At Christmas time in 1966 he went “with a creepy feel ing” to the Bavarian prison where his mother was serving the life sentence imposed by the Bavarian State Court in 1950. They had what he de scribed as a joyous reunion and he continued to visit her as often as the rules allowed —once a month—until she hanged herself Sept. 1, 1967, three weeks before her 61st birthday.

“I always avoided talking with her about the war,” he recalled. “She always denied h4r guilt and said she was the victim of libels, lies and per jury. I didn't discuss it with her further because it was pain ful for her. I wanted that my mother would have the hope of getting out, and secondly, after two decades in prison, that she have other thoughts.”

“I can't really imagine what it was like then in the war,” he went on. “I am not even convinced she was guiltless. But I feel that she just slithered into the concentration‐camp (world like many others without being able to do anything about it.”

Mr. Kohler contends that his mother got a raw deal be cause the three courts that tried her were not able to as semble evidence establishing that she had committed major crimes.

In 1944, after she had been under investigatory arrest for 16 Months, a special SS (Elite Guard) court suspended charges that she had caused the death of Buchenwald pris oners. Her husband was found guilty and shot.

The SS investigation was au thorized by Heinrich Himmler after he had received reports of a corruption scandal at Buchenwald.

In 1947 a United States military tribunal convicted Mrs. Koch of beating Buchenwald, prisoners and singling out othfi ers for execution. A year later a review board convened by the United States Military Gov ernor, Gen. Lucius D. Clay, concluded that the bulk of the evidence against her had been hearsay and reduced her sen tence from life at hard labor to four years.