Trial of Landsberg Jewish Refugees Transferred to Higher American Military Court

The American Military Government court at Kausbeuren today referred the case of the 20 Jewish DP’s arrested after Sunday’s rioting here to the General Court at Augsburg, headquarters of the Ninth Division, on the grounds that it did not have the authority to mete out sufficiently heavy sentences, if the defendants are convicted.

Capt. Seymour Lubin, who presided, emphasized that the transfer, which was made on a prosecution motion, was based on the fact that he believed that the prosecution had showed that there was substance to its charges, which include participation in a riot, resisting arrest and assaulting troops. The trial is expected to open at Augsburg on Thursday.

Presenting its arguments for transfer of the case to a higher court, the prosecution introduced three witnesses: Maj. Clair Thurston, division provost marshal; T/5 William Pietz, Thurston’s jeep driver; and Lieut. John Becker, assistant provost marshal.

Thurston testified that when he arrived at the scene of the disturbance on Sunday he saw about 200 DP’s milling about the camp area and three German civilians on the ground. He said that the only reason that more of the DP’s were not arrested was because the others broke out of the cordon which was established and in order to avoid further bloodshed he did not want to order the troops to fire. He admitted under defense questioning that he had seen only one of the 20 defendants assault German civilians. He also said that when the 20 were searched by the MP’s only one had a knife in his possession. Thurston denied a defense statement that he had offered to release all but one of the DP’s.

Pietz testified that he saw two of the DP’s throw rocks, but added that they had hit no one. He said that he was forced to fire into the sir to prevent 19 of the defendants from escaping. Lieut. Becker, who arrested the twentieth man, Fifa Seligman, charged that the latter had beaten a German woman.

Defense attorneys, Dr. Samuel Grinzaus, former judge at Memel and leader of the Landsberg camp, and Shelma Oren stein, argued against referral of the case to the higher court, asserting that the incident was not a riot against the military forces, but “public disorder” against the Germans. Dr. Grinzaus said that the delay in trying the case would cause serious unrest in the camp.

The court room was jammed with witnesses who were brought from the camp, as well as high ranking military observers. The 20 defendants were brought from the jail where they are being held in an army truck and returned the same way. They sang cheerfully on both trips, mainly Palestinian songs, and waved to the spectators.