NIGHTS OF TERROR

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26042, 4 January 1946, Page 5

NIGHTS OF TERROR

GHETTO NEAR DUBNO THOUSANDS MASSACRED EVIDENCE AGAINST NAZIS NUREMBERG, Jan. 2. An eye-witness story of the massacre of 5000 Jews near Dubno airport, Southeastern Poland, on July 13, 1942, was given in a document produced today at the resumed trial of leading Nazis. It was a statement by a German engineer, Hermann Graebe, who said the ghetto was encircled by the S.S. and Ukrainian militia. Men, women, and children of all ages had to undress on the orders of an S.S. man carrying a whip. Under orders they sorted their clothes, then stood around in family groups, kissing each other, saying farewells and awaiting a sign from another S.S. man, also with a whip, who stood near a "pit.” They were told off in groups of 20 and shot by an S.S. man who sat with a tommy gun across his knees smoking a cigarette, his legs dangling into a huge pit in which Graebe saw more than 1000 bodies. Members of the S.S.. in rounding up people, used whips and guns. The screaming of women and children, and the cracking of whips and rifle shots resounded throughout the night. Women carried dead children in their arms and children dragged at their dead parents. Graebe said he saw dozens of corpses of all ages and both sexes in the streets. At the corner of one house was a dead baby, less than 12 months old. with its skull crushed. Murder of Commandos An order issued by Hitler on October 18 1942, which virtually commanded the murder of British commandos, was produced in evidence. The order said: “ From now on all members of so-called Commands missions in Europe and Africa, even if to all appearances they are soldiers in uniform, or demolition troops, whether armed or unarmed, in battle or in flight, are to be slaughtered to the last man. It makes no difference whether they landed from ships or aeroplanes. Even if they are apparently prepared to give themselves up, no pardon is to be granted on principle.” Hitler’s order was intended to be secret, and only 12 copies were made. The prosecution, as evidence that the order was carried out, put in the report of a German security police officer in Norway recording the killing of members of a Commando party led by a Norwegian lieutenant. Other security police documents laid down a graduated scale of third degree treatment to make the prisoners talk, and they dealt with the measures to combat political opposition by “agitator priests.” The American prosecutor, Colonel Storey, said the' account of Gestapo activities read like a page from the devil’s notebook. Goering and Kaltenbrunner were heavily involved in the allegations. Case against Kaltenbrunner

Counsel for Kaltenbrunner requested that evidence against his client should be postponed until he was sufficiently recovered to appear in court. After the luncheon adjournment, Lord Lawrence announced that the evidence against Kaltenbrunner would be postponed until the end of the evidence against the other individual defendants. Any evidence against Kaltenbrunner which also bore on the Gestapo or the security. police could be presented to-day. After discussions, during a closed session, Lord Lawrence said he had decided that the cases were inseparable, and the prosecution is therefore proceeding with the case against Kaltenbrunner. Lieutenant Whitney Harris assistant American prosecutor, introduced an affidavit by a member of the S.S. stationed at Mathausen concentration camp, declaring that Kaltenbrunner was present at a gas chamber when prisoners were being gassed. Reuter’s correspondent says Funk looked the most unhealthy of the defendants when the trial was resumed after the Christmas recess. His face was pale and his mouth drooping. Doenitz half-smiled as he shuffled papers. Von Schirach leaned forward listening intently to the evidence. Rosenberg sat hunched on a form staring at his feet. Speer and Fritsche were perceptibly greyer. Von Neurath looked worried. Goering was solemn, and listened to the evidence with knitted brows. He seemed paler than before the recess.