The 94-year-old defendant testified that he thought prisoners' deaths were the result of "miserable conditions" in the camp. Some 65,000 people were killed in the Stutthof concentration camp in Nazi-occupied Poland.
Image: picture alliance/AP Images/C. Sokolowski
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In court proceedings against a 94-year-old man on trial for accessory to murder in 100 counts, his lawyers read further testimony in which the defendant proclaimed his innocence. The statement included no apology to the victims or survivors.
The man, who served as an SS guard at the Stutthof concentration camp in the Nazi-annexed Free City of Danzig Poland, claimed that he had no idea that prisoners were being killed. He acknowledged that he was aware of the "miserable conditions" there but attributed deaths to "diseases and epidemics."
The defendant wiped away tears multiple times as he listened to his lawyer read out his statement to the court.
"As a Christian, it was difficult for me to be part of it all, but I was too frightened to protest," his statement said. "It was a great shock to see how Germans treated the prisoners."
Johannes R. pleads not guilty
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'They told me where to go and I obeyed'
The defendant, who is not named in accordance with German privacy laws, claimed he had little knowledge of "the structure inside the camp." He said he simply did what he was ordered: "They told me where to go, and I obeyed."
Despite having served as a guard at the camp for more than two years, he claimed he never saw any transport trains arrive.
Statistics compiled by Germany's main agency responsible for the investigation of Nazi crimes says that 65,000 people were killed at the camp — either in its gas chambers, by lethal injection, gunshot or other means.
Prosecutors said the defendant must be held accountable for the role he played in helping the camp operate.
The former SS guard is being tried as a juvenile because he was under 21 when he worked at Stutthof between June 1942 and September 1944.
Jewish composers who died during the Holocaust but whose music lives on
Amit Weiner's project "Music in Times of Tragedy" revives the oeuvre of the Jewish composers who were murdered by the Nazis but who created timeless music that has survived.
Image: Yad Vashem
Erwin Schulhoff
Born in Prague in 1894, Erwin Schulhoff was a protege of Antonin Dvorak. "He saw in Schulhoff the next big promise of the European musical scene," said Amit Weiner, who founded the project "Music in Times of Tragedy." His music combined many avant-garde styles with jazz." Schulhoff was a professor of music in Prague before he was murdered in 1942 in a concentration camp.
Image: Yad Vashem
Gideon Klein
The youngest Jewish composer murdered during the Holocaust, Gideon Klein was only 26 when he perished in the Fürstengrube sub-camp near Auschwitz. His oeuvre fuses Jewish themes with modern composition techniques. In 1940, he was offered a scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music in London. "This could have saved his life, but he was not allowed to travel from Prague," explained Weiner.
Image: Yad Vashem
Hans Krasa
"I find it very interesting that Krasa's music is always so happy and optimistic. Even the music he wrote in Theresienstadt is very lively," said Weiner about the Czech composer and author of the children's opera "Brundibar," who died in 1944 in Auschwitz. "Even in such dark times and horrible conditions, he saw hope and was optimistic about the future."
Image: Yad Vashem
Ilse Weber
The Czech poet had published several books of fairy tales in German before being transported to Theresienstadt in 1942. Weber started writing songs when she worked in the camp's children's hospital, and her music survived only thanks to her husband Willi, who discovered her songs after the war. Ilse and their son, Tommy, were murdered in Auschwitz in 1944.
Image: Yad Vashem
Mordechai Gebirtig
"He was not a professional musician — in fact, he was a carpenter who did not even know how to read notes. All the songs he composed were written down by his friend, a clockmaker," said Weiner about Gebertig, who, despite being just an avid amateur, remains one of the most popular singer-songwriters in Israel. The Polish composer died in the Cracow ghetto in 1942.
Image: Yad Vashem
Pavel Haas
Prior to his deportation to Theresienstadt, Pavel Haas had written film scores and orchestrations but also destroyed much of his work. "He was very depressed at first, but composers such as Klein or Krasa encouraged him to keep on writing," said Weiner. Paradoxically, the work he created in Theresienstadt surpassed what he had done before the war. He was murdered in Auschwitz in 1944.
Image: Yad Vashem
Viktor Ullmann
"If he hadn't been imprisoned and later murdered in Auschwitz in 1944, I am sure he would have become one of the most important musical forces of the 20th century," said Weiner about the Austrian Jewish composer who had been appointed conductor of the Prague State Opera before the war. The three years he spent in Theresienestadt were paradoxically the most prolific years of his career.
