Search JTA's historical archive dating back to 1923

Voices of Dead Heard at Nazi’s Trial

September 25, 1991
See Original Daily Bulletin From This Date
Advertisement

People who are no longer alive bore witness in a Stuttgart court last Friday to the deliberate murder of Jewish children by Josef Schwammberger while he was commandant of two concentration camps in Poland during World War II.

The latest accusations against the 79-year-old former SS officer stem from depositions given by witnesses who died before the wanted war criminal was extradited from Argentina last year.

One of them, Isaak Hamel, testified he saw Schwammberger force a woman with a baby to undress and then machine-gunned both of them.

Another deposition contained testimony the late Mary Hoch gave to a Hamburg court several years ago. She said she saw Schwammberger at the scene when children were being thrown from the windows of a Jewish orphanage.

According to the witness, the children who survived the plunge were shot to death.

Schwammberger has been on trial since June 26 for war crimes committed when he headed the concentration camps of Przemsyl and Rozwadow. He is charged directly with the murder of 45 people and complicity in the murders of 3,377 people.

Recommended from JTA

Advertisement