A decision of the Baden-Wurttemberg Compensation Court that Hitler’s Reich had no responsibility for the persecution of Jews in Rumania set the stage today for a final determination of the issue in the Federal Court at Karlsruhe on April 23.
The compensation court acted on an appeal by the Bavarian state from a Munich court ruling that the Hitler regime was responsible for the persecution of Rumanian Jews. The compensation court ruling followed testimony, including the presentation of detailed documentary material, particularly reports of the German Foreign Office concerning Nazi instigation of native Rumanian anti-Semitic groups and the special role of Nazi authorities in Rumania.
Witnesses testified that on July 7, 1941. German SS troops pillaged and burned the synagogue of Czernowitz, one of Rumania’s greatest Jewish communities. The widow of Chief Rabbi Mark recalled how her husband and other Jewish officials were held prisoner by the German secret police until they and 160 other victims were massacred near the Prut River.
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.
