LIFE TERM FOR NAZI

Press, Volume C, Issue 29487, 13 April 1961, Page 7

LIFE TERM FOR NAZI

282 Murder Counts (N.Z.P.A .-Reuter—Copyright) ANSBACH (West Germany), April 11. The former commandant of Gusen concentration camp, Austria, Karl Chmielewski, was sentenced to imprisonment with hard labour for life at Ansbach today on 282 counts of murder. Nearly 100 witnesses gave evicfence in the two-month trial. The prosecutor said in the trial that 12.000 prisoners died at Gusen during Chmielewskis two years and a half of command. He was an S.S. captain. He described as “particularly cruel” methods of drowning prisoners by holding their heads under water and chilling prisoners to death in open-air baths in mid-winter while the next group of victims was forced to watch. The Court acquitted Walter Junge, aged 54. who worked under Chmielewski. Chmielewski said in evidence that he himself was an unimportant S.S. officer who followed orders, but he admitted that in some cases he had ordered punishment of camp inmates without consulting his superiors. Witnesses said that once Chmielewski had five Poles hanged by their arms and beaten to death for smoking, and had an S.S. guard nail a cross to the chest of a Polish priest. Giving the verdict, the Court President said Chmielewski knew about everything happening in the camp and, therefore, he must be held responsible for the killings and other crimes.