UNITED NATIONS T7AR CRIMES COMMISSION.

(Research Office)

F A R CRIMES NEWS DIGEST.

»: The above title replaces that of Press News Sunnary used in the early nuribers o f this series. For internal circulation

CONTENTS.

SUMMARY OF EVENTS. PAGE.

EUROPE* ...... *.. •*...... 1.

THE FAR EAST...... ••« ...... 8.

APPENDIX: Mr. Elwyn Jones* article on Kessolring. 9.

PURL: https://www.legal-tools.org/doc/5adfc2/ Richer Recaptured, (see No. XXViil, p.1 of this Digest)

The Times reported (2.6,47) from Vienna that S.S. General Franz RICHTER, former Nazi Mayor of Vienna, had been reoaptured by tho Austrian police. Ho escaped from tho Vienna municipal prison six woeks ago.

Trial of Dr. Hanoi,

An Agency moseagc reported (27.5-47) that at tho tidal before the Vlennosc People's Ccurt of Dr. Rudolf HANEL, charged with membership of the before the anschluss, evidenca was given that, dospitu3 hi membership, he had given groat help to tho Austrian underground. It was testified that, thanks to infonnation given by Dr. HANEL, it had boon possible to sabotage preparations boing made for tho manufacture of flying bombs, thus dolaying tho beginning of thoir manufacture by as much as nine months.

Former Nazi Leador sentenced.

The Timos reported (25.5*47) that Johann BRAUN, a former Nazi loador, who set up his own court during tho last days of tho war and hanged five of his enemies, mostly anti-Nazis, was sentenced,on the previous day,to death by tho Vienna People!s Court. Two of his accomplices, Josof V/ENING2R and Johann \7ALIHER, were also sen-) tenood to death.

FRANCE.

French Collaborati on Trials.

Tho Fronch Ministry of Justice has published tho following figures of trials on charges of collaboration with the onany hoard by the special oourts be­ tween tho liberation and April 1, 1947

"Cases* brought before uxaiaijiitig magistrates, 127,2.33; dismissed, 48,155; brought to trial, 50,066 (sentences of death, 5..566; penal servitude for lifo, 2026; other terms,10 , 622; solitary confincmont,2 , 025; imprisonment, 21,289; acquittals, 7,400); caoos brought beforo civic courts,64,898 (loss of rights, 45,988; acquittals,1 2 , 658 ).

The number of executions betvoen September 1, 1944, and April 20. 1947, was*637; throb of these sentonces (on DARN AND, LAVAL and DE ERINON ) woro pronouncod by th> High Court«

There remain 3,083 cases to be hoard by the special courts and 60,000 appeals are ponding,.’

Trial of Bonoist-Meehin,

Tho Times cori-oiipondent in a report from Paris dated 29.5.47 statod: "Tho trial of BINOIST-riSEIftN, a foraor member o f the Vichy Govomment, bogan before tho High Court at Versailles to-uayt His case is arousing groat interest here, for tho charges of collaboration concern the part ho played in the negotiations botvoen Vichy and the Germans in 1941, and his alleged complicity in a move to bring France into the \rar against Great Britain and America oarly in 1942.

liarshal FZTAJN, questioned in his island fortress, had doniod that there was ovor any possibility of Vichy going to war against tho Allios. ABETZ, tho

/former.

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FRANCE fCont)

Trial of Bcnoiat-.icclun. (cont)

former Gorman Ambassador in Viohy, has confirmed the authenticity of a tologram, which will be the prosccution:3 principal ovidonoo, giving ABETS13 account of an interview with BENOIST-HSCIIBi, vhen the latter is said to havo reported that tho Council of iiinistors, in January1 9 4 2took , tho decision to deolaro war. BEJIOIST- MECHIN has denied this, but has admitted that negotiations woro going on botwoen Vichy and Berlin in the winter of1941 - 1942. The same source reported that B5N0IST-MBCRIN was sentenced to death on June 6th.

G B ti li A N Y.

TRL'XS BY G^RI'1/JJ COURTS.

