2nd Auschwitz Trial Opened in Germany; Nazi Denies Role

FRANKFURT (JTA) — Wilhelm
Burger, 61, an official at the
Auschwitz death camp charged
with providing the poison gas used
to kill millions of victims there,
sobbed in self-Dity in the dock as
the second trial of Auschwitz per-
began here Tuesday.
2 Wringing his hands, he denied
li oing any wrong and stammered
,fia t "I . . . we . . . didn't know
about all the killing" — a state-
ment that moved presiding Judge
Opper to tell the former Nazi
"I don't believe you."
Burger is one of three de-
fendants in the current trial. The
other two are Gerhardt Neu-
berg, 56, charged with com-
plicity in selecting victims, and
Joseph Erber, 68, charged with
selecting women for death. Be-
tween 3,000,000 and 4,000,000
victims, most of them Jews, died
at the death camp during the
war.
Last August, after a trial that
lasted 21 months, six of 20 Ausch-
witz staff members were sentenced
to life imprisonment at hard
labor, 10 received varying terms,
one received a special sentence
because he was a minor at the
time, and three were acquitted.
* k *

The indictment charged Burger
with ordering and keeping records
on the Zyklon-B gas, as well as
with joining with the other former-
SS men in picking victims for
death.
Weeping throughout his testi-
mony, Burger testified he had been
without work in 1932 and thus
joined the SS. He told of his post-
war days in American and Polish
jails and contended he only sup-
plied food and housing for SS and
Gestapo men stationed at the death
camp in occupied Poland.
West German popular resent-
ment over the war crimes trials
and the hostile reactions they

generate in other countries was
manifested in the sparse attend-
ance at the opening trial session
when only about one fourth of
spectator seats were filled.
The trial is being conducted in
a side street courtroom. A Jewish
survivor who is now residing in
the United States is scheduled to
open prosecution testimony on Dec.
28. He is Norbert Wollheim of
Fresh Meadows, N. Y.
Meanwhile it was officially an-
nounced in Bonn that more than
100 tape recordings of the testi-
mony of all witnesses who ap-
peared at the last long trial of
Auschwitz death camp personnel

will be preserved for use in pos-
sible future investigations.
In Dusseldorf, a former SS
colonel found working under an
assumed name was under arrest
on charges of suspicion of re-
sponsibility in the deaths of 56,-
000 Polish and German Jews and
an undetermined number of Pol-
ish slave laborers.
The State Criminal Office said
Herbert Weygandt, 59, 'who was
also a Gestapo officer during the
war, was spotted in Wuppertal
working as a salesman under the
name of Heinrich Walter. He has
been hiding under an alias for
more than 20 years.

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THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Friday, December 17, 1965-7

at the

BERLIN (JTA) — Dr. Heinrich
Grueber, one of West Germany's
outstanding Protestant clergymen
and a noted friend of the Jewish
people, was awarded here the an-
nual Karl von Ossietsky Medal for
his many years of service "to hu-
manity and, particularly, to the
Jewish people."
The award was bestowed at
ceremonies conducted at the
Jewish Community Center here
by the International League for
Human Rights. Among those who
sent messages of congratulations
to Dr. Grueber were Ambassador
Asher Ben-Nathan, Israel's envoy
to Bonn, and Dr. Werner Stein,
West Berlin senator in charge of
science and art.
The principal speaker, who pre-
sented the medal to Pastor Grue-
ber, was Joseph Wulf, author and
historian, and Jewish Telegraphic
Agency correspondent here, who
received the Karl von Ossietsky
Medal last year.
Wulf lauded the clergyman for
his devotion to human rights, men-
tioning especially his work of
rescuing Jews during the Nazi
egime and the fact that the Nazis
ad imprisoned Dr. Grueber at
uche ,vald for those activities.

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The
address nameplates listing the sup-
porters of the American Nazi Party
throughout the world are among
the seized property of the George
Rockwell group to be auctioned
off soon by the U. S. Internal
Revenue Service.
The Nazi office equipment and
supplies were confiscated by the
government for unpaid taxes. An-
nouncement of the exact date of
the auction has not been made.
Ten days prior notice are required
by law. Rockwell, meanwhile, made
known that he is attempting to
obtain a federal court order to
prevent the auction and regain his
records and equipment.
The Nazi leader Tuesday filed
a damage suit for $100,000
against the federal government
and named Treasury Secretary
Fowler as defendant. He said he
deserves compensation because
of damage allegedly sustained
when the Internal Revenue Ser-
vice seized and padlocked his
headquarters in Arlington, Va.,
Dec. 3.
He made known that he is seek-
ing a meeting with the treasury
secretary to discuss a restraining
order and injuction also sought by
the Nazis to prevent the forthcom-
ing auction of the Nazi properties.

PARIS (JTA) — A new Jewish
school has been built in Agadir
by the .Agadir Jewish community
and the American Friends of the
Alliance Universelle, with funds
from the Moroccan government, to
replace the one destroyed in the
earthquake that shattered the
Moroccan city in 1960.
The building includes two well-
equipped classrooms for 70 pupils,
plus a nursery for 24 infants and
a synagogue.

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German Protestant Leader
Honored as Jews' Friend

U.S. to Auction Off
Address Nameplates
of Rockwell Supporters

Morocco Govt. Aids Jews
in Rebuilding of School

ISRAEL
CHANUKAH
FESTIVAL

LIGHTING THE CANDLES
OF FREEDOM

A MESSAGE FOR ISRAEL

DAVID SAFRAN

Chairman

•

Chanukah Music by

Eric Rosenow

and his Orchestra

ROBERT LURIE

Israel Bond Special Events Chairman

Wednesday, Dec. 22

JEROME SUPERSTINE

of the United Hebrew Schools

8:00p .ems — Cobo Hall

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TICKETS $1.00

8522 West McNichols
CALL
Admission Open to 1965 Israel Bond Purchasers

DI. 1-5707

