Brig. Gen. Telford Taylor, chief American prosecutor at the Nuremberg war crimes trials, this week-end delivered the closing argument in the trial of Otto Ohldorf and 21 other Nazi leaders who comprised a special task force charged with murdering more than a million Jews and other racial and political persecutees during the war.
Taylor declared that “the crimes involved in the case were murder–deliberate, premeditated murder; murder on a gigantic scale; murder committed for the worst possible motives.” He also pointed out that some of the defendants do not believe that they committed murder because many of their victims were Jews. Final defense pleas are expected shortly, after which the court will announce a verdict.
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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.