Day 128
Wiener Kurier (May 13, 1946)
Verbrecherischer Einsatz der deutschen U-Bootwaffe festgestellt
Im ersten Kriegsjahr 79 britische Schiffe ohne Warnung torpediert
NĂŒrnberg (AND) - Die Samstagsitzung des Prozesses beschĂ€ftigte sich mit der PrĂŒfung der von dem Verteidiger Dönitz, Dr. Otto KranzbĂŒhler, vorgelegten Entlastungsdokumente. Der Verteidiger fĂŒhrte an Hand des Tagebuches Dönitz als BegrĂŒndung des verbrecherischen Einsatzes der U-Boote an, daĂ diese âwertvolle Waffeâ bei DurchfĂŒhrung von Rettungsaktionen zu sehr âgefĂ€hrdetâ war. Infolge der steigenden Verlustziffern an deutschen U-Booten konnte ein weiterer Ausfall nicht mehr in Kauf genommen werden.
Die britisch© Anklagevertretung hatte in diesem Zusammenhang, gestĂŒtzt auf das von der britischen AdmiralitĂ€t zur VerfĂŒgung gestellte Aktenmaterial, 79 FĂ€lle nachgewiesen, in denen Handelsschiffe gegen die Regeln des Völkerrechtes durch deutsche U-Boote im ersten Kriegsjahr ohne Warnung versenkt worden waren.
Der von der Verteidigung beantragten Vorladung des amerikanischen Kriegsministers Patterson zur Zeugenaussage vor dem NĂŒrnberger Gerichtshof wurde von der britischen Anklagevertretung widersprochen. Der Antrag unterliegt noch der Beratung des Gerichtshofes.
Ferner beschĂ€ftigt sich der Gerichtshof mit einem Antrag der Verteidigung Görings, zwei ehemalige Wehrmachtoffiziere als Zeugen im Fall Katyn zu vernehmen. Von der sowjetrussischen Anklagebehörde wurde unter Hinweis darauf, daĂ im Fall der Zulassung dieser Zeugen von seiten der Anklagevertretung ebenfalls eine âlange Reiheâ von Zeugen namhaft gemacht werden mĂŒsse, Einspruch erhoben. In der heutigen» Montagsitzung, der 241. seit Beginn des NĂŒrnberger Prozesses, wird die Vernehmung Dönitz als Zeuge in eigener Sache beendet werden. Damit ist die Vernehmung der HĂ€lfte der 22 Hauptangeklagten abgeschlossen.
Wiener Kurier (May 14, 1946)
NĂŒrnberger ProzeĂ bestĂ€tigt: Deutschland hat stĂ€ndig das Völkerrecht verletzt
NĂŒrnberg (AND) - Hinter allen Zeugenaussagen, die der Entlastung des Angeklagten Dönitz dienen sollen, hinter allen den fadenscheinigen Ausreden und Entschuldigungsversuchen ergibt sich immer wieder dasselbe Bild: Die deutsche SeekriegfĂŒhrung kĂŒmmerte sich nicht im geringsten um völkerrechtliche Bestimmungen und um die geschriebenen und ungeschriebenen Gesetze des Krieges. Ob es nun die Torpedierung unbewaffneter neutraler Schiffe oder ob es die Weigerung war, die Mannschaften versenkter Schiffe zu retten, stets StĂ€nden die Aktionen der deutschen Kriegsmarine im Zeichen der rĂŒcksichtslosen Hinwegsetzung ĂŒber alle Gebote der primitivsten GrundsĂ€tze einer ritterlichen KriegfĂŒhrung.
Schiffe warnungslos und ohne Unterschied Torpediert
Auch aus dem Kreuzverhör des ehemaligen Konteradmirals Wagner durch den britischen Anklagevertreter Oberst Phillimore ergab sich dasselbe Bild. Phillimore legte dem Zeugen mehrere Befehle vor, die gleich zu Beginn des Krieges von der Kriegsmarine herausgegeben worden waren. Obwohl es in einer Warnung vom 28. September 1939 hieĂ, nur neutrale Schiffe, die sich verdĂ€chtig verhielten, zum Beispiel mit Begleitschiffen angetroffen wĂŒrden oder Zickzackkurs fuhren, sollten angegriffen werden, seien auch damals schon Schiffe warnungslos torpediert worden, auf welche diese Bedingungen nicht zutrafen.
Ferner habe die deutsche Flottenleitung am 6. JĂ€nner 1940 den neutralen Schiffen das Befahren gewisser Zonen verboten.
