Former Nazi Field Marshal Fritz Erich von Mannstein today denied seeing a report from a subordinate officer in Crimea declaring that 11,000 Jews had been executed in Simferopol during the war by Nazi security police. He also denied angrily an accusation by the prosecutor at the British military court, here trying him on 17 war crimes charges that he avoided seeing such reports so that he could escape responsibility for Nazi activity.
Von Mannstein described as a lie a statement by a former Gestapo commander that his headquarters had ordered the executions, Reuters reported. He also denied knowing that Gestapo personnel disposed of the watches taken from the bodies of executed Jews in the Crimean city. When he left the court this afternoon, a number of spectators outside lifted their hate in respect.
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