.14400100 • ` 111,1!". 711 11•f-4/ ":fix t THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Friday, May 1, 1982. Old Legal Hitch Prevents Nazi's Trial in West Germany By PETER HENKEL (Editor's note: This re- vealing article was first published in German in the Koelner Stadt - Anzei- ter. It is reprinted from the German Tribune of Hamburg where it ap- - CASH mammas& FOR YOUR PREUOUS JEWELS * re "iczaptdale Scdpg cf Scull 755 W.Big Beaver Rd. (16 mile at 1-75) Troy, Michigan Phone: 313-362-4500 peared in English trans- lation.) An SS officer who was too brutal for the SS and who according to evidence, played the harmonica while Jews were slaughtered on his orders, cannot be prose- cuted. He was sentenced to 10 years by an SS court in 1943. No one can be prose- cuted twice for the same of- fense, according to the Basic Law of the 1949 Bonn con- stitution. Yet his SS conviction was not because of the actual killings. It was because he had been excessively brutal in carrying out the slaughters and because-.he had taken photographs of murder and torture. He was Let the RAIN DOCTOR 11:5( write the best prescription for your sprinkler needs Jeffrey Schreiber 968-0487 No Sabbath Calls THE KNITTING NOOK W. Bloomfield Plaza 6666 Orchard Lake Rd. Open Mon.-Sat. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. "THIS AIN'T NO YARN" The Knitting Nook has great yarn patterns & classes CALL 851-8188 GREEN WORLD LAWN SPRAY 305 Livernois Ferndale, Michigan LI 5-2111 Technical knowledge insuring the latest methods of lawn care: Our formula of lawn nutrients is carefully planned and con- trolled. The timing of our services will give your lawn the best care at a minimum cost. MEMBER: Michigan Association of Nurserymen, Metropolitan Detroit Landscaping,Assn., Michigan Sod Growers Assn., Lawn Sprayers Assn. of Michigan, American Sod Producers Assn., Professional Lawn Care Assn. of America. BILL OLSEN, Owner, Ornamental Horticulturist, MSU Call 545-2111 for Free Estimate in 1945 personally par- doned by Himmler. Untersturmfuhrer Max Taub,ner,- 71, is still alive, although ill in Bavaria. There have been at- tempts to bring him to justice since 1959, but these have failed on the legal point. According to evidence in a Stuttgart war crimes trial, Taubner led an SS vehicle maintenance squad on a tour of the Ukraine, killing Jews. Out of hatred for the Jews and loyalty to Hitler and Himmler, he had wanted to kill 20,000. He reached nearly 1,000 and prided himself on photos of torture and mas- sacre. Now some of Taubner's junior officers are in the dock in Stuttgart. Johann Hermann, 65, is one of the accused. He seems overcome by shame when mention is made of one, incident in which he took part in 1941 in the Ukraine. He shot from behind, a shot aimed at the heart, a Jewess standing on the edge of a mass grave. A number of his comrades aimed at their victims' heads. All the victims, mainly women and children, had been beaten and humiliated before they died. The SS felt Taubner had overstepped the mark. He was arrested. In 1943 Taubner, an engineer, was sentenced to 10 years' im- prisonment by an SS court in Munich. The Munich • court ruled that the Jews who died were no loss to man- kind but that Taubner had allowed his men to behave in a crude and unsoldierly manner and thus failed in his duty as an officer. His behavior, the bench said, was altogether unbe- fitting of a man of honor. In the Stuttgart case he was merely questioned at his home by the examining magistrate. Taubner, who was seri- ously injured in active serv- ice after his pardon, claims as a result of his injury to be virtually unable to recall anything that happened to him between 1937 and the end of the war. Hermann is saying nothing to the Stuttgart trial — on his counsel's advice. He was only a minor, • peripheral member of the 30-man squad whose role was in fact merely to service the vehicles of the 1st SS Brigade. The main accused, Hein- rich Hesse, is said to have been Taubner's deputy and one of his four or five cronies who invariably joined him on his gruesome missions Dignity of position adds to dignity of character, as well as to dignity of carriage. Give us a proud position, and we are impelled to act up to it. —Bovee Hesse had a heart attack in 1974. He is a pale figure, 70, and only fit to give evi- dence for a few hours at a time. officers, intervened. associated Hesse admitted They were unable to to the court: stand the screams of the "I regret to say that I was bruised, battered and dy- used to saying eyes sir,' and carrying out orders." ing. The following day Hesse By and large, ex-SS is said, on orders from Hauptscharfuhrer Hesse Taubner, to have shot a does not deny having com- number of survivors. He mitted the offenses of which then claims to have asked a he is accused. superior officer whether Yet with a gesture of de- more humane methods of fiance Hesse is also on re- killing might not be used. cord as having said that In connection with an- under Taubner he had other mass execution of 30 learned what it was to carry Jews with which he was out orders properly. He, Taubner and others are alleged to have beaten and shot to death a group of Jews in a potato cellar in Alexandria. They are said to have swung clubs at their victims' genitals. This massacre was only brought to an end when other soldiers, and not 4- 4-4-4 1-4-4-*****-1F-4-*-4-4-4-1F-4-10-4-4** NO COINS! " UNIL MITE -11) PLAY!!! FREE DEL I% ER'S !!: TOP OFF * YOUR NEXT * PARTY 4r ■ A-1 VIDEO GAMES RENTALS *. o, CALL 827.8880 * THE BEST IN ARCADE STYLE GAMES Pac Man Centipede Froggcr Stargate Defender Donkey' Kong And More!!! 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