The Evening Star (January 14, 1946)
Doenitz order forbade U-boats to rescue victims, court told
NUERNBERG (AP) – An explicit directive of the German Navy forbidding any attempts to rescue or aid survivors of torpedoed ships was read into the record of the International War Crimes Tribunal today in the prosecution of Grand Adm. Karl Doenitz.
“No attempt of any kind must be made at rescuing members of ships sunk, and this includes picking up persons in the water and putting them in lifeboats, righting capsized lifeboats, and handing over food and water,” read the order issued to all submarine commanders under Doenitz’s command on September 17, 1942.
“Rescue runs counter to the rudimentary demands of warfare for the destruction of enemy ships and crews.”
Doenitz is first on the list of 10 defendants whose individual cases Britain and the United States hope to conclude this week, clearing the way for French and Russian prosecutors to start their cases next week.
The case against Doenitz was closely linked with that against his predecessor as commander in chief of the German Navy – Erich Raeder – which is to follow.
Hitler order disclosed
Earlier evidence was introduced which disclosed that Adolf Hitler, in an effort to render American shipping construction useless by creating a shortage of seamen, directed German U-boats early in 1942 to kill or capture crews of torpedoed vessels.
British prosecutors produced also a secret wireless message to one U-boat commander who reported giving aid to women and children who survived a sinking. The message informed him that this action was “wrong” and bluntly reminded him his vessel was not sent to rescue “English and Poles.”
The Fuehrer’s orders were disclosed in notes on a conversation between Hitler and Japanese Ambassador Hiroshi Oshima in the presence of Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop January 3, 1942. The notes were submitted to the international tribunal.
U-boats recalled
The memorandum said Hitler told the Japanese ambassador he had recalled the entire Atlantic submarine fleet for reorganization, after which it would be posted outside U.S. ports. Later, he continued, they would congregate off Freetown, on the western bulge of America, and Capetown, South Africa.
“The Fuehrer pointed out that however many ships the United States built, one of their main problems would be the lack of personnel,” the memorandum continued. “For that reason even merchant ships would be sunk without warning, with the intention of killing as many of the crew as possible.
“Once it gets around that most of the seamen are lost in the sinkings, the Americans would soon have difficulties in enlisting new people.”
Lifeboats to be sunk
Hitler told Oshima the German attitude could not be governed by “any humane feelings” and he therefore gave his order that “in case foreign seamen could not be taken prisoner, which is not always possible in the open sea, U-boats were to surface after torpedoing and shoot up the lifeboats.
“Oshima heartily agreed with the Fuehrer’s comments and said the Japanese, too, are forced to follow these methods,” the notes concluded.
Prosecution plans sought
The International Military Tribunal, pondering requests by thousands of Germans desiring to testify, called on Allied prosecutors today to define specifically their plans and objectives against six Nazi groups accused as criminal organizations.
The tribunal suggested it might defer the trial of the six groups, which include the German high command and general staff as well as the SA and SS, whose membership runs into hundreds of thousands of persons, until present hearings against 22 top-ranking Nazi leaders are completed.
Lord Justice Geoffrey Lawrence, president of the tribunal, announced that “many thousands of applications” have been received from members of the indicated organizations expressing a desire to present defense testimony.
Four points listed
The tribunal, he said, “is having difficulty in determining the manner in which representatives of the named organizations will be given an opportunity to appear.”
He said the court desired to hear arguments from the prosecution and the defense on the following points:
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“The exact tests of criminality which must be applied” and the nature of the evidence to be admitted since the charter creating the tribunal “does not define a criminal organization,” and the question “of whether such evidence might better be received at subsequent trials. Many assert they were conscripted into these organizations or were unaware of their criminal nature or are innocent of unlawful acts,” the presiding judge explained.
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“The question of the exact time each organization was criminal is vital to the decision of the tribunal. The tribunal desires to know of the prosecution whether it intends to adhere to the limits of time in the indictment.”
U.S. case recalled
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The question “of whether any class of persons should be excluded from the scope” of a declaratory judgment sought against the six Nazi organizations. Lord Justice Lawrence recalled that American prosecutors in the case against Nazi leadership corps indicated they might seek to exempt some of the party’s small fry office holders from the criminal category.
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A summary of “the elements which justify the charge of being a criminal organization” in each instance and the question of what acts of individual defendants would justify declaring entire organizations to be criminal. With this point Lord Justice Lawrence asked the prosecution to submit proposed findings of fact.
Arguments on all of the points will be heard at the conclusion of the prosecution’s entire case which is expected in about one month.
It was learned that approximately 37,000 applications have been received from members of indicted organizations who desire to be heard by the tribunal.
Most of these come from members of the SA – Hitler’s original Brown Shirts, who dropped into relative obscurity as the SS rose steadily in influence. Sixty-five applications were received from former Gestapo men.
In addition to the SS and SA, the two largest groups, and the military clique, represented by the German high command and the general staff, the indicted organizations are the Leadership Corps, the Gestapo and the Reich Cabinet.
