Kurt Bolender, 54, the chief defendant in the trial of 11 former officials of the Nazi Sobibor death camp in Poland, hanged himself in his cell, court officials announced here today.
Bolender left a note denying his guilt in the murder of 360 Jews and taking part in the killing of 84,000 others. He said no one in the court would believe him, and he did not want to spend the rest of his life in prison. Ten other defendants in the trial are charged with complicity in the murder of 250,000 Jews at Sobibor.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