;*iass gravesfound near Berlin,

Berlin radio reports (20., 5.» 4?) that it had be*n announcod that 21 graves, containing tho bodies of 50 vonen, had been found in tho neighbourhood of Jialchow near Berlin, The bodies probably csmo from tho camp at Halahow, which was subsidiary to tho Ausotrvits camp, and containod about 6,000 Jewish end foreign women prisonor3.

Nazi Chiefs* ^idous arrested,

The Times correspondent in a report dated 30.5.47 stated: Hermann GORING’s widow has been arrested and is to be tried as a member of tho Nazi Party. Dr. LGMTZ, tho Bavarian Hinistor, who annoucned this at Hunich, said he would demand that she be sent to prison for ton years. Frau Margarotto FRICK, widow of T.'illiolm FRICK, who \rxs hanged at Nuremberg, has beon arrested in Frankfurt; and Frau Brigztte FRANZ, widcr.7 of , the executed Nazi govor- nor of Poland, has been arrested at Schliorsee, Uppor .

Case of Holeno Schwaerzel to bo reopened.( see Nos. XVIII, p.1 & XXI, p.2 of this Digest) The Times reported from Berlin (20.5.47) that the case of Helene SCHrTASRZEL, the woman who was sentenced in December for having denounced to the , Dr. GOZHDLER, formerly chief burgomaster of Leipzig, is to bo reopened, SCH7ASREEL was tried for “murder carriod out in a malioious way because of avarice’* and was sentenced to 15 years penal servitude and forfeiture of her property. From the outsot itwa3 open to doubt whothor she had actod from po litical motives and this aspect of thecaso is to be revicwod. Her counsel will be a former friend of the dead burgomaster*

Denazification trials,,

The Daily Telegraph reported (16,5.47) that Richard STRAUSS, the oomposor, would be tried by a denazification court according to an annoucancnt by tho Mili­ tary Government o f Bavaria. Also to appoor would be Dorothea KEITEL, widow of HITLSR's one-time chief cf the O.K.W . The wives of HESS, SAUKEL # von SCHIRACH, STRSICHSR and JQDL have al&o been arrested.

/AHERICAN ZCNE

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;j-ZERICAN' ZONE.

THE ÜECOfTD .

V isit o f the Chrim nn and members of tho Comuission to American Zone.

. Lord ‘.BRIGHT, chairman of tho United Nations¥nr Crimea Cccnission, acccop^niod by. -General do BAER, Bolgion representative, Colonol R.H.SPRINGES, UnitcA Statea representative and Colonel G.A, LSDINGHaM, SecretaryGeneral of tho Canmiaaion, arrived at Nuremborg on8. 5, 47. They were preBcnt atthe trials of tho Go naan Induatriciliata, the 23 doctors and scientiata and thoNasi 15 Ministry ofJuatico officials. The party returned to Londonon 13.5.4-7*

Forthcoming trials in the American Zonec

The Times correspondent in a report dated 15*5.47 stated:''Brigadier General Telford TAYLOR, tho chief American prosecuLoannounced at Nuremberg yostorday that the United States intended to hold nino more trials thisyear for war crimes. The aefen,.ents would be senior Nazi officialsand soldiers, about 220 in all. He oxpectel thoso trials to be completed by March 1 nextyear* After that tho United States v/ould probably turn over to tho German courts the evidencoin the remaining trials.

. . Gone^al TAYLOR has asked for tho indictments for the nine casesby July 1. Tho caaoa w ill involve loading members o f tho Foreign Office who helpodRIBBEfc- TROP; 12 mombors o f tho Reich Chancery, including Hans LAMMERS, a socrotary o f tho Nazi Party; loaders in the economic field, including officiala of tho Honaan Goring Worko and Goring* s doputy Paul KOEHNER; Alfred KliUFP and other o fficials o f the Krupp works; mombors of tho staff of the Dresdener Bank and tho RacialResettle­ and ment Office o f tho S S .; Gestapo mem who woro responsible for tho reign o f terror in tho east; military mon who ill-treated prisoners of war, including General Honnann REINICK3 and SS Obergruppenführer BURGER; and fiold-marshals and generals suspected of having joined in a deliberate plan to wage aggressive war."

