Polish authorities in Warsaw began today the trial of Erich Koch, gauleiter of Poland and of the Ukraine, who was responsible for the mass murder of hundreds of thousands of Jews, Poles and Russians.
The last of the German war criminals awaiting trial in Polish courts, Koch today heard the Polish prosecutor demand his death by hanging for inhuman crimes and mass annihilation in ghettoes, concentration camps, forced labor camps and “pacified” villages. It is anticipated that the trial will last about two weeks.
At the war’s end, Koch managed to escape from Poland and made his way to Germany where he lived in hiding for five years. In 1950, branded an international war criminal by an Allied military tribunal, Koch was apprehended by the British in their zone of occupation in West Germany, and handed over to the Poles for justice.
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.
