OFFICERS ON TRIAL

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29238, 23 June 1960, Page 20

OFFICERS ON TRIAL

Obeyed Order By Hitler

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) FRANKFURT, June 21

A former S.S. general, Max Simon, told a West German Court yesterday he ordered three civilians to be shot in 1945 “because when the ship is sinking, a captain has the right tb eliminate anyone who endanjers the crew.’ ’

Simon went on trial at Ansbach with two other officers. They allegedly formed a special court which .ordered the execution of a farmer who helped disarm a band of Hitler Youth in order to save the village of Brettheim from destruction by advancing Allied troops. They are charged also with ordering the execution of a local Nazi official and the Mayor of Brettheim, Leonard Gackstatter, for refusing to approve the farmer’s execution.

They are being tried for murder for the third time. Simon and his fellow-accused acted under the provisions of the famous “Fuehrer’s Order' No. 7” which permitted the summary execution of anyone hindering the war effort.

Asked if he had not had qualms about the harshness of Order No 7, Simon replied that it was not the duty of a simple soldier to decide over the right or wrong of an order.

The three former officers were acquitted by the present Court in 1955, and a Nuremburg Court in 1958 for lack of evidence. On both occasions the Federal Supreme Court ordered new trials.