Anti-semite Sentenced in Germany for Slandering Jews; Teacher Held

Karl Sontheimer, 27, was sentenced to four months’ imprisonment today and fined 100 marks for slandering a Jewish taxi driver in Wunsiddel. The court found Sontheimer guilty of having shouted at Fritz Oesterreicher: “Heil Hitler. They must have forgotten to gas you during the Third Reich.” The incident took place in a restaurant here. During the trial, several witnesses who pleaded a “loss of memory,” testified only after being reminded by the judge that they were under oath.

Rudolf Treffurth, 52, a trade school teacher in New Ulm, was under arrest again today on charges of libelling Jews. A lower court released him from custody last week following his first arrest after he accused Jews of ritual murder and of assaulting “blonde German women.” The Memmingen circuit court ordered his re-arrest.

Trial of Karl Chmieleswski, 56-year-old former commander of the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp, on charges of torture and murder of several thousand prisoners will begin in January in the Ansbach Circuit Court, it was announced today. During preliminary investigations extending over three years, the prosecution sought repeatedly to have the number of charges in the indictment reduced to save time and simplify the trial. The former SS leader will be tried for “only” about 100 crimes, the prosecution said. More than 300 witnesses from Germany and abroad have given testimony so far.

Exhumations of the bodies of victims of the Mauthausen death camp have been halted and the French Commission dealing with the problem is reconsidering the entire matter. A French proposal to erect a mausoleum at Mauthausen in which would be interred the thousands of skeletons still lying in the Mauthausen camp garage has been withdrawn. The question of disposition of the remains will be put before the World Rabbinical Council in Jerusalem for a decision.