The Nuremberg Trial

181

The Pittsburgh Press (January 28, 1946)

Women used as guinea pigs by Nazis, war trial told

Victim tells of newborn babies drowned, children burned alive in horror camps

NUERNBERG (UP) – A French blond told the war crimes court in lurid detail today that the Nazis turned women’s concentration camps into experimental sterilization centers and slave markets.

The witness was Mme. Marie Claude Vaillant-Couturier, Communist member of the French Assembly and a survivor of the Auschwitz and Ravensbruck camps.

She said Jewish women particularly were used in sterilization experiments with X-rays and operations.

Babies drowned

“The Germans said they were looking for the best method of sterilization so they could repopulate all the Western European countries with Germans within one generation after the war,” she testified.

She said pregnant Jewish women were forced to undergo operations and Jewish babies born alive were drowned in buckets.

She began her testimony timidly but her voice grew strong and angry as she recounted the camp horrors. Some of the defendants appeared to wince under accusations.

“Non-Jewish women,” she said, were allowed to have babies and keep them but the babies seldom lived more than four or five weeks because of the conditions.”

Stood in nude

She said women at the camps constantly were formed to answer roll call in the nude.

“The SS recruited servants and prostitutes at will among the inmates of Auschwitz,” she said. “A female camp boss made rude remarks about the women’s figures while SS officers examined the prisoners and picked out the ones they wanted.”

She said the gas chamber execution scenes at Auschwitz were reminiscent of Dante’s Inferno.

“Forty-five minutes after the arrival of transports, the sky was reddened around the camp by lights from the burning pits,” she said.

Hurled alive in fires

“One night we were awakened by horrible cries. We learned the next day that the Nazis had run out of gas and children had been hurled alive into the furnaces.”

The witness described the Ravensbruck camp as the principal female slave market for German factories.

“Women inmates were assembled and visiting factory managers felt their muscles in an effort to select the best physical specimens,” she said.

Julius Streicher, who was absent several days last week because of a heart attack, was back in the defendants’ box today. Physicians said an examination showed no organic heart trouble.

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183

The Pittsburgh Press (January 29, 1946)

Nazi slave camp murders told

Witness says 1,770 worked to death

NUERNBERG (UP) – A Spanish refugee survivor of the Nazi concentration camp system told the United Nations War Crimes Court today of the murder of 1,770 Russian prisoners of war at the Mauthausen slave labor camp.

The witness, Francois Boix, said 2,000 Soviet prisoners were brought to Mauthausen from the Eastern Front in November 1941. Three months later, all but 30 had been worked or beaten to death in the stone quarries.

Speer saw atrocities

Boix pointed out the Nazi construction chief, Albert Speer, as one of the German overlords who witnessed the atrocities committed at Mauthausen. Speer, he said, “generally looked pleased” while watching slave laborers work.

Boix said he was imprisoned at Mauthausen but was spared the customary tortures because he helped develop photographs for the Germans.

Tells of tortures

He testified that one batch of well-dressed Russian prisoners was photographed at work in the Mauthausen quarries for propaganda purposes, with each man carrying a small load of stones instead of the usual backbreaking burden. After the pictures had been taken, the witness said, the prisoners were stripped and “thrown wholesale into the gas chamber.”

Another witness, Hans Cappelen, a 42-year-old Norwegian attorney who was arrested by the Gestapo in 1941, detailed tortures inflicted on him by his Nazi captors. Cappelen sad Gestapo agents tore out his hair, loosened the flesh from his bones with vises, dislocated his arm, stuck pins beneath his fingernails and trampled him as he lay naked on the floor.

184

The Evening Star (January 29, 1946)

1,447 captives died in Nazi ‘death ride,’ Nuernberg court told

NUERNBERG (AP) – A Norwegian survivor told the International Military Tribunal today about a ride of death across Germany in which bodies of 1,447 concentration camp captives were kicked off open railway cars at the last station.

Hans Cappelen, witness against the 22 ranking Nazis on trial for war crimes, testified: “The SS guards acted like drunks as they hurried us from the Gross Rosen camp in Silesia to a train to Dachau because of the approach of the Red Army in February of last year. Four or five persons too feeble to walk fast had their heads bashed in with guns.

“We had five days without food or water on open cars in subzero weather. The man beside me died. About half the trainload was dead by the last day.”

