Jewish survivors of wartime brutality inflicted by pro-Nazi Estonian elements have been brought to Tallinn from East European countries to testify at the trial of Ralph Gerrets and Jan Vijk, charged by a Soviet tribunal with complicity in the wartime Nazi murder of 125, 000 persons, mostly Jews, it was reported today from Tallinn, the Estonian capital.
Two Czech Jewish women, Mrs. Markita Masheva, 40, and Mrs. Eva Meisnerova, 35, told the court today how they were beaten and abused by Estonian Fascists who collaborated with the Germans. This happened at a time when their parents were murdered in a concentration camp.
Both Gerrets and Vijk, under Soviet court procedure, were permitted to question the witnesses. But neither could shake the testimony that the women were part of a trainload of 1, 150 Czech Jews. Of this number all were shot on arrival, except 250 younger prisoners who were moved to work camps. Similar testimony by other Jewish witnesses incriminated Gerrets, Vijk, and other Estonian Nazis who worked with the Gestapo.
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