Wagner erklĂ€rte hiezu, es stimme, daĂ man nach diesem Zeitpunkt keine Einzelwarnungen mehr herausgegeben habe. Man habe der Ăffentlichkeit von dem aggressiven Vorgehen keine Nachricht gegeben, weil man die PlĂ€ne der Marineleitung nicht verraten wollte.
Oberst Phillimore: âSie wollen doch diesem Gericht nicht sagen, daĂ die Versenkung der neutralen Schiffe gerechtfertigt sei? Wie wollen Sie das mit den U-Boot-Gesetzen in Einklang bringen?â
Wagner: âDafĂŒr bin ich nicht zustĂ€ndig, das ist Sache der Völkerrechtler.â
Versenkungen waren einfach abzuleugnen
Oberst Phillimore legte dem Zeugen mehrere in seiner eigenen Abteilung angefertigte Dokumente vor, aus denen hervorgeht, daĂ die Flottenleitung dem AuswĂ€rtigen Amt den Vorschlag machte, Versenkungen von neutralen Schiffen nur teilweise zuzugestehen und einen Irrtum vorzuschĂŒtzen, den gröĂten Teil der Versenkungen jedoch einfach abzuleugnen und als MinenunglĂŒcke hinzustellen. Wagner fĂŒhrte aus, diese MaĂnahmen seien getroffen worden, um die Ăffentlichkeit nicht von den PlĂ€nen der Marineleitung in Kenntnis zu setzen.
Die Kleinen konnten sich nicht wehren
Als der britische AnklĂ€ger den Zeugen fragte, warum die deutschen U-Boote nur die Schiffe der kleinen neutralen MĂ€chte und nicht auch die der neutralen GroĂmĂ€chte angegriffen hĂ€tten, antwortete Wagner, dies sei eine Frage der politischen ZweckmĂ€Ăigkeit gewesen. Oberst Phillimore stellte hiezu fest: âSie meinen, weil die Kleinen sich nicht wehren konnten, torpedierten Sie deren Schiffe.â
Dönitz bis zum letzten Tag fĂŒr die WeiterfĂŒhrung des Krieges
Der Verteidiger des Angeklagten Dönitz, Dr. KranzbĂŒhler, legte dem Gerichtshof eine groĂe Anzahl von Dokumenten vor, mit denen er beweisen will, daĂ Dönitz kein fanatischer Nazi gewesen sei. Eines dieser Dokumente ist ein Tagesbefehl vom 1. Mai 1945, in dem es heiĂt: Die Fortsetzung des Krieges sei notwendig, um âdie deutschen Truppen und Familien des Ostraumes vor Versklavung und Vernichtung zu rettenâ. Dieser Tagesbefehl steht in eklatantem Widerspruch zu den frĂŒheren ErklĂ€rungen Dönitz, daĂ er sofort, nachdem er die Nachfolge Hitlers angetreten hatte, nur mehr bemĂŒht war, die Kapitulation Deutschlands einzuleiten und durchzufĂŒhren.
Dr. Guido Schmidt soll fĂŒr Papen, Neurath und SeyĂ-Inquart aussagen
Dr. Guido Schmidt, der zur Zeit des âAnschlussesâ österreichischer AuĂenminister war, wurde am Sonntag in das NĂŒrnberger GefĂ€ngnis eingeliefert. Schmidt soll als Entlastungszeuge fĂŒr Papen, SeyĂ-Inquart und Neurath aussagen und wird sich danach vor einem österreichischen Gericht wegen seines Anteils am Zustandekommen des deutschen Ăberfalls auf Ăsterreich zu verantworten haben.
The Evening Star (May 14, 1946)
Killing of Commandos is defended by Nazis
NUERNBERG (AP) â Adm. Gerhard Wagner contended before the International Military Tribunal today that it was âperfectly properâ for the Germans to shoot uniformed British Commandos without trial because âthey were saboteurs and criminals and couldnât be considered soldiers.â
Col. H. J. Phillimore, assistant British prosecutor, cited to the former German naval operations chief, now on the stand as a defense witness, three instances in which he said captured Commandos were turned over to German security police, who shot them without trial, wired the bodies with demolition charges and sank them in Norwegian waters.
âDo you say that wasnât murder?â Phillimore shouted.
