Joseph Berger, 49, of Brooklyn, N. Y. collapsed yesterday at a Nazi war crimes trial here from a mild heart attack after describing how Gestapo men shot his wife and father to death and killed his twin daughters by smashing them against a wall in the ghetto in Tarnow, Poland in 1942.
The defendant is Hermann Blache, 63, now a steelworker, who is charged with the killing of 6,100 Jews as Gestapo head of the Tarnow ghetto. After his collapse, Mr. Berger was stretched out on a courtroom bench by a doctor and his second wife. He recovered and continued his testimony.
The Brooklyn Jew testified that the murder of his family occurred during one of the Gestapo “sweeps” through the ghetto which later was converted into a giant camp ringed with barbed wire under the control of Blache. Mr. Berger testified that Blache personally killed inmates.
Speaking directly to the defendant, the Brooklyn survivor said: “I saw you shoot women and children. It was in the big evacuation in 1943. They were dragged out of the wagons and you shot them.” Blache jumped up and shouted: “I know nothing about this. The Gestapo did everything. ” He was challenged by the witness’ second wife, Miriam, 49, another Tarnow survivor, who said: “I felt your brutality on my own body. Whenever you were loose in the ghetto, the Jewish watchmen would tell us to hide. “
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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.
