The Nuremberg Trial

876

The Waterbury Democrat (September 20, 1946)

Reporters barred from execution of Nazi leaders

Berlin (UP) – News correspondents will be barred from any executions resulting from the Nuernberg war crimes trials to prevent condemned Nazi leaders from becoming martyrs in the eyes of the German people, it was learned today.

Correspondents, news photographers, and newsreel men are included under the ban, reportedly decided upon by the Big Four.

An official said “documentary photographs” would be taken, but that it had not been decided whether they would be made public.

Albert Pierrepoint, chief British executioner, left London by plane yesterday for Europe, leading to speculation that he would carry out the execution of condemned Nuernberg defendants.

877

The Sunday Star (September 22, 1946)

Plea for Schirach’s life made by wife to Biddle

NUERNBERG, Sept. 21 (AP) – The wife of Baldur von Schirach, leader of the Hitler Youth movement and one of the 22 defendants on trial before the International Military Tribunal, has written a tearful plea to Justice Francis Biddle asking the court to spare her husband’s life and declaring “Our children love America.”

Frau von Schirach ended her letter: “You can kill him but you don’t have to. Please do not kill him.”

Schirach’s wife said, “Just as I have often asked Hitler for the life of both friend and enemy, I ask you now for the life of my husband.”

“Our children love America,” she said. “It is their grandparents’ country. They have a merry imagination of ice cream and Walt Disney movies. The flag, language and history are as familiar to them as their own. Do I have to tell my children now: This America let your father die the most disgraceful death a man can find?”

878

Camp inmates frozen to death in tests, Nazi records disclose

The grisly details of how Nazi experimenters froze concentration camp inmates to death seeking methods to save their airmen from the same fate were revealed yesterday in German documents released by the War Department.

In matter-of-fact language, the reports told how the human guinea pigs were stripped and exposed for hours to cold winter air, or subjected to ice baths.

The experiments were classed by the Nazis as research on “the behavior of organisms at great heights.”

There was one indication of possible progress in development of treatment methods. One report discussed the ice bath tests and concluded that when the body temperature dropped to 28 degrees, centigrade, the victims invariably died.

Another report, nearly a year later, was concerned with the open-air experiments with indications that some of the subjects may have survived after temperatures were carried as low as 27 degrees centigrade.

One of the documents, written by a German Air Force physician, Dr. S. Rascher, to Gestapo Chief Heinrich Himmler, incongruously discussed the cold-blooded experiments after first thanking Himmler for sending “flowers on the birth of my second son… a strong boy.”

In a letter dated February 17, 1943, Dr. Rascher wrote to Himmler that “up to now” he had “cooled off” about 30 human guinea pigs taken from concentration camps, by stripping them and exposing them to winter air for 9 to 14 hours until their body temperatures fell as low as 27 degrees centigrade.

“After one hour, I put these subjects in a hot bath,” the letter said. “Every single patient was completely warmed up within one hour at most, though some of them had their hands and feet frozen white.”

Dr. Rascher also reported on subjecting humans to ice baths with the water reduced to temperatures ranging from 12 degrees to 2.5 degrees and the patients strapped in rubber life jackets to prevent submerging. These tests were conducted at the notorious Dachau concentration camp.

Most of the documents, comprising a 1,100-page report entitled “Volume 4 of Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression,” were used in the prosecution of Germany’s top war criminals now awaiting the verdict at Nuernberg.

879

The Waterbury Democrat (September 23, 1946)

Jackson returns

Nuernberg (UP) – Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson, chief U.S. prosecutor at the Nuernberg war crimes trials, arrived from Paris today to speed plans for prosecuting Nazi industrialists who aided Hitler’s war effort. Detailed plans for the new trials will be announced after the verdict is returned for Nazi political and military leaders.

880

Wiener Kurier (September 25, 1946)

Vor der Urteils Verkündung in Nürnberg

Nürnberg (AP) - Der amerikanische Hauptankläger Richter Robert Jackson genehmigte den Vorschlag, einige hochstehende Persönlichkeiten des deutschen politischen Lebens zu der für den 30. September angesetzten Urteilsverkündung zuzulassen. Einladungen ergingen an Dr. Reinhold Meier, Ministerpräsident von Württemberg-Baden, Dr. Wilhelm Högner, Ministerpräsident von Bayern, Dr. Friedrich Geiler, Ministerpräsident von Groß-Hessen und an den Bürgermeister von Nürnberg Friedrich Ziegler.

