A Hamburg judge imposed a four-year prison sentence today on Gerhard Maywald, a former SS officer found guilty of complicity in the murders of 320 Jews at the Jungfernhof camp near Riga in February, 1942. The victims, mostly elderly and infirm inmates, were selected by Maywald for shooting, according to the charges. An earlier indictment for murder as well as complicity was dropped by the prosecution after the judge ruled that there was insufficient evidence.
The case against Maywald, now 64, had been under investigation for the past 15 years. The judge explained the light sentence on grounds that the accused was penalized during that period. The judge also asserted that Maywald was not a Jew-hater although his superior officer was known to be.
However, the defendant’s not guilty plea was rejected. The judge said Maywald could not claim that he was forced to carry out orders because he could have asked for transfer to another post, knowing that staff officers at Jungfernhof were expected to take part in the shooting of Jews. About 30,000 Jews were shot there in the summer of 1941.
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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.
