The Supreme Court of Poland has set November 5 as the date for starting to hear the appeal by Erich Koch, Commissioner for East Prussia and parts of Poland during the Nazi regime, who is under death sentence for the mass-murder of hundreds of thousands of people, mostly Jews, during World War II. The hearing on the appeal is expected to last five days.
Koch’s sentence to death was pronounced by a district court in Warsaw last March after a sensational trial lasting several months. He was the last of the top echelon Nazi war criminals to face trial, his court case having been postponed for years on the grounds that he was too ill to face prosecution. During his trial, he defied the court openly and, at the same time, insisted that he was innocent of all murder charges. Dozens of witnesses including Nazi victims now in Israel, testified that he had been personally responsible for many orders that resulted in mass brutalities and executions.
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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.
