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Lise Koch Deliberately Faking Madness to Sabotage Trial, Experts Establish

December 12, 1950
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Medical experts said today that Ilse Koch, the “Witch of Buchenwald,” is deliberately faking madness to sabotage her trial before a German court here. A court doctor, Rudolf Englert, said that she had smashed furniture in her cell yesterday, broke the window and shouted “extremely obscene remarks” into the courtyard.

But, the doctor reported, she reacted normally to questions and had asked: “Will you send me to a madhouse?” She was taken to Augsburg City Hospital yesterday evening and did not appear in court when her trial resumed today. She is charged with 45 murders, complicity in 135 more and one attempted murder. The trial continued today without her presence.

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