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80,000 Lodz Jews Killed in One Night at Oswiecim, Jewish Doctor Testifies

October 2, 1945
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Eighty-thousand Jews from Lodz were gassed and burned to death in one night at Oswiecim, Dr. Sigismund Bendell, a Jewish physician who was forced to work among the internees, testified today before the British military court trying 45 former guards at Oswiecim and Belsen.

Dr. Bendell, who said that he had been deported to Oswiecim from Paris, also described how an SS doctor named Mengle used Jews as guinea pigs in experiments on a drug which would cause instantaneous death. He stated that the Nazi physician was particularly interested in twins, adding that “he experimented with them, but that was not enough. He wanted to see them dead and took dalight in looking at them.”

The prosecution’s case against the 45, who are headed by Josef Kramer, the “Beast of Belsen,” is expected to be completed by Wednesday, Prosecutor T.M. Backhouse said.

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