Jackson bedauerte, daß der Platzmangel nicht gestattet, noch mehr deutsche Persönlichkeiten einzuladen und fügte hinzu: „In diesem Verfahren wurde gegen Deutschland die Beschuldigung erhoben, die erste Angreifernation der Welt zu sein. Wenn ein Gesetz, welches die künftige Führung der Weltangelegenheiten bestimmen soll, um einen neuen Krieg zu verhüten, durch diesen Prozeß seine Rechtfertigung erfahren soll, muß sich das deutsche Volk voll und ganz der Gründe bewußt werden, auf denen dieses Gesetz ruht.“

Die Plätze der Besucher werden im Zuschauerraum sein. Jede der vier in der Anklage vertretenen Nationen wird ja 16 und die übrigen beteiligten Nationen je 2 Sitze zugeteilt erhalten.

881

The Daily Alaska Empire (September 25, 1946)

Atty. puzzled by Russ role at tribunals

Tokyo trials defense council sees possible acquittal for Schacht

TOKYO – Owen Cunningham, one of the defense attorneys in the International War Crimes trial here, told fellow defense lawyers today “the same puzzle exists at Nuernberg as does here: ‘How can we reconcile the Moscow system of justice with that of the Democracies?’”

Cunningham, a Des Moines attorney, just returned from Nuernberg where he conferred with Joachim von Ribbentrop in search of evidence to help his particular Tokyo client, Hiroshi Oshima, former ambassador to Germany.

Speaking of the introduction into the Nuernberg evidence of a Russo-German pact to divide Poland, Cunningham said: “On the one hand Russia was co-author of a law making aggressive warfare a crime; on the other hand she was a co-conspirator in a crime thus created. It did not and does not make sense.”

Neither is it good logic that Russia should be one of the prosecutors in the case against former Premier Tojo and others, he continued. He declared that Russia prosecuting Japan lor planning to divide China, and yet Russia at Yalta agreed to divide China (Presumably, he referred to the Yalta approval of the Sino-Soviet treaty giving Russia joint control with China of the South Manchurian railway, a 30-year lease of Port Arthur and declaring Dairen an open port under joint Sino-Soviet control.)

Of the Nuernberg war crimes cases, in which a decision is due soon, Cunningham speculated: “If anyone is acquitted, I predict he will be Hjalmar Schacht,” Hitler’s finance expert. “Former Foreign Minister Von Neurath has a pretty fair chance of acquittal, and Diplomat Von Papen, also.”

882

The Evening Star (September 25, 1946)

Nuernberg verdicts to be given on schedule

NUERNBERG (AP) – An official announcement said today the judgments of the International Military Tribunal against 22 Nazi leaders of Germany and seven German organizations on war crimes charges would be handed down on schedule beginning next Monday at 10 a.m. (3 a.m. EST).

Tentative plans call for the four-nation court to spend the entire first day in a review of the whole case, which took prosecutors and defense attorneys almost nine months to present. The verdicts and sentencing would follow on the second, and if necessary, the third day.

883

The Pittsburgh Press (September 25, 1946)

War crimes verdict to take 2 days to read

NUERNBERG – The international war crimes tribunal’s verdict on 22 Nazi leaders and six organizations will require two days to read, it was announced officially today.

The tribunal will reopen next Monday and will review the 10-month trial. Judgment on the individuals and organizations will be pronounced Tuesday.

The newspaper Neues Deutschland, Berlin organ of the Socialist Unity Party, predicts that all the Nazi defendants will be executed within a week.

884

The Wilmington Morning Star (September 26, 1946)

Nazi sentences set for Monday

International tribunal almost ready to hand down 22 decisions

NUERNBERG, Sept. 25 (UP) – The International Military Tribunal will begin handing down its judgments in the world’s first international war crimes trial on Monday, September 30 at 10 a.m. (4 a.m., EST), it was announced Wednesday.

The entire first day will be taken up with a review of the evidence presented in more than nine months against 22 top Nazis and seven Nazi organizations, according to tentative plans. Judgments will be announced the following day, October 1, followed by the sentencing of the individuals. This may take more than one day.

There will be no sentence handed down against the organizations. The verdicts on the organizations will be used in the later trials of individual members of the organizations.

Hundreds of newspaper correspondents have applied for press seats for the climax of the long trial, but many applicants have been rejected because of the lack of space. There will be no direct broadcasts or televised broadcasts from the courtroom.

