Dr. David Kraiselburd. 62 Buried in La Plata Jewish Cemetery

A 62-year-old newspaper publisher who had been kidnapped June 25 was found Wednesday night after police raided the house in which he had been held prisoner. Dr. David Kraiselburd, a Jew, was publisher of “El Dia” of La Plata, president of the “Noticias Argentines” news agency and vice-president of the Argentine Newspaper Publishers Association. He was buried Thursday in the La Plata Jewish Cemetery. Dr. Kraiselburd was a staunch defender in his newspaper of Israel and Jewish causes. At one time he was a member of the La Plata Committee of Friends of The Hebrew University.

Police who entered the house after the gunfight in the Gonnet district near La Plata found a wounded man, presumably one of the kidnappers. A woman who had also been in the house managed to escape. Dr. Kraiselburd’s body was found in a tent within the house. He had been shot twice in the chest. It was not known whether he had been shot by his kidnappers earlier or inadvertently by police bullets.

Dr. Kraiselburd was abducted in broad daylight in the center of La Plata by a group of a dozen heavily armed men. During the time he was kidnapped his family did not receive any ransom demands. As a result there is some speculation that his kidnapping was politically motivated although no group claimed responsibility for his abduction.

However, the newspaper “La Razon” speculated Thursday that the kidnappers may have belonged to a left-wing group within the Personist movement. It noted that the wounded man found in the house, Carlos Alberto Starita, belonged to the “Juventud Universitaria Peronista” and possibly a member of the “Montoneros” action group. Col. Cesar Diaz, chief of Buenos Aires province police, told a press conference that evidence collected at the kidnappers’ hideout indicated they were members of a self-styled Peronist urban guerrilla group, but declined to give details.