The Wiesbaden Court of Assizes yesterday sentenced Dr. Gerhard Peters, a German chemist, to six years1 imprisonment following his sixth conviction on charges of supplying a deadly cyanide gas to Nazi concentration camps for the annihilation of 450,000 Jews and other inmates.
The prosecution had demanded a 16-year sentence. The court allowed half of the six-year sentence to be deducted for time spent in pre-trial custody. The prosecution of Peters began with one of the earliest war crimes trials in 1945 and has been appealed to various courts including the German Supreme Court and the case has always been ordered re-tried because of the leniency of the sentence, which in the past varied between four and one-half years and five years.
During his trial, Peters admitted being told by an S. S. officer that “Zyklon B” gas, produced by his “German Corporation for Vermin Extermination,” was used to exterminate Jews. Yet, he continued to supply huge quantities of the product to the Auschwitz gas chambers. The corporation, an affiliate of the international I. G. Farben cartel, continues to do business in Frankfurt to this day.
Throughout his various trials, Peters showed that he was an unreconstructed Nazi. Nevertheless, many prominent Germans have signed clemency petitions in his behalf and he was released from prison several years ago after the intervention of Minister-President Zinn, a prominent Social Democrat. Many observers doubt that Peters will ever serve his sentence.
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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.
