Editing Denazification (section)

===Soviet zone===
From the beginning, denazification in the Soviet zone was considered a critical element of the transformation into a socialist society and was quickly and effectively put into practice.<ref name="auto2">{{Cite book |last=Sperk |first=Alexander |title=Entnazifizierung und Personalpolitik in der sowjetischen Besatzungszone Köthen/Anhalt. Eine Vergleichsstudie (1945–1948). |publisher=Verlag Janos Stekovics |year=2003 |isbn=3-89923-027-2 |location=Dößel |language=de |trans-title=Denazification and personal politics in the Soviet Occupied Zone of Köthen/Anhalt. A comparative study (1945–1948).}}</ref> Members of the [[Nazi Party]] and its organizations were often brutally beaten before being arrested and interned.<ref name="DS">Dieter Schenk: ''Auf dem rechten Auge blind.'' Köln 2001.</ref> The [[NKVD]] was directly in charge of this process, and oversaw the camps. In 1948, the camps were placed under the same administration as the [[gulag]] in the Soviet government. According to official records, 122,600 people were interned. 34,700 of those interned in this process were considered to be Soviet citizens, with the rest being German.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Das Speziallager Nr. 2 1945–1950. Katalog zur ständigen historischen Ausstellung|last=Ritscher|first=Bodo|publisher=Wallstein Verlag|year=1999|isbn=3-89244-284-3|trans-title=Special Camp No. 2 1945–1950. A catalog of the historical site.}}</ref> This process happened at the same time as the expropriation of large landowners and [[Junker]]s, who were also often former Nazi supporters.<ref name=taylor11/>{{rp|p=236-241}}

Because part of the intended goal of denazification in the Soviet zone was also the removal of anti-socialist sentiment, the committees in charge of the process were politically skewed. A typical panel would have one member from the [[Christian Democratic Union (East Germany)|Christian Democratic Union]], one from the [[Liberal Democratic Party of Germany]], one from the [[Democratic Farmers' Party of Germany]], one from the [[National Democratic Party of Germany (East Germany)]], three from the [[Socialist Unity Party of Germany]], three from the [[National People's Army]] and three from political mass organizations (who were typically also supportive of the Socialist Unity Party).<ref>{{Cite book|title=Entnazifizierung in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern: Herrschaft und Verwaltung 1945–1948|last=van Mells|first=Damian|year=1999|isbn=3-486-56390-4|pages=208|publisher=Walter de Gruyter GmbH |trans-title=Denazification in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern: Rule and Administration 1945–1948}}</ref>

[[File:Propaganda gegen Altnazis im Westen, Berlin 1957.jpg|thumb|East German propaganda poster in 1957]]
Former Nazi officials quickly realized that they would face fewer obstacles and investigations in the zones controlled by the Western Allies. Many of them saw a chance to defect to the West on the pretext of [[anti-communism]].<ref name="RG">Ralph Giordano ''Die zweite Schuld.'' Köln 2000.</ref> Conditions in the internment camps were terrible, and between 42,000 and 80,000 prisoners died. When the camps were closed in 1950, prisoners were handed over to the [[East Germany|East German]] government.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Entnazifizierung, Politische Säuberung unter alliierter Herrschaft.|last=Vollnhals|first=Clemens|year=1995|isbn=3-492-12056-3|location=Munich|pages=377|trans-title=Denazification, Political cleansing under Allied administration}}</ref>

Because many of the functionaries of the Soviet occupation zone were themselves formerly prosecuted by the Nazi regime, mere former membership in the NSDAP was initially judged as a crime.<ref name="DS"/>