Feet burned

He said Gestapo agents in Norway burned his feet with a lamp but “it didn’t hurt so much because I was so feeble I didn’t care.” He was confined and tortured in Oslo for 25 months before he finally was sent to a concentration camp. He said he owed his life to Swedish Count Bernadotte, who arranged with Heinrich Himmler last spring to rescue Scandinavian nationals.

Cappelen said he was beaten so severely he was partly paralyzed for many months. Hair was torn from his head during his first two interrogations, he said.

Youthful Francois Boix, Loyalist veteran of the Spanish Civil War and a Frenchman, testified that only 30 of the first 2,000 Russian prisoners sent to the Mauthausen concentration camp in 1941 survived three months of Nazi concentration methods.

Fattened for killing

On one occasion, he testified under questioning of Russian prosecutor Lt. Gen. R. A. Rudenko, the Germans gave Russian prisoners “special treatment” – good clothing, plenty of food and cigarettes until they were fat enough to take a good picture. After the pictures were taken they were sent to the gas chamber and executed, Boix said.

LONDON – The Moscow radio said last night that a Kiev military tribunal sentenced 12 German officers to death by hanging after their conviction as war criminals for mass killings and property destruction in the Ukrainian Republic. Three others received 15- to 20-year prison terms.

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186

The Evening Star (January 30, 1946)

Hess plea to defend himself is denied by Nuernberg court

NUERNBERG (AP) – Rudolf Hess’ application to be his own defense attorney was denied today by the International Military Tribunal as “not in his interest.”

The court, trying 22 ranking Nazis as war criminals, removed Gunther von Rohrscheidt, who is hospitalized with a broken ankle as counsel for the former deputy fuehrer and appointed Dr. Otto Stahmer, counsel for Hermann Goering, also to act for Hess.

Rohrscheidt was injured in an accidental fall last week. The same day Hess wrote him a curt note saying he wanted no lawyer, no witnesses and no documents but would conduct his own defense.

Takes week to decide

It took the judges of the United States, Great Britain, Russia and France a full week to decide Hess’ problem.

Charles Dubost, the French prosecutor, introduced a German high command directive instructing commanders of war prisoners’ camps not to observe the general convention regulation for delay in executions. The convention provides that execution of prisoners cannot be carried out until three months after the protecting power has been notified.

“For war prisoners themselves, it is more humane not to have to wait three months for their execution,” the directive said.

Another document showed how the command of the German Air Force attempted to curtail Allied air attacks by placing war prisoners’ camps near large German cities.

Hitler made policy

Mr. Dubost told the court Adolf Hitler himself enunciated the Nazi policy of executing deportees in order to intimidate the populations of subjugated European nations.

Mr. Dubost submitted a document he described as a German high command directive instructing German members of the French-German Armistice Commission to reject all requests from the French delegation or the International Red Cross for better treatment of prisoners.

One of the defendants, Arthur Seyss-Inquart, former Nazi governor of the Netherlands, was stricken ill during the night and was absent from the prisoners’ dock today.

187

The Pittsburgh Press (January 30, 1946)

Hess plea rejected

NUERNBERG – The War Crimes Tribunal today rejected a request by Rudolf Hess for permission to act as his own defense counsel.

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189

Wiener Kurier (January 31, 1946)

In Nürnberg:
Die Nazi -Todesmärsche der alliierten Kriegsgefangenen

Nürnberg, 31. Jänner (AND-LMA) – Der Antrag des Angeklagten Heß, sich selbst zu verteidigen, wurde gestern vom internationalen Gerichtshof als „nicht in seinem Interesse liegend“ abgelehnt.

Der Gerichtshof setzte Günther von Rohrscheidt, der bisher der Verteidiger Heß war, lind jetzt mit gebrochenem Knöchel im Krankenhaus liegt, ab und betraute Dr. Otto Stahmer, den Verteidiger Hermann Görings, mit der Führung des Falles.

„Die Kriegsverbrechen der Naziverschwörer an den Kriegsgefangenen sind ein weiteres Beispiel für ihren Terror und ihre Vernichtungspolitik“, erklärte der französische Ankläger Dubost, als er im Verlauf der Sitzung auf das unsagbar traurige Los der alliierten Kriegsgefangenen zu sprechen kam.

