Paul Baender, a Jew who served as State Secretary in the East German Ministry of Commerce until his arrest in October 1952, has been sentenced to six years imprisonment at hard labor by the Supreme Court of East Germany, it was reported here today.
Mr. Baender is one of five Ministry of Commerce officials, including ex-Minister Karl Hamann, who were convicted of “upsetting the food supply of the population by deliberately false planning and by issuing wrong directives.”
A life-long Communist, Mr. Baender was the last remaining Jew on the 70-man East German Cabinet at the time he was deposed–when the East German anti-Jewish campaign got under way late in 1952 and early in 1953. His wife held membership in the Berlin Jewish community.
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