The World : Nazi Convictions Upheld

West Germany’s highest court affirmed the convictions of two elderly doctors for taking part in the Nazis’ “mercy killing” of more than 11,500 handicapped people. The ruling by the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe ended one of the last major Nazi-related trials in West Germany and closed out 28 years of criminal proceedings against Dr. Aquilin Ulrich and Dr. Heinrich Bunke, both 74. In May, 1987, a Frankfurt court convicted Ulrich and Bunke as accessories to murder for participating in the killing of thousands of people, most of them mentally retarded, during 1940 and 1941. Ulrich and Bunke claimed they were following orders as part of the Nazis’ “euthanasia action,” which also was aimed at physically handicapped people.