Two former officers of the Gestapo went on trial at Wuerzhurg, in Bavaria, today on charges of responsibility for the mass murder of some 4,000 Jews in the Vilna Ghetto. They pleaded not guilty.
The defendants, Martin Weiss and August Hering, were members of a Gestapo security unit which selected the Jews to be slaughtered and were involved in the actual killings. Weiss is accused of having shot at least 16 Jews.
Until last May Weiss lived in hiding under an assumed name in the Bavarian town of Ochsenfurt. After his discovery and arrest, the Polish Government attempted to have him extradited to stand trial for mass murders, but the American authorities refused and turned him over to the Germans for trial.
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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.
