TWO EX-GERMAN LEADERS SLOWLY DYING

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22654, 3 June 1948, Page 2

TWO EX-GERMAN LEADERS SLOWLY DYING

BERLIN, March 27. Death is expected to end the life imprisonment of two top Nazi leaders, Walther Funk and the former Admiral Raeder, who are in Spandau prison, if, their present rate of debilitation continues.

Raeder is facing a major operation for hernia, which his age of 70 years and general condition makes “very serious indeed,” according to an American physician who has examined him.

Funk requires daily medical attention for a prostate ailment, and his morale is stated to be at a very low ebb. Of the other five remnants of the Nazi hierarchy—the seven comprise the total population of this sprawling prison which could accommodate 2500 prisoners —one, former Grand-Admiral Karl Doenitz, is also very sick. His heart trouble, rheumatism and diabetes make it probable, that he will not survive his 10-year sentence.

Rudolph Hess is considered to be in bad condition mentally. There is always a faraway look in his eyes, and he is steadily losing weight.

In spite >of his unorthodox flight to Scotland, authorities who have talked with him say that he is still faithful to Adolf Hitler, and still refers to him as “der Fuehrer.” Hess is considered to be verging on insanity. The other three of these forgotten men—Albert Speer, Baldur von Schirach, and Baron Konstantin von Neurath, the 73-year-old former Nazi Foreign Minister—are in good physical condition.

Speer, Nazi construction chief, and the 30-year-old Von Schirach, Hitler’s Youth Leader. 1 are serving 20-year terms, and neither seem to wish, as Doenitz still does, that he had been shot upon completion of the Nuremberg trial. . . ■ The dally life of these seven is dull. They are confined in the smallest cell block of the establishment, can talk together only at work, and can receive 'only one visitor every two months. German Food Only The prisoners live on a subsistence ration of indigenous German foodstuffs. Their only occupation is work in the Drison garden. One of the main diversions of these men, who once nearly ruled the world, is doing the laundry. Each week, two of the prisoners do the laundry for all. The only variety in clothing among the Spandau inmates is that worn by Doenitz. He is the possessor of ten suits of silk underwear, brought to him by relatives, and permitted by the authorities because of his physical condition. For health reasons, Doenitz is given a small butter ration, which the others do not get.