As Germany commemorates the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Nazi concentration camps, FRANCE 24 looks at the slowly-ending hunt for Nazis in the country. After the Nuremberg trials it seemed as if the trail had gone cold on Nazi war criminals. And it was only in 2009 that the hunt for Nazis resumed with the trial of John Demjanjuk. Anne Mailliet, François Rihouay, Willy Mahler and Nick Holdworth report.
After the Nuremberg trials conducted by the Allies, and the Auschwitz trials in Frankfurt in the 1960s, Germany abandoned the prosecution of Nazi war criminals for decades as the judicial system was itself riddled with former Third Reich officials.
Since then, it has become possible to convict people without direct evidence, but simply because they were present at the scene of the crime – most often, concentration camps.
The German justice system and the legal experts who worked for the Central Office for Clarifying the Crimes of National Socialism in Ludwigsburg have tried to make up for the mistakes of the past. But Nazi hunting is drawing to a close.
In the last 15 years, only five people have been convicted for their role in the Final Solution.
A few cases are still being processed in what is seen as a race against time as they involve suspects already pushing 100 years old.
Despite the fact that none of those convicted in recent years have served their sentences due to their advanced age, some survivors have been able to regain their faith in justice.
Leave a Comment