10 to 12 Soviet war prisoners
FRANKFURT, (JTA) — T w
Nazi defendants ref used to to undress in subzero cold and
testify, and a third denied ever to stand outside until they
having committed the atrocities froze to death.
of which he is accused, as the
He is also accused of having
trial of 22 former Auschwitz shot down one Jewish inmate
guards, officers and medical per- and to have caused fatal in-
sonnel went on.
juries to another by hitting him
Presiding Justice Hans Hof- on the head with a bottle.
meyer looked on in apparent
The prosecution charged, al-
helplessness as two of the ac- though he refused to talk furth-
cused challenged the court.
er, that Hoffman plied newly
Oswald Kaduk, 57-year-old for- arrived inmates with alcohol
mer butcher, came to the wit- to keep them quiet and "ord-
ness stand when summoned by erly" as they awaited their
Justice. Hofmeyer and, in a turns to enter the gas chambers.
clipped, sharp voice told the
The over-all denial came
court: "I want to make use of from the third defendant call-
my right to decline to testify." ed to the stand, 44-yearold
He stood rigidly at attention as Stefan Baretzki
he uttered this defiance.
When the prosecutor accused
Then, clicking his heels, and him of having developed "a
executing a smart, military special blow" with which to kill
about-face, he marched back to Auschwitz inmates, he replied:
his seat in the defense section "I don't know what to say to
of Frankfurt's City Hall, where that allegation. I never used a
the marathon proceedings are be- so-called 'special blow.'
ing held.
He admitted that at times he
Kaduk was indicted for the did strike "unruly inmates," but
murder of 1,200 Auschwitz vic- he had only slapped them light-
tims and accused of choking ly in the face, he maintained.
many to death through a spec-
In reply to another charge,
ial device which he had invent- which he had specified that
ed.
he had participated in select-
The court had no better luck ting inmates for the gas ovens
with Franz Hoffman, another of at Birkenau, Baretzki said that,
the accused, who had preceded having been only a private he
Kaduk in the witness stand. would never have been assigned
Earlier in the trial he broke to such duty "to which only of-
down and wept, as he denied ficers were assigned."
charges of murdering Ausch-
Shown a photograph of a
witz inmates. Justice Hofmeyer private working with officers
told him in the later session: at the Birkenau death ramp,
"It seems you withheld the he insisted 'that never hap-
truth in your testimony. You pened to me."
weren't very truthful."
Bardetzki conceded that,
When first called to the wit- "once" he shot a man who tried
ness stand, Hoffmann, a former to escape, but said he had not
SS captain, had insisted in testi- killed the man, declaring "the
mony that all 22 defendants man fell on the electric wires
were innnocent.
and was electrocuted."
"We are only the little fish,"
He denied other charges
the 57-year-old heating engineer which accused him of forcing
asserted. "The big shots in Ber- a group of 11 newly arrived in-
lin were the ones who were mates onto the electric wires,
really guilty." He was the ninth and of having shot a woman
defendant to testify in the big- who, upon arriving in the
gest German war crimes trial camp, exclaimed she saw her
since the Nuremberg tribunals brother there.
of 1946.
Bruno Schlage, 60, a guard
Because he was already chief in the arrest block in cell
under sentence of life im- 11, denied having killed anyone.
prisonment for mudering two Though charged with person-
inmates at the Dachau camp,
ally shooting prisoners, he in-
the prosecution expected him sisted his only job was to guard
to testify against other de- the keys to the individual cells
fendants on the premise that in the block.
he had nothing to lose. But
Hans Star k, a 42-year-old
Hoffman carefully refrained farmer, was the first defend-
from doing so.
ant in the trial to admit he
He admitted being on the killed inmates while serving on
arrival ramp at Birkenau sev- the staff of the camp in which
eral times and helping to select between 3,000 and 4,000 victims
inmates to be sent to the gas —most of them Jews—were an-
chambers, but for the most part, nihilated.
he insisted, "my job consisted of
Stark, who served as an SS
keeping peace and quiet in the officer candidate at the camp
camp.'
intermittently from 1940 to
He said that each day, "the
1943, said he had dropped
SS doctors would be told by the
cylinders of Zyklon-B poison
camp commandant how many of gas into the camp's lightly
the new arrivals were to be sealed "old crematorium"
spared for work gangs and how and thus asphyxiated Jewish
men and women.
many were to be killed."
