The trial of nine former Gestapo officials whom the prosecution has labeled “desk killers” opened in West Berlin today. The chief defendant, former SS (Elite Corps) Captain Fritz Woehren, 64, is accused of issuing the orders under which thousands of Jews were taken into so-called “protective custody” and shipped to concentration camps to be killed. The eight other defendants are charged with complicity in murder for carrying out Woehren’s orders.
Captain Woehren was an official of the Jewish Affairs Section of the Gestapo in Berlin during World War II. The prosecution, in presenting a 720-page indictment against him and his subordinates said, “These men were desk killers. They killed scientifically byword and deed.” The trial is expected to last a year. More than 200 witnesses will testify, many of them from abroad.
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.
