WAR CRIMES

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 69, Issue 158, 16 April 1949, Page 5

WAR CRIMES

Nineteen Imprisoned

FOREIGN OFFICE WORKERS (N.Z.P. A.—Copyright.) LONDON, April 14. Hitler’s No. 1 man at the German Foreign Office during tlie war, Ernst von Weizsaecker, was to-day sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment for war crimes. The American War Crimes Tribunal at Nuremberg also sentenced IS of Weizsaecker’s . colleagues who were Hitler’s former administrators and diplomats.

Weizsaecker bad been found guilty of planning aggressive war and of crimes against, humanity. The decisions were based on a majority vote of two of three judges, the third filing a dissenting opinion. The tribunal .finished reading its 832-page judgment on the 21 defendants of the ‘Wilhelmstrasse trial” yesterday-. The tribunal found 19 of Hitler’s former administrators and diplomats guilty of counts ranging from membership* in the S.S. to crimes against humanity involving the extermination of millions of Jews.

Other sentences wfere:—• Twenty-five years: Gottlob Bergen, chief of the central office of the S.S. Twenty yearn: Hans Lammers, former chief of the Reich Chancellery and Edmund Weesenmayer, ‘ former German Minister in Hungary.

Fifteen years: Hans Kehrl, chief of armaments and war production; Paul Pleiger, head of the coal, iron and steel production in the Nazi regime, and Paul Koermer, a deputy and close personal friend of Goering. Ten years: Lutz Schwerin von Kro* sick, former Minister of Finance, and Wilhelm Keppler, Hitler’s chief economic adviser, founder of the Himmler “Circle of Friends” which sponsored the S.S. Seven years: Ernst Woerwann, chief of the political division of the German Foreign Office and former Ambassador to China; Richard Darre, a former Minister of Food and Agriculture; Gustav Steengracht von Moyland, Foreign Office State secretary and a member of Ribbentrop’s personal staff; Karl Rasche, managing, director of the Dresdener Bank, and Otto Dietrich, Hitler’s press adviser and secretary in the Ministry of Propaganda.

Plotter Against Hitler Six years: Balter Schellenberg, brigadier-general in the S.S. and reputed leader of the plot to kill Hitter so that Himmler could succeed him. Five years: Ernst Wilhelm Bohle, a Bradford-born man whom Hitler planned to appoint gaulciter of Britain, and Emol Puhl, vice-president of the Reichsbank. /

Four years: Karl Ritter, former Ambassador to Brazil.

Wilhelm Stuckart, former State secretary to the Minister of the Interior, wafe sentenced to 46 months’ imprisonment—the time that has elapsed since he was arrested. He will be released immediately because he is seriously ill. Stuckart, Keppler, Schellenberg and von Moyland are ill in Nuremberg Hospital. The sentences cqmpleted the 13th and last war crimes trial in Nuremberg. This’trial of “little Hitlers” occupied 14§ months. Most of the defendants announced that they will take steps to appeal to a higher American authority; All the defendants will be given credit for the time they have spent in gaol waiting for trial—nearly four years.