The libel trial by Austrian Chancellor Josef Klaus against a former concentration camp survivor who charged the chancellor with having been a member of a Nazi storm troop group opened here today.
Viktor Matejka, a leading member of the Austrian Communist party, charged that the Chancellor had been a member of the illegal group in 1938 before the occupation of Austria, Matejka also publicly accused Chancellor Klaus of not having intervene during the Nazi regime for a man named Staudt, who died in a concentration camp. Matekja said Klaus then had the power to do so.
The attorney for the Chancellor submitted a statement at the trial denying that the Chancellor had ever been a member of any Nazi organization and that he could not have intervened for Staudt because he had no connections with the Nazis.
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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.
