Forty guards and members of the staff of the notarious Dachau concentration camp were today found guilty by an American military court of having murdered and tortured thousands of Jewish and non-Jewish prisoners.
(The American Press Service in Germany was quoted by Reuters tonight as reparting that all of the defendants had been sentenced to death.)
The trial, which began three weeks ago, ended shortly befors noon today, and the court announced its verdict after two-and-a-quarter hours of deliberation, During the proceedings the prosecution introduced evidence of inhuman medical experiments performed on the camp’s inmates, as well as testimony by the victims themselves concerning beatings, tortures, starvation and other abuses.
Though it was originally announced that the extreme penelty would be decapitation, it is learned that a United States Forces European Theater directive orders langing in such cases as being more ignominious for the Germans who, in pre-Hitler days, regarded beheading as more honorable.
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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.