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‘bookkeeper of Death’ Tells Auschwitz Trial About Mass Executions

April 21, 1964
See Original Daily Bulletin From This Date

A former inmate of the Auschwitz concentration camp who described herself as the “bookkeeper of death” in charge of the crematorium records, today implicated several of the defendants in the trial of 22 guards and other personnel at the camp.

Mrs. Jenny Shaner, 56, of Zurich, told the court that three of the defendants–Peri Brod, William- Boger and Johann Shauberth–had selected prisoners from the political bloc for execution. She said that Boger was especially inhuman and seemed to object whenever camp commandants placed restrictions on the guard contingent. “Once,” she said, “when Commandant Liebenschel ordered that irons were no longer to be used to hold prisoners during beatings. Boger nearly went out of his mind with rage.”

Reterring to her job of keeping records of the executions, Mrs. Shaner said that “many days we had so much to do, it took two additional clerks working 16 hours a day to keep up with all the death notices. ” Among the spectators at today’s court session was Dr. Nahum Goldmann,

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