Der Ankläger erinnerte an den bereits in einer früheren Verhandlung erwähnten Vernichtungsmarsch von 1357 britischen Kriegsgefangenen, die acht Tage lang fast ohne Verpflegung und ärztliche Betreuung von Sagan nach Luckenwalde marschieren mußten. Auf dem Marsch brachen viele der Gefangenen vor Erschöpfung zusammen und nur wenige erreichten gesund das Ziel.

Bei der völlig ungenügenden Ernährung waren die durch das Rote Kreuz gesandten Lebensmittelpakete für die Gefangenen von größter Bedeutung. Wie sich aus einem Dubost vorgelegten Dokument ergibt, hatte Himmler am 1. Oktober 1944 befohlen, diese Pakete den Gefangenen nicht auszuhändigen. Durch die Entbehrungen wurden die Gefangenen noch mehr geschwächt als durch die Gewaltmärsche. Aus einer Weisung des OKW geht hervor, daß die systematische Aushungerung der Gefangenen befohlen wurde.

Von Hitler gewünscht

Der Befehl des deutschen Oberkommandos trug die Bezeichnung „streng geheim“. In dem Befehl heißt es:

„Die zahlreich eingelaufenen Proteste beweisen, daß das Schicksal der Verschleppten und Kriegsgefangenen der Bevölkerung in den betreffenden Ländern große Sorgen macht. Dies wurde vom Führer vorgesehen und gewünscht. Seiner Meinung nach

kann diese wirksame und dauernde Einschüchterung der Bevölkerung nicht anders erreicht werden, als durch Todesstrafe oder durch Maßnahmen, welche die näheren Verwandten der ‚Verbrecher‘ und die Bevölkerung im unklaren über sein Schicksal lassen.“

Die Vergeblichkeit der französischen Verhandlungen über die Kriegsgefangenen ist aus deutschen Weisungen zu ersehen, die im vorhinein eine Verbesserung des Loses der Kriegsgefangenen unmöglich machen.

190

The Pittsburgh Press (January 31, 1946)

Shoot U.S. fliers, Goering told Adolf

NUERNBERG (UP) – A note written by Hermann Goering to Adolf Hitler on May 15, 1944, proposing that American airmen be shot immediately after their capture was introduced as evidence today in the war crimes trial.

French prosecutor Charles Dubost submitted Goering’s note and evidence that 15 American airmen from two Liberators were shot on June 21, 1944, at Mecklenburg “while trying to escape.”

M. Dubost said that Allied officers and non-commissioned officers who refused to work in prison camps were murdered without trial. He charged that Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel “approved” the executions, even if he did not order them.

Arthur Seyss-Inquart and Ernst Kaltenbrunner were absent from the courtroom because of illness.

M. Dubost read into the record the U.S. First Army report on the massacre of 129 American prisoners of war at Malmedy, Belgium, during the Ardennes breakthrough on December 17, 1944: “This act constitutes terrorism, the shame of which will remain forever on the German Army whose members knew the prisoners were unarmed and had surrendered.”

191

The Evening Star (January 31, 1946)

U.S. prisoners used for target practice, Nuernberg court told

NUERNBERG (AP) – A German officer used a group of unarmed American prisoners of war for target practice as a prelude to the cold-blooded execution of 129 captured soldiers during the Battle of the Bulge last winter, the International Military Tribunal was told today.

The French prosecution introduced a statement by Belgian civilians describing the massacre, which occurred at a crossroads near St. Vith, December 12, 1944.

The Americans, defending the crossroads against a Nazi offensive, took to the ditches as German tanks approached, the statement said, and the tanks fired into the ditches until the Americans threw down their guns and raised their hands in surrender.

Led to field

They were led to a field a short distance away, where the Germans searched each man, taking watches, rings and other personal effects, the soldier’s statement continued.

Then a German armored vehicle was rolled up and its guns trained on the group of prisoners. A Nazi officer mounted on the vehicle drew his pistol, aimed at the group and fired. One of the prisoners fell, the statement said. He aimed and fired again. Another American fell.

As the second man went down, the statement went on, the machine guns on the armored vehicle opened up and sprayed lead for two or three minutes. Then the vehicle moved on and three others rolled past, machine gunning the knot of men, most of them already dead.

Finish off wounded

Later, German soldiers walked among the Americans, finishing off the wounded, the statement said.

“The soldiers struck them with gun butts or fired from a short distance into their temples or between their eyes,” the document asserted.