âThese people were captured as saboteurs,â the witness replied. âThey were not soldiers but were criminals. Men who have orders to carry out crimes I cannot consider as soldiers. In total it was perfectly proper.â
The tribunal denied requests by Rudolf Hess and Hans Frank who sought permission to establish by an interrogatory submitted to Secretary of War Patterson and Maj. Gen. William J. Donovan, former OSS chief, that Hans Bernd Bisevius, an anti-Nazi German, was on the American payroll as a spy.
The Evening Star (May 15, 1946)
Reich armed to meet East Prussia attack by Poles, Raeder says
NUERNBERG (AP) â Grand Adm. Erich Raeder testified today that before the last war Germany âfaced an attack by Poland on East Prussia and our efforts therefore were aimed at organizing to oppose such an invasion.â
Raeder, who guided reconstruction of the German Navy, opened his defense before the International Military Tribunal. He was succeeded in command of the navy by Grand Adm. Karl Doenitz, whose defense has just been concluded, on January 30, 1943.
Raeder testified that he rebuilt the navy âwithin the framework of the Versailles Treatyâ and emphasized that all work was subject to approval of President von Hindenburg and later Adolf Hitler.
He said the German Navy had men âwho were respected at home and abroad because they fought in an exemplary manner and participated in no atrocities.â
Doenitzâs son-in-law testified yesterday that âU-boat trapsâ were partially responsible for Nazi orders forbidding rescue of survivors of torpedoed ships.
Capt. Guenther Hessler, husband of Doenitzâs only daughter, testified as a defense witness that in two instances the crews of apparently abandoned ships suddenly manned guns and opened fire on his submarine.
He said Doenitz forbade the destruction of German naval records because âwe have a clear conscience.â Doenitz was the last commander in chief of the German Navy.
The tribunal yesterday denied requests of two defendants for permission to seek to establish â by an interrogatory submitted to Secretary of War Patterson and Maj. William J. Donovan, former OSS chief â that Hans Bernd Gisevius was on the American payroll as a spy.
The Frontier (May 16, 1946)
Complete trial needed to legally outlaw war
By Baukhage, news analyst and commentator
As the Nuernberg trials draw to a close, I continue to hear two questions repeated ad infinitum in the market places and bazaars, in the coffee houses and the couloirs (not to mention the lecture halls).
One is: Why on earth are they dragging out these trials; arenât they ever going to end?
The other is: Do you think any of these fellows (the prisoners) are going to get off?
Associate Justice Jackson knows as well as anyone else that news from Nuernberg has long since departed inconspicuously from the front page. He knows, from reading the American newspapers which reach him not too belatedly, thanks to the ALS (the armyâs special courier service), that his role in the Nuernberg case will never bring him a succes de scandale. He knows his presence is needed in Washington on the Supreme court bench.
Why, then, does he tarry?
Full documentation is required
By answering that question, one can answer the other two I mentioned at the beginning of these lines.
One: Why is this thing being dragged out forever�
Answer: Because this trial is not merely a trial of a handful of international criminals. These evil villains are only a small part of the drama, even if it is they, and not what is behind their castigation, which sometimes still produces headlines. The trial is a great process of legal documentation.
It is the recording of history, for the first time in history, of history written in blood, and ink hardly yet dry. It must be a complete record; the record of a crime which, until it is so recorded, may never be admitted as a crime in the eyes of international statesmen and lawyers.
The Allied military tribunal (operation justice, as it was known in the army) was planned, and is being conducted to its long and apparently infinite end for the purpose of blueprinting a legal precedent for holding as punishable criminals, the heads of states who plot and carry out aggressive warfare.
That is the answer to question one.
Question two: Are they ever going to convict these fellows? I answered that in part when I said that the proceedings were far more than the trials of the defendants who sit daily in the prisonersâ dock of the court house at Nuernberg, or in their lonely cells nearby.
And for those who fear that justice will be cheated, let me say that most of those men, if it cannot be established that they took official part in the planning and execution of an aggressive war, are probably wanted on other charges in local courts. If they go free from Nuernberg, the local courts will try them, as the âBeast of Belsenâ and others were tried and convicted for their separate and private crimes.
It is possible, for instance, that the sadistic, degenerate Streicher, Jew-baiting wielder of a jewelled whip that was a symbol of his psychosis as well as an instrument of his perverse desire, will not be convicted by the IMT. He is so low that his fellow prisoners wonât speak to him; so crooked that even when he was a Gauleiter, he couldnât be trusted to sign a single order of national or international significance. He finally stole so much from the Nazi Party itself that he was incarcerated.
