THE HIMMLER METHOD

Evening Star, Issue 25495, 28 May 1945, Page 5

THE HIMMLER METHOD

SUICIDE OF GOERING'S SUCCESSOR OTHER HIGH-RANKING NAZIS ALSO . CAPTURED , (Rec. 11 a.m.) (RUGBY, 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-Marshal Robert Ritter von Greim. The FieldMarshal, according to correspondents at Supreme Headquarters in Pans, killed himself in a Salzburg hospital on Thursday, it is believed by the same method as Himmler used—potassium cyanide—as a small 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 co-operative, but his minor wound did not appear to justify the elaborate hospital records the Nazis maintained on his case prior to his aartture. It is believed that his slight wound was self-inflicted, and that he was try- ■ ing to get out of the Luftwaffe position when captured. This, it is thought, probably explains the elaborate records the Germans were keeping. Greim, who was appointed FieldMarshal on April 26, when he succeeded Goering as C.-in-C, 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 was reported to have made nlans with Hitler for the air defence of Berlin. Another Nazi chief who favoured Himmler's method _ is Albert Forster, the notorious gauleiter of Danzig, who, according to a correspondent with the (British Second Army in Hamburg, has been captured there by the Fifty-third 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, ac- . cording to a correspondent at Allied headquarters, Mediterranean. Six German generals, high-ranking members of the staff of General von V.ietinghoffScheel, 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 08olzano, on the road to the . 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.

Router's correspondent with the Third Army says the Americans have taken prisoner Goering"s chief art collector, Hofer, who was mainly _ responsible for accumulating Goering's fabulous art treasures.