BRUTAL MEASURES AGAINST PARTISANS

Chronicle (Levin), 8 April 1946, Page 8

BRUTAL MEASURES AGAINST PARTISANS

Press Assn.

KEITEL REFUSES TO ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY

By Telearaph

-Copyright

Received Sunday 7.30 p.m. NUREMBERG, April 7. Field-Marshal Keitel, hack in the witnessrhox for the fourth day, told the War Crimes Trihunal that German measmres against Russian partisans were necessary hecause the partisan activities assumed incredihle proportions. Keitel hesitated and fumbled for words when the Russian prosecutor, Mr,. Rudenko, continuing his cross-examina-tion, pressed him to explain an antipartisan order which stated that 50 to 100 Communists must • die for every German soldier shot. Keitel said the draft o'f the order which he sent' to Hitler stated five to ten. Mr. Rudenko said this order was one in which the German troops were told that measures to intimidate women and i children could "b,e taken. He asked Keitel whether he thought that right. Witness did not reply. Mr. Rudenko: Do you know that miilions were killed? Keitel: I don't believe that millions were killed. No German soldier and no German o'fficer has ever thought of : killing women and children. I Keitel added that the order meant ! thlt women and children were to he j taken to the rear from the areas in which they lived. He said that' some oi the worst things he had had to do as clpef of the High Command were j against the voice of his inrier conscience. | Cross-examined hy Sir Maxwell Fyfe, | he said in deliherate tones: "One of these worst things was in the matter oi | the 50 R.A.F. officers." The other two 1 worst things were the orders given regarding warfare in the east, insofar as they were contrary to the lisages of war, and a question which implicated him mcst was that of the treatment of j terror fliers. ! Asked if he had tried to mitigate j these orders, Keitel said that any change .had to he submitted to Hitler. Keitel admitted that he might have issued the order transferring 24,000 non German civilians to the "tender mercies" of the Security Police. SHOOTING OF RAILWAYMEN. Sir Maxwell Fyfe read a telegram from General Christiansen, commander-in-chief in Holland, seeking permission | to allow German soldfers to shoot with- | out trial Dutch railwaymen who refused i to work. ! Sir Maxwell Fyfe: Will you agree j that the shooting of railwaymen who j would not work for the occupation I f orces is ahont as hrutal and cruel a ; measure as could he imagined hy the mind of maa? Keitel: Yes, that is a cruel measure.Keitel admitted that British seaaien who had heen arrested and shot after a two-man suhmarine raid against the hattleship Tirpitz in a Norwegian harhour in Septemhef, 1943, had heen engaged in a perfectly legai attack. Keitel questioned ahout the order to | shoot British commandoes capfcured in i'Horway said: "I knew these things | happened, but I did not issue the orders ! and I could not alter the f acts. ' ' I Sir Maxwell Fyfe: Was there no man 1 in the Germany army of your rank with | the courage to speak out against cold- ] blooded murder? Keitel : All I can say is that I did not protest. I cannot speak on behalf oi others. i Keitel admitted that the ' ' night and Ifog" operation whereby Himmler's ! agents spirited away suspected resistI ance elements to their death in Germany j without their families heing informed . was extremely cruel and hrutal. ! CLASH WITH HITLER. Giving his version of the events leading to the murder of the 50 memhers of the R.A.F. v/ho were recaptured after , the mass hid for escape from Stalagluft III, Keitel told the Trihunal on Friday ■ that this was the third mass escape of war prisoners. "I hoped it would not he necessary to mention the escape, at the. Berghof conference," he said,* "hut Hiniinler turned up and Teported the matter to Hitler. A serious clash arose hetwe^n Hitler and myself . Hitler immediately levelled the gravest incredihle accusations against me, and then declared: 1 'These priscners are not to he retumed ; to the armed forces. They are to remain with the police.' I immediately ohjected, saying that this procedure was preposterous. Hitler then repeat- ' ed : ' I ara ordering you and Himmler to i retain them. You are not to give tliem up. ' I then hegan to figh-t for the men ; who had already heen recapfured, and j who, according to this order, would he j taken from this camp. In that I suc i eeeded, hut that was all. ' ' Keitel swore it was not until several 1 days after this stormy meeting that he i learned the flyers had heen shot. An afhdavit produced from Mri >1 General Westhoff, formerly in cha?g3 oi the German department for prisoners oi war, said that Keitel, a few days after the escape, told the inspector of the German prisoners of war organisation, General von Grae venitz, . in Westhoff 's presence: "These escapes must cease. We must set an example. I can only tell you that the men who have escaped will he shot." Keitel told the Court that Graevenitz could easily have gained the impression that he (Keitel) originated the order which was given hy Hitler for the recaptured men to he held hy the police. Keitel said that when he heard of the shootings he saw Hitler and told him ahout them. Hitler only said: "I, too, have heard." BRANDING OF RUSSIANS. Keitel continued: "I said in extreme disgust just what my opinion was. Hitler said that the matter was to he puhlished in the camp, to scare the others." 1 Keitel qdmitted issuing an order for the branding of Russian prisoners of war hecause in the summer of 1942 thousands of Russians were escaping, , hut 'he said that after he had discussed s

the matter with the international law department of the Foreign Office and with Rihbentrop he issued a clear instruction that the order was not to go out. Keitel said that Hitler wanted Himmler to accept the responsibility for the recapture of Giraud, who escaped from Koenigstein Fortress to North Africa in 1*942, on the ground that the counter intelligence was failing in its task. Keitel said that Russian war prisoners were treated differently from other prisoners in German hands. He maintained that the halsis for this discrimination was Hitler 's view that Bolshevism was Germany 's chief enemy. Hitler argued that the Russians had -not adhered to the German Convention and that jthe •■Germans therefore could not fee •hound hy it. Keitel claimed that despite constant interference iby Himmler and the security police, men of the IJed Army practice lived .and worked .under conditions hetter than those laid down in the strict instructi'Ons issued hy the Nazi guards, t ii