Existing comment:
1957 THE BEGINNING OF THE GDR'S BROWN BOOK CAMPAIGN
During the Cold War, the GDR collected a great deal of material against war criminals and Nazi perpetrators in the Federal Republic of Germany.
Between 1957 and 1968, the GDR published a number of so-called "Brown Books", in which it publicised the Nazi past of the West German political, business, legal and academic elites.
Initially dismissed as Communist agitation, the accusations generally turned out to be correct and also aroused international attention. The revelations led to the resignation of Federal Public Prosecutor General Ludwig Fränkel and Hans Krüger, Federal Minister of Displaced Persons.
The West German authorities reacted, more frequently requesting information on senior officials from the Berlin Document Center, where the Nazi Party membership file was kept.
Albert Norden, Member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) and author of the Brown Book, here in 1962 |