The full identities of 13 high-ranking Nazis who were responsible for the murder and deportation of numerous Jews and Czechs during World War II were disclosed at a press conference held last month in Prague. But an even more wanted Gestapo chief and master criminal has been living in freedom in Egypt because Czechoslovakia refused, four years ago, to ask Egypt to extradite him for trial, it was learned here today.
Among the 13 names, three are conspicuous for having been the chiefs of Gestapo in Czechoslovakia during the war: “Obsersturmbansfuhrer” Ernst-Joachim Illmer; Deputy Gestapo Commander for Prague, Willhelm Noelle and Dr. Bruno Lettow, who directed the Gestapo’s activities in Brno. According to Simon Wiesenthal, director of the Vienna Documentation Center, the three now reside in West Germany, are neither charged with any crimes nor ostracized, and “live in good economic conditions.”
Their chief, according to the Czechoslovakian list, was SS General Dr. Erich Weinmann, the former Gestapo chief of Prague, known to be residing now in Alexandria, Egypt. Dr. Weinmann was considered dead by the West German authorities. According to reports, he had been killed in battle at the end of World War II. After the Central Office for Investigation of Nazi Crimes in Ludwigsburg was informed of his whereabouts, the “death certificate” of the former Gestapo chief was checked, and in 1967 his file was reopened. The Czechoslovakian Association of Former Partisans and Anti-Nazi Fighters approached its own government in Prague, four years ago, asking that Czechoslovakia demand from Cairo the extradition of Dr. Weinmann as a war criminal. Prague, however, declined to do so out of foreign policy considerations of its own.
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.
