Ex-schoolteacher Ludwig Zind faced the possibility of a new charge in his day-old trial on charges of publicly defaming the Jews, as a result of an outburst at the opening of the case yesterday. (See page 4 for later report.)
A spokesman for the Baden-Wuerttemburg prosecutor said that the authorities were considering charging him with participation in the physical mistreatment of Jews during the Nazi regime. Angered at cross-questioning yesterday, Zind shouted out that he had “bashed in the skulls” of hundreds of Jews.
Before the trial opened, it had been expected that the 51-year-old schoolmaster would plead that he had been misunderstood when he made remarks about the Jews in public. However, under questioning he became excited and blurted out that he thought Hitler and the Nazis were justified in imprisoning Jews lest they support England in the fight against Germany.
Zind, who in 1948 was freed of another charge growing out of his Nazi affiliations, also shouted that he could “well understand the Arabs in their struggle for freedom against Israel.” He called Israel a “pestilent boil” and a plague spot.
The authorities were inclined to pass off Zind’s remarks, to Kurt Lieser, a half-Jew, until a nationwide protest, initiated by students, had made Zind’s behavior and his continued employment as a schoolteacher a major issue in West Germany.
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