Horst Czerwinsky, a 62-year-old former SS officer, has gone on trial in Luenburg for the murder of eight Jewish inmates of the Lagischa concentration camp, part of the Auschwitz complex, in 1944.
The proceedings in the Lower Saxony court are expected to last two years. The defendant’s state of health is such that he is able to appear in court no more than six hours a week. He has pleaded not guilty, but 50 witnesses have already testified to judges who visited them in their respective countries. Altogether, about 200 witnesses will be questioned, many living in Israel, Canada, the U.S. and Australia.
Czerwinsky went on trial in Frankfurt in 1978 for war crimes. But that trial came to an abrupt end because of his health problems and legal difficulties. He was, however, cleared of charges that he murdered three camp inmates during an “evacuation march” from Golleschau to Loslau in Poland.
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.
