German Judge Seeks Witnesses in U.S. Against Nazis Who Killed Jews

Witnesses who can testify to the activities of two of Hitler’s most notorious executioners of Hungarian Jewry are being sought throughout North and South America by the World Jewish Congress. The search is being conducted by the WJC on the basis of a communication of a Frankfurt judge investigating charges against two former high SS officers, Hermann Krumey and Otto Hunsche, now being held by the Frankfurt authorities, the WJC announced here today.

The two men are being charged with having taken a major part in the ghettoization and deportation to extermination camps of several hundreds of thousands of Hungarian Jews, and of being accessories to their murder. In addition, they are accused of extorting large sums of money from some of their victims under threat of deportation to extermination camps unless their demands were met.

In his letter to the World Jewish Congress, Judge Grabert of the Frankfurt District Court said that he required persons able to testify from personal experience about the crimes in both Austria and Hungary with which Krumey and Hunsche are charged, or to name other witnesses. “These witnesses should testify in detail to what they have seen and heard,” Judge Grabert explained, adding that “small episodes may be as important as the description of large-scale actions.”

The Frankfurt court is also seeking material such as documents, identification cards, posters, newspaper notices, or leaflets referring to the activities of the two SS commanders. The charges against Krumey and Hunsche refer to the period 1944-45 during which most of the 400,000 Hungarian Jews rounded up by the Nazis were shipped to extermination camps. During the Nuremberg trials Krumey and Hunsche were named as two of the leaders of a “Special Section Commando” of the German Secret Police which arrived in Budapest with the sole object of liquidating Hungarian Jews.