The Nuremberg Trial

The Evening Star (June 6, 1945)

Jodl defiant in quiz on treaty violations

NUERNBERG (AP) – Col. Gen. Alfred Jodl, former chief of staff of the German Army, refused defiantly under cross-examination at the international war crimes trial today to be pinned down to categorical answers about Germany’s treaty breaking.

He fended off such questions as “political” and repeatedly clashed with British attorney G. C. Roberts, who challenged his veracity.

“I am afraid I am too dumb to answer that question,” he said when Roberts asked him if he always was honorable and truthful in his dealings as army chief of staff.

Mr. Roberts took Jodl over the details of every aggressive German campaign in which battle plans bore his initials and each time reproached him for breaches of international law.

“You represented yourself as such a stickler for international law. What do you have to say about these things?” Jodl was asked.

“There were political questions,” was the defendant’s reply each time.

Reich rearming began in 1920, records of Krupp firm disclose

NUERNBERG (AP) – Confiscated records of the Krupp dynasty laid bare today the secret origin of German rearmament in the supposedly beaten and bankrupt Weimar Republic barely a year after the Treaty of Versailles was signed and 13 years before Hitler came to power.

Documents in Allied hands provide evidence that a hush-hush $48,000,000 loan was made available to Krupp’s in 1920 by a man who was Reich chancellor and finance minister three years before Hitler had even marched in his 1923 beer hall putsch.

In 1940, when Germany had beaten France and was poised to invade England, the ex-chancellor wrote proudly from exile in Switzerland to old gunmaker Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach in his stone palace in the smoke-wreathed Ruhr.

Hidden partnership cited

The letter, signed “Joseph Wirth” and recovered from the Krupp files in Essen, is regarded by Allied investigators as typifying brazenly the hidden partnership of industrial magnates and presumably democratic politicians to restore German military might.

“That partnership operated a quarter-century ago just as it might do today,” said one.

“Most honored Herr President,” the letter began, “Swiss papers carry the news that you are the first German to be decorated with the War Cross of Merit, First Class, in appreciation of your accomplishments in arming the German Wehrmacht.

“I have the honor to state that this fact has been noted down with pleasure in my memoirs and I look with satisfaction to the years 1920-1923 when we both… laid the new foundations for the development of German armament technique with the help of your great and most important firm.

Arms technique maintained

“I am putting down these lines in order to make a record in my files, in which there is already the letter of Dr. Wiedtfeld of 1921 which sets forth that, through my initiative as Reich Chancellor and Finance Minister, your highly esteemed firm was secured for 10 years by putting at its disposal considerable means of the Reich for maintenance of armament technique in the Reich’s service.

“I am repealing this fact purely personally and confidentially… The Reich government, only about two years ago, issued a statement through its Ambassador in Paris that publicity on the subject of earlier preparations for regaining national freedom is not desirable. There is no reason to do that, considering the grave battle decision ahead of us…

“I have kept up good relations with the U.S.A., which passed the test during my last year’s journey of purely private character… I should desire that we may be spared armed conflict with the U S.A., as doubtful as the news from the U.S.A. makes one feel.”

Memorandum attached

Attached to Wirth’s letter was a confidential memorandum by one of Krupp’s staff which is expected to figure prominently in any Allied trial of German industrialists.

The memorandum stated that Wirth put $48,000,000 worth of marks at Krupp’s disposal at Mendelssohn & Co., Berlin, from which the money was transferred to an account carried under the name “Custodia” in Amsterdam.

The account was later “nourished by yearly remittances from Stockholm in Swedish crowns which represents dividends for Bofors shares,” the memorandum concluded. “The Bofors shares had been paid for from Wirth’s funds.”

Because of senile softening of the brain, Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach was excluded from the present Nuernberg war crimes trial. His son Alfried may be included as a defendant if industrialists are put on trial as a class.

nuremberg.tribunal

Day 149

Wiener Kurier (June 7, 1945)

Jodl ließ 30.000 norwegische Häuser in Flammen aufgehen

Nürnberg (AND) - Während seines gestrigen Kreuzverhörs mit Jodl legte der Ankläger Roberts neue Dokumente vor. Diese bewiesen die Beteiligung oder die unmittelbare Kenntnis des früheren Generalstabschefs von der Verschleppung von Juden aus Dänemark, Zwangsarbeitern aus Frankreich und des deutschen „Grundsatzes des Niederbrennens“ im nördlichsten Teil Norwegens, dem 30.000 Wohnstätten zum Opfer fielen. Jodl bestritt, daß deutsche Soldaten an der Verhaftung von 6000 dänischen Juden im Oktober 1943 beteiligt waren.

Die Besetzung Österreichs geleitet

Unter die „Segnungen“, die Österreich durch den Anschluß erhielt, rechnet der Angeklagte Jodl außer der Gestapo und den Konzentrationslagern auch sich selbst. Daß der Mann, der die Besetzung Österreichs durch die deutschen Trappen leitete, sich auf eine Stufe mit den genannten Einrichtungen des Dritten Reiches stellt, entbehrt nicht einer gewissen Berechtigung; reichlich naiv mutet aber seine Behauptung an, daß die Österreicher ihn geliebt hätten. Als ihm der britische Ankläger Roberts vorhielt, daß Schuschnigg sicherlich nicht froh war, ihn zu sehen, konnte es diesem Vorwurf nur mit der lahmen Ausrede entgegnen, daß er mit Schuschnigg nie etwas zu tun gehabt hätte.

Der Angeklagte führte dazu noch aus, daß Hitler erklärt habe, er wolle keine Märtyrer schaffen, anderseits müsse er sich aber Schuschniggs versichern und deshalb würde er in eine Art Ehrenhaft kommen. Roberts stellte fest, daß man Dachau wohl schlecht als Ehrenhaft bezeichnen könne und Schuschnigg sicher gerne darauf verzichtet hätte.

Bei der Besprechung der Besetzung Österreichs wies der britische Anklagevertreter auch auf eine Eintragung in Jodls Tagebuch hin, in der es heißt, daß Schuschnigg und Guido Schmidt unter schwersten politischen Druck genommen wurden. Dies erklärt der Angeklagte damit, daß er einen Bericht erhalten habe, wonach beim Mittagessen auf dem Berghof Reichenau und Sperrle kriegerische Reden über die deutsche Aufrüstung geführt hätten.

