Two New Yorkers, testifying at the Grodno was crimes trial here today identified the defendant, Kurt Weiser, as the man who cold-bloodedly murdered Jews in that city on Jan. 18, 1943, and on other occasions. Their testimony brought to five the number of eye-witness accusations against Weiser by Grodno survivors now living in the United States. He was identified on Monday by three Chicago residents.
But the New Yorkers who testified today differed with each other on details. According to Sylvia Kersch, who lived in the Grodno ghetto from the beginning of 1941 to March, 1943, Jews selected for deportation to Auschwitz were temporarily herded into the synagogue. Weiser started shooting into the crowd which was so densely packed that the victims could not fall, she said. Asked by the judge if she was certain it was Weiser, she replied, “I saw him shooting.”
The other witness, Boris Sulkies, 51, recalled the scene but said that Weiser only entered the synagogue and shot out the lights. He testified, however, that on another occasion he had seen the defendant, wearing white gloves, kill two men and hang a Jewish girl, Lena Bresska. The girl, according to Sulkies, spat in Weiser’s face and shouted, “some day you’ll pay dearly for this.” One of the two men was hanged for not informing on an attempt by the girl to escape, Sulkies testified.
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.
