An official of the Auschwitz murder camp, charged with supervision of the camp gas chambers which killed 6,000 victims daily, asserted in testimony today that he had never entered the main camp where the killings took place.
That testimony was given today by Robert Mulke, 68, one of 22 former officials of the camp now on trial in the biggest war crimes hearing in West Germany since the Nuremberg tribunal staged by the Allies at the close of World War II. Mulke was the first of the defendants to undergo questioning by the nine judges in the trial. During the first three sessions, the defendants made personal statements.
Collectively, the 22 defendants are charged with choosing victims, operating the huge gas chambers and extracting gold teeth and other valuables from the victims before they were cremated in the Auschwitz ovens. An estimated 3,000,000 victims, mostly Jews, perished in the camp.
Chief Justice Hans Hofmeyer, responding to Mulke’s claim he had never entered the main camp during his years as assistant commandant, asked him if he had, had no interest in how the inmates were treated. Mulke replied: “I never got any complaints.” The judge then asked him whether he knew there were two gallows in the camp, and Mulke replied: “No, no, no, I had no idea.”
In the personal statements, none of the defendants admitted complicity to any of the crimes listed in the massive indictment. More than 250 witnesses are coming from 15 countries to testify, many of them survivors of the death camp.
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