Dr. Friederich Karl Vialon, State Secretary to the West German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation, admitted in open court here today that, during World War II, he had signed documents, “in the absence of my superior,” having to do with the confiscation of the property of Jews being then annihilated by Nazi commandos.
He appeared as a witness in the trial of Georg Heuser, a former leader in the Nazi SS, and 11 co-defendants, being tried for the mass murder, in White Russia, of about 170,000 men, women and children, including 35,000-40,000 Jews.
Dr. Vialon’s appearance as a witness came after two efforts to put him into the case had been made by the defense. Charges against him had been sent to the court in a “brown book” supplied by Soviet authorities. Under oath, today, he conceded that the documents supplied by the Soviet Union “were not falsified.” He said he was, indeed, a high official in the Riga office of the Reich Commissioner for Eastern Territories, but maintained he knew nothing about the extermination of Jews.
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