Jews who lived either in Bialystok or Slutzk, in Poland, and have survived the Nazi annihilation of the Jewish population there, are sought by the West German authorities to testify as eye-witnesses in investigations being conducted there by prosecuting authorities working on two different atrocity cases, the World Jewish Congress announced here today. They are requested to contact the WJC which has been asked by the Central Office for Investigation of War Crimes in West Germany to help trace eye-witnesses to Nazi crimes.
The Bialystok ghetto, with its thousands of textile workers, was the scene of an abortive uprising. It was liquidated by the Nazis in 1943 and about 25, 000 deportees were taken to such notorious camps as Treblinka, Majdanek, Blizn and Auschwitz, where the majority was massacred.
The Sluzk witnesses are wanted to provide evidence for an investigation being carried out into crimes perpetrated by a Nazi Police Battalion that had its headquarters in Minsk, and in particular by two former officers of the unit, Franz Lechthaler and Willy Papenkort. The massacre of the Jews in Sluzk for which the two are responsible took place on October 27, 1941.
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