LONDON: Eight prisoners of war today [July 2] faced trial at a London Military Court for the murder of a fellow prisoner, said to be an anti-Nazi at the camp of Compden.

They were alleged to have given Feldwebel Wolfgang Rosterg a mock trial with a rope round his neck and then dragged him along the ground to an extempore gallows and hanged him. On the way, according to the prosecution he was kicked and stamped upon and he was dead before the actual hanging was carried out.

The President of the Court sat with five other Judges and two Solicitors each represented four of the prisoners. All the 8 pleaded not guilty…

The first German prisoner of war witness said that on the night of Rosterg’s arrival at the camp there was a discussion about national socialism and Rosterg was asked whether he was a Nazi. He said that he was not. He said that he had been about the world enough not to believe in it any more. Next morning witness said that he arrived in the middle of the mock trial. Asked to describe the condition of Rosterg at that time, he said: “He was bleeding from his nose, ears and mouth”.

Published in Dawn, July 4th, 2020