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Israelis to attend war crimes trial of 'three respectable men'
By SHAUL USSISHKIN Special to The Jerusalem Post THIS WEEK, what promises to be the last major trial of ex-Nazis in Europe, is due to open in Cologne. Three men, Kurt Lischka, Herbert-Martin Hagen and Ernst Heinrichsohn will be tried for their part in deporting 80,000 Jews from occupied France to concentration camps in Eastern Europe. The trial is the result of more than a decade's labour by Serge Klarsfeld and his wife, Beate, the German protestant who has dedicated her life to wiping out the shame of the Nazis. They have collected more than 13 volumes of documents signed by these three men, who ordered the deportation of Jews to their deaths in Auschwitz, Sobibor, Maidanek, Kaunas-Reval and Buchenwald. The sad truth about these three men is that they have been living lives of comfort and respectability under their true names in West Germany since the end of World War II, even though they were tried in absentia in France. Who are the men? Kurt Lischka was born 70 years ago in Breslau, where he became a judge after studying law there and in Berlin. In 1933, at the age of 24, he joined the SS, a paramilitary force, and two years later, the Gestapo, the secret police. Lischka rose rapidly in the SS and in 1942, he was the Gestapo chief in Cologne. During 1940-1943, he was the deputy head of the security services and the criminal investigation department in occupied France. He was also the chief of the German police for the Paris area, chief of the department in charge of internment camps and execution of hostages, with special responsibility for the Gestapo and the Kripo, the criminal investigation police, throughout France. Considered an expert on Jewish affairs since his pre-war Gestapo days, he was primarily responsible for the deportation of Jews from France. His special legal and police training stood him in good stead in 1944 when he was charged with investigating the nine senior Wehr-macht officers implicated in the abortive plot to assassinate Hitler. On September 18, 1950, Lischka was tried in absentia by a military court in Paris which sentenced him to hard labour for life. Herbert-Martin Hagen, 66, is director of a leading industrial company, Industrie und Apparatbau, and lives in Warstein. Born in Hols-tein in 1913, he Joined the SS at the age of 20 after having studied international relations in the university. He, like Lischka, rose rapidly in the SS ranks, serving exclusively in the SD, the SS intelligence arm, where he was responsible for Jewish affairs. Adolph Eichmann was one of his deputies. In June 1941, Hagen was sent to France with the first SD unit to enter the country. He was the SD chief in Bordeaux, from where he controlled' Atlantic-seaboard France. He had Jews arrested in the region and in October 1941, he had 50 hostages shot in Bordeaux. In 1942, he was made political assistant to Gen. Karl Oberg, the supreme commander of the SS and the police in occupied France, whom he advised on Jewish matters. On March 18, 1955, a French court tried Hagen in absentia and sentenced him to hard labour for Ernst Heinrichsohn is today a respected lawyer in Miltenberg, Bavaria. He is also the mayor of the town of Burgstadt where he lives. Born in Berlin in 1920, he joined the Gestapo unit in the German capital and in September 1940, he was named adjutant to Theo Dannecker, Gestapo chief of Jewish affairs in Paris. He was responsible for rounding up the Jews of France in 1942. Heinrichson used to make a point of being present at the deportations he had arranged dressed in riding breeches and carrying a swagger stick. He is remembered with horror for having terrorized young children as he walked past them in the camps and for personally selecting the old and sick for deportation at hospitals. He was appointed Lischka's adjutant in 1943. On March 7, 1956, he was sentenced to death in absentia in Paris. Ernie Meyer reports: Four Jerusalemites will attend the opening of the trial against three accused German war criminals in Cologne. The group includes Miryam Meyuhas, vice-chairwoman of the Israel Committee for Beate and Serge Klarsfeld, and Yosef Foltis, chairman of the Organization of Concentration Camp Survivors, Partisans and Anti-Nazi Fighters. Serge Klarsfeld told The Post in an interview in Jerusalem recently that "we will hand a copy of my book, 'The Memorial of the Deportation of French Jewry,' to every person entering the court room. Having the book in his hand, every one of the visitors will represent the victims," he explained. The book lists the names of most of those deported in the 80 trains from the Drancy camp.) To emphasize the importance of the historic trial for the education of the younger generation, airline tickets were provided for two high school pupils. Ze'ev Ofiri, 17, of Gymnasia Rehavia, will represent the Council of High School Students in Jerusalem. Hillel Sommer, also 17, is the son of parents who survived the war by hiding in France. Mrs. Meyuhas appealed to the country's political parties, the Histadrut labour federation and the Association of Local Councils, who all have ties with parallel organizations in Germany, to induce some of their members to attend at least one trial session. The same appeal is made to Israeli individuals and to Jews from abroad who happen to be visiting Germany. Klarsfeld said he thinks the Lischka-Hagen-Heinrichsohn trial will be different from the Maidanek trial, which has been dragging on in a Duesseldorf court for about three years. "The difference is that we'll be in Cologne," he said self-confidently. "The defence lawyers won't be able to apply delaying tactics when the courtroom is packed with Jews. He outlined his plans for making sure that the Cologne courtroom, which has space for about 70 spectators, will never be empty. "We'll get young Jews and non-Jews, mostly from Paris, to make one-day trips to the trial. The 11 o'clock night train leaving Paris gets to Cologne at 6 a.m. The return train leaves at 4.30 p.m., so a visitor loses only one day at his university or high-school, or at his place of work," he elaborated. What kind of verdict does he expect? "We'll ask for a 12-year jail sentence for each of the three. That is the maximum penalty for complicity in murder, which is the charge against them under Germar law," he answered, defining what he would consider victory or defeat ir the trial. "Victory will be a sentence of seven years in jail or more. Defeai will be acquittal, or a sentence of twe to five years. That would mean a refusal of German justice today to consider the reality of the facts." Klarsfeld knows that even with a heavy sentence, none of the three men is likely to serve his full term but will be released after a few years. "We fight for a symbolic victory, not for individual punishment. We want to see the Germans demonstrate their continuing sense of responsibility to the Jewish people, even 34 years after the end of the war." (See also page 15.) |
