— A court in Frankfurt has decided to terminate further proceedings against Horst Czerwinski, 58, a former SS official, the main defendant in a trial of war crimes that took place in Auschwitz. The proceedings against another defendant, Josef Schmidt, 58, will continue.
The decision was taken last Friday after Czerwinski failed to attend his trial after more than 11 consecutive days due to an alleged heart attack. A West German law requires continuity in such proceedings.
The trial has been dragging on since September 1977. Court officials travelled six times to Israel and to Poland, four times to the United States, France and Czechoslovakia, and one to Hungary and Austria where 250 witnesses were questioned. Czerwinski, who was a commander of the Lagishcha camp in the Auschwitz complex, has been charged with the murders of at least eight inmates. Schmidt, a “blockfuehrer” in the same camp, is accused of collaborating in the killings.
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