The libel trial by Austrian Chancellor Josef Klaus against a former concentration camp survivor who charged the chancellor with having been a member of a Nazi storm troop group opened here today.
Viktor Matejka, a leading member of the Austrian Communist party, charged that the Chancellor had been a member of the illegal group in 1938 before the occupation of Austria, Matejka also publicly accused Chancellor Klaus of not having intervene during the Nazi regime for a man named Staudt, who died in a concentration camp. Matekja said Klaus then had the power to do so.
The attorney for the Chancellor submitted a statement at the trial denying that the Chancellor had ever been a member of any Nazi organization and that he could not have intervened for Staudt because he had no connections with the Nazis.
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.
