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The Present Status of Denazification (December 31, 1950)

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offenders or offenders. This amnesty was followed in December by another amnesty, known as the Christmas Amnesty, which provided that persons in low income groups, who had earned less than 3,600 RM per year in 1943-45, and who had less than 20,000 RM property on January 1st, 1945, and persons who were more than 50 percent physically disabled would not be tried unless they came within the categories of major offenders or offenders. By June 1, 1948, 2,373,115 persons had come within the terms of those amnesties. By that time, 865,808 trials had been completed, leaving a total of only 31,707 still to face formal trial. Since that date the trials have continued but new registrations, largely refugees and returning POWs, have made it impossible to complete the program. By September 30, 1950, a total of 13,416,000 persons had been registered; 958,071 trials had been held; and 2,777,444 amnestied, either by the prosecutor or after trial. There remained 1,740 cases to be disposed of.

The Law for Liberation also provided that criminal offenses by National Socialists or Militarists might be prosecuted outside its provisions. This applied particularly to war crimes and to offenses arising out of National Socialist tyranny. Thus, several hundred war criminals, many of whom were active leading Nazis, were dealt with and punished by Allied and German tribunals independently of the Law for Liberation. Likewise, other top Nazis were tried by the International Military Tribunal in 1946 and by the United States Tribunals which imposed death sentences and long terms of imprisonment on those found guilty of major crimes.

Under the various directives issued by the several state governments, the apprehension and prosecution of persons who had been individually involved in the acts of tyranny and terror which were part and parcel of the Nazi régime have been, and continue to be, undertaken with vigor. The extent to which the German communities have denounced their own members for participating in these acts is one indication of the measure of denazification attained by the German people.

The Law for Liberation operates extensively, and dealt with a problem that was without precedent in history. It was both drafted and implemented by persons who had no precedents and no experience on which to draw since nothing of this character had ever been attempted before. The task was done amid a ferment of emotions and during a period of instability and universal hardship and unrest.

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