1945: “Denazification”
Short phase of measures against former NSDAP members
Immediately after the military collapse of the Third Reich, the Allies began the process of denazification, one of the core goals of the occupation. Members of the elite of the Nazi regime were interred in two camps (in Glasenbach near Salzburg and Wolfsberg in Carinthia) in order to prevent a revival of Nazism under the occupation and to facilitate the prosecution. The most important principle for the denazification of the large mass of former Nazis was to register them in specific registration offices, which were set up as part of the Austrian administration – in Vienna, at the city council (Magistrat). Until April 1, 1948, more than 543,000 people were registered as members of the Nazi Party, the SA or the SS. Initially, the legal basis for “denazification” was the Prohibition Act and the War Crimes Law of June 1945. Criminal prosecution functioned by way of so-called “People’s Court” Tribunals, which conducted numerous trials. With the National Socialist Law of February 1947, an additional attempt was made to legally regulate the question of former Nazis, but on account of the Policy of Amnesty, implemented in 1948, it was hardly effective in the end. With the onset of the Cold War, priorities shifted toward increasing the social reintegration of former Nazis.
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