NAZIS CAUGHT

New Zealand Herald, Volume 82, Issue 25214, 29 May 1945, Page 5

NAZIS CAUGHT

DANZIG GAULEITERj I LUFTWAFFE CHIEF FOUR MORE GENERALS FURTHER SUICIDES (Reed. 6.30 p.m.) LONDON, May 28 Albert Forster, former Nazi Gauleiter of Danzig, has been captured in Hamburg, reports Renter's correspondent with the British Second Army. He was carrying a phial simi- 1 lar to those carried by Himmler and other Nazi leaders, but filled with morphine instead of potassium \ cyanide. Forster told his captors that he was saving the phial in case he wanted to put himself to sleep, but principally in case lie should fall into the hands of the Russians. Field-Marshal Hitter von Grein, who succeeded Goering as head of the Luftwaffe, committed suicide last Thursday in a Salzburg hospital. It is believer] that he employed the same method as Himmler. A small phial which had contained potassium cyanide was found beside bis bed with sandwiches and coffee. Escape Attempt Fails Von Grein was wounded in one leg in the final stages of the battle for Berlin. He escaped in a German plane to a hospital at Kitzbuhel, where -he was discovered and taken prisoner by the Allies. He was then taken to Salzburg. The Gauleiter of Lower Austria, Dr Hugo Jury, has also committed suicide, according to the Austrian radio. "Some of his most intimate friends in crime committed suicide with him," said the radio. "When he fled a few days before his death, he took Austrian State propertv worth several million marks."

Four important generals who have been under house arrest in Hamburg have been formally arrested and removed for questioning. They are Brigade-Fuehrer of S.S. Ballauf, MajorGeneral of Sappers Dr Hillart, Lieu-tenant-General Veith and Lieutenant* General Hiienerman. The last-named was a member of Field-Marshal Keitel's staff until recently, and Veith commanded the "Ordnungstruppen," or provost forces. Goering's Art Collector The Americans have taken prisoner Goering's chief art collector. Hofer, who was mainly responsible for accumulating Goering's fabulous collection of art treasures ,

While attempting to hide his identity I under the name of Dr Gibbs, Karl J Frederick Griesenberg, Nazi administrator of all the confiscated estates in : Poland, has been caught —with Ribben- : trop's visiting card in his pocket, reports Renter's correspondent with the Fifth Army. He was ambushed yester- ; day by a handful of American soldiers who waited for him on a path leading ; to his mountain retreat.

The Americans yesterday captured General Oberg near Kitzbuhel, in Austria. He was responsible for the executions of many Frenchmen and was known as the "Butcher of Paris."

Captain Weijtz, of U-boat 963, which was scuttled off Portugal last Sunday, and his second in command, have been handed over to British authorities and sent to England by air, says a Lisbon correspondent. As their own naval authorities had ordered their surrender to tlie Allies under the terms of the Armistice, they could not claim internment as belligerents. The crew of the submarine are temporarily detained in a fortress near Lisbon.

A Kremlin spokesman, broadcasting over the Moscow radio, demanded Goering's immediate trial. He said: "There is no reason why this arch-criminal, stained with blood and dirt from head lo heel, should not be sentenced forthwith."

HITLER'S SISTERS LONDON, May 27 Hitler's sister, Paula Wolff, in an interview with the Allied occupation authorities. said she thought it a pity her brother had not continued trying to be an architect. "Adolf might have been a good, bad or indifferent architect," she said, "but he could not have made as big a mess of it as he made of politics." In addition to Paula Wolff, American troops captured another of . Hitler's sisters, Angela Hammitsch, says Renter's correspondent with the Third Army.

COLLABORATOR ARRESTED (T?ccd. 6.10 p.m.) LONDON, May 28

The Paris radio reports the arrest in Marseilles of the head of the French collaborators in Nice. He has already been sentenced to death in his absence by the Nice Court of Justice.