885

The Waterbury Democrat (September 26, 1946)

UP asks Army to life ban on Nazi execution

Washington (UP) – Secretary of War Robert P. Patterson told the United Press last night that he would ask Gen. Joseph T. McNarney in Berlin to explore the desirability of permitting news reporters to cover the execution of any Nazi defendants who may be sentenced to death next week at Nuernberg.

Gen. McNarney is the American member of the Allied Control Council which announced on September 20 that reporters would be barred from the executions.

Earl J. Johnson, vice-president and general news manager of the United Press, had wired Patterson from New York urging him to have the projected news “blackout” lifted to permit full news coverage by regular reporters.

“Millions of Allied soldiers and sailors who fought in the war,” Johnson’s telegram said, "have an interest and a stake in what happens to the Nuernberg defendants.

“The only way we can be sure that myths do not rise out of the executions is to have trained news reporters present. Secrecy breeds rumors and it is in the interest of world justice that there should be no false rumors rising out of the execution of any of the men who brought this war upon the world.”

Johnson reminded the secretary that the Nuernberg trial itself had received full coverage by the world press. “It is only logical,” he said, “that the final stage of this historic judicial proceeding the executions should be covered fully.”

Referring to the Army’s custom of secret executions, Johnson pointed out that there was no precedent for the Nuernberg trials, “and therefore no precedent can logically apply” to the carrying out of the court’s verdict.

886

Paper raps ban on Nazi execution

San Francisco (UP) – Commenting editorially on the attempt to gain admission for reporters to any executions resulting from the Nuernberg trials, the San Francisco Chronicle said today:

“Not freedom of the press but public freedom of information is involved here. The great democracies are rooted in the tradition of such freedom. And military expediency is the only sufficient reason they will recognize for its curtailment. Curb it for any other reason and you jeopardize the whole Democratic structure by destinies of their nations. It seems likely that the welter or rumors that would escape from under the lid would prove far more damaging than any straightaway coverage of the executions.”

887

The Evening Star (September 26, 1946)

Doomed Nazis face execution 15 days after sentencing

MUNICH (AP) – The Allied Control Council has ordered that any of the 21 Nazi defendants at Nuernberg sentenced to death by the International Military Tribunal shall be executed on the 15th day after the pronouncement of sentence in open court, it was learned authoritatively yesterday.

The council further decreed in its document that the executions would be carried out “without publicity” by hanging or the guillotine. The order stipulates that, should the 15th day fall on Sunday, the execution will take place the following day.

If, as expected, sentences are passed Tuesday, October 1, the 15th day would be Wednesday, October 16.

The phrase “without publicity” was interpreted here as meaning there would be no reporters at the executions and news that the defendants had been executed would be given as an official Control Council handout.

Only American Army Signal Corps photographers and their counterparts in the French, British and Russian Armies are expected to be allowed to attend.

Defendants will be given four days to appeal sentences to the Allied Control Council. Article 26 of the tribunal charter stipulates that the judgment of the tribunal as to guilt or innocence shall be final and not subject to review, but Article 29 gives the Control Council power to “at any time reduce or otherwise alter sentences,” but it “may not increase the severity thereof.”

Imprisonment of any of the defendants who escape the death sentence “will begin immediately,” the Council ordered.

There are actually 22 individual defendants accused, but Martin Bormann, former aide of Hitler, is being tried in absentia. Whatever sentence is passed on Bormann will be carried out when and if he is apprehended. Although generally believed killed in the battle for Berlin, there have been reports he is still hiding in Bavaria.

888

The Evening Star (September 27, 1946)

World press, radio will flash news of Nuernberg verdicts

NUERNBERG, Germany (AP) – More than 200 correspondents from 10 countries are expected to file and broadcast more than a million words during the two days when war crime verdicts and sentences are handed down by the International Military Tribunal next week.

For the first time since the capitulation, all German radio stations and at least some of those in Austria will be hooked up to carry four daily broadcasts.

In addition the American Armed Forces Network will broadcast to troops in the occupation zone and four American and one British systems have scheduled bulletins and direct broadcasts from the court.

Three commercial concerns – Press Wireless, RCA and Mackay Radio – will be open 24 hours daily, as will the American Army Signal Center and British Army signals.

Photos to be pooled

Photographers will take pictures from four shooting positions, which will be drawn by lot. All photographs, both still and motion, will be pooled. The tribunal has announced, however, that there will be no photographers allowed in court while sentences are being passed.