“The shame of this deed will remain on the German Army,” it said. “We knew these men were unarmed and had surrendered.”

Hermann Goering, his sore throat muffled in a maroon scarf, glumly heard French assistant prosecutor Charles Dubost tell the court about his Luftwaffe physicians’ experiments.

“German medical literature is very rich in experiments on adults in good health who died suddenly between the hours of 5 and 6 a.m.,” Mr. Du Bost asserted, after describing experiments in which thyroid glands were removed from 21 concentration camp inmates and livers from 24 others.

15 fliers killed

Earlier, the tribunal heard that 15 survivors of two Liberator bombers which crashed in Germany on June 21, 1944, were shot to death by SS police, who cynically reported the airmen were slain “while attempting to escape.”

Nine bomber crewmen were taken prisoner by a German naval lieutenant after their plane lost two motors to antiaircraft fire and was forced down in Mecklenburg Province, captured documents submitted to the court said.

An SS officer took charge of the prisoners despite their violent protests and ostensibly set out to transport them to a nearby air base. Seven were shot en route, the documents said, and two were shot later in the day.

At the same time and in the same locality, according to the German record, another Liberator crashed and seven other airmen were taken prisoner by Luftwaffe personnel and turned over to security police. One was so gravely wounded he was taken to a military hospital at Schwerin. The other six were shot “attempting escape.”

Lynching approved

Mr. Dubost declared that this lynch-law policy of the Nazis, shown in their files, was laid down at a series of conferences attended by Goering, Joachim von Ribbentrop, Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, Col. Gen. Alfred Jodl and Ernst Kaltenbrunner, all defendants here.

Victims from the first bomber were identified in a Luftwaffe report as Lt. Edwin M. Helto, Lt. Richard J. Ludka, Sgt. Warren C. Rankin, Sgt. Carmine Margiasso, Pvt. Charles L. Knowles Jr., Sgt. Stanley Brazzezski, Sgt. Frank Borchick, Sgt. Thomas A. Gensert and Lt. Maurice L. Nelson.

Only three of the six dead from the second crew were named. They were Sgt. Sammie D. Winson, Sgt. George J. Brubrea and Victor D. Solecek, rank unknown. The wounded man was listed as Cleve J. Holwet.

192

Nazi industrialists may escape war trial, Jackson tells G.I.’s

NUERNBERG (AP) – Justice Robert H. Jackson told American soldiers in a radio interview tonight that he feared German industrialists – “one of the chief causes of the war” – would never be tried for their crime.

The chief American prosecutor in the Nuernberg trial spoke over the armed forces network in Germany. He recalled how American proposals to indict not only Gustav and Alfred Krupp, but a number of other industrialists, were “rejected by all three other prosecutors.”

Could handle larger number

“They believed we could not handle a larger number of defendants in this trial and suggested a later trial for the industrialists,” Mr. Jackson continued. “I believe we could handle a larger number, even if it took somewhat longer, and doubted whether we could go through a second trial repeating much of the same evidence against this new group of defendants.

“I feared failure to include then in this trial would mean they never would be tried. Time only will tell which was right.”

Gustav Krupp, head of the great steel and munitions combine, was indicted but excused from trial because of senile softening of the brain.

Mr. Jackson continued: “The disagreement among the prosecutors was a difference in judgment as to procedure, but there has never been any disagreement among the prosecutors with the G.I. who points to the industrialist as one of the chief causes of the war.”

Refused to be spectacular

Sgt. Ted Pierz of Lebanon, New Jersey, reading questions submitted by Harold Burson of Memphis, Tennessee, Army Forces Network correspondent, had told Mr. Jackson that American soldiers were puzzled by the sight of the undamaged I.G. Farben Industries building in bomb-ruined Frankfurt and said “we do not understand why there are no trials for the Krupps and officials of the Farben trust.”

Mr. Jackson told his Army audience that the American prosecution had refused to present its case “in a way that would be spectacular,” but had confined It to “captured German documents and testimony of a very few well-informed witnesses.”

“This has made a sober trial and to some extent a colorless one,” he admitted, “but our case will stand the closest scrutiny of historians.”

