The presiding Judge in the trial of 12 former Nazis being tried for the murder of some 35,000 Jews in Minsk during the German wartime occupation flatly told two former German Judges in the Russian city that he did not believe their statements that they knew nothing about the systematic extermination of Jews in the area.
Statements to that effect were made by Rudolf Baade of Berlin, who was a public prosecutor at Minsk, and Wilhelm Netz of Neustadt, who was counsel to a special court in Minsk. They said they knew nothing about the exterminations in their testimony.
The judge, indicating he was fully acquainted with the slaughter program at Minsk, said “it is difficult for us to believe you.” At that point, Netz said that he had been given some information on the killings by superiors.
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.