Fifteen seats have been set aside in the press gallery for representatives of DANA, American-controlled German news agency. Some of these seats will be rotated between German editors from all zones, who will attend at the invitation of the information control division.

Special passes for newspapermen will be issued Sunday. Passes which have been in effect since trials opened will no longer be valid.

Copies of the judgment will be handed reporters in the courtroom when the session opens at 10 a.m. (4 a.m. EST) Monday, but reporters will be able to file only what actually has been delivered in court at the time.

A list of 22 Americans invited to attend the closing session of the Nuernberg trials was released yesterday with the announcement that, although the number tops the 16 allotted for each delegation, extra seats would be made available in the back rows of the visitors’ gallery.

Secretary of State Byrnes was one of those invited, but he has not yet accepted. Three of his associates at the Paris Peace Conference, Sen. Vandenberg (R-Michigan), Sen. Connally (D-Texas) and Ben Cohen, State Department counsellor, have accepted, however.

Others invited include Gen. Joseph B. McNarney, American commander in the European theater, and Lt. Gen. Lucius D. Clay, director of the military government.

889

Nuernberg trials convince Germans of Nazis’ guilt

BERLIN (AP) – A public opinion survey conducted by the American Military Government indicated today most Germans believe the 21 defendants at Nuernberg are guilty of planning the war and almost half expect death sentences for the accused.

The trials are “serving the intended purpose of bringing to light the story of war atrocities and instructing the German people of their leaders’ guilt,” AMG announced.

Of the persons interviewed 57 percent indicated they first learned about concentration camps through the trials and 30 percent said they first learned about annihilation of the Jews.

Seventy percent of the Germans polled said all defendants were guilty, 9 percent named at least one defendant they considered innocent, 1 percent held none was guilty and 20 percent ventured no opinion.

Rudolf Hess was named most frequently (by 5 percent) as innocent. Others mentioned by 1 to 2 percent of the Germans interviewed were Franz von Papen, Constantin von Neurath, Erich Raeder, Karl Doenitz, Wilhelm Keitel, Albert Speer and Hjalmar Schacht.

“The guilt of the defendants is, without a doubt, established in the minds of the German people,” the announcement said. “The guilt of the indicted organizations is accepted by a somewhat smaller majority.”

890

Schirach found to be descended from U.S. Founding Fathers

FRANKFURT (AP) – Nazi Youth Leader Baldur von Schirach, now awaiting the war crimes verdict of the International Military Tribunal at Nuernberg, is a descendant of signers of the United States Constitution and Declaration of Independence, a U.S. Third Army intelligence officer said yesterday.

Von Schirach’s wife recently appealed to Justice Francis Biddle, American judge on the four-power tribunal, to spare the life of the man who organized and led the Hitler Jugend, pleading on behalf of his children that “America is their grandparents’ country.”

The 1935 edition of Germany’s “Wer Ist’s” (Who’s Who) says Von Schirach’s mother was Emma Middleton Lynah Tillon, born in the Catskill Mountains in New York. She was described as a descendant of Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, a delegate from South Carolina in the Constitutional Convention, who signed the American Constitution. Pinckney was an officer in the American Revolutionary Army and later was Minister to France.

The same book said another of Schirach’s maternal ancestors was Arthur Middleton, South Carolina farmer who signed the Declaration of Independence.

The intelligence officer said other notables in the Schirach family tree included Sir Francis Drake, English explorer.

891

The Pittsburgh Press (September 27, 1946)

22 Nazis’ fate decided, but kept secret

War crimes verdict to be read next week

NUERNBERG (UP) – The war crimes tribunal almost certainly has agreed upon he fate of the 22 Nazi leaders, it appeared today, as officials threatened to prosecute anybody giving an advance hint of the verdict.

The guilt of the 22 men and the six Nazi organizations almost certainly has been determined and the sentences fixed. Translations of the finished verdict appeared complete and probably have been mimeographed.

Secretaries and interpreters who have seen the verdict were under close guard.

Due next week

The British, French, American and Russian justices were determined that their decision in the historic trial must reach the world only through open court sessions next Monday and Tuesday.

An official announcement said any person responsible for a “leak” on the verdict runs a serious risk of being prosecuted by the tribunal or the American Army.

Reading of the verdict in history’s greatest trial will begin Monday morning and continue into Tuesday. Fate of the 21 Nazis waiting in Nuernberg cells, the missing Martin Bormann and their organizations will be announced Tuesday.

