TRIAL IN ABSENTIA

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 21923, 18 January 1946, Page 3

TRIAL IN ABSENTIA

HITLER’S DEPUTY

LEADER IN CONSPIRACY BRUTALITY TO CAPTIVES NUREMBERG, Jan. 16. In spite of recent reports of his death, the case against Martin Bormann, deputy to Hitler after the flight to Britain of Rudolf Hess in May, 1941, was opened in his absence at the war criminals’ trial to-day. Hess turned to Goering and raised his eyebrows when the American assistant prosecutor, Mr. Thomas Lambert, described Bormann in 1933 as “No. 3 in the Nazi Party.” Goering replied by pinching his own nose between his thumb and forefinger. The prosecutor said that Bormann stood revealed as one of the principal architects of the Nazi conspiracy. Bormann had engineered and employed the Nazi Party’s vast power so as to impose the conspirators’ will upon* the German people. The prosecutor claimed that Bormann by virtue of his position as Hitler’s deputy after Hess’ flight, could be charged for every enactment issued in Germany after December 24, 1942, authorising war crimes against humanity.. . .. Suppression of Religion

A good deal of evidence against Bormann comprised Nazi documents which showed the part he played in the suppression of religion in Germany, but the prosecutor later said the most important point against the defendant was his decrees regarding the' treatment of ' war ' prisoners. ' He called for excessively ' harsh and brutal treatment of Allied war prisoners.

A letter was submitted which Bormann v/rote on November 5, 1941, prohibiting decent burials with religious services for Russian prisoners, stating that the prisoners should be wrapped in rough paper and buried unobtrusively. Mr. Lambert also submitted a circular from Bormann dated November 25, 1943, demanding harsher treatment of prisoners from guard personnel. Bormann said: “I have heard of indulgent treatment of war prisoners by the guards. The prisoners are not to be cared for but are to be handled in such a manner that requires the maximum of work to be attained." Murders of Jews Disturbing The documents showed that eyewitness accounts from German soldiers of the mass murder of Jews in Poland and Russia proved so disturbing in Germany that the Nazi Government was compelled in 1942 to issue an ambiguous version of its “final solution of the Jev/ish problem.” The prosecution presented a Nazi official statement which was intended to offset the soldiers’ stories by explaining that the “complete expulsion of Jews by emigration was no longer possible.” The Nazis refrained from mentioning that they were exterminating millions of Jews in death camps. The Nazis, feeling the necessity for a profession of some consideration for the Jews who fought for the Reich in the First World War, assured the German people that old Jews, besides t.he Jews with military decorations, are resettling the protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.”

The American assistant prosecutor squarely placed the blame on von Schirach for the deportation of 60.000 Viennese Jews to Poland, where many were transferred to Nazi murder camps. The prosecutor quoted von Schirach’s boastful declaration that, as gauleiter of the city, he had driven tens upon tens of thousands of Jews into the ghetto of the east. Shirach’s Acts In Vienna

"Von Schirach must be held guilty specifically of all crimes of the Nazi conspirators in the Vienna area on the grounds that he initiated, approved, executed or abetted them,” said the prosecutor.

The American prosecutor, Lieutenant Atherton, presented the case against the Chancellor of Austria and Governor of the Netherlands, Seyss-Inquart, who he described as one of the foremost Nazi conspirators. He added that Seyss-Inquart was particularly cruel and relentless in his treatment of the Jews He estimated that at least 117,000 Netherlands Jews were deported, mostly to Poland. The ex-German Minister of the Interior, Frick, did not personally stain his hands with blood. His wa s the managerial genius of the Nazi conspiracy, said the prosecutor, Dr. Robert Kempner, a German lawyer who was deported from Germany and became an international law expert in the United States. Frick signed the deportation order against Dr, Kempner.