BELSEN TRIAL

Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24679, 24 September 1945, Page 5

BELSEN TRIAL

ACCUSED TAKEN BACK TO CAMP SITE EVIDENCE BY POLISH . JEWESS LONDON, September 22. The 45 German men and women, guards at the Belsen atrocity camp, who are now on trial at' Luneberg, were taken back to the camp yesterday afternoon by order of the Court. The visit had been kept a strict secret, because the Allies did not want Kramer or any other of the criminals to hav.e an opportunity to escape. _ When the former camp rulers reached Belsen they found many. German soldiers hard at work, stripped to the waist, clearing away the rubble where the crematorium and cookhouse S *The prisoners were able to read a message in German, proclaiming the site of the Belsen horror camp, which was liberated by the British on April 5 1945 'in the Court yesterday, Dr, Ada Bimko. a Polish Jewess, described how her f sther, mother, brother, husband and six-year-old son were placed in a gas chamber and murdered the day they arrived at the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland, of which Kramer was then in charge. In a “shipment of 5000 Jews, she said, only 500 escaped immediate death. All the sick Jews were paraded before a doctor, and the slightest sign of a blemish on the skin was'enough to seal their doom. Dr. Bimko said that Kramer and Dr. Klein took an active part in the selection of those to die. Klein was present on one occasion Jyhen 4000 of 4124 sick French women were selected for cremation. Dr. Bimko, asked if she recognised among the accused any of those who made the selections, pointed out Kramer, Klein, and Hoessier, who was the camp leader at Auschwitz, Irma Grese, and 15 other members of the S.S. 4,000,000 Jews Killed

Dr. Bimko said that there were five gas chambers at Auschwitz in which more than 4,000,000 Jews perished, according to records kept by the prisoners working in the crematorium. The condemned Jews removed their clothes in the first room of the gas chamber, where they were issued with a towel and soap as if they were about to take a bath. They were then herded into a large room capable of holding several hundred persons. It resembled a shower-bath, but It had no drains. A light railway ran direct from the chamber to the crematorium. Dr. Bimko described the public beatings of inmates for petty offences such as being late Jor parade, while their companions were forced to look on. She was present on one occasion when a woman was hit and kicked to death. Dr. Bimko said she was transferred to Belsen in November, 1944. Kramer took over the camp a few weeks later, after which there was a marked change in the conduct of the camp, which became another Auschwitz. There were only 300 aspirin tablets issued weekly lor 17,000 sick. Medical stores, which had been unopened, were issued freely a few days before the British arrived. Attempts by the president of the Court to explain the intricate proprieties of the British system of crossexamination failed to prevent Dr. Bimko from making elaborate replies, as defence counsel renewed their questioning at the trial to-day. When | counsel', complained of inability to i secure “Yes” or "No” answers. Dr. Bimko. in a voice quivering with indignation, asked >»'hy counsel, who knew nothing but hearsay about the camps, should try to prevent her from telling what she knew. Captain Owen suggested to witness that one of her statements was a complete fabrication. Witness said: “It was I who was there,- not the defend-, ing counsel.” The Judge warned the public that the Court would be cleared if the laughter which followed this exchange continued. Witness maintained, against attempts

by counsel to break down her testi- ! mony, that the selections of prisoners , for the gas chamber had nothing to > do with their health. Dr. Bunko, volj uole and emotional, queried the translation of her Polish and once cnrrect--9 ed the English interpretation. ' The accused, almost jaunty at the t beginning of the week, now appear in- . creasingly aware of the seriousness of ' their position, Irma Grese > was redt eyed, obviously from weeping, when » she was led into Court on the sixth > day of the trial. The Court was adjourned until Mon--5 day.