The "Í7VHA" Trial, (seo No. XXVIII, p.3 of this Digoat) :

An Agonoy mcssago from Nurcmborg (25*5.4-7) reported that SS. General Oawald POHL had admitted responsibility for the destruction of the Warsaw ghotto (tho 29-day maasacre of 40,000 Jews four years ago.)

Tho "Hostagoa" Case, (see No, XXVIH, p.3 of this Digest)

A U.S. Press roleaso No, 129 of May 10th 194-7 stated that the indictment of the 12 Gorman gonerols , which was presented to the Secretary General of the . CMGUS Military Tribunal in Nuremberg, contains four counts, all basod on charges of War Crimes and Crimea against Humanity. All 12 defcndcnts are named on each count. Those oounta include the alleged murder of thousands of peraons taken fran the oivilian populations of Grccco, Yugoslavia and Albania; the plundering and looting of publio and privato proporty, tho destruction of citios, towns and villages and tho cowaission of other militarily unjustified acts of devastation in tho throo southeastern countries and Norway; the initiation, issuance and execution of illegal orders directing, nmong others things, tho refusal of quarter and tho donial o f prisoner o f war status and rights to enemy troops, and the suaa- ary oxooution of surrendering members of Allied Military forces; and finally, tho torture and terrorization, imprisonment in concentration camps, impressment in­ to forced labour on fortifications and the deportations to slave labour of tho civilian populations of Greece, Yugoslavia and Albania,

Reuter reported (30,5.4-7) that Lieutenant Goncml Franz BOEHME, one of tho dofondent3 in the "Hostagos" case, had died during that night after thresh­ ing himsolf froa a third floor window of Nuremberg gaol. He was Cccsaander XVIII

/Mountain

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AliERICAN SCNE.

THS S5CCND NURSiBERG TRIALS. (Cont)

The nHostages" Trial. (Cont)

Mountain Arngr Corps, April 1941 - Deooaber 1941; PlenipotentiaryComnanding General in Serbia, September 1941 - December 1941; Cotamandei>in-Chief Second panzer Army, June 1944 July - 1944; Co juander-in-chief Twentieth Mountain Armyand ffehnnaohtebe- fehlshaborNord, January 1945 ~ May 1945. . . to the The following should be added / list of the indicted Generals already given (seo No. XXVIII, p.3 of this Digest)

General Lothar RHIDULIC, Cooiaander-in-Chiof, Scoond Panzer Am y, August 1943 - Juno 1944; Co^mandor-in-Chief Twentieth Mountain Amy, July 1944 - January 1945; ^ohmachtsbofehlshaber Nord, December 1944 “ January 1945; Coaaandor Am y Group North, January 1945 - ¡larch 1945; Couaaalor-in-Chiof Amy Group Courlnnd, March 1945 ** April 1945; Couaandcr-in-Chiof Aray Group South, April 1945 - May 1945.

Genoral Ernst DSHUS, Cooonndor LXIX Amy Roaorvo Corps, August 1943 - March 1944*

General Ernst von LEYSER, Coaaandor XV Mountain Army Corps, Novanber 1943 - July.1944; Coaaandor XXI Mountain Amy Corps, July 1944 - April 1945»

Genoral Kurt von GEMIER, Chief of Staff to the Coaaanding Genoral in Sorbin, July 1942 - August 1943; Chief of Staff to tho Military Coaaandor of Surbia and Military Coaaandor Southeast, August 1943 “ Oat ob or 1944.

gQur Princos under Arrest,

Router reported (27.5*47) that four Goman princes hod beon taken to Nuremberg under arrest and are nos7 in prison waiting to appear os witnesses in saao of the 16 ponding war crimes trials of high ranking Nazis, They aro Prince Philipp von Hossen, who aoted as HITLER’S courier to MUSSOLINI; Princo August VTilhaln of Prussia who served as an SS Brigadofuhrer; Erbprinz Friodrioh Zu Sohnumburg Lippo who was an adjutant to GOEBHSLS and Erbprinz Ernst Zu Lippo-Dotmold who served as personal advisor to .the Nazi Hinistor for Pood and Agriculturo.

