The trial of Almyre Simondant, former Gestapo agent, on charges of having betrayed hundreds of Jews to the Gestapo during the German occupation of France, opened here today. The defendant pleaded guilty to all but one of the specific charges.
The indictment charges that Simondant, who was expelled during the occupation from one of the anti-German parties as a collaborator, joined the Gestapo in Lille and betrayed some 200 Jews to them. His technique was to walk along the street and shake hands with and engage in conversation with Jews whom he recognized. After they parted company several Gestapo men trailing the collaborator would arrest the Jews.
Simondant is also charged with having led some 30 Jews into Nazi trap after promising to provide them with a truck and help them escape to Vichy French territory. He avaraged about 22,000 francs payment from each of his 30 victims for helping them “escape.” The defendant denied this charge, but the prosecution has introduced a Gestapo memorandum crediting him with the deed. Additional witnesses are prepared to testify against him in relation to this incident with ended with the deportation of the victims first to Belgium and then to Germany.
On Feb. 25, 1946, a French court sentenced him to death in absentia on the same charges. He was arrested on the Swiss-German border by a German customs agent on Sept. 14, 1949. The prosecutor is expected to ask for the death sentence again.
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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.
