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The Canadian Jewish News, Thursday, December 7, 1989-Page 5
Canada's first war crimes trial
PAUL LUNGEN
TORONTO -
A survivor of Auschwitz and Mauthausen has testified that he-began his journey to the Nazi concentration camps after Imre--Finta Ordered the Jewish population of Szeged into sealed railcars so overcrowded that pt?i5ple'~ had to spend much-of-tha.-journey standing up.. ......
"it was Finta who supervised" the transfer to the trains. Meir Schwciger said in court last.week, r Schweiger was testifying -at the trial of Inire Finta. 77. a former Hungarian gendarmerie. captain charged with eight counts of. war crimes and crimes against humanity, the prosecution ' alleges that, Finta is guilty of kidnapping, forcible confinement, robbery and manslaughter in connection with 8.617 Jew.s in the Hungarian city of Szeged in theiiummer of
.■■1944,
Schweiger, 62, said that about two weeks before the trains were loaded, Finta had announced to the Jews of Szeged that he was in charge of the ghetto into which they had been herded. -■■
The head of the Hungarian gendarmerie "assembled us.and said he was FintaT^.'^"''F today;;! " 'You are under iny supervision. Anyone who , tries to get a\yay-will be shot,' Schweiger - re-counted.
A citizen of Israel, , Schweiger was the first eyewitness to testify aboiJt events in wartime Hungary. Speaking through a Hebrew-English interpreter, he said''lhat~wlien the trains were loaded, Finta went-from car to car to make sure 80 people^[ere forced on board.
' 'They forced us in." he ■ testified; ''There wasn't enough room. They shoved us and pushed us and beat, us"- until they filled the ^ars.' "j■       ■ ■'
The train, he added, was a "freight train for animals/'
Inside there were only fbur small" windows covered with barbed wire. Conditions were so "awful" that everyone had to stand. Evejitually, people got so tired they "sat on top of , another." ^-
■The journey "went on • for da^'s and nights... a. week or more."
The boxcars were opened once after about two or three days and only water was^ given to the . prisoners. Most had brought food with them, but the conditions Were so bad no one Jiad any appetite, Schweiger said.
People who wished to relieve themselves did so in an enipty tin that was passed to Schweiger who threw the contents out the window.
^yhen they, arrived at Auschwitz, Schweiger testified he "was in a bad state. But since I was young and had been an-, athlete, I hung on.'' In the camp the prisoners -were separated, with women and children being sent off "to thejeft."
Meir Schweiger
He was taken to a building in the gypsy camp that was so crowded there was hardly any space on the w(xxlen pallets to lie down. You had to lie on'one side, since you couldn't even Tiirn around, he said;
Conditions were harsh, and prisoners were given a "bowl with a hot liquid" for breakfa.st. "I don't even . know what it was." In the afternoon they were given some gruel and at night some bread with salami.
The prisoners were so cold in their camp-issued uniforms that during the ' day they would huddle together in a group "like sheep" to try to stay warm. They would try to get into the middle of the group , where it was warmer, he said.
After two weeks, Schweiger volunteered for work in his trade as carpenter and assisted others at a machine that split wood.
He was then transferred to a factory at Auschwitz where he worked at slave iabor for a ifurther six to eight months. But as the Soviet troops got closer, the camp was evacuated and Schweiger joined prisoners who were forced to Germany, mostly oh foot. ■■'
After a stop at Oranien-burg, he eventually found himself at Mauthausen, where "guards were brutal, more brutal than the other places."
He contracted, typhoid and lost so much weight he eventually weighed only 29 kilos. "By the time the -Americans arrived'TI could" only walk on all fours."
Schweiger began his testimony by recounting the anti-Jewish measures taken in the south Hungarian city from 1942-44. He said he was forced to leave high school and take up carpentry when" Jews were excluded from the education system.       ' ^ ""*'"■ ■
A decree compelled Jews to wear a yellow badge in the. form of ..the, Star of David on their clothes. In March 1944, a notice was circulated that Jews were ordered,to a ghetto located, around tlfe city's large synagogue. He estimated that all;the city's 10.000 Jewi : filled the ghetto to ca- _ pacity. y
Schweiger said he. his mother, brothers and small ^isjers all entered the ghetto ,
—• his father had already left- home to work at forced labor. ■
Initially they were supervised by Hungarian police but that task was taken over by gendarmes, who were
distinguished by their military-looking uniforms. That's when Finta identified himself as the one in charge of the ghetto.
. He later saw Finta in thfe" ghetto two or three times including an occasion when he" saw Finta warn a famous h"6h-Jewish soccer player who was trying to enter the ghetto to see a girlfriend. He told the athlete that if he entered the ghetto, he would be regarded as a Jew and would not get out. ■ ;
That's what eventually. happened to the footballer, Schweiger said.
In the brickyard, Schweiger and his family found a place in an area ■used to store shingles before they were loaded on trucks. Although it had a roof, it was otherwise open to the weather, he said, and "we were very cold."..
