NUREMBERG PROSECUTION

Greymouth Evening Star, 6 December 1945, Page 5

NUREMBERG PROSECUTION

ANGLO-U.S.A. DOCUMENTS ACCUSED NAZIS ALARMED NUREMBERG, December 4.. . Sir H. Shawcross had the Nazis squirming in their seats, grimacing in protest and complaining, “It’s not fair. We are not as bad as that,' says the “Daily Mail’s” correspondent. Goering led the party in headshaking expostulation and Ribbentrop protested at the statement that the Germans made agreements intended to lull victims into a sense of security. “This is a bit thick,” said Goering to Hess, when Sir H. Shawcross said, the Nazis sought to revert to international anarchy. One defence counsel commented: “The longer this goes’on the smaller we look.” Banker Schacht, who had announced his confidence in his ability to clear himself, became abashed and appeared to shrink into his tall white collar. , . . , Justice Jackson lashed out to-day at critics who were claiming that his prosecution of the German General Staff was discrediting the profession of soldiering. The Associated Press Nuremberg correspondent says that a whispering campaign which had smouldered among senior American officers in the European theatre, was brought out into the open by the Army and Navy Journal’s publication of comments on the accusations against Hitler’s military leaders. The questions of whether German officers should be tried as war criminals had been widely discussed in the occupation armies. At the time of Justice Jackson’s appointment, it was said that President Roosevelt wanted a civilian court to try Germany’s leaders, because it was feared that a military tribunal would _be disinclined to convict other generals. Justice Jackson, replying, said: “We are not pursuing militarists for serving their country, but for driving it to war. These men did not act only as simple professional soldiers; they immersed themselves in Hitler’s policies because the Nazis gave them what they wanted —war.” PRESSURE ON CZECHS. HITLER’S “PROTECTION.” (Rec. 11.35 a.m.) NUREMBERG, December 5. The minutes of the notorious conference in the Reich Chancellery in March, 1939, when Hitler bullied the aged Czech, President Hacha, into asking Germany for “protection” as a pretext for the annexation of Bohemia and Moravia, were read today, when Mr. Aiderman concluded the American prosecution’s case on Czechoslovakia before the War Crimes Tribunal. The Nazis by pure and simple banditry forced the dissolution of Czechoslovakia, said the prosecutor. The minutes of President Hacha’s ordeal showed that Hitler informed him that Britain and France were not in a position to stand up for Czechoslovakia. Hitler then cynically “invited” the President to seek German protection, adding that the German army was prepared to move at 6 a.m. the next day to break Czech resistance by all means of physical force. Hitler told President Hacha that if the Czechs gave in, he was prepared to grant them “a' generous life with certain national liberty.” He then announced that his decision to march into Czechoslovakio was irrevocable, which Goering, Ribbentrop, and Keitel successively confirmed. President Hacha said that this was the hardest step in his life. Mr. Aiderman read a letter to Hitler from “that distinguished Admiral without a navy,” Horthy, disclosing that Hungary was ready on March 13, 1939, to seize the region bordering Czechoslovakia after a manufactured incident. The letter was signed “your devoted friend.” Goering sat impassively reading documents while Aiderman quoted his threat to President Hacha that if he did not sign Prague would lie in ruins within two hours. Mr. Aiderman then introduced a document giving the highest secret instructions for the German armament programme in 1938, in which Goering stated: “Sudetenland MUST BE EXPLOITED by all means. I count on the complete industrial assimilation of Slovakia. Everything possible must be taken out.” Mr. Maxwell Fyfe then opened the British documentary evidence, dealing with the attempts to outlaw war from The Hague Convention to the Kellogg Pact. He asked the Court to consider 15 of the 69 broken treaties listed on the large chart displayed before the Court. Others would be dealt with by other prosecutors. Goering appeared amused during the recital of The Hague Convention, and he burst into laughter when Mr. Fyfe referred to the Convention providing for a declaration of war before opening hostilities. Mr. Fyfe concluded his section of the British case by reading selections from the Munich Agreement without comment. Lieutenant-Colonel Griffiths Jones began his section of the case dealing with Nazi aggressions against Poland and France. He read documents covering Germany’s preparations for war against Britain, including a memorandum declaring: “We must form a coalition against England. She is going to be a hard and astute opponent.” The Tribunal adjourned. LITERARY TASTES. LONDON, December 4. Hess’s recovery of his memory cost him the previleges he most obviously enjoyed, says the Associated Press Nuremberg correspondent. He is no longer permitted to read novels in the court. However, it gained for him the advantage that he is no longer shackled or handcuffed to someone else when exercising. Security officials take the view that Hess should now be able to remember that it is useless to escape. The literary tastes of the prisoners vary a good deal. Hess reads anything from thrillers to Goethe. Ribbentrop seems fascinated by Jules Verne. Schacht is the most voracious reader of them all, with a strictly classical taste. Von Schirach is also devoted to Goethe, and spent some time while imprisoned translating Tennyson into German. Jodi prefers anything concerned with mountaineering, his once favourite sport. Streicher, apparently no longer interested in anti-Semitism, has joined the Goethe school. Rosenberg reads least.

