Trial of Germans Who Participated in Nov. 1933 Pogrom Opens in Bavarian Court

The Germans have now begun to try their own countryman for crimes against the Jews.

An initial batch of 58 Germans, including eight women and a number of former Nazi officials, went on trial here today under Germany’s own war crime code. They are charged with organizing a mob which, following the assassination of Ernst vom Rath in Paris, in 11/1938, attacked “various persons” in this area, destroyed property by setting fire to dwellings and by other acts, and pillaged synagogues. The prosecution was initiated at the behest of AMG officials.

Three of the defendants, Mayor Michael Gerstner of Weissenburg, Mayor Andreas Guentner of Treuchtlingen and Nora Apitz, one of the participants in the destruction of a synagogue, were questioned today. Gerstner, who had been a Nazi since 1925, admitted that he was no friend of the Jews, but claimed that he opposed violence. He said that he was not responsible for what happened in Weissenburg because the order for the pogrom had been given by the Nazi storm troops.

Guentner also claimed that he opposed the activities of the storm troops, of which he was a group leader. He declared that he had been a protector of Jewish women and of Jewish enterprises. The Aptiz woman, who is accused of carrying gasoline to the burning synagogue, and of shouting that the “Jewish hogs” should be slain, asserted she tried to stop the attacks on the Jews.

Both Guentner and Gerstner said that former storm troop district leader Georg Saubej, who is now in U.S. custody, was responsible for the terror in this district, but the military authorities have so far refused to permit his appearance. Two other ringleaders are also in internment camps.

Jews who might appear as witnesses against the defendants, particularly two named Neuburger and Beck who are known to be living in the United States, are not available to give evidence. All the other Jews in the area where the attacks took place are probably dead.