A pro-Nazi triumvirate under whose direction over 500,000 Hungarian Jews were murdered or deported to concentration or labor camps, where they were either gassed or worked to death, went on trial here today.
Facing the Peoples Court are former Minister of the Interior Andor Jaross, former Under Secretary of the Interior Lazlo Baky, and the one-tine Secretary of State in the Interior Ministry, Lazlo Endre. They are being tried jointly on a charge of being responsible for the death of the half-million Jews.
In a statement to the court, Endre pleaded that he was not responsible for the murders, because he could not foresee what would follow deportation of the Jews. “I was convinced,” he added, “that Jews were hostile to Hungarians and pro-Allied. I felt that they were a noxious element which must be isolated.” He alleged that the deportation orders were given him by the Germans.
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