“The Times’s” Nuremberg correspondent says that the British case should be concluded by the end of the. week, It is more specific than the

American and is confined to about 200 documents. Sir E. Donald Max-well-Fyfe, K.C., will introduce the first British documents to-morrow. Lieutenant-Colonel M. Griffth Jones will present material relating to. the German attacks on Poland. Britain and France. Major Elwyn Jones will cover the Norwegian campaign. Mr. G. D. Roberts, K.C., will deal with the invasion of the Low Countries, and Colonel J. J. Phillimore will table evidence on the war in Greece and Jugoslavia. TURNING TO RELIGION.

(Rec. 11.20 a.m.) LONDON, Dec. 5. Some of the Nazi leaders on trial at Nuremberg are turning to religion and others are wondering what will our children’s children think. This was disclosed by two American army chaplains attending accused, says the Associated Press correspondent. Roman Catholic prisoners, Seyss Inquart, Von Papen and Frank, attend Mass whenever possible. The priest said: “Their unfailing topic of conversation is despair at the ruin into which Germany was falling. Several said: ‘Our plan has failed now. What will be the destiny of Germany?’ The wives and children of these prisoners attended services even during the Hitler regime.” A Lutheran pastor said that Hoss excused himself from attending service, saying: “If I turn to religion now it will be thought I was doing so because I was frightened.” Hess refused to allow the New Testament to be left in his cell. Goering attended the first Protestant service m the prison, but was upset because there was no organ and declined to join in the Lord’s Prayer. Ho has not attended a service since. Frick and Jodi said that they believed in God, but did not accept any organised religion. Streicher, baptised a Catholic, refused even to talk with chaplains. Both chaplains use a field altar with a cross in the centre and candles at both ends. Guards stand in the room throughout the services. HESS’S INSTABILTY DESIRE FOR LIMELIGHT NUREMBERG, Dec. 5. The report of three leading psychiatrists who examined Hess on behalf of the War Crimes Tribunal, says that Hess is far from normal and as the trial goes on further evidence of his instability may appear. It is essential to stress his great instability. His abnormalities of behaviour appeared and vanished as the pressures to which he was subjected waxed and waned. Reports point out that Hess, having maintained a degree of simulation over a long period, discarded it at the very moment when he might have hoped it would save his life. No definite explanation can be given for this throwing away of a carefully built up protection, but certain conjectures seem to be reasonable. Among these is the association with the other defendants after' a long period of isolation. The very possibility that he might be adjudged incompetent to plead and be thrown out of the limelight resulted in his over- ' coming his hysterical amnesia and the determination to drop his simulation. It is difficult for those not acquainted with the defendants to realise how extraordinarily important the prestige of limelight is for them. The report adds that Hess is suffering from selective amnesia, hysterical in type, utilising the defence mechanisms of an emotional and neurotic nature. He was not wholly aware of the significance of his symptoms. His ability to think is-not impaired but he does not use it. - The psychiatrists describe the scene when Hess anonunced his amnesia as feigned as apparently startling but actually “common in this type of condition, and draw attention to the theatrical, dramatic nature of Hess’s declaration.” Reports from all four expert groups who studied Hess, stressed the fact that while, he suffered from a degree of hysterical amnesia., he consciously simulated a still greater degree of loss of memory than he actually had, and used it to protect himself against inquiry and examination. That ten designateo scientists came to unanimous conclusions on the main issues involved in the Hess case is proof that the science of psychiatry is sound. MORE CAMP HORRORS. LONDON, December 4. A concentration camp in which was found ersatz leather goods made from human skins was described by an American officer, LieutenantColonel Edward York, of San Antonia, in an interview with an American Press correspondent in Warsaw. He said he visited a human gristmill in the heart of Gdansk in which in a group of buildings behind five-foot walls there were long aluminium vats which were steampressured and held 400 gallons of liquid. Alongside there were recipes on the wall describing how long a part, of human flesh should be cooked and how to extract fats for soapmaking. Some vats still contained torsos, legs and arms. Polish investigators determined that the scheme for making soap and other products was conceived by two German doctors.

AUSCHWITZ LOOT LONDON, Dec. 4. The Allies found Frau Hoess, wife of the Commandant of Auschwitz concentration camp, with a houseful of clothes and jewellery taken from ews sent to their deaths at Auschwitz gas chambers, reports the Associated Press correspondent at Herford. Hoess himself is still at layge, but the British captured the S.S. Colonel Kaindl, Commandant of Oraniemberg concentration camp, and Doctor Hans von Helms, one of Hitler’s senior councillors. Frau Hoess was questioned but not arrested. Hoess commanded the whole of the Auschwitz camp, in which Kramer who is at present under sentence of death and awaiting the result of the appeal to Marshal • Montgomery, commanded the Brijenau section. BAILLIE-STEWART (Recd. 11 a.m.) LONDON, Dec. 5. The recorder at the Old Bailey agreed to-day to the postponement of the trial of Baillie-Stewart to the next session in January, the result of defence’s application for more time wherein to study the documents and make further investigations into Bail-lie-Stewart’s nationality at the relevant period. NUREMBERG’S MAYOR LONDON, December 5. The Mayor of Nuremberg, 74 years old Martin Treu, has been suspended. The Allies reinstated him last August, when he protested that complete de-Nazification would disorganise his office. Letters ending with the words “Heil Hitler” have now been found therein. Treu declared he- had devoted his life to winning over . German workers to the side of the State.