HC Deb 02 July 1947 vol 439 c153W
66. Mr. Platts-Mills

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he is aware that, of 141 officials of the Hamburg Senate Chancellory, 101 are politically discredited persons; that of 359 employees in the legal department, 342 were Nazis; that of 4,843 employees in the education department 3,690 were Nazis; that of 177 employees in the youth department, 131 were Nazis; whether he is satisfied that an administration staffed in this way will help in the democratisation of Germany; and if he will inquire into the matter and make a statement.

Mr. McNeil

I am aware that similar figures have been publicised by the Hamburg Senate and accepted without comment in the Hamburg City Assembly, but public officials in Hamburg, as elsewhere, have been subjected to the ordinary denazification procedure and over 2,500 Germans have, since the end of hostilities, been dismissed from the departments mentioned for Nazi activities. Those who remain were purely nominal Nazis, and I have no reason to suppose that they are not co-operating in our policy of democratisation.