Following reports that Franz Binder, a prominent Austrian soccer player, had been acquitted at a denazification trial in Vienna of responsibility in the massacre of Jews in the Hungarian labor camp at Kiskunhalas, 80 miles south of Budapest, a number of Jews formerly imprisoned at another labor camp at Sopron Banfalva, near the Austrian border, came forward today with charges of torture and murder ordered by Binder at the latter camp.
The witnesses declare that in Jan., 1945, Binder, who was commander of the police at the camp, ordered the torture and shooting of 150 Jewish prisoners, and that upon occasion he practiced football using Jews instead of balls. Dr. Endre Foder, one of the inmates of the Sopron Banfalva camp, attested to witnessing the shootings and said that he was in the burial party which interred the victims.
At a recent international soccer match between an Austrian and Hungarian team played in Budapest, Binder’s position was played by a substitute. Binder did not dare journey to Hungary where his crimes were known.
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.
