The World - News from Jan. 25, 1989
The government of the Netherlands said it is planning to release the last two surviving Nazi war criminals imprisoned in the West immediately after World War II. Franz Fischer, 87, a sergeant-major in the Nazi SS (elite force), and Ferdinand aus der Fuenten, 80, a captain in the SS, were found guilty in 1949 of rounding up and deporting at least 13,000 Jews from The Hague and Amsterdam to concentration camps. The two former Nazis were condemned to death, but their sentences were later commuted to life imprisonment. In a letter to Parliament, Dutch Justice Minister Frederik Korthals Altes said it makes “no sense” to keep the two men in prison any longer.
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