Vol. XIX No. 2 February, 1964 INFORMATION ISSUED BY THE ASSOCIATION OF JEWISH REFUGEES IN GREAT BRITAIN a FAIRFAX MANSIONS, FINCHLEY RD. (corner Fairfax Rd ). London. N.W.S Office and Consulting Hours: Telephone : MAIda Vale 9096/7 (General Office and Welfare tor the Aged). Monday to Thursday 10a.m.—1 p.m. 3—Sp.m. MAIda Vale 4449 (Employment Agency, annually licensed by fhe L.C.C., and Social Services Dept.) Friday Wa.m.— Ip.m. ^- G. Loicenthal All but one of the accused are former S.S. men. The other was a so-called " Funktionshaeftling ", a former fighter of "IN AN INDEFINITE NUMBER OF CASES" the Polish underground resistance who was brought to Auschwitz as a political prisoner First Stage of the Auschwitz Trial and spent five years there as a "block Like heavy stones falling at regular The court will only sit on three days of leader"; the evidence against him is intervals the words "in an indefinite each week. Mountains of files lie behind massive. The average age of the accused number of cases " were pronounced again the judges' bench where normally the is 55, the oldest being 69, and the youngest and again at the opening of the Auschwitz Mayor and the officials of the City Council 42. Their ages at the time when the life trial in Frankfurt when the arraignment of Frankfurt sit. Because the defendants and death of tens of thousands of prisoners against the 22 accused was announced. and their counsels occupy the desks of the were in their hands can thus be calculated. This replaced the usual indictment, the Borough Councillors they give the appear­ The accused are German citizens with two 700 pages of which it would have been ance of sitting in a classroom. Nine of the exceptions, one of whom is a Brazilian and inipossible to read out. The defendants accused are brought into the Hall each the other is stateless. are accused of either having actually par­ day from the cells under police escort. Looking at their life histories, they may ticipated in mass murder or of having been The other thirteen enter the Hall unes­ be divided into three groups. The first accessories to that heinous crime. corted through the common entrance. group consists of uneducated and inarticu­ In each case the phrase " in an indefinite They are (still or again) free. Some of late workmen and small artisans, and this number of cases" was followed by a the defence counsel are older, jovial, with group comprises thirteen of the defendants detailed enumeration of the types of the experience of previous KZ trials; judging from their appearance, language crimes which were sub-divided by numbers others younger and snappish. and manners; some of them had never and letters : for some of the accused the The trial opened with the accused being learnt a trade and some had been unem­ Sruesome catalogue finished only at No. 25. questioned about their personal status, and ployed for long stretches. Six of these The reading of only the arraignment took so far everything has gone smoothly. How­ thirteen are so-called " Volksdeutsche" "lore than an hour. One could have heard ever, as an observer pointed out, the atmo­ originating from Poland, Transylvania and a pin drop in the high, bright and sphere may soon change. This trial for mass Sudetenland, while five grew up in panelled Assembly Hall of the " Roemer ", murder is officially non-political but since, German provincial surroundings. The which for the time being serves as the by its very dimensions, it deals with a second category, the merchants, comprises auditorium for this, the biggest of all KZ crime against humanity, the political aspect two of the accused ; both were aides-de­ trials. Those engaged in it as well as the may come to the fore once the accused camp to the commandants of the camp, one iiumerous members of the public and the try to exculpate themselves and bring for­ to Hoess, the other to Baer. Finally comes correspondents of the press listened to the ward their well-known excuses, wallowing the group of professionals (" Akademiker "), charges in stunned silence. One feels in self-pity about their own fate. comprising seven of the defendants: a j'eluctant to mention, even in cursory terms, physician, two dental surgeons, a pharma­ the refined cruelties in their cleverly Most Defendants at Liberty cist, an engineer, an agricultural expert thought-out perfection which were once and a " magister juris " from Lemberg ; again recalled in public—the series of After the death in prison of the last most of them come from larger cities in crimes committed against Jews of both commandant of Auschwitz, Baer, the Northern and Southern Germany. s^es and of all ages, against Poles, Russian number of the accused has been reduced