WAR CRIMINALS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 80, 6 August 1945, Page 5

WAR CRIMINALS

TRIALS EXPECTED NEXT MONTH

SOME OF THOSE IN CUSTODY London, August 4. Mr. Justice Jackson, chief of the United States Council for the War Crimes Commission, is establishing headquarters at Nuremberg on August !•*, according to an American spokesman, who added that trials of German wur criminals, including Goering and Ribbentrop, were exacted to open on September 1. The demand for seats at Quisling’s tnuJ, expected to begin on August 20, is 8° &reut that the authorities have been loreed to rent a hall seating 20UO, instead ot using a courtroom. One hundred and ten journalists have applied tor places. . The number of major wur criminals is expected to be anything between l« r » and oO—and the first on the list are such men as Ribbentrop. Goering, K. 11. Franck, the "Butcher of Lidice,” Huns Franck, who was gauleiter of Poland, oxreicher, Ley, and Bormann. In addition to these prominent Nazis there are ninijy other prisoners held who belonged to the Gestapo and SJS., while there are also military leaders. At the moment Russia and America are said to hold the most of the major German war criminals; the Americans have Goering and Ribbentrop in their custody, and Russia is believed to have Bormann. Goering. Ribbentrop and a number of prominent Germans are in an American camp near Luxemburg. They include poenitz, Jodi, Keitel, Kesselring, Blaskowitz, and von Krosigk. There are also von Papen. Ilortliy, Seyys-Inquart, Frick, von Epp, Rosen burg. Darro, Funk, Bohle. Streicher, and Ley. Treatment in Prison. A correspondent of the "Daily Telegraph ’ who has visited the camp near Luxemburg whore prominent German? are held, says that, Contrary to a report published in France, none of these men is living in luxury. Their meals are: Breakfast, bread, biscuit and cocoa ; diaaer, soup, beans, bash, potatoes, beetroot salad, and rice; supper, stewed beans, breud and coffee. They eat their meals off plain crockery. Their only implement is a spoon, at which Doenitz is said to have bean very annoyed. All precautions have been taken against suicide, and all mirrors and light globes removed, all current turned off, und window-glass replaced by a substitute. The prisoners are allowed neither ties, shoes, belts, nor braces. They are shaved daily by professional barbers. J hey have hot water only on Saturdays. In addition to 50 "big shots,” there are also about 200 others who deceive precisely the same rations. The correspondent saw Kesselring and Goering, whose weight has been reduced from 19st. to 17st. 51b. Kesselring is a model of neatness. A German doctor said there was nothing seriously wrong with Goering, who is now refused injections of a drug derived from opium. A "social group” has been formed round Goering, and another round Doenitz. Streicher and Ley are ostracised and keep each other company. » Dr. Bohuslav Ecer, chief of the Czech Legal Service, said: "Ribbentrop could hardly conceal his emotions when I told him he had been on the list of war criminals since June, 1944. It was a shock tor him. He declared his role in the Reich was that of an instrument of the plan? and ideas of the Fuehrer. Ribbentrop said he did not agree with the occupation of Prague, but did not resign '*ecause the possibility of resignation did not exist in the Third Reich. If he had resigned he would have been put in a concentration camp.” Rommel’s End. Rommel's son, in a sworn statement, dedured tiiat his father committed suicide as the alternative to death sentence b.V a Nazi court for alleged complicity in a bomb plot against Hitler in 1944. says the Associated Press of Great Britain's correspondent in Germany. Rommel was recovering from a wound received in France in an American air raid when he received a call from two German generals on October 17, 1944. Shortly afterward he said good-bye to ni» wife, and told his son that Hitler had given him the choice of taking poison or facing the condemnation of the People's Court. Armed men surrounded the house. Rommel went off with the two generals, who gave the Hitler salute. Fifteen minutes later there was a telephone call to the family, slating that Rommel had died of a stroke. Hitler’s Half-brother. il ls* revealed at British headquarters in Germany that Alois Hitler, halfbrother of Adolph, had been iu custody for six weeks, lie was closely questioned. and has now been released. A spokesman commented : "It is clear be led a blameless existence, being absolutely scared stiff of being associated with his half-brother’s activities.” A War Crimea Court sentenced two German citizens to death for the mob slaying of two Allied airmen near Frankfurt last August, states a Munich message. They were the Chief of Police at Gross Iverau, Nikolaus Fachinger, and Heinrich Flauas. A French military court sentenced to death the war criminal Captain Karl Sukdacker, who was accused of murder, theft and arson whiL* in command of a German battalion in the south of France.

A beautiful 19-year-old ash blonde, Helen de Trnnze, a member of a gang that betrayed patriots to the Nazis throughout the occupation of France, wis sentenced to life imprisonment, und six male members were sentenced to death and others to varying terms of imprisonment. The leader of the gang, Chalga Odichari, is still uncaptured. Paul Ferdonnet, known as the traitor of Stuttgart, who broadcast programmes, was shot this morning at Fort Mont Rouge, outside Paris.