BERLIN (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 20th November, 2020) A portrait of Hans Globke, a civil servant linked to the persecution of Jews in the Third Reich, is hanging in Angela Merkel's office as part of the gallery of other chancellery chiefs of staff and has an explanatory note about his "sad role," the German cabinet has said, commenting on the controversial issue.
"The portrait is hanging in the chancellery in a long row of portraits of chiefs of staff of the chancellery," cabinet spokesman Steffen Seibert told a briefing.
He added that the portrait had an attached "information plate that clearly describes the sad role of this politician." The official noted that the decision had been made with the participation of a commission of historians.
Lawyer Globke was not a Nazi party member in the Third Reich, but co-authored anti-Semitic legislation, including the Nuremberg Laws, which paved the way for the Holocaust.
He proposed establishing special badges for the Jewish population of Germany and prohibiting marriages between Jews and Germans. Globke also initiated a requirement for German Jews to take "Israel" or "Sarah" as a middle name.
At the Nuremberg trials, Globke appeared as a witness. In Soviet-controlled East Germany, he, as a Nazi war criminal, was sentenced in absentia to life in prison.
In West Germany, Globke served as the chancellery chief of staff from 1953 to 1963 and was considered to be one of the most influential officials of the time.
Friday marks the 75th anniversary of the beginning of the year-long international tribunal in Nuremberg for the prosecution of Nazi war criminals.
