Austria Starts Investigation into Case of Rajakovic; Calls Witnesses

Investigation was started here today into the case of former SS officer Erich Rajakovic, former aide to the late Adolf Eichmann, who is accused of participation in the mass murder of about 110,000 Jews, transported under his jurisdiction from The Netherlands to the gas chambers in the East. A schedule of interrogations, it was announced today, has been drawn up by Magistrate Forstner, the judicial officer in charge of the probe.

Three magistrates are on their way here from Holland to aid the investigation. The Dutch Government, which had previously indicated it might ask for the ex-Nazi’s extradition, has now decided not to seek to have him returned to Holland but, instead, to aid the full probe under way here. Authorities in Munich have also indicated their willingness to aid the Austrian investigation with documentary material concerning his wartime activities.

One witness interviewed by the magistrate today is a woman who had been an inmate at the Ravensbruck concentration camp. The woman came here to testify from Milan, where she lives now. Rajakovic was living in Milan until two weeks ago, when he fled in the face of a newspaper expose which revealed his Nazi past. The woman told Magistrate Forstner that Rajakovic had engaged in “selection” of Jews slated for deportation, separating the “healthy” from the “ill.” Those he deemed sick were destined for the gas chambers.

Another phase of the probe concerns a detailed check of Rajakovic’s activities between 1938 and 1945. Rajakovic still insists that he was not guilty of participating in mass-murder deportations. He claims he participated only in plans for sending Jews to Madagascar. The plan to settle Jews in Madagascar had been acknowledged by the late Adolf Eichmann as one of his ideas.

However, documentary proof of Rajakovic’s direct involvement in the transportation of Jews to death camps was received here today from the Jewish Documentation Center in Paris. One of the documents is a copy of a telegram sent by Rajakovic from his headquarters at The Hague, on August 19, 1942. The telegram, addressed to SS leaders in Berlin, Paris and Brussels read as follows:

“Re: Deportation of Jews from Belgium. Considering the present situation, we cannot expect the denaturalization regulations for Jews of Dutch nationality will become effective in the near future. The evacuation has been extended also to Jews of Dutch citizenship, and will be continued unless other obstacles develop, although the order is not yet effective. Therefore, we here would not hesitate (to advise) that also Jews of Dutch nationality in the district under your command should also be evacuated.”