems, spent a year and a half believing she was communicating with Brad Pitt and lost US$855,259 A French woman who revealed on TV how she had lost her life savings to scammers posing as Brad Pitt has faced a wave of online harassment and mockery, leading the interview to be withdrawn on Tuesday. The woman, named as Anne, told the Seven to Eight program on the TF1 channel how she had believed she was in a romantic relationship with the Hollywood star, leading her to divorce her husband and transfer 830,000 euros (US$855,259). The scammers used fake social media and WhatsApp accounts, as well as artificial intelligence image-creating technology to send Anne selfies and other messages
RSS