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Nazi Officer Goes on Trial for 1938 Murder Attempt

May 13, 1958
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A 59-year-old former Nazi district leader of Upper Franconia went on trial here today, charged with the attempted murder of Rabbi Moshe Rosenau of Muelhausen. Thuringen, during the night of November 9, 1938 when Nazi storm-trooper throughout Germany went on a wild pogrom during which Jews were injured and killed and Jewish hones, businesses and communal institutions were destroyed.

The prosecution charged that the district leader. Paul Vollrath, lined the rabbi, his wife and 14-year-old daughter against a wall of the rabbi’s synagogue in Stadtsteinach and shouted that he had sworn to “finish” the first Jew he met. Vollrath fired two shots from a revolver, one of which hit Rabbi Rosenau in the chest. Ten witnesses have been called by the state, including the now grown daughter who has been living in Israel.

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