The 20-year-old son of a Nazi war criminal, held as a suspect in the Bamberg swastika smearing, was recovering in the Bamberg hospital today from a suicide attempt in his jail cell.
Richard Woitzik slashed his left wrist with a knife on the tray of his supper Saturday night, according to Bamberg Prosecutor Josef Ostheimer. The prosecutor said that a jailer, assigned to watch the suspect through a peephole, saw the suicide attempt and called for help to take the youth to the hospital.
Woitzik was arrested on charges of defiling the local synagogue memorial, the Bamberg Jewish cemetery and other Jewish landmarks in what was considered the most vicious anti-Semitic acts in postwar West German history.
Meanwhile, it was reported today that unknown vandals daubed swastikas on several streets and the church in Bruchhauser-Vilsen near Bremen yesterday.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
