Nazi "war traitors" set to win general rehabilitation
An estimated 100,000 people were convicted as ”war traitors” by the Nazis. Some 30,000 of them were sentenced to death, and the death penalties were actually carried out in about 20,000 cases.
Laws on war traitors originated in 1872 following the Franco-German war and were adapted by the Nazis in 1934. Starting then, Germans could be convicted of treason for making negative comments about Hitler, treating POWs too well, helping Jews to flee, or possessing a leaflet calling for an end to the Nazi dictatorship.
Today, although most of the dictatorship's victims have been fully rehabilitated, the question of how to deal with war traitors has remained a largely unresolved issue.
Read entire article at Deutsche Welle
Laws on war traitors originated in 1872 following the Franco-German war and were adapted by the Nazis in 1934. Starting then, Germans could be convicted of treason for making negative comments about Hitler, treating POWs too well, helping Jews to flee, or possessing a leaflet calling for an end to the Nazi dictatorship.
Today, although most of the dictatorship's victims have been fully rehabilitated, the question of how to deal with war traitors has remained a largely unresolved issue.