German Commander’s Trial On War Crime Charges

Grey River Argus, 24 August 1949, Page 5

German Commander’s Trial On War Crime Charges

(Rec. 9.55). LONDON, August 23. Field-Marshal Fritz Erich von Manstein, who is 61 years of age, and was formerly in the German Army, will to-day face a trial. He will be accused of.liquidating a hundred thousand Jews while hes wa commander of the Eleventh German Army, in the Crimea, and of sixteen other war crimes which are alleged to have been committed in Poland and Russia. Thp Allies have held von Manstein for four years. A first group of charges allege Field Marshal von Manstein, in Poland, between August 2, 1939, and October 25, 1939, in violation of laws and usages of war, authorised and permitted the killing and maltreatment of Polish citizens. A second group of charges allege that Marshal von Manstein failed to secure humane treatment for Soviet prisoners of war. They accuse him .of issuing orders that members of Soviet forces should be treated as partisans, and shot without trial. Press correspondents say that charges which the prosecution regards as the most serious are those relating to an ascusation that Marshal von Manstein ordered, or else authorised, the handing over of Jews and Gypsies to a special task force for execution by shooting, hanging, gassing and drowning”.

Manstem Under Heavy Guard

(Rec. 11.20). BERLIN, August 23. Field-Marshal Fritz Erich von Manstein, early to-day was brought, under a heavy guard, before a Court in Hamburg to face seventeen charges in an indictment. Marshal von Manstein spent the night in a bare hospital cell under a watch by a British officer, lest he commit suicide. He is the 938th and last German tried by a British war crimes court.