The Nuernberg trials will continue until the record is completed. Justice will not be cheated. And it is to be hoped that aggressive war, on the basis of the proceedings of this court, will become illegal. How can the United Nations hope to outlaw war unless they establish with sword, scales and woolsack that war is illegal?
The Daily Alaska Empire (May 16, 1946)
Hitler promised great things at military dinner
One aim was to rid country of âshackles of Versaillesâ is claim
NUERNBERG â Adolf Hitler promised the German High Command that as soon as he took office he would ârid the country of the shackles of Versaillesâ and build an armed force for use as a political weapon, Grand Adm. Erich Raeder testified today.
Raeder told the International Military Tribunal that the Fuehrerâs attitude was made plain at a dinner in February 1933 arranged to permit Hitler to meet the German generals and admirals. He laid down the dictum that the entire policy of the Reich was to be his one-man show, the witness said.
âHe said the Wehrmacht was not to be used in situations of domestic unrest, that he would have other forces for that,â the admiral continued.
âHe assured the Wehrmacht of quiet development to prevent the Reich from becoming the football of other nations â that it could devote its entire time to that.â
The Evening Star (May 16, 1946)
Photographs of Emmy Goeringâs prosperity irk German women
By Judy Barden, North American Newspaper Alliance
BERLIN â German women here are buzzing with indignation and annoyance over an article in an American weekly magazine picturing Emmy Goering as living the life of Riley in Sack Dilling, a little Bavarian village.
There are recent photographs of Emmy, once Germanyâs leading lady, beautifully dressed in a Tyrolean costume, her hair carefully waved, plump as ever, talking with a Bavarian farmer. Beside them printed a photograph of a starving fraulein with deep-set, dark-ringed eyes, wearing a ragged coat and clutching a thin slice of bread in her hand.
If Emmy were to show her face now in Berlin she would be torn to shreds, so great is the animosity of the people. These pictures have reopened the Nuernberg trials in German minds, trials which were fast losing interest for Germans as they dragged on interminably.
But now itâs different. âWhy donât they hang him (Goering) or shoot him? Emmy, too!â can be heard across fences between the women who now pitifully strive for existence.
âHow dare she show herself thus clad and looking so happy?â one woman demanded angrily of me. âDoesnât she know or feel for the other women of Germany who have nothing left to live for?â
Another photo showed Frau Goering receiving a letter from a postman â presumably a letter from her husband, now standing trial at Nuernberg as a war criminal.
This made more women furious. âNo proudly smiling postman brings us letters from our relatives lying in soldiersâ graves.â one said. âWe are left alone; left to remove the debris caused by bombs which Goering said never would be dropped on a German city.â
Ăsterreichische Zeitung (May 17, 1946)
Raeder gesteht Versailler Vertragsbruch
Aus dem NĂŒrnberger Gerichtssaal
Der Versailler Vertrag wurde von Deutschland fortgesetzt umgangen oder gebrochen. Das war die Tatsache, die wĂ€hrend der gestrigen Sitzung des NĂŒrnberger Gerichtshofes, die der Einvernahme des ehemaligen GroĂadmirals Raeder gewidmet war, deutlich bewiesen wurde.
Auf eine Frage seines Verteidigers ĂŒber die direkten Verletzungen des Versailler Vertrages muĂte Raeder zugeben, daĂ mit seinem Wissen deutsche Marinestellen sich laufend ĂŒber den U-Boot-Bau informieren lieĂen, und daĂ er die Absicht verwirklichte, ein gut geschultes U-Boot-Personal laufend zur VerfĂŒgung zu haben. Er muĂte ferner zugehen, daĂ entgegen dem Versailler Vertrag fĂŒnf Wachboote mit Torpedorohren armiert wurden. Diese Boote, so sagte Raeder, seien ebenso wie die rund 2000 ĂŒber die Bestimmungen des Versailler Vertrages hinaus produzierten Minen zur Sperrung der Ostsee im Ernstfall gedacht gewesen.
Laut ErklÀrung Raeders war das 1935 abgeschlossene anglo-deutsche Flottenabkommen von deutscher Seite ein reiner Bluff gewesen.
