May 16, 1962 - A West Berlin bank manager admitted today that, as a Nazi officer, he had ordered firing squads to shoot Jewish hostages. He then maintained that the number killed had been exaggerated. The bank official, Dr. Albert Filbert (pictured during World War II), 56, is the chief defendant in a trial of six former officers of the S.S. Elite Corps and the police. He is accused of mass murder. Filbert challenged the prosecution’s charge that his squad had murdered 10,300 people. He said he had been the commander of Special Commando 9, which was sent to Poland and Russia behind the invading Nazi army in 1941. He said his unit had been responsible for “1,000 executions at the most.” Only Dr. Filbert is charged with murder before the West Berlin court. He is liable to life imprisonment. The five other defendants, who also hold respected jobs in West Germany, are accused of aiding and abetting murder.
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