I think you missed quite a few - and this is just what is easily available on Wikipedia.
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.[38] Having special connections with the occupiers in order to have someone vouch for them could also shield a person from the denazification laws.[4]: 256 In particular, the districts of Gera, Erfurt, and Suhl had significant amounts of former Nazi Party members in their government,[34] whilst 13.6% of senior SED officials in Thuringia were former members of the Nazi Party. Notable ex-Nazis who eventually became prominent East German politicians included Kurt Nier [de], a deputy minister for foreign affairs, and 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 NPPD, a political party set up by East German authorities upon the encouragement of Stalin explicitly to appeal to former Nazi members and sympathisers, and which functioned as a loyal satellite of the Socialist Unity Party.[39]
Even if we were to give the “denazification” processes of both Germanies the benefit of the doubt - which, to be clear, neither deserves - the process would still have bumped up against reality. It was virtually impossible.
I think you missed quite a few - and this is just what is easily available on Wikipedia.
Even if we were to give the “denazification” processes of both Germanies the benefit of the doubt - which, to be clear, neither deserves - the process would still have bumped up against reality. It was virtually impossible.