Jodl wird anmaßend

Roberts fragte dann beim Kreuzverhör: „Sie haben hier ausgesagt, daß Ihnen das Soldatentum im Blut liegt.“ Jodl: „Ja, das habe ich gesagt.“ Roberts: „Sie haben sich als einen wahrhaftigen und als einen Menschen von Ehre bezeichnet.“ Jodl: „Ja, das habe ich getan.“ Roberts: „Glauben Sie nicht, daß Ihre Ehre in den letzten sechs Jahren einen Makel erlitten hat?“ Jodl: „Meine Ehre ist nicht beschmutzt worden.“ Als nun Roberts die Frage wiederholte, gab Jodl in erregtem Ton die Antwort: „Diese Frage ist mir zu dumm.“

Die Vernehmung wandte sich den Überfällen auf die anderen Länder zu. Roberts leitete diesen Teil des Verhörs mit der Frage ein: „Was hatten die drei Länder Holland, Belgien und Luxemburg getan, um die Schrecken der Invasion über sich ergehen lassen zu müssen?“ Jodl antwortete, daß dies eine historische Frage sei.

Der Überfall auf Jugoslawien

Roberts: „Sehr gut; und nun zur jugoslawischen Frage. Nach einem Dokument vom 27. März 1941 heißt es: ‚Ohne Loyalitätserklärungen der neuen jugoslawischen Regierung abzuwarten, gilt es, Vorbereitungen zu treffen, Jugoslawien als Staatsgebilde zu zerschlagen. Der Schlag muß mit unerbittlicher Härte geführt werden. Die Hauptstadt Belgrad ist in rollenden Angriffen von der Luftwaffe zu zerstören. Demnach wurde der Zivilbevölkerung nicht eine halbe Stunde Warnfrist gegönnt. Halten Sie es mit Ihrer soldatischen Ehre vereinbar, ohne Kriegserklärung und ohne Warnung eine Stadt zu bombardieren?“ Jodl: „Die Jugoslawen hatten ja auch ihre Grenzen besetzt.“

Im Osten Schrecken verbreiten

Roberts legte ein Dokument vor, in dem es unter anderem heißt: „Unsere Truppen reichen im Osten nur dann aus, wenn sie genügend Schrecken verbreiten und die Bevölkerung so einschüchtern, daß jeder Widerstand unmöglich gemacht wird. Nur mit drakonischen Mitteln ist dieses Ziel zu erreichen.“

Roberts: „Ist das nicht ein grausamer Befehl?“ Jodl: „Nein, das ist kein grausamer Befehl, er ist völkerrechtlich zu rechtfertigen, denn es handelte sich ja um einen Kampf gegen Franktireure.“

„Waren Sie ein Bewunderer der NSDAP?“, fragte der britische Ankläger weiter, und als Jodl diese Frage entschieden verneinte, verlas Roberts den folgenden Ausschnitt aus einer Rede Jodls: „Alle einsichtigen Berufssoldaten sind sich über die Rolle der NSDAP für die Erweckung des Wehrwillens im deutschen Volke und für die Wiederaufrüstung im klaren. Nur die Synthese von Partei und Wehrmacht, die der Führer schuf, konnte das vollbringen.“

Jodl glaubt noch immer an die Nazi

Am Schluß des Kreuzverhörs faßte Jodl seine Ausführungen mit der Erklärung zusammen, daß er auch weiter daran glaube, die Nazibewegung sei die Kraft gewesen, die Deutschland zwischen zwei Kriegen verjüngt hätte.

Der Ankläger zitierte eine Stelle aus einer Rede, in welcher der frühere Generalstabschef die Erfolge der Partei bei der „Wiedererweckung des deutschen Kampfeswillens und der Ermöglichung der Wiederaufrüstung Deutschlands“ beschrieb und fragte: „Ist dies noch immer ihre Ansicht?“ Jodl antwortete: „Es ist nicht nur meine Ansicht, es ist historische Wahrheit. Die Bewegung hat es vollbracht.“

nuremberg.tribunal

Day 150

Wiener Kurier (June 8, 1946)

Jodl gibt Massenmord an Juden in der Sowjetunion zu

Nürnberg (AND.) - Die Dokumente, die der russische Anklagevertreter, Oberst Pokrowski, gestern vorlegte, zwangen sogar den sonst so hartnäckig leugnenden Jodl zu gewissen Teilgeständnissen. So bewies Pokrowski durch die Vorlage eines Protokolls, daß Hitler bereits am 16. Juli 1941, also etwa drei Wochen nach dem Überfall auf die Sowjetunion, die Forderung aufgestellt hatte, Leningrad dem Erdboden gleich zu machen.

Als dann die Ermordung tausender Juden in der Sowjetunion zur Sprache kam und Jodl gefragt wurde, ob er davon Kenntnis habe, mußte er sich zu der Feststellung bequemen: „Das ist heute bewiesen, darüber kann kein Zweifel mehr bestehen.“

Krieg gegen Rußland seit 1940 vorbereitet

Das Kreuzverhör durch den russischen Anklagevertreter bedeutete für den ehemaligen deutschen Generalstabschef eine äußerst unangenehme Überraschung. Bei dieser Gelegenheit stellte sich nämlich heraus, daß Jodl, der bisher hartnäckig den Standpunkt vertreten hatte, der Überfall auf Sowjetrußland sei nur eine Präventivmaßnahme im letzten Augenblick gewesen, die Vorbereitung des Krieges gegen Rußland seinen Generalstabsoffizieren bereits am 29. Juli 1940 vorgetragen hatte.

