The four Soviet citizens who were to testify in the mass murder trial of George Heuser and 11 other former SS men, charged with killing 35, 000 Jews in Minsk during the Nazi occupation of Soviet territory, have decided not to come to Coblenz to testify, according to information reaching the Soviet Embassy in Bonn today.
The reason given was that their scheduled testimony had become “senseless” after the stay in West Germany of another Soviet witness had been cut “radically” by the West German passport office. According to the report, the four Soviet witnesses felt that Nikolai Alexeyev, a Leningrad law professor, had been deprived of the opportunity to complete his testimony by the reduction of his permitted stay in West Germany. It was reported meanwhile that the court was anxious to end the trial of the 12 former Nazis. The period for evidence will be closed by either April 10 or April 17. The trial started six months ago.
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.
