Hermann Krumey, Adolf Eichmann’s key aide in the wartime deportation of hundreds of thousands of Hungarian Jews, was sentenced here today to five years at hard labor on charges of complicity in the deportation. The former SS lieutenant colonel has been in prison for five years in pre-trial detention. His trial here lasted 10 months.
His co-defendant, former SS Capt. Otto Hunsche, was acquitted of the charge that he helped to send 437,000 Hungarian Jews to the gas chambers. The prosecution said it would appeal the verdicts. The prosecution had asked for life sentences for both defendants. Hunsche had admitted he signed a sweeping Nazi order marking for death the Jews of wartime Hungary, but said he did it on Eichmann’s orders.
Krumey, 60, as Eichmann’s deputy, was a key figure in the bizarre offer to trade the western allies 1,000,000 Hungarian Jews for 10,000 trucks. Krumey said on two occasions he took suitcases of money from Jews anxious to avoid being sent to the Auschwitz death camp. Dozens of prosecution witnesses linked the defendants to Eichmann.
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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.