+ + + + + + ♦ + +

Exooution of Mauthausen Concontration Camp Staff,

An Agency nossnge roportod (28,5,47) 48 that SS administrators,convicted of nass murders at tho Mauthausen concentration ccnp, were exooutod at Landsburg prison on May 27th and 28th, Anong then was Major Victor ZOLLER, Cctxiondcr o f the Mauthausen guards and EIGRUBER, Gauleiter of Upper Austria,

Sentences on Concentration.Comp officials.

The Daily Telegraph reported (22,5,47) that an ^orican Far Crimos Court sentenced to death Homan TÜNTKE, a foraer Mauthausen guard.

Nows of Germany reported frcn Dachau (15.5.47) that Dr, Erika FLOCOf, a waoan doctor, and three guards of the Muhldorf concontration camp were sentonced to death by an American Military Court at Dachau. Tv/o othor ¿efendents received lifo sentences and five others prison toms rangingfrom 10 to 20 years.

/A rrest

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GERMANY.

AMERICAN ZONE * (Cont) '• . .

Arrests of Nazi Official«. •t * • , . An Agency message ft*om Lunloh reported, that Brigadier General Eric NEUMANN, of tjhe S,S, principle adjutant to HEfliLSR, had been captured working os a farmer in Bavaria after a two-year search by American war crimes investigators*

The same source reported that Rudolph DIELS, HITLER'S first Gestapo chief, had bean arrested in Nuremberg,

Escape of SS general.

Reuter reported (29.5*47) that official souceo have confirmed the oscapo from the internment camp in Dachau o f Siegfried UIDEIfflEITER, an SS brlgadior general, who formorly served as Gauleiter of the Gau Styria in Austria.

/"Note: UIBERBEITER, who was a witnoss at the Nuremberg trials, was to ' appear before an American military court at Dachau on war crimes charges^

Formor Comanndant’ s Suicido.

The Daily Telegraph reported that Kurt UATHESIUS, conuandant of the Nordhausen concentration camp, who was to have been tried on war crimes ohargos, hanged himself in Dachau prison hospital.

BRITISH ZCND.

Forthcoming: trials in the British Zone. .

Viscount JCHITT, the Lord Chancellor, who has been on a tour of the B ritish Zone, announced in Hamburg on May 29th that trials by German courts o f about 20,000 membors of organisations - such as .the SS and SA Nazi formations - . declared criminal at Nuremberg will be opened next month.

He said that botween 80 and 100 courts would be sitting simultaneously in tho British zono. Legal advice bureaux for internees were at work in inter­ nment camps. About 5,000 suspoets would bo brought from tho Amerioan zono. .. *

Tho Conraission was informed of tho following:

The Gladenbach Caso. ;

This trial v/a3 to open at Brunswick on¿lay 22nd 1947« The accusod, Karl MENGE, Konrad MANGOLD, LudvigWILL, Karl SCHMIDT, Otto KOCH, Lulwig MICHEL, arc charged with cccnitting a war crime in that they in tho vicinity of Gladenbach on or about Docombor 10th 1944 woro concerned in tho k illin g and ill-treatment of Australian prisoners of war. “ •

Results of ccppletod triaJg,

The Itaort Case, (see No. XXVIII, p. *4 of this Digest)

This trial was completed on May 16th 1947. • Josef KNOTH was sentenced to death.

/T r ia l ......

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GSRHANY,

BRITISH ZONE (Cont)

Ifrial of von Ruckteschell. (seo No. XXVIII, p.5 of this Digest.)

____ This trial was aompletcd on Hay 21st at Hamburg. Helnut von RUCKTE- SCHBLL Was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for war crimes at sea.

Trial of murderers of airmen.

Former S.A , Lioutenant Erich WILLINSKI was sontencod to death and Hans KUEHN to 20 years imprisonuont by the Par Crimes Court at Hnnburg on May 30th for their part in the nurdor of one British and three Canadian nirmen at Solingen.

Two foroor members of tho Goman airforce woro sentenood to death at Osnabrück for having taken part in the shooting of allied airmen.

GREECE.

Execution of Brauer and Muller (see No. XXIII, p.9 of this Digest)

The Timos correspondent in a report from Athens (20.5.47) said: Two Gorman generals, Friedrich MULLER and Bruno BRAU2R, who were sentenood to doath in Doc caber by tho T7ar Criminals Court in Athens, wure to-day oxocutod. They had been found guilty of war crimes in Crete during the German occupation.