Oberst Pokrowski: „Ist es richtig, daß Sie der erste oder einer der ersten waren, dem Hitler Mitteilung von seiner Absicht machte, die Sowjetunion zu überfallen?“ Jodl: „Ich war wahrscheinlich der erste, der von der Sorge des Führers bezüglich der Sowjetunion Kenntnis erhielt.“

Göring und Raeder unterschätzten Sowjetunion

Oberst Pokrowski: „Ist es richtig, daß Sie mit Keitel, Göring und Raeder nicht einer Meinung über diesen Kriegsplan waren?“ Jodl: „Der Chef der Luftwaffe und der Chef der Kriegsmarine sahen Rußland nur vom Standpunkt ihrer Waffe und unterschätzten deshalb seihe militärische Kraft. Es gibt aber trotzdem keinen Menschen, der Hitler nicht von diesem gefährlichen Experiment abgeraten hätte.“ Oberst Pokrowski: „Sie nennen den Überfall auf ein neutrales Land ein Experiment. Davon nehme ich mit Interesse Kenntnis.“

Arbeitsunfähige Kriegsgefangene sind zu vergiften!

Schon zu Ende des Jahres 1941 fand eine Generalstabsbesprechung statt, worin der Beschluß gefaßt wurde, erschöpfte oder arbeitsunfähige Kriegsgefangene in Lager zu bringen und dort zu vergiften. Diese Aussage bildete den Gegenstand einer Erklärung, die Generalmajor von Grevenitz abgegeben hatte und die der russische Anklagevertreter dem Gericht vorlegte. Jodl erklärte zu diesem Dokument, daß er als Ursache für den Massentod russischer Kriegsgefangener „nur eine Ermattung und den schlechten körperlichen Zustand der Gefangenen kenne.“

Jodl bewundert die infernalische Größe Hitlers

„Nach einer Aussage des Generals von Bormann haben Sie Hitler einen Verbrecher und Scharlatan genannt“, fragte abschließend Pokrowski den Angeklagten. Jodl: „Bormann verwechselt hier die Begriffe. Ich habe Rohm einen Verbrecher genannt und Hitler als Scharlatan bezeichnet.“ Oberst Pokrowski: „Wieso dienten Sie Hitler, wenn Sie in ihm einen Scharlatan sahen?“ Jodl: „Weil ich mich später überzeugte, daß Hitler, wenn auch eine infernalische, so doch eine Größe war.“

Dr. Laßmann konferierte mit Justizminister Gerö

Dr. Wolfgang Laßmann, der Vertreter der österreichischen Regierung beim Nürnberger Kriegsverbrecherprozeß, wurde von Justizminister Gerö nach Wien berufen. Dr. Laßmann ist nach kurzer Besprechung mit dem Minister gestern wieder in Nürnberg eingetroffen. Man nimmt an, daß der Wiener Besuch Dr. Laßmanns mit den bevorstehenden Zeugenaussagen in den Fällen Seyß-Inquart und Papen in Zusammenhang steht.

The Wilmington Morning Star (June 8, 1946)

Nazi overlords propose poison

Documents at trial reveal plot against Soviet soldiers

NUERNBERG, June 7 (AP) – A record of a German Army staff conference at which a recommendation was made to poison all Russian prisoners of war unable to work was introduced by the Soviet prosecution before the International Military Tribunal Friday.

Col. Gen. Alfred Jodl, former chief of staff for the German Army, one of the 22 top Nazis on trial before the tribunal, testified that he knew nothing about such a plan. Jodl said he was so concerned with military operations that the prisoner problem was beyond his jurisdiction at the time.

Grabenitz idea

The Soviet prosecution said that the proposal for poisoning the prisoners was advanced by Gen. Von Grabenitz, who was in charge of prisoners on the Eastern Front.

Other documents presented at the trial Friday said that the forces of Gen. Draja Mihailovic, bearded Chetnik leader, lost 15 to 30 men daily in guerrilla warfare against the Nazis in Yugoslavia in the winter of 1942-43.

Facing trial

Mihailovic is facing trial by Premier Marshal Tito’s government on charges of collaborating with the Germans under the guise of conducting a patriotic defense.

The Evening Star (June 8, 1946)

Anti-Hitler testimony may go into textbook

NUERNBERG (AP) – Youth Leader Baldur von Schirach’s belated condemnation of his one-time ideal – Adolf Hitler – may become a textbook for the new generation of German youth, American officials said today.

They said the builder of the Hitlerjugend has asked that his courtroom repudiation of Hitler – before the international military tribunal – be circulated among young Germans in an effort to right some of the wrongs he said he committed in teaching them to follow the Fuehrer’s Nazi ideals.

American officials said the idea is under consideration and may be adopted as another step in the multiple problem of re-educating German youth.

The Waterbury Democrat (June 8, 1946)

Hitler salute unconsciously given in court

NUERNBERG (UP) – The War Crimes Court got its first Hitler salute yesterday.

Maj. Gen. Baron Treusch von Buttlar-Brandenfels went to the stand to testify for Col. Gen. Alfred Jodl. Justice Sir Geoffrey Lawrence, preparing to read the oath, asked the witness to raise his hand.

He snapped to attention and whipped a stiff right arm to a 44-degree angle, palm outward. He caught himself immediately, flushed, lifted his arm the rest of the way, and drew two fingers under the thumb to make a sort of hybrid gesture of the Nazi salute.

Reichsmarshal Hermann Goering smiled and covered his eyes with a hand. Some of the other defendants smiled. The court showed no signs of noticing the salute.

The Evening Star (June 9, 1946)

Mrs. Biddle describes Nuernberg and the war crimes trials there

Just back from Nuernberg, Mrs. Francis Biddle has an interesting story to tell about life in the one international area where work to help insure peace in the future is proceeding on a basis of complete understanding. “The tribunal is a little ‘League of Nations’ that is getting somewhere,” said the wife of the former attorney general, now a judge at the International War Crimes Court. Almost two months ago she flew to Europe to join her husband. The daybook she kept while in Germany, Paris and, later, Italy is crammed with notes about housing conditions and attitudes of peoples in the conquered countries and about the encouraging way in which the French are finding their way back to normalcy. But when I talked to her, conversation centered chiefly on Nuernberg.

She described the medieval city as being in ruins. Castles that withstood the ravages of time for centuries’ are either empty shells or completely demolished. Detached sections of buildings which still stand are grim reminders of repeated bombings. The famous Apostles’ Clock that was the pride of the city in prewar days miraculously escaped destruction. However, it adorns the facade of a church which has only its front wall still standing. In the midst of the city’s ruins and in the surrounding territory, an international citizenry has been working since last October to determine on whom the guilt should be placed for the war that brought such devastation. The area is an American Army zone, and, according to Mrs. Biddle, the Army has done a marvelous job of transporting food and handling the housing situation. All types of living quarters from turreted castles to cottages have been taken over to accommodate delegates to the tribunal, interpreters, the Army itself and the V.I.P. (“very important people”) who are there to observe the war trials.

