The Austrian Government has freed 40 former Nazis responsible for the murder of thousands of Jews in various Polish and Russian towns, despite evidence of their crimes and despite a pledge to try them, it was learned here today.
The 40, former policemen under the Nazi regime, were included in the last batch of Nazi war prisoners released by the Soviet authorities after conclusion of the Austrian State Treaty this Fall. Together with the men, the Russians handed to the Austrian authorities documents proving that they had participated in the execution of Jews, including men, women, children, the aged and the ill, in the cities of Kolomea, Stryj, Drohobycz and Boryslav.
Among the group was a former Gestapo leader named Sanitzer, who was convicted by an Austrian court in 1946 of eleven murders and was sentenced to life imprisonment. Subsequently, the Soviets demanded his extradition for another trial. He was liberated now, too, despite the Austrian court’s sentence. A great many protests from Jews and non-Jews against the release of Sanitzer, one of the worst of Nazi murderers, proved of no avail and he remains free.
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