Nazi-hunter Beate Klarsfeld said here yesterday that a former Gestapo chief sentenced to death in France is living in West Germany. Mrs. Klarsfeld said Fritz Merdsche, who was twice sentenced to death in France in absentia for crimes committed while serving as Gestapo chief in Orleans, is now living in Frankfurt.
Merdsche was found guilty by a French court martial of having carried out the deportation of 2139 people, 1159 of whom died in death camps. He was also found guilty of having carried out 57 executions. Mrs. Klarsfeld said Merdsche served after the war as a judge in Frankfurt. After his retirement in 1960, he became editor of a legal publication issued by the Beck-Verlag in Frankfurt.
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.