ITALY.

BRITISH TROOPS IN ITALY.

Tho Death Sentence on Kesselring. (sec No. XXVIII, p.5 of this Digest)

Reuter reported (22.5.47) that KESSELRING hod been brought to tho British zone of Austria; his exact whereabouts was not disclosed.

The sentence on KESSELRING was tho subject o f muoh correspondence in tho Press. General Sir Oliver LESSE, in an interview given to the Sunday Pictorial (11.5.47), said, " I do not think KESSELRING should dio' and that ** 8th Army non who fought ogoinst him had no complaints about his conduct."

Mr, Randolph CHURCHILL, in tho Daily Telegraph, regarded the sentence aa "particularly shocking" and quoted Field Marshal ALEXANDER* s statement that "tho fighting in Italy was carriod out fairly and frca a soldierly point of view. **

Others arguod that tho execution of higher caxiandors would provide a precedent for the victors in future wars.

On the other hand, Mr* Maurice SHARE, in tho Tines (19.5*47) pointed out that tho latter argument "i s no more valid than to say that criminals who nro punished to-day may revenge themselves on socioty to-morrow. The real question is: Are wo to have legal precedents for punishing international crime or arc we to havo no international law on those mattors ?H

Mr, Elwyn JONES, K.C ., M.P. , one o f tho prosocutors At tho Nuremberg Trial cited the words o f thoNurem bergCour t* s judgement concerning tho German Generals: "that those auong then 7/ho are guilty of those crimes should not escape punishment. v ¿~Tho text of Ur. Elwyn Jonos’ articlo is annexed in thoappendix^/

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POLAND.

Gormnlaation of Polish Children.

Warsaw radio reported (27.5.47) that UNRRA investigations with reference to tha 15,000 Polish children deported to Germany havo shown that, in accordance with HEJMLER* s orders, mostly children aged two to six years wore seleotod for Gennanisation. They had to conform in appearanoo to Nordic requirements and were then placed in S3 schools or with S3 families. Many documents have been traood proving this unique criminal scheme of abducting children Area an occupied country. Apart Aram children carried aw&y from Poland some who accompanied their parents conscriptedfo r .labour and saao bom in comps were also abducted. The identifica­ tion of children from Labour comps has boen mado easier by the fhot that their parents hod tattooed marks on them* The doovguents concerned with this scheme w ill constituto important evidence in the trials against Gorman war criminals and Nazi organisations*

Trial of Forster.

Router reportod (50.5.47) that Albert FORSTER, former gauloiter of Danzig, would soon be tried before the polish Supreme People's Court on charges of participating in the German aggression against Poland.

Suicide of Gallasch.

The Daily Telegraph reported (22.5.47) that Karl GALLASCH, former conroandant of the Gross-Rosen concentration camp, who was sentenced to death for killing several thousand camp inmates, hangod himself in his coll at Wroclaw.

/T H 3 FAR SAST

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T H 5 FAR EAST.

Progress of *?ar Crimos Trials in the Far East.

Mr, BELLENGSi, in reply to a quo3tion in tho Houso of Com on3, said that tho progress of war crimes trials by British Military Courts in Singapore, Hongkong, Malaya, Burna and Borneo vro.3 being satisfactorily maintained. Up to April 25th 1947, 688 Japanese and Koreans had been tried. Of these 53 wore sontenood to life imprisonent and 235 to death* The latter figure included sentences not yet oonfirmod but at least 166 death sentences had so far been carried out; 141 accused wore now cither on trial or were awaiting trial with tho cases against them oomploto and 1,605 wore in custody whoso oases were undor investigations or who wore suspoots hold pending investigation, Tho latost figure3 reoeived frou tho Australian autho­ rities indicated that 733 Japanoso had been triod by Australian Military Courts in Singapore, Fort Darwin onl Rabaul, * Of those 371 had boon sontcncod to varying tonas of imprisonment and 142 to death. In Singapore at the end of April there wore fivo accusod still awaiting trial by Australian Courts, 41 accused had also boon tried by United States Courts in Japan in casc3 involving British victims; 7 had boon sentenced to doath and 34 to terns of imprisonment.

