Eight Lithuanians have been sentenced to death in a joint trial at Kovno, in the Soviet Union, for the mass murder of more than 10,000 Jews there during the Nazi occupation in 1941, according to Moscow dispatches received here today. The leader of the group, Matthew Mitsius, confessed during the nine-day trial before a high court that he personally had Killed 300 Jews.
Witnesses at the trial testified that, among the slain, were Jews who had been brought by the Nazis to Kovno from Czechoslovakia and Austria. Mitsuis, showing no regret over his deeds, told the court he was only sorry he had not succeeded in escaping abroad and
described how Jews were herded from the Kovno ghetto into Fort Seven, a German army encampment on the outskirts of the city, and ordered to lie in open graves. There, the Jews were shot down he said. The executions lasted 24 hours, he stated, saying “we shot some, rested awhile, took a drink, then continued our work.” All of the eight men convicted had been members of a special Lithuanian battalion organized by the Germans for the purpose of killing Jews.
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.