The tribunal ordered the courtroom cleared of all cameramen.

Earlier it was disclosed that any death sentences imposed will be carried out in private, with reporters and photographers barred.

Courthouse guarded

Military police mounted guard over the courthouse. Others watched the living quarters of translators and scrutinized conversations between confidential personnel and unauthorized persons.

The defendants saw their attorneys for the last time today. They will be permitted to receive their families for short visits both Saturday and Sunday.

Hermann Goering was said to be holding up best under the tension. Defense counsel described all 21 men as “courageous and not depressed.”

892

Wiener Kurier (September 28, 1946)

Letzte Vorbereitungen zur Urteilsverkündung in Nürnberg

Radioübertragung in alle Welt

Nürnberg (WK.) - Der Internationale Gerichtshof in Nürnberg trifft seine letzten Vorbereitungen für die zu Anfang der nächsten Woche erfolgende Urteilsverkündung. Wie aus Nürnberg verlautet, ist das Urteil in seinem Wortlaut bereits festgelegt, übersetzt und vervielfältigt. Abschriften des Urteils werden den Presseberichterstattern bei Eröffnung der Montagsitzung ausgebändigt werden. Der Gerichtshof wies aber ausdrücklich darauf hin, daß sich jeder Pressevertreter, der sich einer vorzeitigen Veröffentlichung schuldig macht, der Gefahr einer gerichtlichen Verfolgung durch den Gerichtshof oder die amerikanischen Militärbehörden aussetzt.

Inzwischen traf der Gerichtshof umfangreiche Sicherungsmaß nahmen. Die Wachen vor dem Gerichtsgebäude wurden verstärkt, in der Umgebung patrouillieren Streifen der amerikanischen Militärpolizei. Große Überraschung löste die Anordnung des Gerichtshofes aus, der zufolge es verboten ist, die Angeklagten im Augenblick der Urteilsverkündung zu photographieren.

Auch die Nachrichtenverbindungen wurden verstärkt, um eine schnelle Übermittlung des Urteils zu gewährleisten. Etwa 200 Berichterstatter werden laufende Berichte aus dem Gerichtssaal in alle Welt gehen. Zum erstenmal seit der Kapitulation werden sämtliche deutschen Rundfunkstationen verbunden sein. Die Rundfunksender der amerikanischen und britischen Besatzungstruppen, der Sender „Stimme Amerikas“ und die britische Rundfunkgesellschaft BBC werden ebenfalls angeschlossen sein.

Der genaue Zeitpunkt der Urteilsverkündung steht bisher noch nicht fest, da das vom Gerichtshof zu verlesende Material äußerst umfangreich ist. Die Urteilsverkündung für die Einzelangeklagten wie auch die angeklagten Organisationen wird zuletzt erfolgen.

General Béthouart wohnt Urteilsverkündung bei

Der Urteilsverkündung im Kriegsverbrecherprozeß werden auch eine große Gruppe französischer Staatsmänner und führender Persönlichkeiten des öffentlichen Lebens Frankreichs beiwohnen. Unter den geladenen Gästen befindet sich auch der französische Hochkommissar für Österreich General Béthouart. Ferner werden der französische Justizminister Pierre Henri Teitgen und der holländische Minister für das Justizwesen van Marseveen bei der Urteilsverkündung anwesend sein.

Weitere alliierte Teilnehmer

Von tschechoslowakischer Seite werden Justizminister Dr. Prokop Drtina und General Dr. Bohumil Ecer teilnehmen.

Luxemburg entsendet als Vertreter den Professor für Staatsrecht Dr. Hammes, Jugoslawien den Vorsitzenden der jugoslawischen Kommission zur Untersuchung von Kriegsverbrechen, Dr. Dusan Nedelzkovic, und Oberst Polezina, den Verbindungsoffizier im amerikanischen Hauptquartier in Frankfurt.

Abschluß des Prozesses durch Sender Rot-Weiß-Rot übertragen

Salzburg (WK.) - Am Montag, den 30. September, beginnen die Schlußverhandlungen im Nürnberger Kriegsverbrecherprozeß, am Dienstag erfolgt voraussichtlich die Urteilsverkündung. Die Sendergruppe Rot-Weiß-Rot wird aus diesem Anlaß am Montag, den 30. September, Dienstag, den 1. Oktober, und möglicherweise auch am Mittwoch, den 2. Oktober, ihr Programm mehrfach unterbrechen, um Übertragungen aus Nürnberg, zum Teil aus dem Gerichtssaal selbst, zu bringen. An diesem Tage entfällt die übliche Sendepause von 8 bis 11 Uhr. Voraussichtlich werden Nachrichten und Berichte aus Nürnberg an den genannten Tagen etwa zu folgenden Zeiten durchgegeben werden: 9,55 bis 10,30 Uhr, 11,30 bis 12,30 Uhr, 13,55 bis 14,30 Uhr, 20,15 bis 21,00 Uhr.

