Vienna police officials disclosed today that Jan Verbelen, a former Belgian SS officer who has been under arrest here for more than a year, lived here for three years using the identity documents of a Jewish jewel dealer he deported.
The officials said Verbelen used the name of Isaac Meisels, who was deported from Amsterdam in 1943 to the Nazi concentration camp in Drancy, France, and presumably murdered. Meisels’ relatives in Amsterdam have heard nothing from him since the deportation. Verbelen was found to have used Meisel’s identity papers and other documents.
A Belgian court sentenced Verbelen to death in absentia for war crimes. He escaped extradition by becoming an Austrian citizen.
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.
