HORROR FILMS AS EVIDENCE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 80, 29 November 1945, Page 5

HORROR FILMS AS EVIDENCE

SCREENED IN NUREMBERG COURT GERMAN DEFENCE COUNSEL SHOCKED London, Nov. 28. . Scenes of thousands of corpses rotting in Nazi concentration camps, and SS men beating helpless women and children were projected on the cinema screen in the Nuremberg Court last night before the shocked gaze of eight German defence counsel. Dr. Alfred Seidl, who represents Franck, afterwards put on his hat and dejectedly said to the correspondent of the Associated Press of Great Britain: “No argument can be made against these pictures. They are too terrible for words.” Von Papen’s son, Franz, said: ‘‘We are human beings. Please believe it we did not know such horrors existed.” Only eight of the score of defence counsel attended the evening exhibition because they expected to be present in Court to-day .when the American prosecution is introducing the films as official evidence.

The prosecution requested a prior screening to meet possible defence objections that there was no opportunity to see such evidence before it \tas submitted to the Court. Russia wants the trials of major war criminals finished by the middle of January and the public hanging of those convicted preferrably in Berlin by 30th January states the “Daily Mail’s” Nuremberg correspondent. Mr Vishinsky, Mr Molotov’s righthand man. who yesterday attended the trials of the war criminals, is reported to have arrived to quicken the proceedings. The correspondent says the Russians frequently adopt public hangings in their own zone and may feel that full justice has not been done unless adopted in the case of major war criminals. Nuremberg, Nov., 28, Hess,. as the war crimes trial on which his life depends was resumed, began to read another work of fiction. He has already r»sad 13 books, mostly of the fairy tale type, during the ten days of the trial in which he has shown no interest. He laughs occasionally, but it appears to be at some amusing p ssage of the book rather than at any part of the proceedings. It was revealed that a board of psychiatrists found Hess “not insane at present in the strict sense of the word' but conceded that his loss of memory would “interfere with his ability to make his defence." The Tribunal has not announced whether the Hess trial will continue but set 1 o’clock on Friday afternoon as the time when the prosecution and defence will argue the matter. Kaltenbrunner is stated to be much improved in health but no indication can bo given when he will be able to take his place with his co-defendants *•1 the dock. VERSAILLES TREATY Nuremberg, Nov. 27. Goering grinned and exchanged glances with Raeder when Mr Aiderman read a report of Raeder’s interrogation in which he stated that Germany had fulfilled the word of the Versailles Treaty but had simultaneously arranged to build submarines in Holland and carried out other subterfuges in Spain and Finland, where U-boat crews were secretly trained. The prosecutoir quoted a document signed by Raeder on 12th April, 1934, dealing with war plans, in which Raeder said: “The primary purpose is readiness for war without any alert period.” Mr Alderman added that the Nazi theory was clever. The Versailles . forbade rearmament in Germany but said nothing of rearming in Holland, Spain or Finland. Mr Alderman went on for an hour listing various camouflages the German Navy used under which to rearm. He said the Germans constructed cruisers by disguising them as merchant ships and transports. The profit e called for the construction of cruisers, and by Ist April 1935, actual | battleship displacements exceeded by 20 per cent, the displacements reported by the Germans to the British. Unidentified class of ships reported at 46,. 000 ton s were actually 51,300 tons. The Court adjourned. TREASON TRIAL FORMER DUTCH NAZI LEADER The Hague, Nov., 27. Anton Mussert. 52-year-old former leader of the Dutch Nazis, whose trial for treason began to-day, told the special court that he intended to call as witness Seyss-Inquart, former German Governor of Holland, who is now on trial at Nuremberg. Mussert pleaded not guilty to the charge, which was divided under these headings: That between May, 1940. and May, 1945, he tried to bring The Netherlands under foreign rule: that he telegraphed Hitler in September, 1940, “placing the well-being of The Netherlands in his hands” and subsequently took an oath of loyalty to Hitler; and that he made propaganda for union with the “Germanic peoples." Mussert said he proposed to Hitler the formation of a league of German peoples which would include The Netherlands. He claimed he did this in the hope of safeguarding Dutch independence from Germany and safeguarding Europe from Bolshevism. Mussert declared he had been assured that Hitler after the war would resign as Chancellor of the Reich and German Fuhrer to become Fuhrer of Germanic peoples, which would be composed of Germany. Holland, Sweden, Denmark and Norway, with a common armed force and economic programme.