The new law cancels all convictions imposed by courts between 1933 and 1945 for political, military, racial and religious reasons. However, it does not provide for any compensation.

The law passed easily with the votes of Chancellor Kohl's governing Christian Democrats and the Social Democrats. But the Greens abstained, saying the exoneration for deserters and homosexuals was not explicit enough.

Before the vote, some MPs said they were ashamed that it had taken Germany more than half a century to overturn the blatantly unjust convictions handed down by the Nazi courts.

German commentators have termed it a scandal, pointing out that of the half a million people who'll be pardoned under the new bill, only 300 have survived long enough to hear their names cleared.

Though many victims of Nazi injustice did receive financial compensation from the state after the Second World War, they and their relatives fought a lengthy battle for this moral and legal acknowledgement of their suffering.