BEHIND THE BARS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26274, 4 October 1946, Page 5

BEHIND THE BARS

NUREMBERG PRISONERS MANY ATTEMPTS AT SUICIDE GOVERNOR'S REVELATIONS (N.Z.P.A. Special Corresponden) LONDON, Oct. 2. Now . that the Nuremberg trial is over, Colonel Burten Andrus, the American governor of Nuremberg Prison, has revealed some new aspects of the Nazi war criminals as he saw them behind the bars of prison. On the night of May 10. following his cross-examination by Sir Maxwell Fyfe, the guards discovered thaDoenitz had smuggled a rope made of plaited bootlaces into his cell, evidently with the intention of committing suicide. Christine Schroeder. formerly Hitler’s confidential typist, when she was called as a witness at the trial, was found to have secreted a small glass phial of cyanide in the hem of her dress. It is not known whether she carried it for her own use or intended to try to pass it to one of the prisoners. Determined Efforts Keitel made several efforts to obtain implements for suicide. On four separate occasions the guards found sharp splinters of metal and sharp nails secreted in his mattress. It was established that the nails were left about by workmen, and that Keitel found them while exercising. Apart from his suicidal tendencies, however. Keitel gave less trouble than any of the rest of the prisoners. He once sat upright for three nights running. rather than complain that he could not lie down on the hard pillow because he had a carbuncle on his neck. A file and a hacksaw were discovered in an attache case brought into couri by one witness called on behalf of Kaltenbrunner. At one period his fellow prisoners became so anxious about Ribbentrop's state of mind that Frank volunteered to share his cell to prevent him from attempting suicide. The prison staff do not believe Hess's stories about frequent stomach cramp attacks. They consider that he simulated them in order to avoid the boredom of sitting in court. For a considerable period Hess refused to tat food until one of the other prisoners—usually Sauckel—had eaten first to prove it was not poisoned. The guards consider Schacht the worst-mannered and most arrogant of the prisoners, although all of them in different ways caused trouble. Several of the German generals persistently claimed that they were not treated with the respect due to thenrank, and Doenitz once arrogantly refused to eat in the same room as Streicher. Kesselring was the most abject of the officer prisoners. He bowed obsequiously every time he met the governor, and thanked him profusely—even for giving him an order. Unsolved Mystery A mysterious attempt to kill one of the prisoners was never solved. As Goering, Jodi and Keitel were being taken through an open passageway in the prison, a razor-sharp hunting ! knife suddenly whirled out of the j darkness and embedded itself in the | wall a few inches from Goering. The tnrower was not discovered. The Daily Express says tfie condemned men have been moved from their old cells to another wing of the prison, where they are being kept in the strictest isolation. Colonel Andrus has ordered special precautions against suicide. The correspondent adds that it is revealed that American guards a few weeks ago found a number of sleeping pills, sufficient for a fatal dose, hidden in a roll of toilet paper in Ribbentrop’s cell. Ribbentrop, after the discovery, was compelled to take his prescribed number of pills in the presence of a doctor. Statistics of the trial prove that it j was the longest continuous recorded | legal hearing in history. The tribunal I sat for 219 days, had 403 open sessions, j totalling 2400 hours, and 5,000,000 | words of evidence, occupying 15,000 j pages, were recorded. There were ; 300.000 affidavits submitted to the court; 200 witnesses were examined, and more than 3,000,000 documents were considered. The second longest recorded case in English legal history was the second Tichborne trial, which occupied 188 days. Although the Warren Hastings trial extended over seven years, the number of sititng days was only 145.