Franz Novak, an SS transportation officer who was a principal aide to the late Adolf Eichmann, pleaded not guilty a second time here today as his trial proceeded on charges of having issued at least 1,000 orders for the deportation of Hungarian Jews to their deaths at Auschwitz during World War II.
He pleaded not guilty to the major, 70-page indictment, when his trial opened yesterday. Today, the court admitted a second complaint, filed by Ludwig Keepes, a Hungarian merchant, who charged Novak with responsibility for sending his mother, wife and children to Auschwitz, where they were murdered.
Novak told the court today he held only “a subordinate position,” his job involving merely the fore warding of documents “for Jewish emigrants.” Earlier, in Berlin, he said, he had also followed orders involving the evacuation of Jews, issued by his chief, Rolf Guenther.
Asked by the prosecution whether it did not seem strange to him that all the Jews were being sent to Auschwitz, he replied: “No, I thought the Jews were going there to work. In those years, everybody regarded the Jews as enemies of Germany.” The prosecutor was no small handyman, but played an important role.”
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.