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194

Wiener Kurier (February 1, 1946)

Göring an Hitler:
‚Alle alliierten Flieger sind zu erschießen‘

Nürnberg, 1. Februar (AND) – „Morde an den alliierten Fliegern wurden von den Nazi in der Absicht durchgeführt, die Elite der alliierten Streitkräfte auszurotten.“ Dies stellte der französische Ankläger Dubost zu Beginn der gestrigen Sitzung fest, als er die Beweisführung über die Lynchjustiz der Nazi gegen Kriegsgefangene fortsetzte.

Er zitierte einen Brief des Angeklagten Göring an Hitler, in dem es heißt, englische und amerikanische Flieger, die sich durch Fallschirmabsprung aus ihrer abgeschossenen Maschine retten, seien an Ort und Stelle niederzuschießen.

Diese Morde bezeichnete man, wie Dubost nachwies, als „Erschießungen auf der Flucht.“ Von Flucht könne jedoch keine Rede gewesen sein, da die Flieger sofort nach der Landung ohne Verhör kaltblütig erschossen wurden.

Der französische Ankläger schilderte sodann die Ermordung von 100 amerikanischen Kriegsgefangenen in Belgien, die mit Maschinengewehren niedergeschossen wurden und deren Hände auf dem Rücken gefesselt waren. Dubost legte dem Gericht abschließend Dokumente vor, aus denen hervorgeht, daß insbesondere die Angeklagten Kaltenbrunner und Keitel für die Grausamkeiten mitverantwortlich sind.

Die Ausrottung von Patrioten der westlichen Länder

Unter dem Vorwand, es handle sich um kommunistische Elemente, führten die Nazi einen grausamen Kampf gegen die Mitglieder der Widerstandsbewegung, die nicht als Soldaten behandelt, sondern brutal niedergemetzelt wurden. Ein dem Gericht vorgelegter Hitlerbefehl ordnete an, daß die Wehrmacht bewaffnete Widerstandsgruppen an Ort und Stelle niederzumachen hätte. Etwaige überlebende müßten dem Sicherheitsdienst übergeben werden. Dokumente zeigten, daß der Sicherheitsdienst das Recht hatte, Todesurteile zu fällen und zu vollstrekken, ohne den Angeklagten vor ein Gericht zu stellen.

Folter ersetzt das Gerichtsverfahren

Der Ankläger legte Dokumente vor, aus denen hervorgeht, daß den französischen Patrioten vielfach erst die Gliedmaßen gebrochen und die Augen verletzt wurden, ehe man sie erschoß. Den Beistand eines Anwalts oder Priesters erhielten sie nie, oftmals wurden die Leichen geschändet.

Dubost erzählte den besonders grauenhaften Fall einer Französin, die ihren Mann, der der Widerstandsbewegung angehörte, nicht verraten wollte. Sie wurde von deutschen Soldaten mißhandelt und schließlich in Gegenwart ihrer Kinder mit Benzin übergossen und verbrannt. Die Kinder, die ebenfalls den Aufenthalt ihres Vaters verschwiegen, sperrte man in einen Keller und zündete das Haus über ihnen an.

Die Terrorpolitik der SS und des Heeres richtete sich nicht nur gegen die Männer, sondern auch gegen ihre Familien. Als Beispiel nannte Dubost den Fall der Familie des Generals Girant Aus einer amtlichen französischen Mitteilung geht hervor, daß nicht weniger als 17 Mitglieder dieser Familie, darunter mehrere unmündige Enkel des Generals, von den Nazi als Geiseln verschleppt wurden.

Der Fall Oradour

Die Krönung der deutschen Greuel war die Zerstörung des Dorfes Oradour am 10. Juli 1944. SS-Männer der Division „Das Reich“ hatten die Ortschaft umstellt und trieben die Bevölkerung auf dem Dorfplatz zusammen. Die Männer wurden in Scheunen gesperrt. Die Frauen und Kinder in die Kirche. Dann zündete die SS das ganze Dorf an und schoß mit Maschinengewehren in die brennenden Häuser. Das ganze Dorf war nur noch ein Trümmerfeld voll von verkohlten Leichen. Etwa 1000 Personen waren von den Nazi niedergemacht worden, darunter viele Kinder aus luftgefährdeten Gebieten. Nur zehn Personen entkamen dem Gemetzel. Eine später durchgeführte Untersuchung bewies, daß sich im weiten Umkreis keine Mitglieder der Widerstandsbewegung befanden und somit keine Ursache für dieses Blutbad vorlag.

