The Grisons Cantonal Court, trying David Frankfurter for the murder of Wilhelm Gustloff, Nazi leader, heard a medical expert’s testimony today that he was entirely responsible when he committed the assassination.
Before five judges in a courtroom jammed with 250 correspondents, 24 of whom are Germans, and spectators from many countries, Dr. Jaegger, psychiatrist, stressed that the medical student’s determination to commit suicide led him to plan the slaying of a Nazi leader to aid the Jewish people. Dr. Jaegger is head of the Grisons Psychiatric Institute.
The 27-year-old student was preoccupied with the wrongs against his people and persecutions in Germany had made a terrible impression on him, the report said.
Under questioning by the court, Frankfurter, who has confessed all details of the assassination, denied having discussed his intention to kill Gustloff in advance with any member of his family or acquaintance.
Sitting during his testimony by permission of the court–he is suffering from bone tuberculosis–he said under examination by Presiding Justice Antoine Rodolphe Ganzoni that he had bought a revolver and intended to commit suicide after the assassination, but his courage failed him.
Guarded by two policemen, he replied to questions in a firm clear voice, outlining his life in Germany before he left there to study in Berne, his financial affairs and political interests.
The judge asked Frankfurter why he had renounced his confessed earlier project to kill Chancellor Hitler, Gen. Wilhelm Goering or Dr. Paul Joseph Goebbels. Frankfurter replied that he felt such an act would only make the plight of the Jews in Germany worse.
The judge remarked that Gustleff had not been responsible for the acts of the Nazis in Germany and therefore had been killed as an innocent man.
As the trial opened this morning in this little Alpine town, heavy police detachments struggled with a huge crowd of villagers and pro-Nazi and anti-Fascist adherents from other towns and countries who flocked here.
Public Prosecutor Friedrich Bruegger demanded the maximum penalty, eighteen years’ imprisonment, for Frankfurter. The defense is being conducted by Dr. Eugen Curti, who is expected to plead moral justification for the assassination.
A 23-page indictment presented to the court demanded, in addition to the prison sentence, loss of civil rights, exile, payment of court costs and compensation for Gustloff’s widow.
The indictment recalled how last Feb. 4 Frankfurter entered the hotel in Davos where Gustloff was living, a total stranger, and fired his revolver at the leader of the Nazi organization in Switzerland. He later surrendered to the police.
Investigation has failed to substantiate the German claim that the shooting was the result of a “Judaeo-Marxist-Communist” plot, the indictment said. It made allusion to the fact that Frankfurter had acted without accomplices and dwelled on the student’s preoccupation with committing an act of vengeance against the Nazi regime.
The assassination resulted in international repercussions, including a German protest to the Swiss Government, suspension of Jewish cultural activities in the Reich, statements of Jewish organizations concerning the act and banning of the Nazi organization in Switzerland.
Gustloff was buried as a national martyr in his native town of Schwerin, with Chancellor Hitler delivering the funeral oration.
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