SUICIDE OF NAZIS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 65, Issue 192, 28 May 1945, Page 3

SUICIDE OF NAZIS

POISON PHIAL METHOD. GREIM FOLLOWS HIMMLER. MANY MORE OFFICIALS CAPTURED. (N.Z. Press Association —Copyright.) (Rec. 9.55 a.m.) LONDON, May 27. The poison phial method of suicide seems to have been followed with equal success by Goering’s successor as head of the Luftwaffe —Field-Mar-shal Robert Ritter von Greim. The field-marshal, according to correspondents at Supreme Allied Headquarters in Paris, killed himself in Salzburg hospital on Thursday, it is believed by the same method that Himpaler used —potassium cyanide —as a small empty phial was found beside his bed with sandwiches and coffee. .Greim was wounded in the leg in the final stages of the battle of Berlin. He managed to escape, but was found in a German air force hospital at Kitzbuehl, an Austrian mountain resort, on Tuesday. From there he was taken to Salzburg. He appeared very cooperative, but his minor wound did not appear to justify the elaborate hospital records the Nazis maintained on his case prior to his capture. It is believed that his slight wound was self-inflicted, and that he was trying to get out of the Luftwaffe position when captured. This, it is thought, probably explains the elabor-

ate records the Germans were keeping of Greim, who was appointed field-mar-shal on April 26, when he succeeded Goering as commander-in-chief. He was 53 years old, and a professional soldier. He commanded an air fleet at the beginning of the war, and personally directed one of the mass raids on London. Immediately after his appointment- he reported that he had made plans with Hitler for the air defence of Berlin. Another Nazi chief who favoured Himmler’s method is Albert Forster, the notorious ganleiter of Danzig who, according to a correspondent with the British 2nd Army in Hamburg, had been captured there by the 53rd Welsh Division. When searched Forster was found to have a phial similar to that used by Himmler, but filled with morphine instead of cyanide of potassium. He told his captors that he was saving it in case it became necessary “to put himself to sleep.” Meanwhile more high-ranking Germans have been captured in Italy, according to a correspondent at Supreme Headquarters in the Mediterranean. Six German generals and highranking members of the staff of General von Vietinghoff-Scheel, commander of the German forces in Italy, and numbers of valuable records were taken three days ago by a special force of Allied police at Vietinghoff’s headquarters, near Bolzano, on the road to Brenner. Vietinghoff himself was officially taken into custody last Wednesday. His wife- and daughter were found as Red Cross workers in a military headquarters hospital. After investigation they were allowed to remain there until they could be returned to Germany with their medical unit. Four Generals Arrested. Four important generals who have been under house arrest in Hamburg were formally arrested and removed for questioning, says a correspondent with the British 2nd Army. They were the Brigade Fuhrer of the S.S., Ballauf, Major-General of Sappers, Dr. Hillart, Lieutenant-General Veith and Lieuten-aant-General Hunerman. The lastnamed was a member of Field Marshal Keitel’s staff until recently, and Veith commanded the “Ordnungstruppen” or provost forces. Officers of the 53rd Welsh Division yesterday went to the houses in which the generals were living, and told them to stand by for 9 a.m. to-day. More than 28,000 German troops have been removed from the Hamburg zone to vast prisoner-of-war cages in Schleswig-Holstein. Left behind are 50,000 personnel of foreign origin who served in the German army. They are of 26 nationalities, including Hungarians, Yugoslavs, Poles, UkrainianRussians, Belgians, Austrians, Rumanians, Lithuanians, Czechs, Letts, Dutch, French, Estonians, Italians, Finns, Black Sea. Germans, Swiss Slovenes, Danes and one Argentine. The tabulation of S.S. men in the Hamburg garrison area has been completed and more than 200 Will, leave the city to-morrow for a new prison camp.