Another prominent ex-Nazi, who had been released on small bail although he had confessed to the murder of about 100 Jewish children, has escaped from Germany, it was revealed here today. The man is former SS officer Kurt Wiese.
Wiese was arrested on the murder charge in October, 1963, and confessed to the murders of the children, committed during the war in Russia, where he had commanded a Jewish concentration camp at Bialystok. Four days after his arrest, he was released on bail of 4, 000 Deutschmarks ($1, 000), because he was alleged to be suffering from diabetes. He had been ordered to report to the police three times a week.
Cologne police conceded today they had not seen him since May 25, but had not reported him as missing until 18 days later. The prosecutors office said it had “forgotten” to protest against his release.
Weise was known as having been a poor man. It is believed, therefore, he had been spirited out of this country by Nazi elements who feared that he might have implicated ether ex-Nazis if he had been allowed to go to trial. His disappearance is the second scandal of this type in two months. Announcement of his disappearance recalled immediately the case of Hans Walter Zech-Nenntwich, the former Gestapo officer who escaped from a German jail after being convicted and sentenced for murdering Jews in Poland during World War II.
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