SHOOTING OF R.A.F. OFFICERS

Chronicle (Levin), 10 April 1946, Page 5

SHOOTING OF R.A.F. OFFICERS

UNALTERABLE ORDER BY HITLER CLAIMED KEITEL CLOSELY QUESTIONED NUREMBERG, April 8. Under cross-examination at the War : Crimes Tribunal today, Field-Marshai ! Keitel said that the conference at | which Hitler ordered that the 50 recap I fcured R.A.F. officers were not to be re- ! turned to the Wehrmacht but retained ' by the police, occurred the day aiter ' the escape. Keitel admitted having j given orders that details of the shootI ing of the recaptured raen should be i ! posted in the prison camp as a deterj rent. He also admitted that Generai l von Gravenitz, inspector of the German ! war prisoners' organisation, said to : him: "Escape isn't dishonourable; it is i laid dpwn in the Geneva Convention. ' ' | Sir David Maxwell Fyfe asked: Did j you say, "I don't care a damn. Wej discussed it in the Fuhrer's presence. i It cannot be altered. ' ' Keitel replied: "No, though I believe I said somathing similar. " He added 1 that he had not heard that the B.A.F officers were shot in the back of the head with a revolver. Ke first heard oi the shooting from Hitler 's adjutant about March 30. Sir David Maxwell Fyfe said that 1 a/i the prisoners were not shot unti April 13. Keitel said that no special order was given to the Wehrmacht to c'teal with so-called Ailied tenor flyers who crashed. The orders were that they should be handed over to the sacuricy police. Sir David Maxwell Fyfe askea:-| "You knew, didn't you, that if the j airmen were handed over their chance ! ■of surviving would be one in a miliion?" Keitel answered: "I didn't know that at the timo. I've ituiut a^cut ii , here. ' ' Asked if he knew what "specia! j fcreatment" for captured airmen meant, i Keitel repliod: "Yes, it was gensraily } known. ' ' ^ir pavid Maxwell Fyfe 's last ques ' tion was: "You told us you knew no j thing of the concentration camps, iass I rnurdor, and the misery of miilions o I people. Wouid you, if you had known 1 all you know now, have refused to con ' tinue these actions?" Keitel said: "I ari convinced that il the generals of the armed for,ces had known, they would have fought against these things. ' '

In a final brief speech, Keitel said ; "You may say that I made mistakes, committed wrong actions, and showeu weakness in following the Fuhrer, hui you cannot accuse ms of being cowardly, dishonourable, and faithless. 1 have stated the facts and admitted that I often felt compunction, but I never thought of refusing to obey thc Fuhror. " Dr. Hans Lammers, former chief oi ' the Reich Chancellery and an associatc and friend of Hitler for many years said that Keitel had no constitutiona authcrity. There was no Reich Government from 1936, and all its powerx had slipped into Hitler 's. hands. Hitler. before the war, regarded the Cabinet as a "defeatist club." He even forbad> them to meet for "some beer-drinking and cccasional informal chats. " Dr. Lammers disclaimed the respon sibility of tlie former Ministers for thr Reich policy; he fixed it on the Fuhrer.