European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - February 14, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Friday february 14, 1992 the stars and stripes a Page 9ss horror tales unfold in court trial of sex nazi ghetto commandant nears end by Joseph Owen Stuttgart Bureau Stuttgart Germany a Josef Schwammberge will turn 80 today at a top Security prison in Stuttgart a Stamm Heim District having outlived by half a Century dozens of people he allegedly killed. But As the former nazi is concentration Camp commandants trial moves into its final phase in a Baden Wiir Temberg state court even people who survived his ghetto Rule but died or disappeared later have added More comment to the proceedings than the defendant has. Schwammberge is charged with having murdered at least 45 people and having been an accomplice to the murder of at least 3,377 others in Poland during world War ii. Most of the victims were jews. The Przemysla ghetto site of most of the murders a was turned Plain and simple into a hello a when Schwammberge became commandant there in Early 1943, survivor Henrik Gottlieb testified in january. Described As neither a Mastermind nor a Pawn in the Josef Schwammberge a flt German plan to annihilate the jews but As a Middle level functionary who approached his work with sadistic Zeal Schwammberge has denied the killings. Gaunt and somber faced the accused shuffles silently to his seat on the far right Side of the stucco walled courtroom before each session. He rarely addresses the court and converses Only briefly with his government appointed lawyers. He makes occasional notes sips water from a Glass and Cocks his head slightly to the left during Long stretches of testimony. Apparently oblivious to the teen aged students reporters historians and other people who often pack the courtroom he seems More like a Spectator himself than a defendant. Since the trial began in june a three judge panel has heard dozens of witnesses testify about Schwamm bergers wartime actions. The court has visited the crime scenes in Poland and has travelled to the United states Canada and Israel to take statements from wit Nesses who were too ill or too old to travel. On tuesday the court read aloud decades old written statements from four american witnesses whose current whereabouts is unknown. The judges Monotone voices contrasted sharply with the ghoulish accounts of is troops killing jews and others at Przemysla in 1943. A Man who worked for the germans said in one statement that he was forced to direct the digging of two mass Graves near an orphanage. Later he said Schwammberge and other a men drove truckloads of jews there made them strip and stand with their backs to a grave then shot them in the head. After the bodies fell into the grave the is poured chlorine on them. As each grave filled up with hundreds of corpses the is covered it with a layer of dirt. The same Man said he saw Schwammberge near a gymnasium taking part in a mass shooting of several Hundred jews whom the is had lured out of hiding with the Promise of residence permits. The germans stacked the bodies and burned them he said adding that some victims were still alive and tried in vain to escape the flames. Schwammberge often had his dog Prinz attack Przemysla residents and bite off chunks of their flesh the statement said. The Many a statement said he hid 20 children from the orphanage before the is could truck them away for execution but the is later caught them and killed them. In other written statements witnesses said Schwammberge helped round up jews confiscate their jewelry and other valuables and stuff the victims into Railroad cars for shipment to death Camps. The statements while graphic and concise also had weaknesses As evidence. During a morning recess tuesday defense lawyer Dieter Konig pointed out contradictory details in them. He also noted the credibility problems inherent in statements from people no longer available for Cross examination. But the court has heard similar testimony from live witnesses. Several said they saw the mass shooting at the gymnasium on sept. 11,1943. Samuel Nussbaum of Overland Park kan., testified Jan. 29 that when the bodies were burned soot settled Over the whole ghetto. A whatever you touched was Sticky a Black smoke a he said. Nussbaum 71, a retired plumber said he often did Odd jobs for Schwammberge. He said he was walking with Schwammberge and his wife one Day in june when they saw an injured jew lying on the Street shot in the lower part of his body. Schwammberge used his foot to flip the Man onto his stomach then shot him in the head he said. In october Nussbaum said Schwammberge discovered 20 or 30 jews hiding from Railroad shipments so he locked them in a tiny cell at the local military Post. A tiny window at the top of the cell afforded the Only ventilation. Nussbaum said he heard people crying inside. A they had so Many people in that Little room a he said. A if you could see it a i seen it a steam coming out that window from the  later according to Nussbaum Schwammberge and a ukrainian took the jews out to a Chain link Fence Nussbaum had built at the ghettos Edge. Nussbaum hidden in a nearby building watched what Schwammberge did next. He took every one of them himself personally and shot Mem and i looked on it a he told the court. Pressed by judge Herbert Luippold to respond Schwammberge denied knowing Nussbaum but he said he knew three jewish policemen who witnesses have