Ludwig Fischer, Nazi governor of Warsaw who is now being tried here as a war criminal, told the court that he was justified in establishing a ghetto for the Jews, if “the Allies now have the right to evict German citizens from apartments, handing over the flats to their own soldiers.”
When the prosecutor challenged the aptness of the analogy, Fischer then said that it had been necessary to confine the Jews in a ghetto to prevent the spread of infection and thus save the Polish people from epidemics. This explanation was greeted by a sally of laughter from the spectators.
The prosecutor submitted to the court a report prepared by a Dr. Hunmel, who Fischer admitted was his deputy, describing the extent of disease and infection in the ghetto precincts and stating that he had ordered that any Jew attempting to climb over the ghetto wall be shot without warning.
Testifying for the government. Dr. M.R. Kopec, a medical expert, said that 791,000 persons were killed in Warsaw by Germans under Fischer’s command between Oct., 1939 and Oct., 1944, excluding the hundreds of thousands sent to death camps.
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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.
