At least 50 witnesses are expected to be called upon for testimony when Hermann Krumey and Otto Hunsche, former aides to the late Adolf Eichmann, go on trial here for the mass murder of more than 430, 000 Hungarian Jews during World War II, the public prosecutor’s office disclosed here today. The date of the trial, expected to open in the near future, has not yet been set.
The indictment against the two men charges not only participation in the mass annihilation of the Hungarian Jews, but also blackmail. The latter count embraces their alleged complicity in the infamous “trucks-for-lives” deal, in which Eichmann was involved. Under that scheme, 1, 000, 000 Jews were to have been freed by the Nazis in return for 10,000 trucks.
The full-scale probe now under way into the activities of the two men may involve at least nine other arrests. Since Krumey was a major in the SS, while Hunsche was a captain, the prosecutor’s office is investigating the wartime activities of other former SS officers who served in Hungary. There is a possibility that, among those still to be arrested, are former members of the German Embassy staff in Budapest during the war.
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.