Officials and prisoners-of-war, gipsies and to twenty-three. There are, however, only Past Nazi Affiliation other human beings who had been dragged twenty-two appearing in court. The The length of their connections with the yo Auschwitz. The Hesse Radio, aware of twenty-third is unable to appear with the National Socialist Party or the S.S. and the Its responsibility, made sure that the Ger- others because of infectious tuberculosis S.A., according to the official investigations, ^an public at "large—however little they and will be tried separately. Nine of the varies considerably. The accused them­ I^ight like to know about all this—heard defendants are charged with having selves are trying their utmost to evade this the voice of the Prosecutor from the actually carried out the killings ; they are issue, just as after the war they carefully Roemer". More than once the text of the ones kept in prison and escorted each avoided admitting their activities in Ausch­ Jne accusations was broadcast. Thus, and day to the trial. The remaining thirteen witz. Boger, the most heavily involved, tnanks also to the detailed reports in the are the " Schreibtischmoerder " and are at was connected with the N.S.D.A.P. longer J;'erman press, the " indefinite number of liberty, some against bails of between than any of the others, having joined its cases " will, in the long run, be imprinted DM 10,000 and 50,000, others because they youth movement as far back as 1922. It on the minds of the German people. are too ill to be imprisoned, and some even has been proved that four of the defen­ Ine trial will last for at least six months without bail at all. Their liberty strikes dants belonged to N.S. organisations prior ^?d probably longer. The interrogations one as grotesque when—admittedly with to 1933 ; six joined after 1933 and ten after rjf, • .^ defendants, the inquiry into their some embarrassment—they hang up their the outbreak of the war. positions and functions within the organi- coats and hats in the same cloakroom as We listen to a kind of language which j. "on and machinery of Auschwitz will, the lawyers and correspondents of the either represents the worst sort of jargon Jifcif, last into the spring. Only then will press. or the modes of expression of the " eternal ^ne nearly 200 witnesses, selected by the The accused should not be judged trooper" who replies monotonously with tniH ^^°"^ -^'^^^ persons who had sub- by appearances. It would be hasty and " JawoU ". Even a university-trained defen­ thl • statements, be examined, as also will wrong for the prejudiced observer to be dant mentioned how—" since he was always ne Witnesses for the defence and for the inclined to read brutality, perversion, against it"—he was " in Marsch gesetzt", tirJ, prosecutors representing the vic- cruelty, fanaticism and cynicism in their to explain that he was transferred. The }"ns or their families. After that will come faces. Only once their deeds are dealt " Akademiker " hesitate occasionally and ne pleas and counter-oleas of the public with will we know how far background, for a considerable time before they pro­ prosecutor and the defence. profession, soci,^I position or the urge to nounce their " No's ", affirm their ignorance JJ, 'lis trial, concerning as it does the be " somebody " and to dominate, plaved or disclaim any recollections before the Vf^r I °^ millions of innocent victims who their part. Outward impressions alone microphones of the court. Their denials ere destroved by an organised system of would be insufficient to characterise and sound even less convincing than those of ass slaughter, is unique in its dimensions. stigmatise these men. Continued on page 2, column 1 Page 2 AJR INFORMATION February, 1964 " IN AN INDEFINITE NUMBER DEATH OF DR. NEHEMIAH ROBINSON OF CASES" Fighter for Jewish Rights charm, which helped to surmount obstacles Continued from page 1 and to find a way where often there seemed Jewry, especially the victims of Nazi perse­ the others. However, their signatures and to be no promising approach at all. cution all over the world has suffered a His capacity for work was stupendous, his initials on the numerous documents which terrible loss by the sudden death of Dr. have been collected from many sources power of reasoning and his intellect brilliant, Nehemiah Robinson. but his great mind was matched by an equally including the Auschwitz Museum, will He was born in Kovno (Lithuania) and went undisputably identify the " Schreibtisch­ great soul. He was one to whom the burdened to New York shortly before the outbreak of heart could pour forth its sorrow; always moerder " and will prove their evasions as the Second World War. As a scholar of patent Ues.