A German court here has sentenced August Kolb, 61, former commandant at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, to four and one-quarter years at hard labor following his conviction as an “accessory to murder and manslaughter” of Jews and other inmates at the Nazi camp.
Kolb, who testified during his trial that the “punishment company” which he commanded was only a recreational unit for prisoners, was proven to have kept the severed head of an executed prisoner on his desk at Sachsenhausen. The prosecutor had asked a ten-year sentence, charging 180 killings. The judge also ruled that one year and ten months of Kolb’s sentence was to be cut off the total because he had spent that time in pre-trial custody.
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.
