The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News,Morning News, The Echo and The Sun THURSDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1943. THE KHARKOV TRIALS AND AFTER

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 304, 23 December 1943, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun THURSDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1943. THE KHARKOV TRIALS AND AFTER

AN official German statement on the Kharkov trials says: "Since Roosevelt and Churchill are associated with these trials German militarj' Courts will soon deal with British and American prisoners who are guilty of serious breaches of international law, although not yet on trial." The implications behind this threat are serious, in view of the blood-thirsty nature of the reprisals which the Nazis have taken in the occupied countries, and of their action in shackling British prisoners of war following the Channel Island raid. The full story of that reprisal has never been told; secrecy was preserved because it was hoped that lack of reference to the matter would induce the Germans to cease this form of persecution. Apparently it had that ultimate effect, but the chaining was maintained long after the counter-measures in Britain were dropped, and with a hundredfold the intensity of the British reply. Neither Britain nor America had any association with the Kharkovtrials. They have been linked with them by the Germans because the representatives of the four Allied Powers at Moscow, in the agi-eement at which they arrived, recounted some of the worst brutalities of the Nazi forces in the many countries they have over-run, and went on to say that "the Germans who take part in the wholesale shootings of Polish officers or the execution of French, Dutch, Belgian and Norwegian hostages and Cretan peasants, or who shared in the slaughters inflicted on the people of Poland, or in territories of the Soviet Union, now being swept clear of the enemy, will know they will be brought back to the scene of their crimes and judged on the spot by the peoples they have outraged. Let those who hitherto have refrained from staining their hands with innocent blood beware lest they join the ranks of the guilty, for most assuredly the three Allied Powers will pursue them to the uttermost ends of the earth and deliver them to the accuser in order that justice may be done." Only to the extent that America and Britain signed this declaration have they any part in the Kharkov trials, which meted justice to a very small section of the minor criminals of Germanic blood-guilt in their enforced retreat. The "master men" who brought about the state of mind in Germany which made such crimes possible, the men who ordered the mass murder of millions of minorities, the bestiality of the attacks on the Jews and the Yugoslavs, the wanton destruction of Rotterdam, and a thousand other terroristic attacks, carry the main burden of guilt. These have shown neither justice nor mercy, and they know that when they themselves are brought to justice they will have a terrible indictment to face. It is possible, therefore, that they will seize the opportunity which is presented to their twisted minds by the Kharkov trials to embark upon a series of murdei-s of hapless prisoners from America and Britain who have fallen into their hands, and against whom trumped-up charges on perjured evidence can be laid. Lately German official and prison camp commanders, recognising the shape of things to come, have been showing much more consideration to their Allied charges. It is possible that this feeling will permeate even the higher ranks, who by now must realise that the game is up, and who may therefore try to ingratiate themselves with their coming conquerors by refusing to indulge in a further orgy of crime. We can only hope that this will prove to be so, but it is folly to neglect, and to prepare in advance against, so obvious a threat as that contained in the official German statement.