A former SS commander of a Jewish concentration camp in Bialystock, in occupied Poland, who escaped from Germany while out on bail on murder charges, was arrested today in Austria, officials reported here.
Kurt Wiese of Cologne had been arrested last October on charges of the murder of about 100 Jewish children. Though he confessed to the killings, he was released four days after his arrest on light bail of $1,000 because of alleged diabetes. He had been ordered to report to police three times a week.
When Cologne police revealed on July 6 that he had apparently fled Germany, they conceded that they had not seen him since May 25 but had not reported him as missing for 18 days. The prosecutor’s office said it had “forgotten” to protest his release on such small bail.
Since the former SS officer was known to lack funds, it was believed he had been spirited out of West Germany by Nazi elements who feared that he would have implicated other former Nazis in his scheduled trial.
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