Justice Biddle lives in a house in a suburban section about 10 miles from the heart of the city. Its former owner, who was once a woman of wealth, heads the domestic staff there. Food is plentiful, but there is not much variety. Meat, potatoes, canned fruits and vegetables are about the only menu items available.

Continuing her account, Mrs. Biddle told something of the tribunal which convenes each week day morning at 10 o’clock and goes on until dusk, with only an hour’s recess at luncheon time. The atmosphere in the Palace of Justice itself is deadly serious; also uncanny. “Totally different from any courtroom I have ever seen,” she said. Every seat in equipped with earphones and a dial by which one can hear all proceedings in any of four languages – English, French, German and Russian. “Everyone in the room seems to be in a little space of his own, listening intently,” she added.

For obvious reasons, Mrs. Biddle did not elaborate on her impressions of the men who are on trial, but she mentioned in passing that the egotism of each is obvious and that several are still arrogant in attitude. She said, also, that Von Ribbentrop is the only one who seems to have given up hope; that, apparently there is very little mutual admiration among members of the group; and that Goering plays to the gallery at every opportunity.

In contrast to the grimness of the court and the prison which adjoins it is the loveliness of the Bavarian setting which, despite the destruction of war, still has magnificent weeded mountains, crystal clear streams and flowers all around. The international contingent in the city finds some measure of escape from the horrors of the war trials in a rather gay social life in the evening. Distinguished visitors from all over the world add a special accent of interest to the whirl. Two new night clubs – one in the Grand Hotel, which was badly bombed but is being rebuilt, and one in the French district – do a thriving business.

“Terrific contrasts are as evident today in Nurenberg as they were in every battle front of the war,” said Mrs. Biddle. That, of course, is to be expected in a city on which the eyes of the world are now fixed – with the hope that events transpiring there will help to prevent another world war.

The Pittsburgh Press (June 9, 1946)

Court bars data on ‘secret treaty’

NUERNBERG, June 8 (UP) – The War Crimes Tribunal today finally ended a persistent defense attempt to introduce as evidence an alleged secret treaty between Russia and Germany to divide Europe into spheres of influence.

The court rejected the request after the defense had repeatedly sought to introduce the alleged document.

The court also turned down a series of other requests by defendants, including a demand by Rudolf Hess to be allowed to present an affidavit from Friedrich Gaus, who accompanied Joachim von Ribbentrop to Moscow to sign the non-aggression pact in 1939.

It rejected a proposal, also, that Gaus appear as a witness.

ghosts

But there are no bands, no banners to welcome Nazis on trial in Nuernberg

By Judge Michael A. Musmanno

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the first of six stories by Judge Michael A. Musmanno of Common Pleas Court, now a Navy commander serving with the U.S. military government in Austria.

When I spent an afternoon with Cmdr. Musmanno in Vienna a month ago he was talking about his observation of the Nuernberg war crimes trial – technically known as the International Military Tribunal.

Because of his long experience as a judge and as an officer in Europe, he is well-fitted to write about that historic proceeding, and promised to do so. Hence this series.

Cmdr. Musmanno is now presiding over the U.S. Military Board for Forcible Soviet Repatriation. This court hears the cases of Russians in the U.S. Zone of Austria whom the Soviets ae trying to send back to Russia against their will.

Tanks are moving through the streets of Nuernberg, military bands are blaring down the main thoroughfares, swastika banners writhe and snap from medieval towers, baroque steeples and the statuary pinnacles in Hitler Platz.

Drumsticks rise and fall in gymnastic clatter over deep-sounding drums, and to this rhythmic thunder human robots with iron hats goose-step past reviewing stands aglitter with brass buttons, gold braid and marshal’s batons.

Parades, processions, cheering throngs are all converging on the Nuernberg Stadium, its towering concrete peristyle aflame with flags and burning. The 400-yard columnade stretching across the forward end of the field seems a dike to hold the sea of humanity sweeping in like a tidal wave.

The amphitheatrical concrete piers are also palisades to keep in check the 300,000 jubilating, shouting, singing zealots of Nazidom.

Now piercing bulges cut through the cacophony and the bedlam, and immediate silence ensues. In precise geometrical files the 300,000 stand as one, their arms outstretched in stiff salute. Down the center aisle a third of a mile long one man moves. Hidden snare drums softly but acutely roll a continuing homage as the solitary figure advances toward the lofty peristyle. He mounts the steps, and at length out on the huge platform surveys the human ocean which stands in reverential silence.

Devotion to death

He raises his arm, and the September air bursts with a 300,000-throated savage cry of devotion to the death: “Heil Hitler!!!”

The echoes reverberate to the summits of the Bavarian Hills.

That was five years ago. Today that same man with 20 shadows again parades in Nuernberg. The route of parade is not so long as formerly. It extends from a prison cell, through a prison yard, into an elevator shaft and then into a different type of stadium, not more than 100 feet square.

Nuernberg is shambles

There are no bands here, no goose-stepping guards, but each one of the shadows has his own personal escort in the form of a sturdy American soldier who directs him to the prisoners’ dock, where he will be afforded full opportunity to explain just what was meant by all the roarings, growlings, yellings and screechings in the Nuernberg Stadium.

I stand in the Nuernberg Stadium alone. It is dead. All the glory of its heydey is exposed in its tinselled cheapness. The monumental peristyle is a bleak concrete skeleton, the around is lifeless, the stands are ugly with the decayed air of things which have forgotten, if they ever knew, human contact.

Nuernberg itself is a shambles. Ninety percent destroyed, its massive picturesque structures of medieval origin, its classic walls dating from the Renaissance, its castles and towers famous throughout Europe, are wreckage, rubble and dust.

Nuernberg, which had become the national shrine of the Nazi Party, symbolizes today the ruins of National Socialism and, unfortunately, also the destruction this evil force has wrought.

Hitler is there!

