The U.S. military court trying three displaced Jews and seven Germans on charges of participating in a disturbance in the Bavarian village of Oberammingen tonight meted out sentences of one year each to Burgomeister Martin Mayer, who was accused of leading the villagers in an attack on the Jews, and to David Barwiner, the leader of the DP’s in Oberammingen.
One other Jew and four Germans were sentenced to six months, while one DP and two Germans were acquitted. All of Oberammingen’s residents were given an “official reprimand” for participating in a Nazi-type riot.
Although it was brought out during the trial that Mayer had led the Germans to the Jews’ dwelling, shouting obscene epithets and threatening the DP’s with death, the court decided that Barwiner, who entered a German house in order to secure information concerning a man with who he had engaged in a scuffle, was equally guilty and should receive the same punishment.
Lieut. Col. Marion Beatty, who presided at the trial, yesterday warned Barwiner that he had “better tell the truth, or I’ll throw you in jail.” None of the German defendants were so admonished. Beatty presided over the court which last week sentenced 19 Landsberg DP’s to heavy prison terms.
The court agreed to suspend three months of the six-month sentence imposed upon one of the Germans, but refused a request by Capt. Albert Friedlander, the DP’s counsel, that Barwiner be given his freedom until the case was reviewed by higher authorities at Munich, in order that he might arrange the affairs of the Oberammingen Jews and find a new community leader.
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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.
