Brains Behind Nazi Police in Holland Confesses Guilt in Deportation of Jews (Direct JTA Teletype Wire to The Jewish News) MUNICH—Former SS Gen. Wil- helm Harster, 62, commander of the Nazi Security Police in oc- cupied Holland during World War II, confessed in open court here Wednesday that he was guilty of participation in the deportation of 80,000 Dutch Jews to Nazi exter- mination camps. With two of his principal aides —ex-Maj. Wilhelm Zoepf and Ger- trud Slotke—he has been on trial here since Monday, accused in 23 indictments of deporting to the death camps a total of 94,398 Dutch Jews, of whom all but 1,070 had perished, chiefly at Auschwitz and Sobibor. Testifying as the principal de- fendant, Harster told the court under interrogation by the prosecu- tion "the fact that I did not have these 80,000 transferred to other jobs makes me morally and legally guilty, for which I must atone." He confessed that, from the very start of the "big deporta- tions" in July 1942, he knew the Jews would be killed in the camps to which they were sent. Although he had not known the details about what was happen- ing in the extermination camps, he said, he had learned of the mass murders from listening to British broadcasts. He stated that he had not dared ask his SS colleagues whether the BBC reports about mass extermina- tion of Jews were true, and had received no information about these occurrences from his su- periors. Then he added: "The de- portations were strategic and economic madness." Harster told the court that the deportees included old people, in- valids, women, children and the mentally ill. He said that only the "wealthy, overseas Jews" were allowed to leave Holland, "most of them with the loss of their fortunes." Under instructions from Berlin. he testified, each of the well-to-do Jews had to pay at least 20,000 Swiss Francs before they were allowed to emigrate. The former SS chief testified it was his opinion, while he headed the deportation program in the Netherlands, that Germany would not win the war. "I thought," he said, "that defeat was my coun- try's unavoidable fate." The court adjourned its sessions until Fri- day. Harster admitted at the trial Tuesday that a court in the Netherlands had convicted him of "abuse of duty" but that the administration of the West Ger- man state of Bavaria neverthe. less gave him a civil service post with "full knowledge" of his Dutch record. While Harster and his two co- defendants were testifying, mem- bers of the Association of Victims of Nazy Persecu- tions picketed outside the court. house. The pick- eting was begun when the trial opened. The demon-' strators carried placards showing the portrait of Anne Frank Anne Frank, the young girl whose diary had become famous through- out the world, and distributed leaflets accusing Harster of hav- ing been "the most successful and most cruel of the murderers of Dutch Jews." Miss Frank was one of the vic- tims of the Dutch-Jewish deporta- tions. She died at Bergen-Belsen. The two other defendants also testified Tuesday and admitted to having been members of the Nazi Party since 1933, the year Hitler eame to power. Miss Slotke, 64, acted as Harster's secretary as well as chief of the women's divi- sion of the department he headed in Holland, dealing with the Jews. Zoepf, 58, had been Harster's principal aide. Arrested in Holland after the war, Harster was convicted by a Dutch court and sentenced to 12 years' imprisonment. After serving six years, he was freed. He returned to Germany, where a denazification court declared him "mildly incriminated." In 1956, the Bavarian civil service appointed him to a school de- partment post in Upper Bavaria, specializing in community fi- nances. He retired three years ago "on grounds of illness," and has been living on a civil serv- ice pension. Appearing in the court room in full SS officer's uniform, Harster told the court he had studied law, as a youth, at Erlangen University, joined the Nazi Party in 1933, serv- ing in the police division and ad- vancing rapidly to a high post in the security division which he headed in occupied Holland. In her testimony, Miss Slotke said she knew when she worked under Harster in Holland that his office "was concerned with the Jews." Zoepf claimed in testifying that he had tried unsuccessfully, after being sent to Holland to aid Harster, to get a transfer because "what was being done to the Jews was a dreadful crime." Among the witnesses scheduled charges. About 150 witnesses will to appear at the trial for the testify in the trial, which is ex- prosecution is Otto Frank, father pecetd to last three months. * * of the late Anne Frank. * * Jan. 21 at his war crimes trial in Detnold that he had personally shot Jews, but "only a maximum" of three. The 71-year-old Nazi, who is charged with multiple wartime Nazi Admits He Picked murders of Jews, said he had been Trial in Budapest of 19 Jews for Death, Shot Some stationed in a forced labor camp for Mass Murder in '44 BONN (JTA)—Willi Schulz, a in Mogilev in occupied Russia, VIENNA (JTA)—Nineteen for- former Nazi policeman, admitted -where he guarded 150 prisoners. mer members of the Arrow-Cross pro-Nazi organization in wartime THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Friday, January 27, 1967-11 Hungary are on trial in Budapest on charges of murdering 230 Budapest men, women and chil- dren, including many Jewish vic- tims. There is no statute of limita- Appreciate tions for such crimes in Hungary. 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