The 20 shadows of Hitler, as they sit in the courtroom, can get a glimpse, if the green draperies over the windows are ever lifted, of their immediate handiwork in the city where they strutted in gaudy uniforms and launched the fearful program for the enslavement, debasement and torture of their fellow human beings.

Hitler is in this courtroom. Make no mistake of that. You can see him in the maniacal stare of Rudolph Hess; the booty-surfeited paunch of Herman Goering; the gangster’s jaw of sneering Hans Frank (“Butcher of Warsaw”); the squinty, fishy eyes of Col. Gen. Jodl; the cold-blooded, stiff-necked stance of Marshal Keitel; the double-dealing features of treaty-betraying Ribbentrop; the puffy image of finance-manipulator Schacht; the lost countenance of the submarine wolfpack admiral Doenitz; the flabby face of Jew-baiting and smut-vending Streicher; the crouch of Reichsbank President Walter Funk.

All together, with the other defendants, they make up Adolph Hitler who, through them, brought civilization to the very edge of catastrophe.

Men of ability

With some slight exception they are all men of ability. Intelligence tests conducted since their arrest reveal that Schacht, Hitler’s economy wizard, attained genius classification. Goering and Doenitz achieved near-genius rating.

And the others received high scores, except Streicher and Hess. Hess’ low mark, however, can possibly be ascribed to the fact that the test occurred during the period he was feigning amnesia.

Rudolph Hess stood up in court last November and announced that he was not crazy. The court took him at his word, but if Hess is not crazy, he has no right to go around looking the way he does.

A composite of Boris Karloff and Lon Chaney might convey some idea of the extraordinary aspect of this gaunt, cadaverous, sunken-eyed, yellow-skinned Hitlerite deputy who, after helping Hitler ignite the gunpowder barrel of a world war, presumed to make the world believe that alone he could stop it by a parachute descent into Scotland.

Attitudes differ

One day I stood at the courtroom door as the 20 defendants marched out for lunch. Many affected a bored indifference, a few threw dagger glances, others studied the floor passing beneath their unsteady feet.

But Hess came along with the air and stride of a club-footed Richard III. Wearing the same flying boots he wore on his mad flight to the British Isles, his gait affected the throwing forward of his left leg while with his right he took a shorter step.

Admiral Doenitz, who scored near-genius rating, is the man who proclaimed himself Hitler’s successor when he announced the Fuehrer’s death. The Fuehrer-for-a-day might now be willing to turn back the clock, and in that new life he would probably devote his efforts exclusively to running a navy.

At any rate, he gave that impression to both Capt. Tuthill and me as Admiral H. Kent Hewitt, Commander-in-Chief of U.S. Naval Forces in Europe, accompanied by Commodore Tully Shelley, entered the courtroom. Doenitz’ jaded eye quickened with interest and his inner being seemed to spring to attention as the American Admiral appeared.

Doenitz knew of the brilliant career of Admiral Hewitt, the man who probably landed more fighting troops on the European continent than any other fleet commander. Doenitz saw what Hewitt had done with his career, he knew what had happened to his own.

From the bridge of a flagship he had descended to a felon’s dock.

TOMORROW: The rats in the trap

nuremberg.tribunal

Day 151

The Evening Star (June 10, 1946)

Seyss-Inquart claims Hitler double-cross

NUERNBERG (AP) – Arthur Seyss-Inquart, tall manipulator of the Austrian Anschluss, testified before the International Military Tribunal today that Adolf Hitler double-crossed him after annexing Austria to the Reich.

Opening his defense against accusations that he sold out his native Austria and then participated in outrages against the Netherlands, Seyss-Inquart said Hitler failed to keep promises he made in a conference at Berchtesgaden in February 1938.

The defendant said he told Hitler at that time that Austrian ideals must be maintained as a requisite to a peaceful union with Germany. The Fuehrer agreed to this, Seyss-Inquart testified.

But after the German armies once were solidly entrenched within Austria, the defendant continued, Hitler took an opposite tack and relegated Seyss-Inquart to a subordinate position.

“I told Hitler I would not offer myself as a Trojan horse leader,” he said.

Seyss-Inquart offered a transcript of notes he made at the Berchtesgaden conference to substantiate his claims, and his lawyer also introduced records showing that Seyss-Inquart was promptly superseded in the highest position of authority by Hitler’s appointment of Joseph Buerckel as reichcommissar, reporting directly to the Fuehrer.

The Pittsburgh Press (June 10, 1946)

Innocent bystander, accused Nazi claims

NUERNBERG (UP) – Arthur Seyss-Inquart said today he accepted the Nazi chancellorship of Austria after the seizure by Germany only because the Nazi Party was the only one left in the country, “and if I didn’t recognize that, it meant civil war.”

Seyss-Inquart, who later became Nazi commissar for occupied Holland, testified before the war crimes court. He traced the downfall of independent Austria to the Nazis. He maintained throughout that he himself was little more than an innocent bystander who sought to preserve Austrian sovereignty.

He produced transcriptions of his purported telephone talks with Reichsmarshal Hermann Goering designed to prove that he insisted on Austrian independence and worked for a free election before the entry of German troops.

ghosts

Just hang Nazis, Jackson was told, but he wanted record for posterity

By Cmdr. M. A. Musmanno

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the second of six stories by Judge Michael A. Musmanno of Common Pleas Court, now a Navy commander serving with the U.S. military government in Austria.

When I spent an afternoon with Cmdr. Musmanno in Vienna a month ago he was talking about his observation of the Nuernberg war crimes trial – technically known as the International Military Tribunal.

Because of his long experience as a judge and as an officer in Europe, he is peculiarly well-fitted to write about that historic proceeding and promised to do so. Hence this series.

Cmdr. Musmanno now is presiding over a court almost equally strange – the U.S. Military Board for Forcible Soviet Repatriation. This court hears the cases of Russians in the U.S. Zone of Austria whom the Soviets are trying to send back to Russia against their will.

When Justice Robert H. Jackson of the U.S. Supreme Court began preparing for the Nuernberg trials, the difficulties confronting him seemed insurmountable.

How could a trial involving the legal procedures of four nationalities be conducted with order and understanding? How could four different languages be employed at the same time? And if, after each statement in court, proceedings had to halt until the declaration was translated into the other tongues, would not the trial consume years and could the thread of continuity be preserved?