Even before denazification was officially abandoned in [[West Germany]], East German propaganda frequently portrayed itself as the only true [[anti-fascist]] state, and argued that the West German state was simply a continuation of the Nazi regime, employing the same officials that had administered the government during the Nazi dictatorship. From the 1950s, reasoning for these accusations focused on the fact that many former functionaries of Nazi regime were employed in positions in the West German government. However, East German propaganda also attempted to denounce as Nazis even politicians such as [[Kurt Schumacher]], who had been imprisoned by the Nazi regime himself.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Der große Plan - Alltag und Herrschaft in der DDR 1949–1961|last=Wolle|first=Stefan|publisher=Ch. Links Verlag|year=2013|isbn=978-3-86153-738-0|pages=205–207|trans-title=The Greatest Plan: Everyday life and governance in the GDR 1949–1961}}</ref> Such allegations appeared frequently in the official [[Socialist Unity Party of Germany]] newspaper, the ''[[Neues Deutschland]]''. The [[East German uprising of 1953]] in Berlin was officially blamed on Nazi ''[[agents provocateurs]]'' from [[West Berlin]], who the ''Neues Deutschland'' alleged were then working in collaboration with the Western government with the ultimate aim of restoring Nazi rule throughout Germany. The [[Berlin Wall]] was officially called the Anti-Fascist Security Wall ({{langx|de|link=no|Antifaschistischer Schutzwall}}) by the East German government.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/rare-east-german-photographs-the-other-side-of-the-berlin-wall-a-774232.html|title=Rare East German Photographs: The Other Side of the Berlin Wall|year=2011|work=Spiegel Online|access-date=July 2, 2013}}</ref> As part of the propagandistic campaign against West Germany, [[Theodor Oberländer]] and [[Hans Globke]], both former Nazi leaders involved in genocide, were among the first federal politicians to be denounced in the GDR. Both were sentenced to life imprisonment in absentia by the GDR in April 1960, and in July 1963.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Weinke |first=Annette |title=Die Verfolgung von NS-Tätern im geteilten Deutschland |publisher=Schöningh |year=2002 |isbn=978-3506797247 |pages=157}}</ref> The president of West Germany [[Heinrich Lübke]], in particular, was denounced during the official commemorations of the liberation of the concentration camps of [[Buchenwald concentration camp|Buchenwald]] and [[Sachsenhausen concentration camp|Sachsenhausen]] held at the GDR's National Memorials.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Tillack-Graf |first=Anne-Kathleen |title=Erinnerungspolitik der DDR. Dargestellt an der Berichterstattung der Tageszeitung "Neues Deutschland" über die Nationalen Mahn- und Gedenkstätten Buchenwald, Ravensbrück und Sachsenhausen. |publisher=Peter Lang |year=2012 |isbn=978-3-631-63678-7 |location=Frankfurt am Main |pages=49–50}}</ref>

However, in reality substantial numbers of former Nazis rose to senior levels in East Germany. For example, those who had collaborated after the war with the Soviet occupation forces could protect Nazi members from prosecution, enabling them to continue working.<ref name="auto">Kai Cornelius, ''Vom spurlosen Verschwindenlassen zur Benachrichtigungspflicht bei Festnahmen'', BWV Verlag, 2004, pp. 126ff, {{ISBN|3-8305-1165-5}}</ref> Having special connections with the occupiers in order to have someone vouch for them could also shield a person from the denazification laws.<ref name=taylor11/>{{rp|p=256}} In particular, the districts of [[Gera]], [[Erfurt]], and [[Suhl]] had significant amounts of former Nazi Party members in their government,<ref name=":0" /> whilst 13.6% of senior [[Socialist Unity Party of Germany|SED]] officials in Thuringia were former members of the Nazi Party. Notable ex-Nazis who eventually became prominent East German politicians included {{ill|Kurt Nier|de}}, a deputy minister for foreign affairs, and [[Arno von Lenski|Arno Von Lenski]], a parliamentarian and major-general in the East German army who had worked in [[Roland Freisler]]'s notorious Volksgerichthof trying opponents of the Nazi government as an effective "kangaroo court". Von Lenski was a member of the [[National Democratic Party of Germany (East Germany)|NPPD]], a political party set up by East German authorities upon the encouragement of [[Joseph Stalin|Stalin]] explicitly to appeal to former Nazi members and sympathisers, and which functioned as a loyal satellite of the [[Socialist Unity Party of Germany|Socialist Unity Party]].<ref>[[Vladislav Zubok|Zubok, Vladislav]]. ''A failed empire: the Soviet Union in the Cold War from Stalin to Gorbachev.'' The University of North Carolina Press, 2007, p. 89.</ref>