THE NAZI LEADERS INDICTED

Evening Star, Issue 25618, 19 October 1945, Page 5

THE NAZI LEADERS INDICTED

Wanton Pursuit of World Power

Murder and Torture of

Millions

'(Bee. noon.) BEBLIN, October 18. Humanity’s greatest calendar of crime is published to-night. Britain, America, France, and Russia, in an indictment presented to the International Military Tribunal, accuse 24 Nazi leaders of conspiring for 25 years to rule the world, and in pursuit of that ambition, of fostering the theory of racial superiority, violating international law, engaging in total war, and of responsibility for the murder and torture of many millions of people. The indictment accuses the 24 Nazi leaders of crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. The indictment also charges common conspiracy to commit these crimes'.

“ Typical and symptomatic ” of the means whereby the wars were prosecuted were the murder, ill-treatment, or deportation of civilian populations for slave labour and other purposes; the ill-treatment of prisoners of war and persons on the high seas; the taking and killing of hostages; the plunder of public ■and private property; the wanton destruction of cities and towns -—devastation unjustified by military necessity.

Goering, the first accused named, is charged with being the instigator of concentration camps, which expanded as a fixed part of the terroristic policy of the conspirators, and were used by them for the commission of crimes against humanity; the suppression of free trade unions; the establishment of concentration camps; against the influence of the Churches, especially over youth; and cruel persecution within Germany—all part of the Nazi system.

The annihilation of Jews became the official State policy, the indictment states. Of 9,600,000 Jews in the parts of Europe under Nazi domination, it was conservatively estimated that 5,700,000 disappeared, most being deliberately put to death by the Nazi conspirators.

Catalogue of Horrors

A long list of tortures and mass exterminations follows, but it is stated that the incidents are given only as examples,' and do not exclude evidence on other 1 cases.

•France charges mass arrests, brutal, treatment, and tortures such as immersion in icy water,, asphyxiation, the torture of limbs, the use of torture instruments, such as the iron helmet, and the methods of extermination used in concentration camps, including pseudoscientific experiments, gas chambers, and crematory ovens. Of the 228.000 French political and racial deportees in concentration camps only 28.000 survived. i

Russia charges that 4,978,000 of her people were deported to slavery, 1,710 cities and over 70,000 villages were destroyed or severely damaged, over 6,000,000 buildings were destroyed, and 25,000,000 were made homeless. Russia also

, charges that 1,500,000 persons were exterminated at Maidenek and about 4,000,000 at Auschwitz, among whom were Poles, Russians,, British, American, French, and Czechs. The Germans in the Lwow region, . exterminated 700,000. People were disembowelled and frozen in tubs of water. Mass shootings took place while orchestras played. Peaceful citizens in the Crimea were transported to sea and drowned. The waT crimes listed in the indictment include the extermination of national groups, the killing of and experiments on children, and the drawing off of their blood for the German army. Prominence is given to the shooting of 50 R.A.F. officers who escaped from S.talagluft Three. There are many instances of the killing of hostages and the looting of public and private property.

Three for First Trial

30 Days for Preparation

The proceedings before the International Tribunal were conducted with extreme formality, but were carried out smoothly despite the complexities introduced by translating all the statements into four languages. The Berlin Assize Court, in which the Nazis last year sentenced to death the participants in the 'July bomb plot against Hitler, was crowded by a cosmopolitan assembly, including a number of Germans.

The British Attorney-General, Sir Hartly Shawcross, addressing the court on behalf of all the prosecutors, said the indictment was unanimously approved by the chief prosecutors, representing Britain, France, America, and Russia.

The president of the, tribunal, M. Nickichenko, accepting the indictment, announced that the prosecution intended to ask the tribunal to declare a number of Reich agencies criminal organisations.” These were the Reich Cabinet, the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party, the S.S., the Gestapo, the S.A., and also the general staff and high command of the German armed forces.

M. Nickichenko said it must be understood that the not permit delay in the preparation of either the defence or the trial.

He read the names of the accused, beginning with Goering, Hess, and Ribbentroh. 1 He said they would be served with the indictment immediately, and must be ready for trial under 30 days. The names of the other accused who are to be tried at the first sessions were Ley, Keitel, Kaltenbrunner, Rosenberg, Frank, Fridk, Streicher, Funk, Schacht, Krupp, Doenitz, Raeder, Schirach, Sauckel, Jodi, Papen, SeyssInquart, Speer, Neurath, Friteche, and also Bormann, who would be tried in absentia.

The accused would be charged as individuals and also as members of groups. M. Nickichenko said a loud speaker apparatus would be installed. The Exchange Telegraph says that other loud speakers have been arranged to relay the proceedings outside the court room. It is also practically certain that the proceedings will be broadcast.

After the session Sir Hartly Shawcross said: “ I imagine the defendants will consider it more fitting, as I would myself, to be defended by German counsel. Counsel from other countries, if asked to represent German defendants, would have to consider whether it was seemly to defend persons accused of crimes against the United Nations.”