A Jewish doctor, testifying in the trial of former SS Major Martin Fellencz on charges of killing 40,000 Jews in Nazi-occupied Krakow in Poland, said today that “only another Dante could describe what happened.”
The audience before which he testified included school children and their teachers who filled the visitors benches. Initially German public interest in the trial was negligible but interest has been growing steadily and the children and their teachers are getting a first-hand acquaintance with the ultimate meaning of Nazi racial theories. Screams, shots, blood, dead bodies are the content of the facts recalled regularly by Jewish witnesses from Israel, the United States, Canada and Holland.
The 53-year-old Schleswig businessman is charged with having directed the removal of Jews from five Polish towns to nearby areas where they were immediately shot or to death camps near Lublin. Another 50 witnesses remain to be heard by the Jury court of three judges and six jurors. They must determine whether Fellencz was responsible for the fatal deportations of the 40,000 Jews, merely the instrument of his superiors or only an observer.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
