De facto it meant, that practically all old nazis retrieved their civil liberties after a short court procedure. In effect the half-democracy that was deployed after 1949 in the western occupied zones was infiltrated with horrible nazis of all kinds. Even the German chancellor Adenauer accepted such criminals like Globke (who wrote the laws to “save” German blood from Jewish blood in 1935) as his closest aides. Another problem was that no one ever replaced the blood-soaked nazi judges. It is not funny if you find yourself 15 years later before a unchanged court of German judges if you want to rehabilitate your son who was sentenced and executed because of political reasons in 1944 by exactly the same a*sholes. A quite typical situation in Adenauer’s Germany. But... ...just to make one thing clear: The merits of Adenauer are something all Germans owe great respect for, since they were far more important than his failure in respect of those old nazis. Nevertheless it was a fatal error of Adenauer to emerge together with such persons like Globke.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Globke
Maybe you have heard about the notorious German judge Freisler (he sentenced i.e. the members of the “20 July 1944 plot” and the “white Rose” to death). Unlike his victims (some were hanged up on piano strings to asphyxiate them slowly) he died way too fast in early 1945 when he was hit by a American bomb. His widow received a generous pension for the "merits" of her husband until her death in 1987. Such in quite typical for the complete in-consequence against nazism in post-war western Germany.
So there is something to learn from this experience. Old Baathists are not suitable for all positions in a state. No matter if they are useful persons or not.
Thanks for the comments, they are very interesting.