Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1955-12-04
Former Nazis
Ask Restitution
For Internment
By MARGARET KRoHN

s Nortn american newspaper Alllance
3. MUNICH. Dec. 3.-Small fry
ex-Nazis have organized into a
movement demanding ''restitu-
ton for the victims of allied
ppstwar internment camps"
Eligible to join the "Associa-
ton to Promote the Unity of Il
Former Internees" is any Ger
man who was placed in an al
lied internment camp at the wars
end.
The movement frankly aims at
exploiting the hoped-for upsurge
of nationalism in West Germany
stemming from sovereignty and
the collapse of four-power eff
forts to reunify Germany.
The ex-internees are demand
ing payment of 50 a day for each
day spent in an allied internment
camp plus other indemniflcation
for alleged injustices suffered at
the hands of the occupation
powers.
Members No Problem
Chairman of the former in
ternees movement is DR.. Willy
schumacher. a Bonn attorney,
VINO puts the strength of his
gfoup at anywhere from 40, 900
10 100000" He adds:
Members are no problem.
Figure out how many Germans
we're in allied camps and you
will have an idea of how many
members we can enroll"
The Association to Promote
ne Unity of Former Internees"
- publishing a periodical called
Die Anklage (the accusation)
the organ of postwar perse-
entees."
The movement charges that
ne allied internees were de-
pfived of their legal rights. Die
Anklage is not so much con-
Nerned with legal issues, how
ever,as it is in urging its readers
to furnish it with evidence of
'internment camp brutality"
For it is the thesis of the ex-
internee movement that allied
internment camps were no bet
ter than H1tler's concentration
camps.
In demanding payment Of 50
q day for internment camp con-
finement, Dr.. Schumacher's or
ganization asserts that this is
mere aims for the persecution
suffered by 1900 900 Germans
men, women and children"
Lack of Fact Charged
Munich's Sueddeutche lei
tang. one of Germany's most re-
spected independent dailies, as
sailed the ex-internees for
want of tact" in presenting
their restitution" claims.
The Munich Daily pointed out
that the war prisoners returning
from Russia receive only so
cents for each day of confine-
ment and that many Nazi VIC
tins are still waiting for indem-
MITIGATION under the restitution
laws.
THE newly founded organiza-
ton of persecutees,' concluded
Sued-Deutsche Zeitung, would
be we'll advised to recognize pri-
crities established on moral
grounds. and. in general, to soft
pedal its claims.
But the ex-internees are not
the only group of occupation
s'persecutees."
Fighting Discrimination
A radically different grievance
motivates the Organization Of
Former Employees of the Occu-
patton Forces" This organiza-
ton was established to combat
discrimination by German en-
ployers against ex-occupation
force employees on the grounds i
they are ''collaborators."
I DR.. Hans Michel. the organi-
cations president, claims men,.
bership of 100000. DR., Niebel
accuses employers of blacklist
ing Germans employed by the
allied forces and, in cases where
they are hired, blocking their
advancement. In the past some
German employers have even
gone so far as to insert help
wanted advertisements in the
newspapers with the stipulation
that mo former employees of the
Occupation forces need apply"
THE Organization of Former
Employees of the Occupation
Forces" was formed primarily
to exert pressure on the state
and federal governments to pro-
wide jobs for ex-occupation en-
Iployes spurned by private en-
iployers.
| However. the serious German
labor shortage and the iquida-
Ition of the occupation seem to
have eliminated most Of the
serious cases of discrimination
described by DR.. Michel. Such
discrimination has not developed
into a problem so far, and it is
unlikely that it will.
( Organizations such as those
supporting to speak for the ex-
5internee "persecutees" and the
sex-occupation force "discrimin-
5atees" constitute, by themselves.
no great threat to West German
political stability. Instead, they
are significant as symptoms of
the turbulent currents and dark
forces in motion beneath West
sGermany's tranquil surface.
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