WAR CRIMINALS

Greymouth Evening Star, 12 May 1945, Page 5

WAR CRIMINALS

MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCES SECRET SERVICE HUNT LONDON, May 11. The whereabouts of many topranking Nazi leaders is Europe’s greatest mystery. Three days alter the surrender of Germany we have no reliable news of Hitiei, Himmler, Ley, Ribbentrop, Streicher, and many others. The Alfies Rave captured some of Germany s field marshals and scooped up the generals, but of the men who led Germany into war we have hardly a iFkitler is dead the title of Public Enemy No. 1 descends to Himmler. For the last four of five months Himmler has been trying to perform a quick-change act in the hope of convincing the world and his eventual captors that after all he is a decent fellow. It is reported that he countermanded an order by Hitler for the shooting of a big contingent of British and American prisoners after the Allies had bombed Dresden. He also allowed a number oi Jews to escape to Sweden. Nevertheless, there are enough charges against Himmler to hang him many times over. He is charged by the Russians, for example, with personal responsibility for the murder oi 4,000,000 people in the extermination camp of Oswiecim. Where Himmler is hiding no one seems to know. The whereabouts of Ribbentrop is also a mystery since Admiral Doenitz dismissed him from his post as Germany’s Foreign Minister. Hitler s deputy and head of the Nazi Party (Martin Bormann) is stated to have committed suicide. The head oi the presidential Chancellery (Dr. Otto Meissner), sometimes called the shadow behind the throne, is still to be found. Then there is Robert Ley, the dipsomaniac leader of the Nazi labour front. Nothing has been heard of him since he broadcast thrice in one week and was clearly drunk on each occasion. Fritz Sauckel, Germany s manpower chief, whom the French claim to be responsible for the deportation of hundreds of thousands of Frenchmen to forced labour - service, was last reported to be with Marshal Petain. Alfred Rosenberg, one of the leading figures on. the Russian list of war criminals, has not been heard of since he lost his job as Nazi Minister of Occupied Eastern Territories when the Russians liberated Poland. Julius Streicher, the Jew-baiter and editor of the notorious “Die Strumer,” bolted from Nuremberg a few hours before the Americans marched in. Then he disappeared. > The most experienced secret service agents of the Allied Powers are hunting Europe for Nazi leaders, reports the political correspondent of the “Evening Standard,” London. Everything possible Is being done to capture those living and establish without doubt the deaths of those reported killed or those said to have committed suicide.'

AMERICAN PROPOSALS.

SAN FRANCISCO, May 10. The United States State Department has announced that the United States has proposed that organisations like the Nazi Party, as well as indivrduals, should be tried for atrocities and war crimes. The State Department added that Judge Rosenman, President Truman’s personal representative, has completed conferences at San Francisco with representatives of Britain, Russia, and France on the prosecution of war criminals. The department said it was proposed “to organise machinery to establish a procedure which will assure just and expeditious trial to major individuals and organisations—but one which will not permit evasion, undue delay, or dilatory tactics.” A State Department official explained that if an enemy political organisation was placed on trial and convicted the war crimes of all members of the organisation would be subject to punishment. This would make possible the mass prosecution of individuals who otherwise might escape being charged because they were not ranked as major criminals. He added that Judge Rosenman, in conference with Mr. Eden, Mr. Stettinius, Mr. Molotov, and M. Bidault, had sought to lay the groundwork for an organisation of international military tribunals to try European war criminals. The formation of the tribunals would not affe.ct the principle contained in the Moscow declaration of November, 1943, that criminals guilty of specific atrocities in any occupied country would be returned to that country for trial according to its laws. There was not yet an official indication from other governments of the possibility of their acceptance of the American proposals. The Norwegian Telegram Agency, quoting a report from Oslo, says that the German Commissioner for NorI way .(Terboven) and the German police chief (General Rediess) have committed suicide.

DUTCH NAZI LEADER

LONDON, May 11

“Hitler knew he had lost the war seven months before D Day,” said Anton Mussert, the Dutch Nazi leader, when’ interviewed in a prison cell. “I last saw Hitler at his headquarters in East Prussia in December, 1943, when I asked him to renew his pledge that tjie Netherlands would have selfgovernment under the new European order. Hitler told me he could no longer guarantee Europe’s future, as things were not going as planned.”

Mussert said Hitler knew then that he had no chance of winning the war, but there remained the hope that the Western Alfies would join Germany in a war against Bolshevism. Mussert, who strutted about’in a black Nazi uniform during the occupation, was wearing a plain grey suit, with collar and tie removed to prevent an attempt at suicide. He appeared confident that his actions under the occupation would be vindicated at his trial, and he believes he wifi be set free and accorded a vole of thanks from the nation.

Asked whether Seyss Inquart (the Reich Commissioner to the Netherlands) had invited him to flee to Germany before the collapse, Mussert replied: “No. No German invites his friends when he is in danger.”

HENLEIN COMMITS SUICIDE

LONDON, May 11. Konrad Henlein, leader of the Sudeten Germans, has committed suicide in a Red Army prison cage. He nad concealed a razor blade in his clothing and slashed his wrist.