The “Hangman of Warsaw,” former gestapo commandant Ludwig Hahn, 66, went on trial in Hamburg today for organizing the deportation of 300,000 Jews from Warsaw to Trebiinka in 1942 and 1943. Also charged with him are former SS members Hans Becker, Helmut Ott, and Herbert Standt, all in their sixties.
Hahn is now serving a 12-year sentence for complicity in the mass murder of Jews and Poles in Warsaw’s infamous Paviak jail. However, because of poor health, he is serving his sentence at home under restrictions. The Hamburg judge today turned down a defense counsel plea that Hahn was unfit to plead.
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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.