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Italian Witness Tells Court War Crimes Defendant Rounded Up Jews in Milan Area

February 21, 1968
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An eye-witness to the Nazi deportation of Italian Jews today identified a defendant in a West German war crimes trial as the SS captain who led a detachment of soldiers to seize Jews from their homes in a Milan suburb during World War II.

The witness, Mrs. Emma Pepere, identified the defendant, Hans Kruger, from a photograph of 32 German soldiers and officials shown to her by a section of the Osnabreuck Court which is taking evidence here. Mrs. Pepere, daughter of a former university professor, is not Jewish. She told the judges that Kruger led his detachment to a Jewish villa in the suburb of Arona and that the German soldiers started to drag her away although she protested that she was not Jewish. Kruger believed her and ordered her release. She said that she saw a Jewish acquaintance. Mr. Cantoni, being taken away in a German truck. He appealed to her for help but she could do nothing, Mrs. Pepere told the court.

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