Then there were the obstacles of a score of defendants, with even a larger number of lawyers; witnesses to be transported from all parts of Europe; hundreds of tons of documents to be analyzed, digested and presented.

Justice Jackson was told it could not be done – and would it not be better to dispose of the defendants by official decree, thus summarily and quickly ending the matter?

Had this been done the world would not have the documented record now being methodically, chronologically and judicially compiled.

Further, the world would have been denied juridical proof of things which in out-of-court narrative could not be believed – excesses of such fiendishness and horror that before them the brain and heart refuse to believe and the soul falters in incredulity.

How else, except through the safeguards which courtroom procedure affords, could we believe the story of the German who testified that innocent women and children were taken to an anti-tank ditch, their clothing removed, and there shot by soldiers acting under orders? And that – in the interests of decorum, so this man testified – when the children began to cry they were clubbed into submission so orderly behavior might be maintained?

Depth of depravity

Where, except through evidence produced with all solemnity of court proceedings, could one believe human depravity had reached the nadir where presumed civilized peoples used the skin of human victims as lamp shades?

History may accord to the U.S. an accolade for this trial equivalent to the glory assigned for its triumph in arms. For this tribunal is establishing, for all time, the criminal responsibility of those who lead nations into aggressive wars and to that extent may lighten this curse in man since the days of Cain.

With this for a goal, Justice Jackson and his associates refused to be defeated by physical obstacles. And, lo! it has come to pass that an international court now is sitting in judgment on the men who set out to subjugate the world.

The problem of diverse languages has been overcome completely. The proceedings are conducted in four languages simultaneously, yet there is no delay.

A question is put to a witness in Russian, an objection is made by a lawyer in German, the Chief Justice rules in English and the witness responds in French.

And if you are an English-speaking auditor, you have heard only English; if you are French, you have listened only to French words; if you are Russian, the idiom of the Soviet nation came into your earphones, and so on.

You wear a headset, as in the early radio days, and by means of a dial at your elbow you pick the language you want.

A battery of expert linguists, sitting behind a glass partition to the left of the defendants’ box instantly translates the four tongues into microphones – and the Tower of Babel is leveled.

Speak in low voice

All the speaking is done into microphones and the voice is held low. If a listener removes his headset and looks over the colorful courtroom, he gets the sensation of a movie with the sound track gone mute. Restoring the headset, however, and once more listening to the testimony he is shocked into the grim reality of this show, which is working toward a climax where the gibbet will not be made of celluloid but of sturdy timbers.

And the whole world will be standing by to see not merely these miserable defendants climb the ghastly steps, but to see swinging at the end of the rope the most hideous delinquent of all human chronicle – aggressive war.

When the electricians were working on these microphones and headsets, Hermann Goering was skeptical and said they wouldn’t function.

One of the workmen, approaching Nazi No. 2 during a recess period after the system had proved a mechanical success, asked Goering what he thought of it now.

The bulky former Luftwaffe chief replied: “Yes, I was wrong. It’s a good telephone system all right. But the translation is rotten.”

Goering is amazing

He is an amazing person, this Hermann Wilhelm Goering.

When movies were projected in the courtroom of one of the Nazi Party Congresses, he complained this was not the best nor the largest gathering.

“If they had shown the movies of our demonstration at Nuernberg in 1940,” he commented, “even Justice Jackson would have wanted to join the party.”

In Goering’s presence if one does not think of his crimes one can be impressed with this hulk of apparent amiability.

Confirming the impression that he is free from worry there is not a gray hair on his black head.

Enthusiastic and wearing his feeling on his sleeve, he responds with grimace, pantomime and gesticulation to the evidence as it is presented.

He will lift a fat hand in protest, nod two or three chins in approval, shrug his shoulders to say something just presented has no bearing on his case and then, when profoundly disturbed, will scribble notes furiously and toss them to his lawyer.

Though he is reputed to have said to intimates that he expects a death sentence, this does not seem to preoccupy him – as it does most of the others.

He wears a uniform which scarcely can be called a mourning outfit. Of soft, pale gray material, the jacket stylishly billows about a form considerably reduced from its pre-trial proportions.

Within the collar, which turns down all the way around, he sports a maroon scarf with polka dots. Over the breeches of his uniform he wears high tan boots.

There is no indication of rank on this operatic costume because the military organizations which he led to disaster no longer exist.

Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel who signed the armistice with France in the famous railroad car and later the unconditional surrender of the German forces in Berlin, and Colonel General Alfred Jodl wear plain green uniforms with black velvet collars, devoid of any show of rank.

Is it unjust?

It has been suggested in some quarters that it is unjust to prosecute military personnel who merely have done their duty as soldiers. But Keitel and Jodl had not been only soldiers.

As late as last August 3, Keitel said: “Today, still, I remain a convinced partisan of Adolf Hitler.”

This partisan of a man, whose insane delinquency toppled half of Europe into irreparable wreckage, issued an official order September 15, 1941, which read: “It must not be forgotten that in the countries in question (Norway, France, Denmark, Belgium) the value of a human life is less than nothing and that effective intimidation can be achieved only by unaccustomed rigor. In reprisal for the death of a German soldier, the penalty is death of 50 to one…”

Col. Gen. Jodl would be a disappointment to a Hollywood director. As Chief of Staff of the German High Command he should be, in accordance with every histrionic standard, tall, blustering and above all, have a thundering voice.

Jodl is thin and sloppy with the veins showing through the parchment crinkliness of his skin. His uniform hangs on him in scarecrow fashion. His nose is small and sharp and as red as a cherry.

But don’t think he is as innocuous as he is significantly ugly.

In those veins courses the venom injected by his chief, of whom he said on November 7, 1942, after five years of total war: “At this moment I should like to certify, not with my lips but from the bottom of my heart, that our confidence and our faith in the Fuehrer are limitless.”

As Monsieur Quatre, of the French prosecution, enumerated the towns which had been destroyed in observance of the orders issued by Jodl, I watched this former German chief of staff in the defendant’s box.

