On 15 July 1941, Just, then 20, participated in the firing squad of six Jews rounded up from a village near Kholm, an incident which he recorded in his diary.

That year, he was arrested for anti-constitutional activities ("inciting to boycott") for his involvement with the writing of articles critical of the regime.

At the trial, prosecutor Ernst Melsheimer read out the contents of his diary, which had been uncovered by the Stasi, to the court.

Just served in the Brandenburg State Parliament (as its Alterspräsident, or "chairman by seniority") in the newly unified Germany until he was forced to resign in 1992, after confirming allegations from Stasi archives that he'd participated in wartime atrocities on the Eastern Front during the war.

Heinz Galinski, the chairman of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, demanded further investigation and a criminal prosecution against Just.

At the time, there was controversy over allegations that the Social Democrat government of Manfred Stolpe in Brandenburg had known about Just's past for several years, but remained silent.