Judah Leib Chatzkelewic, accused of the murder of a Polish sergeant in June, 1936, which led to anti-Jewish disorders in Minsk-Mazowiec, told in court yesterday of threatening previously to kill his uncle.
The defendant was certified as insane by the authorities, but the prosecution hold that he was partially responsible for his actions. The trial opened last Wednesday.
In recounting his career, Chatzkelewic said he was expelled from the Bund, Jewish labor organization, in 1929. The editor of the Bundisher Volkezeitung, organ of the Bund, whom the accused told of visiting a few weeks before the slaying of the sergeant, stated that Chatzkelewic wished to publish his experiences in army life, adding that he had given the impression of being a madman.
Father, mother and wife testified today in behalf of Chatzkelewic. The defendant’s relatives said he was a hard-working man earning less than $1 per week.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
