Josef Jarosch, a Ukrainian-born Nazi collaborator, was sentenced to five years and six months imprisonment by a Memmingen court today for complicity in the murder of at least 70 Jews in the Ukraine 40 years ago.
Jarosch, 70, was found guilty by the jury of assisting the SS in the mass shootings of resistance fighters and Jews while serving as a policeman in the Nazi-occupied Ukraine. His conviction rested on an episode in Broschnew-Osada in 1943 when Jarosch herded dozens of Jews to an execution ground where he ordered them to stand in rows of five each.
As the SS shot down the first row, each succeeding row was ordered to step forward and was shot, falling on the bodies of those already dead. The bodies were then set on fire, including some victims who were only wounded by the volleys and were burned alive.
A psychiatrist who testified at the trial, described Jarosch as a “fellow traveller” who was in no position to make a critical evaluation of the situation. Jarosch himself did not testify. The prosecution asked for a five-year sentence while the defense insisted that the 27 months imprisonment of Jarosch before trial was sufficient penalty. The court ordered that an allowance be made for the time the accused spent in jail before and during his trial.
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.
