GREAT PRECAUTIONS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25856, 29 May 1945, Page 5

GREAT PRECAUTIONS

IDENTIFICATION OF HIMMLER INDISPUTABLE PROOF WANTED . LONDON, May 27. While Himmler is lying in a nameless grave on Luneburg Heath his two aides—a burly colonel and a slightlybuilt major of the Waffen S.S.—were flown in a British transport plane to Field-marshal Montgomery’s headquarters, states the Daily Express correspondent at Luneburg. With them went Himmler’s personal belongings, his fingerprints, a cast of his lower jaw, a death mask, and also records of conversations with Himmler before his suicide. “ The two S.S. officers do not know what is in the bags and parcels,” said the correspondent. “ They do not know that Himmler is dead and buried, and we do not know whether they, like Himmler, conceal in their mouths a tiny suicide phial which they will crush if we get too tough. We have not yet searched their mouths because, first, if they have the phials they will crush them and die on our hands without divulging perhaps vital information; secondly, if they have not got phials they will know we have discovered Himmler’s trick and that he is dead. They tried to learn about Himmler this morning when they asked for newspapers. These were given, but only of the day before Himmler’s death. They have already been questioned, and will again be questioned at Field-Marshal Montgomery’s head—quarters. “Contact will also be made with Himmler’s widow and brother, who are both in Allied hands. Efforts are also, being made to trace Himmler’s dentist. Supreme headquarters does not want any mystery cropping up later—it wants indisputable proof that it was Himmler who died. His identity has so far been established by Himmler saying he was Himmler, by his appearance. a comparison of his features with photographs, his replies to trick questions, and, most important, his signature.

"But here is a mystery. Himmler was asked, just before he took poison, to write his signature on a piece of paper. He responded without hesitation, and was about to hand the paper back when he suddenly tore it up into 48 pieces. British officers at the week-end pieced the paper together. It is now stated that the signature tallies with others in our hands, but why did Himmler, who had admitted identity, tear up the signature? Possibly he feared we might write something over it, such as a confession that he personally ordered the horrors at the Belsen and Buchenwald camps.”