195

The Pittsburgh Press (February 1, 1946)

War crimes trial –
Hitler made mute by bomb blast

High Nazis operated on, Allies learn

NUERNBERG (UP) – Adolf Hitler was mute and deaf for “several weeks” after the attempt to assassinate him on July 20, 1944, Marshal Wilhelm Keitel was revealed today to have told Allied officers.

Keitel and Col. Gen. Alfred Jodl, both defendants in the war crimes trial, also were injured seriously enough to require operations.

“There was a blinding flash and resounding explosion,” Keitel told Allied officers. He was hurled backward by the blast, which wrecked a temporary frame hut in which Hitler was holding a staff meeting, and Hitler was thrown into his arms.

Flimsy walls splinter

“For some reason that day the Fuehrer decided to hold a noon conference in the frame hut rather than in the concrete shelter where it normally would have killed us all.

“But the flimsy wooden walls simply splintered and burst into the air, permitting the blast force to escape.”

Keitel said Hitler’s arm was injured, his hearing and power of speech destroyed temporarily. Some five months later, Hitler underwent an operation by the same surgeon who operated on Keitel and Jodl, and the Fuehrer’s hearing was restored.

Then telephone rings

He said that after Hitler’s staff assembled for the conference Col. Claus von Stauffenberg was presented to Hitler and placed a brief case on the floor beside the conference table to shake hands.

“Just at that moment the telephone rang,” Keitel said. “It was for Stauffenberg. He spoke a few moments, then turned and asked the Fuehrer to excuse him, since he had been recalled urgently to his headquarters.”

Stauffenberg rushed out, leaving the briefcase which no one noticed. Then the bomb went off.

30 persons executed

Other information in Allied hands was that Stauffenberg ran to a waiting plane and flew to Berlin where he, mistakenly assuming that all had been killed, announced the success of the plot.

Keitel said 30 persons were executed immediately, and Stauffenberg killed himself.

196

The Evening Star (February 1, 1946)

French itemize charges against 22 top Nazis

NUERNBERG (AP) – The French prosecution gave an itemized account today of charges against the 22 former Nazi leaders on trial before the International Military Tribunal, and urged that all defendants be convicted of violating the rules of war.

French attorneys also asserted that the Nazi design for living called for the Axis rule of all Europe and Africa, and the division of the world into four neatly packaged zones.

Charles Dubost, French assistant prosecutor, accused each of the defendants of either direct or indirect responsibility for assassinations and other inhuman acts.

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198

Wiener Kurier (February 2, 1946)

Frankreich verlangt die Todesstrafe für alle Nürnberger Angeklagten

Nürnberg, 2. Februar (AND) – Der französische Anklagevertreter Dubost forderte heute in einer außerordentlich erschütternden und bewegten Ansprache, die den Abschluß der Anklage Frankreichs gegen das Dritte Reich bildete, die Todesstrafe für alle der in Nürnberg angeklagten Nazikriegsverbrecher.

Dubost erklärte: „Das Verbrechen dieser Leute besteht darin, daß sie das deutsche Volk um zwölf Jahrhunderte zurückversetzten, daß sie eine Politik des Terrors gegen ihr eigenes Volk und alle von ihm unterjochten Völker ausdachten und zur Anwendung brachten und dies allein genügt, um die Todesstrafe über sie zu verhängen. Sie beabsichtigten, Europa und die Welt durch Terror zu beherrschen und die Bevölkerung ganzer Staaten auszurotten.“

„Meine Darstellung des Tatbestandes erschöpfte sich in einer trockenen Aufzählung von Verbrechen, Greueln und Straftaten aller Art, die ich absichtlich ohne jede oratorischen Zutaten vorgebracht habe. Weder die Verteidigung, noch die Geschichte, nicht einmal die deutsche Geschichte wird wesentliche Punkte aus meinem Vortrag widerlegen können. Aber alle Einwände, die die Verteidiger vornehmen könnten, werden nichts an der Tatsache ändern, daß Millionen Menschen deportiert wurden, verhungerten, durch Arbeit erschöpft wurden, daß zahllose Unschuldige Foltern erdulden mußten, bevor man sie den Henkern auslieferte.“

Dubost beschäftigte sich dann mit der Untersuchung der Frage, welches Gesetz gegen die Angeklagten anzuwenden sei. Er kam zu dem Ergebnis, daß die begangenen Verbrechen nicht nur eine Verletzung des allgemeinen Rechtes, sondern auch der internationalen Abkommen darstellen. Wenn das Allgemeinrecht zugrunde gelegt würde, so könnte man entgegnen, daß die Angeklagten nur auf Grund von Taten bestraft werden könnten, die sie tatsächlich ausgeführt haben. Aber alle Angeklagten dieses Kriegsverbrecherprozesses sind in physischer Hinsicht an keiner dieser Straftaten beteiligt gewesen. Wie der amerikanische Ankläger Jackson einmal ausführte, hat ihr Wille befohlen.