Bread, salami and jam was distributed.Qnce.a-day and faucets supplied water,-but there were no bathing facilities. Latrines were available, but there was no privacy in either the men's of women's sections.
At the centre of the "brickyard, at a ramp." a wooden table was set up at which Jews handed over their valuables. "It was all being supcrvi.sed by Finta" with his assistants nearby. Schweiger testified.
It was obvious, he added, that the commands in the brickyard came from Finta. He "Was in charge of everything."
Schweiger identified Finta "in" a photograph presented to him by Crown attorney Christopher Amerasinghe. The picture was not entered into evidence. - pending further . identification.
Cross-examination, of Schweiger was delayed until this week biicause of the illness of one of the jurors.
head of state Miklos Hor-thy was compelled to acquiesce, he said. Hungarian soldiers- were restricted to their barracks and German forces received no opposition — in <fact", were received warmly by Hungarian sold-'ier.C according to a report sent back to Berlin by military . attache Hans Greiffenberg.
There was significant pro-German sentiment in the general population and. ^ there was no need to implement.—Hitler.'s order of. crushing resistance ruth- ' lessly. he,said.
In cross-examination, defence lawyer Doug Christie grilled Foerster over his use of the word ''occupation.'' suggesting it was merely a,„''recon-. naissance in force" by the German army.
Foerster, who told court he studied the original German documents, said thev refer to the
March events as an "occupation."
He said an "occupation" gives -full power over all the country's forces to the occupier and it means taking control of the government, which the Germans did by in.stalling a compliant government five days after entering the country.
Foerster rejected Chris-lie's comparison of the German forces in Hungar>' in 1944 to the presence in West • Germany : today of : NATO armies.
He : also rejected Christie's suggestion that Soviet forces invaded Hungary in 1944. saying Hungarian armies had fought with the Germans in the Soviet Union in .1941 and •nhat the Soviet presence there in 1944 was due to their fighting in a theatre 6t' ■ war.' ■ / ■.'■ / .
Christie suggested that that testimony indicated'a "bias" in favor of the, Soviet, side, as did testi-
mony by Foerster that dismissed ran article by a wartime Soviet general that claimed Stalin had been planning- an invasion of Germany. (Germany invaded the Soviet Union on
= June 22. 1941.) ;^
. Foerster said the German documents indicate no fear of a Soviet attack. They show that the 2;7 million Soviet troops in the Soviet Union were in defensive positions and that the Ger-
- mans felt they could crush Soviet resistance,
• .p^rmany: had been preparing for an invasion of the Soviet Union since July 1940. and Soviet deployments were in res- .
' pon.se to fears of a German attack, he said. While Statin had been aware of. the threat of attack— and had been wa'rned of it by Churchill — ■ local commanders were unaware when it was coming and were caught by surprise when it did. Foer-
'';Ster testified,
In earlier testimony, a German military historian testified that Hungary's rural police force was placed under Nazi control after German forces invaded the country on March 19, 1944. The Royal Hungarian Gendarmerie was "restructured and purged" and came under the authority of the SS, military historian Jurgen Foerster said. . German forces occupied Hungary when Hitler be^' came concerned about his ally's loyalty to Germany, he said. Foerster," of the Military History Research Institute in Freiburg, West Germany, said Hitler wanted to set up a "servile government" in Hungary, gain greater aQce.ss: tgjhe^ country's resources and "effect the final solution of the Jewish question."
German forces entered the country and Hungarian
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MONTREAL -
In what it called an. historic meeting, .Canadian Jewish -Congress recently hosted the Soviet Consul-General in Montreal Ev-gueni Kotchetkov^ and the vice-consul Konstantin Grichtchenko at the CJC national headquarters!
Representing CJC at the meeting were Quebec Region chairman Goldie Hershon, executive vice-president AlaiL-Eose, na-.. tional" executive'. direcfor • Jack Silverstone, Quebec Region executive director Michael Crelinsten, national Soviet Jewry Committee director Carole Moscovitch and Quebec Region com-mittee chairman Pearl Grubcrt. -
Rose, in welcoming the diplomats, reviewed the. "tragic situation" of Soviet Jews-since 1945. He quoted Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, who stated: "In order to-face the future' we must confront - the pa.st." .
Rose said the plight of
Soviet Jewry was a human rights problem as the community is the largest remnant in Europe of the Holocaust.
"We recognize that great progress has taken place in the condition of Soviet Jewry, but problems re-'' main, including the refuse-niks, 'poor relatives' and Jews not being permitted to leave on so-called security girounds," Rose said.
He added. ''We hope that" new legislation presently before the Congress of.Peoples' Deputies will will permit unimped-ed exit from the USSR..,
CJC also expressed its concerns about the Pamyat, an ultra-nationalist Russian, gi^oupT'and its a^^ overtones.
Kotchetkov said he would'convey the concerns of CJC to his government.
"Both parties.recognized _ the historical importance of this formal exchange and ■ agreed to continue friendly and positive dialogue,'' Rose told the CJN.
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