The 2017 deceased former Chancellor Helmut Kohl is said to have donated to Nazi criminals as a young politician. This is reported by Spiegelund, which refers to documents that have now emerged. Thus, Kohl had paid around 200 marks per year to Hausser, which collected money for detained Nazi criminals and ir families.

Kohl himself was lucky: he did not have to move to Second World War as a soldier. For this, 1930-born Palatine was a little too young. Kohl had later repeatedly said that he had been granted "grace of late birth". He furr stressed that Germans could not have been guilty of his generation in Nazi period.

The Hausser was a kind of social work of Hiag – "Mutual Fellowship of members of former Waffen-SS", a tradition association of SS. This "social work" was named after Paul Hausser in 1962, a colonel of Waffen-SS, who held cabbage as a "decent man" according to Spiegel. Haussers units in Soviet Union and Italy had committed war crimes. Hausser campaigned with politicians for retirement of his comrades and contributed to concealment of Nazi crimes.

Wreath decomposition at military cemetery

Kohl had ruled Federal Republic from 1982 to 1998 as chancellor. His wreath-laying in Bitburg toger with US President Ronald Reagan became a great German Politskandal: Both statesmen had 40 anniversary of surrender of Wehrmacht in May 1945 at memorial site of KZ Bergen-Belsen and on a Military Cemetery in Bitburg on May 5, 1985 wreaths were laid down. In German and American public spheres caused horror, because in Bitburger cemetery are also buried members of Waffen-SS.

For many historians and political scholars, Chancellor's visit to Bitburg was an obscene gesture, some accused Kohl of a dashing mentality towards crimes of Nazi era. The CDU chancellor fought fiercely against it, he saw himself treated unfairly.

Date Of Update: 04 February 2018, 12:03