said were nazi collaborators. A defense lawyer immediately asked for a recess saying the aged Schwammberge had become too tired to concentrate. Marvin Mendelsohn a lawyer for the Wiesenthal foundation who helped press for Schwamm Berger extradition said the passage of time also has tested the fortitude of several witnesses he represents. While most accounts they gave him at first were compatible with each other he said a some Are illusions or exaggerations that have grown Over 50 years. They be Tola the Story so Many times they have to make it  his clients have managed to stick to the facts in court he said. The defense has produced Only one rebuttal witness a jew who served As Schwamm Berger a coach Driver and testified that the commandant never mistreated him Kunig said. Schwammberge was born in Italy a South Tirol a Sas which was part of Austria then. He emigrated to Germany in 1933 and joined the nazi party according to the court. The is assigned him to Krakow in late 1941. He ran a slave labor Camp in Roz Wadow in late 1942, then moved to Przemysla. After most of Przemysla jews were dead or gone he took charge of a labor Camp at Mielec in 1944. The French arrested him in 1945, and obtained signed confessions that he had killed jews. The confessions have been used As evidence at his trial. Schwammberge said he was forced to sign one and denied knowledge of the rest. He escaped from a train in 1948 while being taken to a War crimes trial in Austria. West Germany issued a warrant for his arrest in 1971 after nazi Hunter Simon Wiesenthal located him in Argentina. After right Wing military Rule collapsed there police arrested Schwammberge near Cordoba in 198/. Argentina deported him to Germany in May 1990. Schwamm Berger a trial was expected at first to be the last of the big nazi trials. But Argentina said last week it is opening its secret files on nazis who fled there and Germany has requested Access to them. Also the discovery of nazi Era documents collected by the former East German secret police May prompt future nazi trials. The new developments probably wont affect the Schwammberge trial however which resumes next wednesday and May end by Early Spring. A i believe the trial will be Over before it has been evaluated Quot said Kunig referring to the East German  Eichmann aide Brunner still at Liberty by Joseph Owen Stuttgart Bureau Josef Schwammberge May go to jail for life chiefly for lolling or expelling most of a single City a jews. But another native austrian continues to elude prosecution for far greater crimes. Alois Brunner 79, is a former is Captain accused of rounding up whole communities of jews in Austria Czechoslovakia France and Greece and sending then to nazi death Camps by train. He was an aide to Adolf Eichmann who directed the Effort to exterminate Europe a jews and whom the israeli government later tried and executed. In a letter last april to Secretary of state James a. Baker Iii the los an Geles based Simon Wiesenthal Center eld Brunner accountable for the deporting and murder of 143,000 jews. Calling Brunner a a proud and unrepentant nazi a Center officials said he lives under the name of Georg Fischer in Damascus Syria and they urged Baker to press syrian president Hafez Al Assad to expel Brunner. The syrians have blocked efforts to bring Brunner to trial however according to the Center. Syria ignored extradition requests from Germany France Austria and the former East German government saying Brunner can to be found a a dubious claim because journalists interviewed him in Damascus More than once in the 1980s. Alfred Streim a prosecutor who runs a nazi crimes information Center in Lud Wissburg Germany said that even the a researched wealth of nazi Era files collected by now defunct East Germany is unlikely to provide investigators with significant new evidence about Brunner. A in Brunnert Scase there a so much incrimination that we done to need anything. What we need is Brunner himself a Streim said. The Wiesenthal Center described Brunnert a postwar Trail like this ascribing some details to Brunner himself a when world War ii ended he was in Prague. The czechoslovak government expelled him to Germany without recognizing him because he used an alias and false papers. A . And British authorities arrested him on separate occasions but released him. He was a . Army civilian employee after the War until 1947, the Center said. A he fled to Egypt in 1954 using the Fischer alias and an Arab Leader from Jerusalem helped him flee to Syria where he went to work for the syrian secret police and resided at 7 Rue Haddad. Brunner disappeared from that address last october according to a German newspaper report. If Germany a 1984 extradition request Ever succeeds Brunner would face trial in a District court in Frankfurt Streim said. France already has tried and convicted him in absent a. Recent events have Given Syria even fewer motives to cooperate with requests for Brunner however. On Jan. 29, Germany blocked a shipment of czechoslovak made tanks to Syria aboard a German merchant vessel. Also on Jan. 29, according to the associated press the . State department decided not to remove Syria from its list of countries that engage in state sponsored terrorism. Aside from those events syrians support of the Allied coalition in the 1991 War against Iraq As Well As the . Efforts to sponsor Arab israeli peace talks have left Western officials Little political leverage with Syria on other subjects