Der Angeklagte gab im Verhör durch seinen Verteidiger noch folgende VerstöĂe gegen den Versailler Vertrag zu: die Armierung der OstseekĂŒste, die Nichtverschrottung der zur Vernichtung bestimmten GeschĂŒtze (von der Heeresleitung seien zwar Quittungen ĂŒber die Verschrottung der GeschĂŒtze ausgestellt worden, âaber es war uns bekannt,â sagte Raeder, âdaĂ diese Quittungen falsch warenâ) und die Abweichung von den erlaubten Stellen zur Aufstellung der KĂŒstenbatterien. Raeder gestand weiter die vertragswidrige Aufstellung von Flakbatterien und Lagerung von Flakmunition, die verbotene Armierung im Bereich der Hafenstadt Kiel sowie die Ăberschreitung in der KalibergröĂe bei den KĂŒsterbatterien und die verbotene Bewaffnung der Minensuchboote.
The Wilmington Morning Star (May 17, 1946)
Allied prosecutor asks ban of Raeder document
NUERNBERG, May 16 (AP) â Allied prosecutors objected Thursday to defense documents for Grand Adm. Erich Raeder purporting to show that Britain and France once had considered âself-preservationâ actions against neutrals and a bombing of Russiaâs oil basin in the Caucasus.
The arguments interrupted testimony of Raeder, former commander in chief of the German Navy, before the International Military Tribunal on war crimes charges.
Defense contention
His attorney, Walter Siemers, contended the documents would show that the Allied powers had the same idea of national self-preservation, even at expense of neutrals, as governed German ideas of aggression against Norway, Greece and the low countries. Most of the documents were declared captured from the French general staff in 1940.
One disputed document was a resolution purportedly drafted by the Anglo-French supreme war council March 28, 1940, for sending notes warning Norway and Sweden that âthe Allied governments cannot tolerate another attack upon Finland either by the Soviet or German government.â
Document quoted
âIf such an act of aggression took place, and ii the Swedish and Norwegian governments refused to grant facilities for efforts being made by the Allied governments to afford Finland help⊠and if the Swedish and Norwegian governments attempt to prevent such help, this attitude would be considered by the Allies as contrary to their vital interests and would provoke appropriate reaction,â the resolution was quoted.
The document also said British and French experts would study âa project of aerial bombing of the Russia oil basin in the Caucasus,â particularly the results expectable, âthe probable repercussions on Russiaâ and âprobable attitude of Turkey.â
Soviets object
The Soviet deputy prosecutor objected especially to this document and attacked another as âthe nightmarish propaganda idea of the typical Nazi that the Red Army is trying to incite world revolution.â
The British and French prosecutors also objected to numerous documents, especially to captured French files said to show that the French command in 1939 plotted an Allied invasion of Belgium and Luxembourg and landings in Greece.
The Evening Star (May 17, 1946)
Jackson tells editor trials set up new war guilt principle
By Paul Bellamy
Mr. Bellamy, editor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer and a past president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, has just returned from a trip to Germany, Austria, Italy and England as one of a party of American newspapermen. This is another of a series of articles on his observations.
CLEVELAND (NANA) â It might be interesting to take a look at Dachau.
The cyanide chamber, where the miserable victims of Nazi liquidation policies were destroyed, are still maintained and will be kept as a public monument. It is said that 283,000 were âprocessedâ there, mostly Jews.
The American Army took motion pictures of the camp on its first arrival, and I saw one of these in Nuernberg after going through the camp at Dachau.
The heart turns sick at such incredible monstrosity.
When the avenging troops marched in, so many bodies of victims were lying around and their carcasses were so corrupting the air, that in some cases it was necessary to bring out great bulldozers with steel blades in front of them which literally swept thousands of bodies into a common grave.
Few remorseful
The sight was the most awful I have ever witnessed. Poor, miserable, emaciated corpses being hurtled by the behemoth bulldozer into their final resting place. Occasionally a leg would come off. Occasionally an arm would stick out in a most distorted manner, as the bodies rolled one on top of the other into oblivion.
That film should be shown to every German, as it has already been shown to the people in Munich.
But I regret to say that there are not a great many remorseful Germans. The film showed photographs of Germans witnessing these sights. Some of the women dabbed at their handkerchiefs, but by and large, both women and men said, although they lived near Dachau, they knew nothing of what was going on. Someone more naive than I will have to be found to give credence to this statement.
In Dachau, there is a stockade with 20,000 German prisoners, mostly storm troopers. Contiguous to the stockade is a prison house with cells where the more dangerous criminals are kept. We saw there guards who had killed their thousands, women who had literally clubbed to death hundreds of their own sex, and both men and women who had committed bestial crimes against the dignity of man so awful as to be unprintable.
