The Simon Wiesenthal Center today strongly condemned the ruling issued
yesterday by the German Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig
which granted significant financial restitution to the son of
a Nazi official whose property had been confiscated after the
World War II in punishment for his active support of the Nazi
regime.
The person in question, Karl Krasting joined the Nazi party in
1930. From 1931 until 1934 he was a party judge in a regional district,
and later served as an official who helped decide local policy,
a member of the Nazis' lawyer association and director of the office
for legal affairs of the NSDAP on the same level. Yet according
to the deision rendered yesterday in the the 3rd Senate of the
Federal Administrative Court
by Judge Dieter Kley, Krasting did not "actively" support
the Nazi regime, paving the way for his son to receive compensation.
"This verdict clearly minimizes the criminal responsibility
of those who actively supported the Nazis before and after the
takeover of power,“ said Dr.Efraim Zuroff, the Center's chief
Nazi-hunter in a statement issued today in Israel and Germany.
According to Zuroff:
"The fact that Krasting volunteered and worked without a
salary for the NSDAP is clear proof of his ideological and active
support for the Nazis, in direct contradiction of the court's decision.This
verdict sends an absolutely disastrous message in terms of its
presentation of the historical events of the Third Reich which
are being severely distorted."
In 1948, the Soviet military confiscated two houses belonging
to Krasting in Dippoldiswalde/Saxonia. His son Wolf-Achim Krasting
called for restitution. But the city of Dresden and the local
administrative court initially refused the claim. The recent
decision of the Federal Court has extremely significant implications.
In Saxonia alone, there are already about 5500 similar cases
pending.
"If people like Krasting did not "actively" support
the Nazi regime, then who did? Were the crimes of the Third Reich
committed by ghosts?" Zuroff added.
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