Sie haben niemals ihre Hände mit dem Blut ihrer Opfer befleckt. Aber Göring, Keitel und Jodl sind für die Geiselhinrichtungen schuldig und Kaltenbrunner, Seyß-Inquart, Bormann und Ribbentrop sind als Mithelfer für diese Verbrechen verantwortlich. Keitel war der Urheber des „Nachtumnebelbfehls“ und somit verantwortlich für die Vernichtung von unschuldigen Zivilpersonen. Jodl war der Mithelfer Keitels. Für die Schaffung der KZ-Lager und die unzähligen Morde, die in ihnen stattfanden, trugen Göring, Frank, Rosenberg, Streicher, Schirach, Sauckel, Frick und Heß die Hauptverantwortung, auch Speer habe bei der Durchführung mitgeholfen.

Der Ankläger bezeichnete das OKW, das OKH und das OKL als schuldig für die terroristischen Maßnahmen gegen die Zivilpersonen. Für die Hinrichtung von Geiseln, für die Folterung und die Massenmorde an Unschuldigen seien die SS, der SD und die Gestapo zur Verantwortung zu ziehen. Auch die deutsche Reichsregierung und die führenden Gliederungen der Nazipartei müßten schuldig gesprochen wenden, da sie die systematische Ausrottung von Zivilpersonen, in den besetzten Westgebieten erdacht vorbereitet und ausgeführt hätten.

„Dieses deutsche Volk“, sagte Dubost, „dessen militärische Tugenden wir anerkennen, dessen Dichter und Musiker wir lieben, dessen Arbeitsfleiß wir bewundern und von dem man nicht sagen kann, daß es nicht Beispiele der Redlichkeit in den erhabensten Werken des Geistes gegeben hat, dieses deutsche Volk ließ sich seines Gewissens, ja seiner Seele berauben. Tyrannen haben seine primitivsten Leidenschaften erweckt und die Durchführung der Greueltaten ermöglicht.

Die Naziverschwörer versuchten, die Freiheit, Unabhängigkeit und Sicherheit der Völker, den Glauben an das gegebene Wort und die Achtung der menschlichen Person aus der Welt zu schaffen. Sie versuchten den Geist Frankreichs und anderer unterdrückter Völker zu töten. Wir sind der Ansicht, daß diese Verbrechen gegen den Geist das größte Verbrechen dieser Menschen ist.“

199

The Evening Star (February 3, 1946)

Darlan-Hitler 1941 plot to destroy Britain bared in Nuernberg

NUERNBERG (AP) – Adm. Jean Darlan joined Hitler in scheming to destroy the British Empire in 1941 and pledged Syria as a Nazi supply base in a prospective “Battle of Suez,” official records of the German Foreign Ministry showed today.

The records, assembled by the American prosecution for the Nazi war crimes trial here but not introduced as evidence, indicated that the French deputy premier was induced to commit Vichy to the Nazi cause by vague promises that France would gain third place in the new world order planned by Hitler and Mussolini.

Darlan, who was violently anti-British, was assassinated in Algiers December 24, 1942, while he was serving as civil head of French Africa under an arrangement with Gen. Eisenhower. An arch collaborator with the Nazis, he went over to the side of the Allies after his capture in the surprise invasion of North Africa November 7, 1942.

The German documents at Nuernberg confirmed British charges of Vichy plotting during the crucial spring when the British “empire lifeline” through the Mediterranean was all but severed by the first campaign of Nazi Field Marshal Erwin Rommel in North Africa and the Nazi lightning war in the Balkans.

But Adm. Darlan’s plotting backfired. French patriots kept the British alerted regarding his moves, and occupation of Syria by British and Free French forces started just one month after Darlan was reported to have signed up with Hitler.

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