Asked to name the doctors
Speaking calmly and with-
who worked on the platform, self-assurance, the defendant
Hoffman identified several, in- said "it was terrible. "They
cluding Josef Mengele, who has screamed and gasped for 10 to
been reported several times to 15 minutes. Then everything
be hiding in some South Am- was still. "After that, he and
erican country. But Hoffman the SS men who helped drop
carefully avoided mentioning the poison gas into the chamber
any of the doctors among the entered it wearing gas masks.
other 21 defendants.
Stark testified that the
Under questioning by pre-
victims looked grotesque, say-
siding Judge Hans Hofmeyer,
ing "shooting peoeple is one
thing but killing them with
Hoffman at first denied, then
admitted he had personally
gas is inhuman." He said he
sent 40 to 50 children, aged 6
was forced to take part in
- to 12, to the gas chambers. He
such action by Rudolph Hoess,
is also charged with forcing
then the camp commandant,
who, Stark said, "told me
either I help or he could put
me down there with them."
The executions took place in
the fall of 1941 and included
one of the earliest killings by
gas at the camp. Stark petition-
ed the court that he be judged
in accordance with juvenile
laws because he was under 21
when stationed at Auschwitz.
He admitted taking part in
three executions by shooting at
the camp, but insisted that he
had killed prisoners only once
during this time.
On one occasion, he said, he
herded 20 to 30 Jewish women
and children—the latter in-
eluding some only 5 years old—
into the crematorium for execu-
tion by shooting but he did not
himself do any shooting then.
"What did you think at the
time?" Presiding Judge Hans
Hofmeyer asked him.
He replied: "I thought they
had been convicted by a court
or something. I thought it was
all legal."
Conference in Miami
Will Launch Bond Drive
The Israel Bond Organization
wil inaugurate its campaign to
sell $85,000,000 in Israel Bonds
during 1964 at an international
inaugural conference, Feb. 21-
23, at the Fontainebleau Hotel,
Miami, it was announced by Dr.
Joseph J. Schwartz, vice presi-
dent of the Israel Bond Organi-
zation.
Samuel Rothberg of Peoria,
national campaign chairman
of Israel Bonds, will be chair-
man of the conference.
Youth Summer Institute in Israel to Delve Into
Archeological Diggings at Many Famous Sites
NEW YORK — Archeological
diggings have been added to the
seven-week program of the Is-
rael Summer Institute of the
American Zionist Youth Foun-
dation, Inc., for which regis-
tration is beginning.
The new archeological ac-
tivity has been scheduled be-
cause of increased interest
among American youth in par-
ticipating personally in the dis-
covery of Israel's Biblical past.
The diggings will be in ad-
dition to the already sched-
uled tours and hikes to many
archeological sites, such as
Caesarea, Massada and Me-
giddo.
The tours have been part of
the institute, a nonprofit edu-
cational program which was
started 15 years ago.
Since 1949, more than 5,000
American and Canadian youths
have joined the travel-work-
study program, including a
number from the area.
The institute is divided into
a senior division for young
people from 18 to 25 and a
separate junior division for
students 15 to 18.
The program includes a two-
week work period in a kibbutz,
field trips and visits with Israeli
leaders and personalities, such
as President Zalman Shazar,
Prime Minister Levi Eshkol and
Chief Rabbi of Israel Rabbi
Yitzhak Nissim.
The institute, with offices at
515 Park Ave., also said that
as part of the program, stu-
dents can join special interest
groups to see Israel's work in
medicine social welfare, art and
music.
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Members oflandsmanshaften Societies, Bnai Brith Lodges,
Chapters and Friends Are Cordially Invited to an . .
EVENING OF CULTURE AND ENTERTAINMENT
In Honor of Jewish National Fund Month
Thursday, January 30, 1964 at 8:30 p.m.
SCHAVER AUDITORIUM, Labor Zionist Bldg., 19161 Schaefer
Latest Film in Color
from Israel
Refreshments will be served.
Admission—Donation of 50c—NO OTHER SOLICITATIONS
A SPECIAL FEATURE OF THE EVENING
Honor will be bestowed upon Landsmanshaften,
Socoieties who will announce their participation
in "The John F. Kennedy Peace Forest."
The Metropolitan Detroit
Bnai Brith Council
FINEST IN SALES and SERVICE
DICK LURIE FORD
GREENFIELD at 10 MILE ROAD
A GOOD MAN TO KNOW !
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•
1—TH E DETROIT JEWISH NEWS—Frid ay, January 24, 1964
2 Nazis at Auschwitz Trial
Refuse to Testify; 3rd Denies
He Committed Any Crimes