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12 to Face German Trial Monday for Killing 250,000 Jews at Sobibor

September 3, 1965
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Announcement was made here today that a trial will open Monday, at Hagen, for 12 former Nazi guards at the Sobibor death camp in Poland. The defendants are charged with complicity in the murder of 250,000 Jews in the camp. Former SS Sgt. Kurt Bolender, 53, the chief defendant is charged with murder in 360 cases and complicity in 84,000 other murders.

Meanwhile at Kiel, the trial continued today for former SS Lt. Col. Martin Fellenz. He is on trial for a second time in connection with the wartime slaughter of 40,000 Jews in the Krakow area in occupied Poland in 1942.

The 55-year-old businessman was first tried in 1962 in Flensburg. He was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment on conviction of aiding in two of the murders. He was released shortly afterward because the court had ordered deduction of his pre-trial detention period from his term. The Flensburg prosecutor’s office ordered his re-arrest, and the Federal High court ordered the re-trial.

About 140 withesses have been called for the second trial. Fifty are from Israel, and the others from the United States, France, Canada and Austria.

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