Evening star., 1961-05-04

And another witness told
Jews who were to be spared ex
had to decide who should be
saved.
Abba Kovner, now a writer in
Israel, told the three judge
court trying Eichmann for COM
>plicity in the wartime murder
of millions of Jews, that his in
formant, Wehrmacht Sergt
Anton Schmidt, was executed
by the NaziS for helping the
Jews.
Mr.. Kovner said he had a
secret meeting with Sergt
Schmidt one night in January
1912. in a Lithuanian village.
= 1--WE had a few drinks,
Kovner testified. Schmidt was
nervous. I asked about Gestapo
officers behind the extermina-
ton Of Jews and the Nazi per-
secution in ghettoS.
: II asked him about local
Gestapo commanders. Schmidt
said to me: These local COM
Inanders have no say. There is
one dog called Eichmann and
he is organizing everything"
s Mr.. Kovner said Sergt.
Schmidt then refused to say
more. telling him: Il never
told you anything. I won't tell
you anything more"
Certificates Described
Meir Dvorski, told of a bu-
reaucracy of death in the Nazi-
created ghettos Of Eastern Eu-
rope. He said "lebenSScheine"-
life certificates-were issued to
Jews picked for a respite from
the gas chambers and firing
squads.
IF a man had a wife, two
children and a mother, he had
to choose whom to register be-
cause only four persons could
be entered on the life certifi-
cate" DR.. Dvorski, a physi-
clan in the Wilma Githuania)
ghetto, testified.
Those who could not be
registered were sent away by
the family to hide in the
woods, he continued.
ANY people caught with
out certificates were certainly
doomed" he said.
DR.. Dvorski's teStim on y
came as the prosecution took
up the activities Of the Elm
satzgruppen," the NaZi opera
tional groups assigned to kill
Jews in the rear of advancing
German troops during the
campaign against Russia.
my wife and / had no chill
dren," DR.. Dvorski said. I'VE
were allowed to save two chill
dren. So I registered my sister
as my child. We had to make
her look much younger. Then
there was a boy who asked,
Who wants to be my father?'
We registered him as our sec
ond child"
SynagOgues Burned
Another witness now living in
Israel, Mrs. Frida Mazia, a
former nurse in Poland, told Of
the Germans rounding up pa
tients Of a Jewish hospital for
deportation to the death camps.
She told of executions Of
Jews convicted Of BLACK mar
ket" activities and said if a
Jewish mother bought an egs
for her starving child, the Ger
mans considered it a black
market deal.
Neither DR.. Dvorski nor Mrs.
Mazia tied Eichman directly to
the events they described. AS
he listened to their testimony,
he occasionally twisted his lips
in a now familiar gesture.
Mrs. Mazia said the German
troops launched anti-JewiSh
measures in her home town in
Western Poland as soon as they
entered the area in the blitz-
krieg campaign of September,
1889. Synagogues were burned
and the fires spread to neigh
boring houses.
Many people in these houses
were burned. If they tried to
escape from the houses they
were shot," she said.
Things became worse from
day to day. Germans began
CdICIllLlS PCOplC OI OAIC oIACCI
and sending them off to Ger
many. People were caught like
stray dogs"
Jews Made to Watch
Mrs. MaZia said the Germans
required all Jews to watch ex-
ecutions. She said corpses were
left hanging two or three days.
"In 1940," she continued,
"the story got around that
people should be careful be-
cause there was a particularly
feared German around who was
born in Palestine and who spoke
Hebrew"
"Was his name mentioned?"
Attorney General Gideon Haus-
ner asked.
''No, his name was not men,