ASHES DISPERSED

Evening Star, Issue 25926, 18 October 1946, Page 7

ASHES DISPERSED

LAST OF NAZI HIERARCHY KEITEL ALSO I LOOKED TO SUICIDE CUNNING NAZI PROPAGANDA AT WORK (Rec. noon.) LONDON, Oct, 17. An official communique issued by the Four-Power Commission for the detention of major war criminals announced that the body of Goering, and the bodies of the war criminals executed at Nuremberg yesterday, have been cremated and the ashes secretly dispersed. The Paris newspaper * Resistance ’ publishes an interview in which Frau Goering categorically denies providing cyanide to her husband. She said: ” I am surprised at being under suspicion. I was always closely watched and could not even put my little finger through the grill:” She added in tears: ,T I was never even able to kiss Hermann in prison Life is finished now. I and my daughter Edda prefer to die of hunger rather than accept any help. My last request to see Hermann was refused. I am happy it was.” The Associated Press Nuremberg correspondent says that the stir caused by the visit of the eight eyewitness correspondents to the Nuremberg goal late on October 15 may have given' Goering the “ tip ” that the execution was imminent. The correspondent, who was ono of the eight, adds that the stir may also momentarily have given Goering an opportunity for unobserved action, because some of the guards turned from tlieir cell door vigils as the Press entered the block.

The Nuremberg prison commandant, Colonel Andrus, has revealed that Keitel, like Goering, planned to cheat the gallows. Keitel, after he returned to prison recently from court, was changing into old clothes when the prison guard saw him push something down into a fold in his wallet. The guard grabbed the wallet and fdund a long sharp piece of metal capable of slashing his wrists or throat. Keitel refused to explain how he obtained it. “MELODRAMATIC MUDDLE. HEADEDNESS.” Mr 'Beverley Baxter, M.P., the ‘ Evening Standard’s ’_ dramatic critic, who, reported the closing stages of the Nuremberg trial, describes the permission given for the Nazis’ last speeches as a niece of melodramatic muddleheadedness. He declares: “We have the right to know who gave the Nazis footlights and arc lights for final justification.” A life-size model of Goering was found to-day hanging from the Caxton gibbet near Cambridge, once used for hanging highwaymen. A proclamation issued by the central secretariat of the German Socialist Unity ‘Party : in Berlin says: Now® those responsible for the imperialist war have suffered death for their crimes against humanity, all who were weak and only misled by their leaders should be given a chance to begin a new and better life.” Reuter’s correspondent says this is seen in Berlin as the first big at- < tempt by any political party to exonerate the huge body of “small Nazis” and bring them back to normal political life. PRESS GAGGED. The Associated Press Berlin correspondent reports that British editorials blaming the Americans for delaying the announcement of the Nuremberg executions and Goering’s suicide drew a sharp rejoinder front American Government Public Relations officials. They pointed out that the arrangements were a four-Power responsibility and were executed by the Quadripartite Commission. They added that the charges that a gag was imposed on the Press “comes as fll grace from the British, because their representative on the Control Council, also the French representative, wanted to restrict Press and picture coverage of the executions to a minimum.” Public Relations officials claimed that General McNarney led the fight in the Control Council to give the world’s Press access to the executions, in which he was supported by the Russians. Colonel Andrus admitted to correspondents at Nuremberg that Goering’s suicide “ has us all mystified.” He considered that Goering had the poison in his possession a long time. He added that a board of inquiry worked all night.in connection with the passing of poison. “ I would not have helped Goering to commit suicide even if I had the opportunity,” he said. Goering’s counsel, Dr Stabmer, said that when he, told Goering the sentence was unlikely to be converted from hanging to shooting, Goering said: “ Well, if they will not alter the sentence it is perhaps just as well, as I have heard that the Americans can’t shoot straight.” Goering added: “If I am to be hanged the practice of hanging will be raised to ite highest dignity from the" fact that Goering died that way.” Dr Stahmer said he was convinced that Goering had a poison phial with him, “ because we know Hitler issued a phial to each high Nazi.”

RUMOURS IN, NUREMBERG. Reuter’s Nuremberg correspondent says wild rumours that only straw dummies were hanged are sweeping the city. Nazi sympathisers are energetically pressing the story that none of those the tribunal condemned have been executed. The rumour mongers insisted that the Nazi leaders arp going to work secretly for the Allies in administering the occupation zones, “ because the Allies have made such a muddle of the occupation.”