NAZIS PENNED IN

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 21900, 19 December 1945, Page 5

NAZIS PENNED IN

NUREMBERG COURT SUICIDE PRECAUTIONS U.S. EVIDENCE RESUMED NUREMBERG, Dec. 17. Special precautions have been taken against a possible suicide attempt by the leading Nazis who are being tried at Nuremberg for crimes. The defence counsel are now able to speak to their clients only through fine mesh wire screens. Previously, the prisoners and counsel were free to pass papers be* tween each other. Now, to avoid the possibility of razor blades being smuggled to the prisoners all papers are handed by a guard through a small wicket Press interviews with the accused, through counsel, will not in future be permitted. The resumption of the trial to-day was delayed when Kaltenbrunner complained that he felt ill and was removed from the dock. A member of the American prosecuting team, Mr. Sam Harris, produced minutes of a conference held in July, 1941, when Hitler outlined his plans for the domination of Europe. “We now have to face the task of cutting up the giant cake according to our needs, said Hitler. Mr Harris told the court: This document reveals a programme of mass murder to stagger the imagination.” He quoted Hitler as saying that he wanted all the Baltic cOun* tries, including his ally, Finland, incorporated in Germany. He then outlined the plan for completely wrecking Russion industry, transforming the Ukraine into a land of peasant farmers feeding Germany. All food supplies for Moscow and Leningrad would be cut off and almost all Russia, except the Ukraine, would be allowed to relapse into a primitive state. The Russians who did not starve would be sent to Siberia. English Example Quoted

Hitler 'said: “Never again must it be possible to create military power west of the Urals, even if we have to wage war 100 years. The German administrators of occupied Europe should emulate British policy towards the native princes in India. The Englishman constantly pursues only one line and one aim. We ought to learn from him in that respect.” Mr. Harris quoted a letter from a group of German industrialists to Himmler in 1943, expressing great joy at his appointment as Minister for the Interior and placing at his disposal more than 1,000,000 Reichsmarks “for special purposes.” Colonel Robert Storey, dealing with the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party, named a succession of accused for responsibility for German misdeeds. He said that the evidence would show that Rosenberg worked out a vast programme for looting and plundering art treasures in Europe. “Hierarchy of Descending Caesars’'

The defendants at this stage were greatly interested in large diagrammatic charts from which Colonel Storey illustrated the structure of the Leadership Corps—‘the hierarchy of the descending Caesars.”

Colonel Storey said that Frick shared responsibility for the injury done to the rule of law as a result of his efforts to colour the law and legalise Nazi misdeeds, irrespective of human rights.

Colonel Storey gave examples of the way in which the party leadership assembled the whole power of the State in their own hands. Under the leadership system, members of the corps each were severally responsible for such misdeeds as attempts to undermine Christianity and the successful attempt to overthrow organised labour.

The prosecutor claimed that members of the Leadership Corps shared responsibility for crimes against the American airmen who landed in Germany and German-controlled territory. German civilians beat and murdered airmen at the instigation of the Leadership Corps.

Colonel Storey produced an order from Himmler, dated August 10, 1943, in which all senior S.S. officers, police and gauleiters were instructed: “It is not the task of the police to interfere in clashes between Germans and British and American fliers who bale out.' 1 Goebbels, in the Voelkischer Beobachter, in May, 1944, openly incited the population to murder Allied airmen. The tribunal adjourned.