Fourteen Germans, one of them in charge of the Criminal Investigations Department of a German state until his arrest in 1959, went on trial here today on charges of the mass murder of at least 30, 356 German and Russian Jews during the period 1941-1944. All were “old” members of the Nazi party, and all were officers in Hitler’s SS.
The alleged leader of the group is George Heuser, now 49. As head of the CID in the State of Rhine-Palatinate, he was in charge of denazification. Prior to his arrest almost two and a half years ago, the Social Democratic Party and labor leaders here had accused him of filling many posts in his department with ex-Nazis. Other defendants are former police inspectors under the present West German regime, school teachers, clerks and draftsmen, Heuser, personally, was accused in the indictment of having burned to death a number of Jews at Minsk, where he had headed the Gestapo.
The jury hearing the trial was warned that the proceedings might last until the end of this year. The court announced that it will sit three days a week until the case is concluded.
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