Max Merten (1911–1971) was a high-ranking Nazi official who served as a legal counselor to the military administration in Thessaloniki from 1942 to 1944. He was the man who personally authorized the deportation of more than 50,000 Sephardic Jews to the Auschwitz death camps.
Beyond these atrocities, Merten was responsible for the systematic looting of Jewish property, seizing assets valued at over 125 million gold francs, an astronomical sum for the era. While a portion of this “treasure” was sent to Germany, historians believe the rest was buried somewhere in Northern Greece.
In May 1957, having risen to a senior position within the West German Ministry of Justice, Merten returned to Thessaloniki under the guise of a tourist. One theory suggests he was searching for his hidden wartime loot. However, he was recognized by his former victims and arrested on the orders of Deputy Prosecutor Andreas Tousis, based on a 1947 war crimes warrant.
Diplomatic pressure and the “Merten Law”
Almost immediately following his detention, West Germany exerted intense diplomatic pressure on Athens for his release.
The government of Konstantinos Karamanlis found itself in a difficult position; both nations were now NATO allies and a poverty-stricken Greece was financially dependent on West Germany for loans and labor migration. These pressures reached a boiling point in November 1958, when Karamanlis visited Bonn to negotiate a 200-million-mark loan.
By January 1959, the Karamanlis government introduced a controversial bill to Parliament regarding the “suspension of prosecution for war criminals.” Justice Minister Konstantinos Kallias defended the move, stating it was necessary to “remove obstacles to the development of relations with West Germany.”
The opposition, led by Konstantinos Mitsotakis and Elias Tsirimokos, denounced the bill as an “amnesty for the slaughterers of the Greek people,” accusing the government of bowing to German demands.
Trial, conviction, and political maneuvering of Nazi “Butcher of Thessaloniki”
Under the weight of domestic and international outcry, with The Times of London famously writing, “Greece amnesties its executioners,” the government partially retreated, initially excluding Merten from the law’s application.
Max Merten’s trial began before a Special Military Court in Athens on February 11, 1959. The case drew global attention, attended by legal experts and international journalists. Merten maintained a cold, “Olympian” composure, pleading innocent despite an onslaught of testimony from survivors detailing his crimes. On March 5, 1959, he was found guilty and sentenced to 25 years in prison.
However, the German government’s demands for his release intensified. Fearing political backlash while Resistance hero Manolis Glezos remained imprisoned on political charges, Karamanlis waited for the right moment. That moment came in August 1959, when the government passed Law 4016, mandating the automatic suspension of prosecution and sentences for all German war criminals, with their case files to be handed over to German authorities.
Consequently, Merten was released on November 5, 1959 and deported. Though supposedly sent to serve his sentence in Germany, West German courts fully acquitted him, citing a “lack of evidence.” The “Butcher of Thessaloniki” walked away a free man.
The aftershocks: The Spiegel bombshell
The scandal took a dramatic turn on September 28, 1960, when the German publications Hamburger Echo and Der Spiegel published excerpts from Merten’s testimony. Merten claimed that Prime Minister Karamanlis, Interior Minister Dimitrios Makris, his wife Doxoula, and Deputy Defense Minister Georgios Themelis had actually been German collaborators during the occupation.
The allegations caused a political stir in Athens. While both the Greek and German governments issued categorical denials, the Greek Parliament devolved into chaos, with violent clashes breaking out between ERE and EDA deputies. Makris and Themelis successfully sued Merten for libel in Greek courts in absentia.
While no evidence ever supported the claims against Karamanlis, subsequent research revealed that Makris had maintained close ties with the Germans as a lawyer in occupied Thessaloniki, his wife had served as Merten’s secretary, and Themelis had been a German-appointed Prefect.
Related: Alois Brunner: The Nazi Butcher of Thessaloniki’s Jews
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