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Ilse Koch Rearrested by German Authorities As She is Freed by U.S. Army at End of Term

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Ilse Koch, notorious German war criminal who has been charged with ordering inmates of the Buchenwald death camp murdered in order to use their tattooed skins for lampshades, book covers and other objects, was today arrested by Bavarian authorities as she was freed at the Landsberg women’s prison where she completed a four-year term on various war crimes charges.

The notorious criminal was immediately transported to another prison at Aichach, near here, where she will remain until she is tried by the German authorities on charges of crimes against German nationals at the Nazi camp. Her original sentence by an American military court was life imprisonment, but last year it was reduced by Gen Lucius D. Clay, then American commander in Germany, to a four-year term. The commutation of sentence aroused public indignation in the United States and led to a Senatorial investigation.

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