Ten former Nazi officials, members of a special “commando unit” of the SS which killed thousands of Jews and others in Lithuania during the German occupation, have been sentenced to varying terms between three and 15 years following their conviction on charges of participating in the executions. At least 5,000 Lithuanian Jews were massacred by members of the unit.
Hans Joachim Boehme, one-time police chief of Tilsit, Lithuania, headquarters of the murder unit, was found guilty of over 3,900 instances of murder and received the maximum sentence. Another 15-year term was handed to Werner Hersmann, ex-security chief of the SS unit, who was credited with 1,650 murders. Other sentences were imposed as follows:
Bernhard Fischer-Schweder, former police chief in Memel. ten years; Pranas Lukys, a Lithuanian, former Nazi security police official, seven years; Franz Behrendt, former Memel frontier police official, five years; Werner Kreuzmann, former Gestapo inspector in Tilsit, five years; Gerhard Carstens, former frontier police official, four years; Edwin Sakuth, former SS security service official in Memel, three and one-half years; Harm Willms, former frontier police official in Tilsit, three years, and Werner Schmist-Hammer, former police lieutenant in Memel, three years.
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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.
