A Hamburg court has ruled that the former head of the Third Reich’s security headquarters and Hamburg gestapo chief Bruno Strechenbach, 72, will not now have to face charges of participating in the murder of at least one million Jews. Communists and intellectuals in 1941 and 1942. Strechenbach was unfit to plead for health reasons, the court said. The Hamburg public prosecutor has protested against the court’s decision.
An attempt was made in April to get the trial started, but Strechenbach was unfit to plead because of heart trouble. The court ruled that the accused could no longer be called for trial, unless his condition improved. In 1945, the Soviet authorities sent Strechenbach to prison for 25 years, but he was released after 10 years.
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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.
