WAR CRIMINALS

Greymouth Evening Star, 18 September 1945, Page 5

WAR CRIMINALS

BELSEN TRIAL OPENED CASE FOR PROSECUTION (Rec. 11.30 a.m.) LONDON, Sept. 17. Kramer,' the Belsen Commandant, closely followed the charges, and the proceedings were translated into German and Polish. The defence, through Major T. C. Winwood for Kramer and 11 others, and Major L. S. Cranfleld for Grese, submitted that the charges had not disclosed an offence, and asked for further assistance in the preparation of the defence. Major Winwood said that a leter had been sent to the Thirty Corps Headquarters , asking them to provide experts on international law, and to obtain books from England. Headquarters replied, saying that the officer wmuld travel to England to get the books, but not at the public expense. Law experts couldn’t appear because there were no means of paying their expenses. The defence asked the Court’s assistance in securing witnesses, so far not made available. The Court adjourned at mid-day to consider the defence appeals.

While the accused lunched on a bowl of soup and mug of coffee, the Court decided to overrule the defence’s application for separate trials on the charges relating to Auschwitz and Belsen and separate trials for several of the accused, including Kramer. The President of the Court, Major-General Berney Hicklin, refused to stop the proceedings on the defence’s other submission, and said that they could be raised later. He suggested that the questions of assistance required could be taken up with the prosecution direct. Opening the case for the prosecution, Colonel T. M. Backhouse said that there was ample evidence to justify the Court concluding that accused participated in cruelties in both camps under their joint leader, and all were part of the common action. There were no words with which adequately to describe their crimes. At Auschwitz there was DELIBERATE EXTERMINATION of thousands, probably millions, of people.” Colonel Backhouse said that when the British arrived at Belsen on April 15 there were 13,000 corpses lying unburied, despite the fact that during the preceding few days, 2000 inmates were engaged in dragging corpses for 12 hours daily, and burying them in large pits. Eighty per cent, of the living were suffering from dysentery, and typhus was rampant. Of 12,000 men, 2,242 were acutely ill, more than 700 required treatment, and there were 59 new cases daily. Of 28,000 women, 2000 were acutely ill, 18,000 required treatment, and there were 125 new cases daily. Thirteen thousand inmates died during the six weeks alter the arrival of the British, despite every care and attention. “Death was mainly due to starvation, thirst and ill-treatment. Beating to death, shooting and starvation were killing every person in the camp.”

Col. Backhouse continued: “The average life of a man in Block 18 was 12 days. The ordinary ration was a cup of weak ersatz coffee in the morning and turnip soup with a little bread at midday. The evening meal did not exist. The Court will watch a film which will show the degradation to which the human mind descended. You will see wellfed members of the S.S., and you will see people fishing with a can and a piece of string for water from a tank. What you will not see is that the water was foul, with bodies in it. You will see the dead, living and dying, but the film cannot give you the abominable smell and squalor which stank to high heaven.”

Col. Backhouse said that the Belsen day began with reveille at 4 a.m., from which no one was exempt. The sick and dying sometimes stood for hours. There latterly was almost a complete dearth of food, for which reason many inmates

RESORTED TO CANNIBALISM.

The- British found that one in ten of the corpses had a piece of flesh cut from the thigh or other part of the body. Towards the end, shooting went on almost incessantly. Every guard carried a whip, stick or revolver. The defence would pos4 sibly claim that this state of affairs resulted from the breakdown of . the organisation and Kramer’s inability to obtain food, but one mile up the road there was a Wehrmacht camp with stocks of food, terrific grain supplies and a bakery capable of turning out 60,000 loaves daily. Col. Backhouse declared that Auschwitz had much the same routineas Belsen, “except that there some S.S. women amused themselves by setting large hounds upon the prisoners and watching them tear the prisoners to pieces.” The camp authorities at Auschwitz, where Kramer was section commander, resolved to exterminate all who were unfit to be active beasts of burden. Sick persons and. pregnant women were never admitted. They went straight to the gas chamber. Of 45,000 Jews admitted, 60 survived.

CHlfiF NAZIS’ TRIAL LONDON, September 17. Mr. Justice Jackson, Chief Crimes prosecutor for the United States, stated at a Press conference in Nuremberg that war criminal trials would be formally opened in Berlin, where part of the proceedings would occur before the Court came' to Nuremberg. He said that Americans did not see any need for the meeting in Berlin, but the decision was made at the instance of one nation. The nation in question was not named, but it is taken to be Russia. HAUSHOFER RELEASED. (Rec. 1 p.m.) ' FRANKFURT. Sept. 17. Dr. Haushofer has been released from custody. • The Allied intelligence officers say he was given a “clean bill.” He is now living with his Jewish wife near Munich. BROADCASTER SENTENCED. ' (Rec. 11.15 a.m.) PARIS, Sept. 17. The Purge Court sentenced to death Jean Paquis, Paris radio commentator under the Germans, on charges of intelligence with the enemy. Paquis refused to appeal against the verdict, and turned from the Judges with the cry “Long Live France.” , ~ The trial lasted six hours —the briefest to date. It also attracted the biggest crowd so far. JOYCE TRIAL QUESTION OFCITIZENSHIP. (Rec. 12.35 p.m.) LONDON, September 17. Sir Hartley said that Joyce, when apprehended, was carrying a birth certificate purporting that he was born in America of a father whose birthplace was recorded as Ireland. Later Joyce made a statement that he was born in America in 1906, and that his father, who was born in Ireland and his mother, who was born in England, became naturalised citizens of the United States before his birth. If that were true, it would mean that at all times material to this case, Joyce was an .American citizen and owed no natural duty of allegiance to the Crown. But he was still capable, as an alien, of placing himself under the protection of, the Crown, clothing himself with the status of a British subject and taking on himself an obli-

gation to lie loyal and faithful to the Crown. Joyce had been granted a British passport when he haa declared that he had been born in Galway, and had not lost his status as a British subject. No matter where Joyce was born, so long as his British passport was valid, he placed himself under the protection of the British Crown. Joyce, a few days after the passport was renewed, went to Germany and, according to a German work book in which he was described as a British subject, the German Broadcasting Organisation in September, 1939, engaged him as an editor and announcer of English news. Mr. G. O. Slade, counsel for Joyce, at the conclusion of the case for the prosecution, submitted that as a matter of law, there was no case for the jury on any count. He said that there was not even prime-facie evidence that Joyce was ever a British subject. Mr. Justice Tucker: “I think, in the case of a man who signs an application for a passport and describes himself as a British citizen, it is impossible to say there isn’t some evidence in favour of the proposition that he was a British citizen.”

Mr. Slade accepted the ruling. Counsel summarised his argument to the jury thus: Joyce was born out of His Majesty’s Dominions, and to a father who was not a British subject at the time of his birth. William Joyce, in other words, was born and always had remained a subject of the United States. The Court has adjourned.