SOLDIERS’ HONOUR

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXIX, Issue 20056, 13 March 1935, Page 5

SOLDIERS’ HONOUR

VICTIMS OF NAZI PURGE CLEARED United Press Association —By Electric Telegraph—Copyright (Received March 12, 5.5 p.m.) BERLIN, March 11. The late General von Schleicher and General von Bradow, who were executed in the June Purge, have been formally vindicated. Field-Marshal von Mackensen, presiding at a meeting of 200 generals, read out a list of high officers who had died in the past twelve months, and the War Minister authorised the inclusion of the names of Generals von Schleicher and von Bradow, who are now declared to have fallen like soldiers with their honour untainted.

Both General von Schleicher and his wife were shot down in their home by a party of Nazis who broke in during the June Purge. The wife died when she threw herself in front of her husband as the raiders fired. Her sacrifice was in vain, however, and he fell a moment later riddled with bullets. He had been one of Hitler’s right-hand men, but was suspected of favouring a more moderate course than that advocated by Goering, who, with Hitler’s consent, gave the orders for the purge.