Wilhelm Westerheide, a former SS official accused of complicity in the murders of 9,000 Jews in the Wladimir-Wolynsk ghetto in the Ukraine during World War II, went on trial in Dortmund yesterday. Westerheide, 73, was acquitted by a Bielefeld court in October, 1979 after the prosecution failed to produce sufficient evidence for conviction. A higher court reversed that decision in July, 1980 and ordered a new trial. Westerheide was the SS officer in charge of the civilian population during the Nazi occupation of the Ukraine. According to the prosecution, he played a major role in deporting Jews to death camps.
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