An American Holocaust survivor told a Stuttgart court last Friday that he never saw accused Nazi war criminal Josef Schwammberger kill inmates at the Przemsyl and Rozwadow concentration camps in Poland, where the accused Nazi war criminal was commandant during World War II.
The testimony of Leo Berger, 71, who was a prisoner at both camps, differed from that of earlier witnesses who said they had observed Schwammberger killing inmates.
The 79-year-old former SS officer was extradited here from Argentina last year to stand trial in Germany. He has been charged with the murders of at least 45 people and complicity in the murders of 3,377 others, most of them Jews.
Oscar Hersthal, 79, of Canada testified last week that he actually saw Schwammberger kill inmates at morning roll call. He swore he saw him murder a rabbi named Fraenkel in the Rozwadow camp on Yom Kippur of 1942.
But he could not identify the accused as commandant of the camp where he was held.
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.
