A.C. Glassgold, UNRRA director of the Landsberg camp, today told the military court trying 20 of the camp’s residents for participation in a riot there on April 28 that the recent deaths of Jewish DP’s during outbreaks in Stuttgart and Regensburg, “plus an occasional outburst at Landsberg,” were the chief contributing factors to the disturbance. The incident which touched off the fracas, he said, was the disappearance of two DP guards.
Testifying at the fourth day of the trial, Glassgold said that the disturbance was “unquestionably impulsive, with no sign of any plan of cohesive action.” He added that their past experiences had made the DP’s emotionally unstable. The UNRRA director praised the general conduct of the military police during the riot, but criticized the “display of force,” consisting of numbers of armed troops and machine guns, after things had quieted down.
The prosecution presented ten military witnesses, including Sgt. William Fitzpatrick, who with a private named Martin, reported the first meeting of most of the defendants at the rear of the camp, but did not arrest any of them, merely stopping them from leaving the camp. Both said the defendants offered no resistance. Fitzpatrick confirmed the fact that the Provost Marshal had agreed to free all of the defendants except Shumuel Nussbaum, who had a knife, but they refused unless all were freed.
The witnesses identified four of the 20 as having being mixed up in the disturbance. The prosecution plans to wind up its case tomorrow and the defense will open its presentation on Monday.
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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.