He squirmed, essayed a sickly grin, shuffled his papers noisily and then, as the Frenchman finished, settled back in his seat as relieved as a rodent who looks out again from his hole after the cat has turned the corner.

TOMORROW: Look at them now, jailer

1 Like

nuremberg.tribunal

Day 152

Oberösterreichische Nachrichten (June 11, 1946)

Nazi-Ideologie fand keinen Anklang

Seyss-Inquart erklärt in Nürnberg: Österreich erlag dem wirtschaftlichen Druck

Nürnberg (UP.) - Bei der Samstag-Sitzung des Nürnberger Gerichtshofes begann Arthur Seyß-Inquart, der ehemalige Nazikanzler für Österreich und Reichskommissar für die besetzten Niederlande während des Krieges, mit seiner Verantwortung. Er wird beschuldigt, zu dem engen Kreis gehört zu haben, die den Nazifeldzug zur Eroberung der Weltherrschaft vorbereiteten, und Verbrechen gegen die Menschlichkeit begangen haben.

Seyß-Inquart erschien vor dem Gerichtshof bei weitem nicht mehr so wohlgenährt als er es zu der Zeit war, wo er vor den anrückenden kanadischen Armeen aus Holland geflohen ist. Trotzdem sieht er bedeutend jünger aus, als seine 54 Jahre vermuten lassen. Nach der Ablegung des Eides beginnt Seyß-Inquart seine Lebensgeschichte zu erzählen. Er wurde in Mähren geboren und in Wien erzogen, hat den ersten Weltkrieg mitgemacht, wobei er dreimal für Tapferkeit ausgezeichnet und einmal verwundet wurde. Nach dem ersten Weltkrieg hat er die Laufbahn eines Rechtsanwalts eingeschlagen. Der Nazipartei ist er offiziell erst im Jahre 1938 beigetreten, obwohl er schon lange Zeit vorher für sie gearbeitet hat.

Keine Mitschuld am Dollfuß-Mord

Der Angeklagte leugnet entschieden mit dem Tod des österreichischen Kanzlers Dollfuß etwas zu tun gehabt zu haben und sagt: „Ich habe Dollfuß nach dem Krieg kennengelernt und wußte. daß er mich im Jahre 1933 in sein Kabinett aufnehmen wollte. Einige Wochen vor seinem Tode hatte ich eine Unterredung mit ihm, da sich Dollfuß für meine Meinung über eine Befriedung der damals sehr angespannten Situation sehr interessierte. Ich erklärte seinerzeit dem österreichischen Kanzler, daß die Nazis in Österreich nur die Befehle Hitlers ausführten.

Österreichische Arbeitslosigkeit und deutsche Propaganda

Nach den weiteren Ausführungen des Angeklagten hat die Ideologie der Nazis in Österreich zwar keinen großen Anklang gefunden, trotzdem hat die Nazipartei hier schließlich einen verhältnismäßig großen Anhängerkreis gefunden, zu dem ihr die wirtschaftlichen Verhältnisse in der Zeit von 1933 bis 1938 verhalfen.

„Seit 1933,“ sagte der Angeklagte, „beobachteten wir in Österreich, wie in Deutschland allmählich die Bestimmungen des Versailler Vertrages beseitigt wurden und schließlich die große Arbeitslosigkeit, die draußen vor 1933 herrschte, ein Ende gefunden hatte. In Österreich waren damals etwa zehn Prozent der Bevölkerung arbeitslos und deshalb hofften viele Arbeiter, daß im Falle eines Anschlusses auch in Österreich die Arbeitslosigkeit beseitigt werden würde. Deshalb war auch der Wunsch nach einem Anschluß in den österreichischen Nazikreisen so groß, dies um so mehr, als sich Deutschland weigerte, dem Gedanken einer Zollunion mit Österreich zuzustimmen, was die demokratischen Parteien in Österreich begrüßt hätten.“

Nach dem Kanzlermord

Die Beschuldigung der Anklagevertretung, daß er bei einer öffentlichen Versammlung im Jahre 1938 die Ermordung Dollfuß als „gute Tat“ gepriesen hätte, bezeichnete Seyß-Inquart als falsche Auslegung seiner Bemerkungen, die er bei einer Feier der Partei zum Gedenken der SS.-Leute, die damals für die Mordtat gehängt wurden gemacht hatte.

Als der Nachfolger Dollfuß, Schuschnigg, die Nazipartei in Österreich verboten hatte, schloß sich der Angeklagte einem kleinen Kreis von Leuten an, die in dem

Dollfuß-Attentat eine Bedrohung für den Anschluß sahen. Der Kreis plante die Gründung einer österreichischen nationalsozialistischen Partei, die frei vom Einfluß der Nazis in Deutschland sein sollte. Seyß-Inquart leugnet, damals mit deutschen Politikern in Kontakt gewesen zu sein und gibt an, selbst Hauptmann Leopold, den damaligen Führer der österreichischen Nazipartei, nur dreimal getroffen zu haben. Von diesem sagte der Angeklagte: „Leopold hat meine politischen Gedanken nicht verstanden. Er verlangte, daß ich mich ihm unterordnen solle, was ich verweigerte.“

The Pittsburgh Press (June 11, 1946)

ghosts

Germany’s supermen creak at joints with lumbago, neuralgia, flat feet

But U.S. guards prize Nazis against suicide in jail cells
By Cmdr. M. A. Musmanno

Third of a series by Common Pleas Judge M. A. Musmanno, now a Navy commander with the U.S. military government in Austria.

As the Fifth Army slugged its way northward from Salerno to the Alps, it had one constant opponent: Field Marshal Albert Kesselring, who commanded all German forces in Italy.

We identified Kesselring with the strength, stealth, fire power, trickery and savagery of the foe. And with his atrocities.

It was presumably by his order that 325 hostages in Rome were dragged into the Ardeatine Caves. And there, in the darkness – like so many dumb animals – they were shot in the back of the neck, their bodies tumbled into a heap, and the subterranean horror chamber sealed with a blast of dynamite.

It was he who caused the destruction of the artistic and monumental bridges over the Arno and shelled historic Florence after promising to respect it as an “open city.”

At the top of every mountain which the Fifth Army had to scale, Kesselring’s men held the summit with murderous machine guns.