Now if anyone thinks he can make good little lambs out of those rattlesnakes by feeding them a bowl of warm milk, he and I have been living in different universes.
At Nuernberg, we were privileged to spend a whole day in the courtroom of the international tribunal trying Marshal Herman Goering and his associate criminals. This is the boiled-down syrup of the whole Nazi conspiracy against mankind.
The defendant being tried that day was Alfred Rosenberg, the âideaâ man of the Nazis, and the great international art thief, next to Hitler himself and Goering.
It struck all of our party that the proceedings were pretty diffuse and that the defendants were allowed to talk about almost anything they wanted to, including apple pie and the great dipper. But the whole theory of the trial was explained to us very well that night in Nuernberg, when we were the guests of Justice Robert Jackson, the American prosecutor.
Explains delay
The afternoon session ended, we adjourned to our hotel, where that evening, Mr. Jackson gave a dinner. It was attended also by Willis Smith of North Carolina, president of the American Bar Association, who had been delegated by that organization to study the Nuernberg trials. Mr. Jackson was asked about the long delay in reaching convictions. His explanation was, roughly, as follows:
The United States and its victorious allies are setting up a new principle of international law following this war, namely, the principle that the chief factors in bringing about an aggressive war. involving the violation of international treaties, are personally guilty. This present list may extend to a great many thousands and ultimately to 100,000 or more, if sustained. The larger number will come into the criminal class if the court rules that membership in the Storm Trooper organization and certain other extremely active Nazi organizations, per se, renders the member a criminal.
As Mr. Jackson pointed out, nothing like this has been attempted after any other war in history. Therefore, he said, we had to have a complete record to prove that this was the most monstrous conspiracy in history against humanity. Otherwise the precedent might be used following any ordinary war where the customary procedures of war were observed, where atrocities were not the order of the day and where the liquidation of persons and minorities was not the constant occupation of the ruling class.
Documented evidence
I observed that it seemed to me this proved, among other things, that we must win all the rest of the wars, but he stuck to his story that one might lose an honorable war, if there is such a thing, and still not lay himself open to the sanctions which the victorious allies in this conflict were employing with Germany. I objected that the interpretation as to whether one had acted honorably in war would be up to the victor and that it was rather uncertain what the verdict might be, but he insisted that this was a different war from any other in history, arising out of a more monstrous conspiracy than ever existed before.
Then he went on to say that the Germans had been hoist on their own petard on the matter of keeping records. They had made a virtue out of writing down most meticulously every idea that they had. Besides that, they kept complete lists of all members of the party.
At the end, the Allies moved in so fast on the broken foe that they recovered almost complete records of all the facts.
Some they got in salt mines. Some they dug up in warehouses, some in private residences. But the net of it was that when they accused a man of being a Nazi, they knew what they were talking about. In other words, it was the most completely documented case in history.
Mr. Jackson was of the opinion that although some of the dramatics had gone out of the trial by its long duration, and there was danger that when the final verdict came down some thoughtless persons might ask what the defendants were being convicted for, all that was outweighed by the fact that we should set up a perfect record for posterity to read, that we should prove the guilt of every one who was convicted and establish for all time the awfulness of the Nazi conspiracy.
Spain joined in war on Reich side, 2 Nazi officers tell Russians
MOSCOW (AP) â The government newspaper Izvestia devoted two pages today to a 10,000-word statement, attributed to two German officers who served in Spanish cities as military attaches, which charged that the Franco regime ââunder a mask of neutrality, actually participated in the war on the side of Germany.â
The officers, now prisoners in the Soviet Union, were described as Lt. Gen. Gunther Krappe, former military attache in Madrid, and Col. Hans Remer, attache in Tangier.
The statement said Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel and Col. Gen. Gustav Jodl â both now on trial in Nuernberg on war crimes charges â were active in arranging Spanish collaboration.
The officers were quoted as saying that after the Spanish civil war the German and Spanish general staffs, under the direction of Keitel and Jodl, collaborated in drawing up a secret âIsabella Felixâ plan for seizing Gibraltar and widening Spanish possessions in Africa.
During the war, the German officers declared, Spain served Germany as an economic base and her military attache in London supplied Germany with military information.
Krappe and Remer said the âIsabella Felixâ plan was supposed to have been carried out in conjunction with a âSea Lionâ plan for the capture of the British Isles.
The Franco-appointed Gen. Asensio, who commanded a division in Southern Spain, was quoted as telling Krappeâs assistant that he could take Gibraltar from the British in 20 minutes.
