Feb. 26, 1962 - A former S.S. (élite guard) sergeant went on trial in Stuttgart today, charged with the murder of 20 Jews during World War II. Twenty-six witnesses from the United States, Israel, France, Britain and Austria are scheduled to testify against the former Nazi soldier, Felix Landau (pictured in the 1930s), a 51-year-old interior decorator from Stuttgart. Landau is accused of having personally selected 20 Jews to be shot in July of 1941 in retaliation for the failure of 17 Jewish prisoners to turn out for a work detail he commanded in Poland. Landau was first a police assistant in the Gestapo, then became a member of an Einsatzkommando (death squad) in June 1941.