Imagine my surprise and pleasure when, entirely unexpectedly, I found him pacing a jail cell in the Nuernberg prison. Since then he has been moved to the Nazi horror camp at Dachau, where he occupies a cell with three other high officers.

It was Kesselring who, when six German soldiers were killed in a skirmish between a German and an Italian regiment at the time of the Armistice, demanded that the Italians furnish 6000 of their soldiers in recompense, “ready for any holocaust.”

‘Get ‘em yourself’

The Italian commander, General Calvi de Bergolo, reported to Kesselring and said: “Sir, you demand that 6000 of my men report to await your pleasure. I give you one myself. The other 5999 you will need to take yourself.”

Conditions have changed since then. Kesselring now may not demand anything, although he has not been stripped entirely of the prerogatives of high rank.

He can make up his bed in any fashion he chooses although it must pass the inspection of an American corporal who looks in every few minutes. He now can obtain first-hand knowledge of the art of eating from a soldier’s mess kit.

Furthermore, he is protected from those accidents which overwhelmed Hitler, Himmler, Goebbels, Ley and the others who had proclaimed a regime for 1000 years and then refused to live to see how it would work out in the first 10.

Thus, in partaking of his food, Marshal Kesselring may use only a spoon, thus avoiding the possibility of injuring himself with a knife or fork.

American Colonel Andrus, in charge of the Nuernberg prisoners, says: “It is my job to keep them alive, no matter how they feel about what may be in store for them.”

Connecting bath too?

Neatly appended to each cell is the name of the occupant.

At Berchtesgaden I visited Hitler’s home and walked over the estate dotted with the dwelling places of his collaborators, a house for each crony.

Here he could have collaborated with them more easily. Hermann Goering, Rudolf Hess, Joachim von Ribbentrop, Julius Streicher – all of them now live in the same house with adjoining, if not connecting, rooms.

But these faithful followers of the Nazi superman somehow are remiss in a demonstration of affection for their departed chief.

As I walked down the steel corridor looking into the various cells, I noted that, while each contained photos of women, children and aged persons – presumably the usual remembrances of kinsmen and friends – not one cell shone with the likeness of the Austrian paperhanger.

Examining the cells of these men who set out to rule the world was even a more impressive experience than watching them in court.

These leaders of the master race find it necessary to use a little medical prop here and there, as evidenced by the medicine bottles for Colonel General Alfred Jodl’s lumbago and von Ribbentrop’s neuralgia, the special shoes for Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel’s flat feet and the liniments for the stiff knee of the Austrian Quisling, Arthur Seyss-Inquart.

Steal and hoard

The conviction that they are members of a superior tribe did not deter Col. Gen. Jodl and Field Marshal Keitel from indulging in some petty pilfering and the hoarding of aspirin and neuralgia pills in their socks against a rainy day when the pains of the flesh should exceed the tribulations of their palsied souls.

Col. Gen. Jodl, whose word sent scores of armored divisions smashing into neighboring countries, sleeps with his head under the blankets. Accordingly, the soldier assigned to guard him must enter the cell and pull down the blankets, for it is a rule that a prisoner’s head must be visible at all times.

A pressing shop is maintained in the prison for the benefit of the inmates so they may have their suits kept presentable and ironed as often as they deem necessary.

Practically all avail themselves of this service except Admiral Karl Doenitz, who will not allow his suit to be pressed but purposely rumples it, supposedly to present a more pitiable appearance. He does, however, sport a rather lively plain cravat.

Streicher, the Jew baiter, should not feel the strangeness of his present surroundings as much as his fellow-tenants. As an original Nuernberger and an earlier criminal, he has bad previous lodging in this domicile of delinquents.

When he entered the courtroom the first day of the trial, he boasted it was nothing new to him, as he had been a defendant in this courtroom 12 or 13 times before.

In the days of Nazi supremacy he also had appeared here often – to send on their doleful way, victims of his relentless racial persecution.

When church services were held for the 20 defendants by the prison chaplain, Streicher was one of three who stayed away.

One of the guards asserted, however, that most of the other defendants probably attended only to enjoy another opportunity to be together and discuss plans for their defense.

In fact, during the Lutheran services, the chaplain felt compelled, from time to time, to cast sharp glances to silence their whisperings.

“I wouldn’t trust them even in church,” said Colonel Andrus.

TOMORROW: The trial proceeds.

1 Like

Jackson outburst attributed to appointment of Vinson

War crimes prosecutor disappointed at not getting chief justiceship, colleagues say

NUERNBERG (UP) – Closest co-workers of Justice Robert H. Jackson in the war crimes trial and today he was disappointed over President Truman’s failure to appoint him chief justice of the United States.

Jackson’s colleagues said he had entertained definite hopes for the Supreme judicial post before Mr. Truman named Fred Vinson. In his attack on Justice Hugo L. Black, Justice Jackson praised Mr. Vinson as “upright, fearless and well qualified.”

One of Mr. Jackson’s closest friends said the justice was extremely reticent regarding his own ambitions and future.

May enter politics

“He never mentioned the chief justice appointment,” the friend said, “but you can certainly say he was disappointed not getting it. Any justice would be.”

Observers at the War Crimes Tribunal speculated that the Supreme Court feud might lead to Justice Jackson’s departure from the high bench and his entry into active political life.

When he was most prominent as chief American prosecutor last winter, there was occasional mention of him as a presidential possibility in 1948.

Justice Jackson refused to add much comment to his lengthy statement, which he released last night to a press conference in his Palace of Justice office.

Got clippings

Asked if his statement had been suggested by a Washington legislator or some other American advisor, Mr. Jackson replied, “I think I had better not comment on that.” He said he had received dozens of clippings of Washington newspaper articles on the court from Washington friends.

There were rumors in courthouse cliques that Justice Jackson had patched up old differences with James A. Farley when the former postmaster general visited here three months ago. It was suggested then that Mr. Farley might support Mr. Jackson for the Democratic nomination as governor of New York.

Mr. Jackson has denied that he is a candidate for any public office, professing a desire only to serve on the Supreme Court.

It was learned that Justice Jackson sent a letter to Mr. Farley after the latter’s visit, stating he sought no office. That, however, was before the death of Chief Justice Harlan F. Stone.