G.I. confesses slaying of 2 U.S. sergeants in Nuernberg jeep
FRANKFURT (AP) â An American colored private signed a confession today that he fired three shots â âat a civilian going up the roadâ â which resulted in the deaths of two American sergeants last Friday night, Army authorities announced today.
The soldier was identified as Pfc. James C. Devone, 28, of North Carolina. He came to Germany to serve in the 3757th Quartermaster Truck Company in the Nuernberg area.
Officials said Devone asserted that the jeep in which the sergeants were riding âgot in the wayâ of the last bullet he fired.
The bare outline of the statement released at headquarters of the theater provost marshal did not identify the civilian or explain why Devone fired at him.
Devone probably will be sent to the Nuernberg prison stockade from Erlangen, where he had been taken for final questioning by former G-men of the Criminal Investigation Division. He was said not to have implicated anyone else, asserting that he was alone at the time of the shooting.
Authorities said the soldier confessed after ballistics tests showed the fatal shots were fired from an Army carbine which had been traced to him.
Four other colored soldiers had been detained for questioning last Tuesday when tests by Capt. Claude Nichols of Wichita, Kansas, showed that the death weapon had been issued to their outfit.
The victims were T/4 Paul R. Sketton of McKinley, Texas, and Staff Sgt. William R. Timmons of West Haven, Connecticut, both 21 years old and assigned to the fiscal department of Stars and Stripes.
They were killed while riding in a jeep with another soldier and three young Allied women on the way home from a night club.
The young women in the machine were Miss Rose Korb of Hammond, Indiana, an employee of the American prosecutorâs staff at the Nuernberg trial, and the Misses Kay Gass of London and Kathleen OâFarrell of Limerick, Eire, both employees of Stars and Stripes.
Wiener Kurier (May 18, 1946)
Raeder in NĂŒrnberg: Ăberfall auf Norwegen schon 1939 geplant
NĂŒrnberg (AND) - So oft die deutschen Truppen in ein neutrales Land einfielen, erklĂ€rten die Nazibonzen scheinheilig, daĂ ihnen nichts ferner liege, als irgend welche Aggressionsabsichten gegen diese LĂ€nder, daĂ sie aber durch die Absichten der Alliierten leider dazu gezwungen seien, vorbeugende MaĂnahmen zu treffen.
Was von diesen Beteuerungen zu halten war, zeigte sich in der Freitagsitzung des NĂŒrnberger Gerichtshofes, in der der Angeklagte Raeder zugeben muĂte, daĂ die Besetzung Norwegens schon im Dezember 1939 erwogen und die Ausarbeitung der entsprechenden PlĂ€ne im JĂ€nner 1940 befohlen wurde. DaĂ es nicht schon zu diesem Zeitpunkt zu ihrer DurchfĂŒhrung kam, war nur darauf zurĂŒckzufĂŒhren, daĂ technische GrĂŒnde dies verhinderten.
Die Rolle des VerrÀters Quisling
Raeder schilderte im Verlauf des Verhörs sein erstes Zusammentreffen mit dem norwegischen VerrĂ€ter Quisling am 11. Dezember 1939, das durch die Vermittlung Rosenbergs zustande kam. Der Angeklagte wollte bis dahin weder von Quisling noch von dessen Beziehungen zu Rosenberg etwas gehört haben. Nachdem er aber erfahren hatte, daĂ Quisling frĂŒher Kriegsminister in Norwegen war und ĂŒber gute Beziehungen zu Regierungskreisen verfĂŒgte, habe er sich bereit erklĂ€rt, ihn zu empfangen, da ihm Nachrichten aus einer solchen Quelle auĂerordentlich wertvoll erschienen. Quisling sei noch am gleichen Vormittag zu ihm gekommen und habe die Besetzung Norwegens als auĂerordentlich dringend bezeichnet. Die damals unterbreiteten VorschlĂ€ge des norwegischen VerrĂ€ters seien zwar aus technischen GrĂŒnden nicht durchfĂŒhrbar gewesen, doch habe Raeder dessen AusfĂŒhrungen fĂŒr so wichtig gehalten, daĂ er Hitler bat, Quisling zu empfangen. Diese Zusammenkunft fand auch statt und ihr Resultat war, daĂ das OKW beauftragt wurde, einen Studienplan âNordâ auszuarbeiten, der bereits am 13. JĂ€nner bei der SeekriegfĂŒhrung vorlag. Auf Grund dieses Planes wurden am 27. JĂ€nner 1940 eingehende Weisungen fĂŒr dieses Unternehmen ausgearbeitet und am 1. MĂ€rz an die drei Wehrmachtteile weitergegeben.
