§ 94. Mr. Lewisasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs if he will make a statement on the arrest by the British authorities in January, 1953 of Dr. Naumann and other Nazis; the details of the agreement entered into with the West German Government on 26th March, 1953, when handing these Nazis over to the German Government for trial; and the result of the investigations and prosecution which were promised by the German Chancellor.
§ Mr. TurtonAs my right hon. Friend said in the House in January, 1953, seven former leading Nazis, including Dr. Naumann were arrested in the British Zone of Germany, with his authority, on 95W the instructions of the United Kingdom High Commissioner. They were detained with a view to ascertaining to what extent their activities and their contacts within and without the Federal Republic constituted a threat to the security of the Allied forces.
The investigations continued until March, 1953, when, at the request of the Federal Chancellor, Dr. Naumann and his associates, together with the documents and evidence collected during the investigation, were handed over to the German authorities for whatever action might be considered appropriate by them in the German courts.
No agreement was entered into between Her Majesty's Government and the German Federal Government at the time of the handover or at any other time. Dr. Bornemann, another leading associate of Naumann's, was subsequently taken into custody by the German authorities themselves.
In answer to the last part of the Question, the case against six of the arrested men was dropped by the Federal authorities at the end of June, 1954. On 3rd December, the German Federal Supreme Court decided to drop the case against Naumann and Bornemann. The ground is reported to have been lack of evidence that Naumann had succeeded in founding an effective association hostile to the constitutional order, as must be shown to the satisfaction of the court in a case of this kind under German law.