893

The Evening Star (September 28, 1946)

Mrs. Goering leaves prison in tears after visit with husband

NUERNBERG (AP) – Mrs. Hermann Goering, one-time queen of the Nazi social set, and her small daughter Edda emerged in tears today from the Nuernberg prison, where her husband and 20 other Hitler disciples await a verdict on war crimes charges.

Mrs. Goering, led by two other women, was weeping uncontrollably after having visited her husband.

It could not be learned immediate what had cracked the composure of Mrs. Goering, who had remained calm and unruffled throughout the long trial before the International Military Tribunal.

Although activities in the grim prison were veiled by a court-ordered news blackout, it was learned that the visiting hours for the wives of the defendants had been lengthened.

Security tightened

Col. B. C. Andrus called a four-power meeting to tighten security measures around the prison against any slipup at the last minute.

A committee representing 200 correspondents of all nations will ask an audience with the justices of the International Military Tribunal today to seek a reversal of the latter’s decree barring photographers from the courtroom during the sentencing of 22 Nazi leaders.

This move was decided on last night after the International Correspondents’ Committee, composed of reporters covering the trials, had voted to protest the tribunal’s decision to bar photographers.

It is believed that the tribunal will take two days – Monday and Tuesday – to hand down its decisions in the 10-month-old trial. The findings will comprise three parts – a review of the evidence, a legal opinion of the case and the actual verdicts. The last part is not expected to be read until Tuesday afternoon.

Publication warning given

The tribunal warned yesterday that anyone who “publishes or causes to be published” any news of the verdicts on the Nazi defendants and organizations before they are read in open court will be liable to prosecution by the tribunal or the United States Army.

The warning was issued in an attempt to prevent any leakage that might damage the dignity of the court.

894

Jackson won’t ‘desert’ Supreme Court duties

NUERNBERG (UP) – Justice Robert H. Jackson said today he had “no intention of deserting the duties I assumed in going on the Supreme Court for any other public past.”

Mr. Jackson, center last June of a controversy in which he questioned certain Supreme Court actions by Justice Black, said he would return to Washington for the fall term of court after the International Military Tribunal delivers its verdicts next week.

The justice, who served as chief American prosecutor in the Nuernberg trials, issued this statement: “There is no basis for any speculation about my being appointed ambassador to London or any other office, however attractive. I have no intention of deserting the duties I assumed in going on the United States Supreme Court for any other public post.

“Secretary of State Byrnes, under whom I would be glad to serve if I were to consider such a place at all, knows this and no responsible quarter will give the idea any consideration.”

Mr. Jackson’s statement did not mention the source of the speculation about his possible appointment as successor to W. Averell Harriman, who is leaving the London ambassadorship to become secretary of commerce.

895

Myers seeks to get press place in Nazi executions

By the Associated Press

Sen. Myers (D-Pennsylvania) asked the Allied Control Council today to reconsider its decision to exclude reporters and photographers from any executions which may result from the Nuernberg war criminal trials.

Sen. Myers cabled Lt. Gen. Joseph T. McNarney, American council member, that lack of pictorial proof and unbiased eyewitness accounts such as the American press could furnish might raise German doubts whether such sentences actually were carried out.

He cited what he said were doubts among Germans that Hitler is dead.

“These doubts constitute greater propaganda danger than possible improper use of the execution photographs and stories,” Sen. Myers said. “Nazis wishing to sanctify these war criminals have sufficient emotional material already available.”

Dr. Hans Eppinger, 67, Austrian surgeon, dies

VIENNA (AP) – Dr. Hans Eppinger, 67, one of Austria’s most noted surgeons, died Wednesday night at his private clinic here.

Associates of Dr. Eppinger, who formerly was chief surgeon at the Vienna University Hospital, said he had been summoned to Nuernberg to testify about surgical experiments which were carried on with prisoners in Nazi concentration camps.

Dr. Eppinger frequently attended the late Queen Marie of Romania.