Nineteen former members of the Arrow-Cross pro-Nazi organization in wartime Hungary are on trial in Budapest on charges of murdering 230 Budapest men, women and children, including many Jewish victims. There is no statute of limitations for such crimes in Hungary. If the defendants are convicted, they will face the death penalty, according to the report from Budapest.
The principal defendant is Vilmos Kreeszel, 58. He is charged with leading the 18 other Fascists on a series of raids in 1944 in which victims were killed by shooting, drowning, strangling and throwing them out of windows. Pre-trial testimony included a report that two Jewish children, who wept over the corpses of their murdered parents, were seized by the defendants, who strangled one child and drowned the other in a washtub.
Court authorities said 12 defendants confessed, four pleaded not guilty, and the three others pleaded guilty to some of the charges. About 150 witnesses will testify in the trial, which is expected to last three months.
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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.
