Hans Guenther, Chief Public Prosecutor of West Berlin, said today that he was sending two members of his staff to East Berlin for information to aid in a forthcoming major trial of members of the SS Chief Security Office of the Nazi period.
He said his representatives also would discuss the results of interrogations in East Germany which could be helpful in the trial. He added that all investigations for the trial would be done by Berlin court authorities. Other Nazi crimes will continue to be investigated by the special office in Ludwigsburg.
All of the suspects will have to be committed for trial by May 8, 1965, under the West German statutes of limitations, he noted. The prosecutor, who took office early in 1961, began his investigation into the activities of the Gestapo about 18 months ago. The principal charge in the trial will be the deportations of German Jews, he said. The number of personnel in the Gestapo headquarters was 7,000, plus 75, 000 in branches throughout Hitler’s Reich, he said, adding that the exact number of prospective defendants in the forthcoming trial was not yet known.
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.
