— Nazi war criminal Kurt Asche, who was chief of police in charge of Jewish affairs in Nazi-occupied Belgium during World War II, has gone on trial in Kiel. He is charged with having been responsible for the death of 25,257 Jews, 5093 of them children, whom he had deported from Belgium from August 1942 to July 1944.
Asche worked in collaboration with Ernest Ehlers, chief of the gestapo in Belgium who was his immediate supervisor Ehlers; who served as magistrate in Schleswig-Holstein until his retirement in 1974, committed suicide two weeks ago when he learned that he was to be tried.
Belgian Jewry had tried in vain to bring Ehlers and Asche to court since 1962. Only in May, 1975 dia anti-Nazi activists Beate and Serge Klarsfeld take drastic action to bring them to justice. They broke into Ehler’s home, with the help of seven Belgian Jew, and managed to collect documents on his wartime activities. Although detained by German police, they succeeded in preparing the evidence which led to the trial of Asche.
His trial has attracted hundreds of Jews from Belgium and France. The trial is also being attended by a six-member delegation from Israel representing the “Israel Public Committee for Beate and Serge Klarsfeld to Support the Struggle Against Nazi War Criminals.” The trial, which began last week, is expected to last four months.
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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.
