Editing Konrad Adenauer (section)

==== Ending denazification ====
In a speech on 20 September 1949, Adenauer denounced the entire [[denazification]] process pursued by the Allied military governments, announcing in the same speech that he was planning to bring in an amnesty law for the Nazi war criminals and he planned to apply to "the High Commissioners for a corresponding amnesty for punishments imposed by the Allied military courts".{{sfn|Frei|2002|p=3}} Adenauer argued the continuation of denazification would "foster a growing and extreme nationalism" as the millions who supported the Nazi regime would find themselves excluded from German life forever.{{sfn|Herf|1997|p=217}} He also demanded an "end to this sniffing out of Nazis."<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/from-dictatorship-to-democracy-the-role-ex-nazis-played-in-early-west-germany-a-810207.html|title = From Dictatorship to Democracy: The Role Ex-Nazis Played in Early West Germany|newspaper = Der Spiegel|date = 6 March 2012|last1 = Beste|first1 = Ralf|last2 = Bönisch|first2 = Georg|last3 = Darnstaedt|first3 = Thomas|last4 = Friedmann|first4 = Jan|last5 = Fröhlingsdorf|first5 = Michael|last6 = Wiegrefe|first6 = Klaus}}</ref> By 31 January 1951, the amnesty legislation had benefited 792,176 people. They included 3,000 functionaries of the SA, the SS, and the Nazi Party who participated in dragging victims to jails and camps; 20,000 Nazis sentenced for "deeds against life" (presumably murder); 30,000 sentenced for causing bodily injury, and about 5,200 charged with "crimes and misdemeanors in office.<ref>{{Cite magazine |url=https://newrepublic.com/article/66780/amnesty-and-amnesia |title=Amnesty and Amnesia By Jeffrey Herf March 10, 2003 Adenauer's Germany Nazi Past: The Politics of Amnesty and Integration By Norbert Frei |magazine=The New Republic |access-date=2 September 2017 |archive-date=25 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210825025151/https://newrepublic.com/article/66780/amnesty-and-amnesia |url-status=live }}</ref>