THE STALINGRAD DEBACLE

Evening Star, Issue 25716, 13 February 1946, Page 5

THE STALINGRAD DEBACLE

HITLER'S ATTACK ON RUSSIA

ORDERS FULFILLED WITHOUT " ENTHUSIASM (Rec. noon.) NUREMBERG, February 12. The plan to attack Russia was Hitler's personal " brain child." F.ieldMarshal von Paulus to-day admitted this under the defence cross-examma-tion at the war crimes trial. The German High Command had little alternative but to perfect the details and to carry them out, he added. Those who executed Hitler's plan of attack probably had as their motive good faith and love of the Fatherland, in spite of disturbing doubts regarding the moral issues involved. Von Keitel's counsel asked: ''Do you know > that by your membership m the organisations accused here, you are also among the accused? " Von Paulus: I ask the tribunal to relieve me of responsibility' in answering questions directed against myself. Rejecting the appeal, Lord Lawrence directed that the witness must answer the questions. Von Paulus then stated that he accepted the command of the German Sixth Army, whose objective was the capture of Stalingrad, in spite of his personal conviction that the operation was a criminal assault against the Soviet Union, Me did this because It was his assignment as a soldier and because of extraordinary propaganda which convinced him, in spite of his scruples, that he had a duty tq the Fatherland, SUICIDE OF SIXTH ARMY, Under a renewed barrage of questions, von Paulus admitted that if he contended he acted in good faith in carrying out hie superior's orders, then other members of the High Command could lay similar claims. He. held fast to his statement, however, that Russia had not planned any attack against Germany, German counter-intelli-gence, be claimed, would have known if such a move had been planned. Von Paulus expressed regret for a telegram which he sent Hitler from Stalingrad expressing devotion to the Fuhrer, " \ described the suffering of my soldiers as heroism because I did not want to think so many were dying in vain," By the middle of January, 1943, he sent a message to Hitler protesting against the misery, suffering, cold, and hunger his troops were suffering. It was all beyond human endurance. Teh days before he capitulated von Paulus communicated with the High Command requesting permission to surrender, Hitler's reply stated categorically : " Capitulation is impossible. You will do your duty to the last man." The High Command required the Sixth Army's virtual suicide, "while the lines on the Eastern front are being straightened." Von Paulus admitted that in autumn, 1942, the Luftwaffe Chief of Staff told him he was in line for promotion, He denied that be knew Blitler intended to appoint him > as Jodl's suocessor if be were victorious at Stalingrad, GERMAN FREEDOM COMMITTEE. AH the Naais in the dock leaned forward intently while von Paulus, his face flushed with anger, defended his role in the Russian-sponsored " Free German Committee of Wehrmatch prisoners." He denied that he became a teacher in the Military Academy in Moscow, and declared he was imprisoned in a camp along with other German prisoners of war. Von Paulus agreed that he was a member of the German Freedom Committee in Russia, which he claimed was a movement of German soldiers of all ranks who called on the German people " at the last moment before the abyss to,end the Hitler Government which had brought so much misery to the German people." . In reply to a question about Russian treatment of German prisoners, yon Paulus said: " There was an incredible amount of propaganda which led to the suicide of so many Stalingrad officers and others that I .feel it my duty to say—W , Lord Lawrence interrupted:, lhe treatment of war prisoners in the Soviet is not relevant. The tribunal will not hear it." The German counsel dumbfounded the court by replying: " I only wanted to ascertain how German war prisoners fared under the Red army, because so many families in Germany are to-day worried about their fathers and sons. I thought by obtaining information this way I oould Telieve their minds." Further questioned, von Paulus disclosed that he lost 20 infantry and armoured divisions at Stalingrad, also two Rumanian divisions. Von Paulus left the courtroom by a rear door, not passing the dock. RUMANIAN INTERVENTION. The Soviet prosecutor, M. Zorya, dealing with Rumania, submitted a statement in which the ex-Rumanian diotator, Antoneecu, was quoted as saying that Hitler's offer to begin war against the Soviet Union corresponded with his own aggressive intentions, and he announced that he agreed to participate in the attack. General Buschen-Hagen, ex-Chief of Staff of the German forces in Norway, giving evidence about the preparations for Germany's attack against (Russia, gaid a supply route was built up through Norway to Petsamo and other Finnish ports and conversations held with the Finnish General Staff. Keitel and Jodl attended the last conference, at which final details for GermanFinnish co-operation were laid down. Under cross-examination BuschenHagen said that both he and Falkenhorst, the German commander in Norway,- regarded an order to shoot down Soviet commissars as criminal. Falkenhorst carried out the order because the commissars always fought to the last, and even if captured their papers showing that they were commissars were destroyed.