Britain opens inquiry into hiring of Nazis after war

THE FOREIGN Office launched an "urgent investigation" yesterday into claims that Britain helped to place more than 100 German scientists in military research jobs in Australia after the Second World War.

According to the allegations, which surfaced in newly declassified Australian government files, Britain and the United States handpicked the scientists and sent them to Australia to prevent them being poached by the Soviet Union.

Of the 127 who entered the country between 1946 and 1951, 31 were known Nazi Party members. Ten of the scientists worked for the German chemical company that invented Zyklon-B, the poison gas used to kill inmates of concentration camps.

In Australia, some of them were employed on secret defence projects including weapons development and rocket research at Woomera in South Australia.

The claims, which were first published in The Sydney Morning Herald, provoked an angry reaction from Jewish groups, including the Board of Deputies of British Jews.

Jo Wagerman, the vice- president of the board, wrote to the Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook, yesterday. "It is of very great concern that people who may have been guilty of the most horrendous crimes were shielded from justice in this way," she wrote. "It is vitally important that the veil of secrecy is lifted from this horrendous period."

A spokesman for the Foreign Office said: "We are investigating the claims as a matter of urgency. We recognise the sensitivities of the Jewish people who are concerned about this. We are taking this extremely seriously and we will be informing the interested parties of what we find out."

The files reportedly show that Western powers were concerned that German scientists would be recruited by Stalin for the Soviet Union's rearmament programme.

The Herald claimed that Britain had invited Australia to "bid" for the scientists in a secret cable in September 1945.

Mrs Wagerman said: "While we recognise that as the Cold War started there was concern that the West did not lose parity with the Soviet Union in defence matters, the fact that senior Nazis were rehabilitated in this way cannot be excused. There can be no statute of limitation on war criminals and we hope that Britain will play its part in bringing this episode to a close."

An investigation by the Australian government 13 years ago concluded that German scientists were not recruited under the scheme "if they were considered unacceptable due to their association with the Nazi Party".

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry criticised Australia for not revealing the reported recruitment scheme in the 1986 report.

"When these people came to Australia the graves [of Jews in Europe] were still warm," said Jeremy Jones, national vice- president of the council. "Australia must reopen its investigation unit and look at these scientists."