SINGAPORE AND PACIFIC.

Execution o f General Harcdr. and Sgt. Jotani.

Rout or reported (28.5*47) that Lt, Gen* HAI&DA and Sgt. JOTANI woro hangod on tho previous day at Changi gaol, ’ ingnporo. Thoy woro responsible for the deaths of allied prisoners of war,

Japanese General sentenced, (see No, XXVUI, p.7 thiB of Digest)

Tho Doily Telegraph reported that General Hit os hi IMAMURA was sontcncod to ton years imprisonment for failure to prevent his troopscoLxiitting frcn atro­ c itie s.

HONGKONG.

Sentence on General Ryoaaburo.

An Agoncy ncssago (22.5.47) reported that Major General Tanaka RYOSA- BURO, ono of tho Japanoso divisional cor.nander3 who lod tho attack on Hongkong, was scntencod to 20 years imprisonment for tho mass murders of British prisonors o f war.

Execution of Colonel Nona.

Tho Daily Tolcgraph reported that Colonel NOMA, chief of the Japanese gendarnorlo in Hongkong during the occupation, who was scntencod to doath during Fobruary for atrocitics against British and Chinoso, was hangod on May 27th.

Trial of throe Japanese Officors.

The Times correspondent in a report from Hongkong (30.5.47) statod: By arrangement with tho Auorican authorities, as the alloged crimo was ccmuittcd in Japan, Colonel TAMURA, Major HULJiO and Captain FUJINO havo been arraigned boforo the war crimes cairt hero and charged *.rf.th being conccmcd in the killing of an R.N.V.R. sub-licutonnnt, pilot of a Soafiro who parachutod down in Inchino- miya and was sub.oquently shot.

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a p p e n d i x .

EXTRACT M M AN ARTICLE BY F. EL7YN JONES, K .C . ,M .P.

Entitled "Kessolring, Martyr or Murderer 7". Published in Reynolds News, on May 25th 1947.

Aftor describing the scene in on Italian village where German reprisals had boon oorriod out Mr. Elwyn Jones went on to say:

"That Italian see no has come often to my mind since the agitation to save Kessolring, Nazi Coniaandor-in-Chiof in Ita ly , has boon taken up by B ritish genorals, British publicists, British politicians.

Kossolring, prototype of Prussian!sn, was to the last Hitler1 s frtithful agent. Ho suoooded Roan el in Italy because, unlike Ronraol, ho was willing to do what Hitler wanted,. During the days of the revolt in July, 1944, when sane even o f the German genoriols saw tho red lig h t, Kosselring backed Hitlor.

On July 19th ho was at* Hitler’s H.Q. to celebrate the anniversary o f his first commissioning into tho Goman Army. T/hon, the noxt day, H itler was blown up by a bonb, Kossolring was tho first Goman occinander to congratulate him on his oscapc from assassination. Yet long before this the world - and most Gomans - had come to know that Hitlor was the biggest kill or in history.

Last month Kossolring was found guilty by a British Military Court of boing coneomod in tho reprisal nurdor of 335 Italian civilians in tho Ardoa- tino Cavos, noar Remo,.

He was also oonviotod on a second charge o f inciting and commanding tho Goman army and polioo forces, in Italy under his cocnond, to kill Italian civilians as reprisals, as a result of which scoros of Italians were slaughtered.

Tho facts o f tho Ardoatino massacro arc w ell known. In Maroh, 1944, 32 Gormans soldiers wore killed in a bcrib attack in Romo. Kessolring, then C.- in-C. in Italy, passed on an ordor received by his H. % frca Hitler’s H.\)., to the Connandor, 14th Army, that for every German killed, 10 Italians wore to dio. As a result 335 Italians wore murdered. They included a largo number of anti­ fascists awaiting trial, and 66 wholly innocent Jews.

As to the sccond charge, on Juno 17th, 1944, Kcsselring issued to all his troops "Now regulations for Partisan oporations." His order stated

"The fight against Partisans must bo carried out with all moans at our disposal, and with tho utmost sovority. I w ill protoot any Coiamnndor who exceeds our usual restraint, in tho choico and sovority of tho means ho adopts in tho fight against partisans."

