Two former Nazi officers were sentenced to life imprisonment and five other former SS functionaries to leasser prison terms by a court in Stuttgart for their roles in the slaughter of Polish Jews during the Hitler era.
Receiving life sentences were Hermann Muller, a 57-year-old former SS major and Paul Rable, 60, a former captain. Muller was found guilty of eight cases of direct murder and complicity in murder 11 more times. Rable was found guilty of eight crimes of murder involving the death of 17 Jews. Muller, a businessman before his arrest, was accused by the prosecution of having sent thousands of Jews to their death in gas chambers.
Three other of the defendants were acquitted, one because the court found he had abetted the murder on orders and the others for lack of evidence. The 10 defendants had been accused of murdering at least 30, 000 Jews in Tarnopol in 1941-43. The trial lasted nine months and 128 witnesses, many from Eastern Europe, were heard.
The prosecution had asked life imprisonment for two other defendants, both former SS sergeants, Walter Lambor, 60, and Willi Hermann, 56. Both were given 10 year sentences. Hermann for complicity in the murder of 2, 770 persons. Others sentenced to prison terms were Gunter Winkler, 49, for 5 years; Thomas Hasenberg, 57, for three and a half years and Paul Muller, 54, for two and a half years.
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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.