Raeder zufolge wuĂten weder Göring noch Ribbentrop etwas ĂŒber die bevorstehende Invasion in Norwegen. Man habe sie niemals zu Rate gezogen. âDies beweistâ, erklĂ€rte Raeder, âwie unrecht es ist, wenn man von einer Verschwörung der MĂ€nner um Hitler spricht.â Der Befehl Hitlers, StĂŒtzpunkte in Norwegen zu besetzen, erfolgte nach einem Bericht Quislings im Februar 1940, aus dem hervorging, daĂ der damalige britische AuĂenminister, Lord Halifax, den norwegischen Gesandten in London unterrichtet habe, GroĂbritannien ziehe eine Operation zur Sicherung von StĂŒtzpunkten in Norwegen in ErwĂ€gung.
Hitlers Geburtstagsgeschenke
Wie fĂŒr fast alle âGröĂenâ des Dritten Reiches war auch fĂŒr Raeder die Beteiligung an dem blutigen Abenteuer der Nazi ein recht eintrĂ€gliches GeschĂ€ft. So erhielt er einmal von Hitler als Geburtstagsgeschenk die runde Summe von 250.000 Mark. Als er gelegentlich einer Unterredung mit Hitler darauf zu sprechen kam, sagte ihm dieser, daĂ dies eine Auszeichnung sei, gleich der. wie sie die frĂŒheren Herrscher von PreuĂen ihren Generalen verliehen hatten. Er betonte dabei, daĂ auch Mackensen schon solche Schenkungen erhalten habe.
Als sich das Verhör den Beziehungen Raeders zur Nazipartei zuwandte, behauptete dieser, die Verleihung des Goldenen Parteiabzeichens im Jahre 1937 sei kein Beweis dafĂŒr, daĂ et Parteimitglied gewesen sei.
Beweisaufnahme gegen die Naziorganisationen beginnt am Montag
Am Montag wird in NĂŒrnberg die Beweisaufnahme ĂŒber die verbrecherische TĂ€tigkeit der sechs angeklagten Naziorganisationen durch eine fĂŒnfköpfige Kommission unter dem Vorsitz des britischen Oberstleutnants A. M. S. Neave beginnen. Nach Beendigung der Untersuchung wird das Protokoll der Kommission dem« Internationalen Gerichtshof unterbreitet werden, der dann seine Entscheidung auf den Befund der Kommission stĂŒtzen wird. Bei den angeklagten Organisationen handelt es sich um die Reichsregierung, das OKW und den Generalstab, das FĂŒhrerkorps der Partei, die SA, die SS, den SD und die Gestapo. Die Kommission wird sich nur mit Beweismaterial beschĂ€ftigen, das fĂŒr die Schuldfrage einer ganzen Organisation, nicht aber der einzelnen Mitglieder, von Bedeutung ist.
Wie viele von den 92.000 Personen, die in der Sache der Organisation ihre Vernehmung beantragt haben, tatsÀchlich als Zeugen vernommen werden, steht noch nicht fest.
The Evening Star (May 18, 1946)
Reich urged that Japs take Singapore in 1941
NUERNBERG (AP) â Grand Adm. Erich Raeder testified before the International Military Tribunal today that Germany urged Japan early in 1941 to capture Singapore, in the belief that this would frighten the United States into remaining neutral.
The German proposition was made by Adolf Hitler at a conference in Berlin March 5, 1941, with Yosuke Matsuoka, then Japanese foreign minister, Raeder said. He added that Hitler issued a statement later that day to the effect that Japan would take such a step.
âThere were circles suggesting that Japan attack Vladivostok, but I believed that would be a grave mistake,â the former German naval chief said as he concluded his defense against charges of conspiracy.
âI believed that with Singaporeâs fall the United States would be intimidated to stay out of the war.â
Raeder scoffed at charges by the prosecution that he âconspiredâ to bring America into the war, contending that âwith my small navy fighting England I certainly didnât want the United States also on my neck.â
He also ridiculed a prosecution document quoting Joachim von Ribbentrop, former Nazi foreign minister, also on trial, as informing the Japanese that Raeder believed American submarines inferior, and that Japan would have no reason to fear them.