GERMANY:Chancellor Merkel has rebuked a leading Christian Democrat (CDU) colleague who eulogised an elderly CDU politician as a "resistance fighter" although, as a Nazi-era military judge, he handed down death sentences to deserters.
Last Wednesday in Freiburg, Günther Oettinger, the state premier of Baden-Württemberg, delivered a funeral oration for Hans Filbinger, his predecessor in the job for 12 years until 1978.
Mr Filbinger resigned in disgrace when it emerged that, as a navy judge, he had a hand in at least four death sentences imposed on deserter sailors.
The politician, a former stormtrooper, remained unrepentant about his actions until his death aged 93 last week, memorably saying that "what was right then cannot be wrong now".
Mr Oettinger came under fire for telling the funeral congregation that Filbinger was an "opponent of the Nazi regime" forced to act in circumstances more difficult than today.
"None of his verdicts actually led to anyone losing their life," said Mr Oettinger.
That prompted a furious reaction from Jewish groups and leading German politicians. "To describe Filbinger as an opponent of the regime is more than absurd," said Ms Charlotte Knobloch, head of the Committee of Jews in Germany. "It's a dangerous and . . . a hurtful perversion of the historical reality."
Chancellor Merkel telephoned Mr Oettinger yesterday and, according to a spokesman, said: "I would have wished that in addition to praising the great achievements of Filbinger's life, the critical issues involving the Nazi period got a mention too."
The Filbinger scandal broke in February 1978 when author Rolf Hochhuth revealed that the politician had been brought in as a prosecutor on a case in 1945 against a deserter sailor. The trial took place in a British prisoner of war camp in Norway, where the British allowed former Nazi prosecutors to organise hearings of former soldiers and sailors.
Mr Filbinger said he came late to the case and that the death penalty was already fixed. The sailor was subsequently shot.
"I know of no other death sentence carried out by a German as a prisoner of war of the victorious allies," said Rolf Hochhuth yesterday. "To shoot this 21-year-old he had to borrow 12 rifles from the British."
Mr Filbinger initially denied the claim but resigned six months later when it emerged that he had sentenced three other sailors to death in absentia.