Trial Opens of Two Military College Staff Officers Who Failed to Report Anti-semitic Incident

A gross anti Semitic incident at the Munich military college three years ago is the subject of a trial that opened there yesterday of two senior officers on the college staff. Col. Edgar Muenx, 47, and Maj, Hansjoachim Stabenou, 40 are accused of failure to report the incident in February, 1977 in which a group of cadets burned a “Jew” in effigy, sang Nazi songs and shouted “Throw another Jew on the fire.”

The incident was characterized as the worst manifestation of anti-Semitism in the German armed forces, Eleven cadets who participated were suspended , A number of them have since appealed the decision on grounds that the military authorities had acted under the pressure of adverse publicity at home and abroad, Two of the cadets appeared at the trial today as witnesses, The defendants could receive prison sentences of up to three years if found quality of failure to report a criminal act, During the last two years, serious anti- Semitic incidents were reported at a military college in Hamburg.

Meanwhile, the federal agency in Dortmund dealing with the prosecution of Nazi war criminals. disclosed today that about 20 proceedings are currently pending against persons suspected of mass crimes during the Nazi era, Hermann Wiessing, head of the agency, told reporters that new proceedings are continually being added, Last year the West German parliament removed the statute of limitations, an prosecution for murder, including Nazi war crimes.

Statistics released in Dortmund showed that since the establishment of the special agency in 1961, about 640 proceedings against suspected Nazi war criminals were completed , But of 500 verdicts reached, the defendants were found guilty in only 165 cases.