This Kossolring order, in effect, licensed German oowiaandors to kill hostages, bum down villogos, hang suspects without trial. So appalling were the rosults that ovon Mussolini was moved to complain of tho atrocities whioh Kosselring* s order hnd inspired.

This is tho man whoso supposed honour is now boing vindicated in the correspondence oolumns of tho Timos,

My concern, however, is not with tho personal fato of Kessolring -

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although if thoso responsible for mass killing go unpunished, then aaoa nurdor nay bocono a noroal feature of international behaviour*

I sua nore concerned with the fact that aotive steps towards the ro- vival of Goman militarism havu already been taken - and this agitation for Kosse- Iring ia part of it. The Goman militarists know that to bo strong again they oust re-establish the faith of the German people in their military prowess and must dissociate thensdvcs from tho atrocities which they so readily ocooittod in tho service of Hitler,

Throughout the Nuronborg trial tho Nazi field-marshals and generals did their utmost to sustain the myth of the impeccable and invincible German General Staff. M,7hy did the tfehrmacht meet with defeat?" we asked, "Beoause Hitlor interfered toomuoh in m ilitary a f f a ir s ," said Manstoin*

They claimed to have disregarded Hitler's criminal orders, "Any atrocities which did occur were conmittod by other men, such as Hinmler and other agenoies, such as the S .S ." Thoso aro the myths and legends which the German nilitariata, who are still a powerful foroe in Germany, now soek to propagate.

!7hat are the facts? Hitlor* s power in Germany rested on tho collabo­ ration o f German industrialists and the m ilitary clique - Book, Von Frit sc h, Rundstedt and the others*

"Hitler produced the results which all of us warmly dosirod,” said Blcnberg and Blaskowitz. Having joined the Nazis and the Krupps, tho generals planned and perpetrated aggressive wars which turned Europe into a chamol-house. In the words of the Nuremberg judgaont, they

"wore responsible in largo measure for the miseries and sufferings that have fallen on millions of men, wemen and ohildron , , • , Thoy wcro a ruthless military caste , , • . Wion it suits their dofonco they say they had to obey; when confronted with Hi tier's brutal crimes which are shown to have boon within their general knowlodgo, thoy say they disobeyod. The truth is that they activoly participatod in ell these crimes or sat silent and aoquicscent, witnessingo o mthe i s B i o n of crinos on a scale larger and moro shocking than the world has evor had tho misfortuno to knew."

The Nuremberg judgos added that,

"There tho facts warrant it, theso men should bo brought to trial so that those among then who are guilty of those crimes should not escape punisteient."

The Kesselring trial was the aftomath of this wiso counsel.

Our basic problem is that German m ilitary leadors never cease to be­ lieve in war. Manstein admitted in the witness-box that they”naturally consider- od tho glory of war as something groat." Tho "considered opinion" of the German High Command in 1938 was that: "rfar servos the survival of the race and State, and is tho asauran-J of its historical future. This high moral purpose gives war its total charoctcr and its ethical justification."

In 1955 General Beck was telling the German TTar /»cadomy that i f tho military lenders displayed intelligence and oourage, then losing a war "is en­ nobled by the pride of a glorious fall." Ho urged his officor audience to remem­ ber "th e ir duty which thoy owo to tho man who recroatod the Gorman Armod Forces,"

In 1935 that man was Hitlor. Bofore him thero hod been tho Kaiser, Germany nay undergo dofoat after defeat. Yet tho Goman militarists will - if we permit them - plot futuro war onco again* Thoy will join forces with any

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non or government that w ill support m ilitary adventures.

77hat is at stake now in Europe is not the life of this or that Gorman general, but the future influence of German militarists within Germany, and, ovor and above that, tho peaoe of the world. The apologists for Kesselrlng are playing with fire. And next time, it will be atomio fire.

What shall it profit us to spend millions in occupying Germany if tho basic objoot of that occupation - to demilitarise and donasify it - is sabotaged at home by highly plaood reactionaries ? 11

PURL: https://www.legal-tools.org/doc/5adfc2/