NEW ZEALANDER WHO SAW NUREMBERG TRIALS

Chronicle (Levin), 1 April 1947, Page 2

NEW ZEALANDER WHO SAW NUREMBERG TRIALS

AUCKLAND, Marcli 31. A New Zealander who attended the jNurcmbeig trials has returned by ! llving-boat from Wydnoy. He was Mr. I Uwen Davios, of Wellington, vvho for 12 j months was administration ofiicer for j Lnrra at headquarters of tlie United i WLates zone in Munieh, one of the few i Unrra olficials from New Zealand lo be , pusteu to the Aniei'ican zone in Gej'- : uianv. Mr. Owen Davios has come back | for demobilisation. Before he left for ; o verseas in Boptember, 1944, lie was a vivil servant. j Mr. Davies said he was present at the ; trials of tlie leading Nazis at Nurein- ! berg and also the trials of members of | the stall of Dachau concentration canip. | He visited the cainp soon after the | liberation and insp'ected tlie crema1 lorium where luunan bones were still jl>ing on the floor of the gas chamber, fumigating chamber and under tlie tree from vvliich victiuis were hanged. He also stood on the spot where people were forced to kneel 011 duckboards and while in this position were sliot in the nape of the neck by firing squads. .After tlie trials he had been taken to see 37 Nazis who had been condenined ! J to death, including tlie notorious cxI perimentalist, Dr. Beliiller. Mr. Davies said that, while he had not witnessed ' thc lianging of.the Nazi eriminals, he I had listeued to a running description over Ihe radio. Under the American j nielhod of execution eacli criminal had I takou at least 10 niiuutes to die. Referriug to the work of Unrra, Mr. | Davies said he considored the orgariisaj tion had done a good job in Germauy. It had set up cainps that were towns j in theniseives, where as many as 8000 : displaecd persons were lioused. Thoi j camps were run 011 deniocratie lines by I j coniinittees choseii • from tlie ininates, j and these eomniittees were answerable ! to Unrra. | "We had a university in the faiuous Deutsche's Miiseum where 2000 students followed a wide currieulum, " he continued. Unrra had also established "iracing bureaux" for the purpose of reuniting lost rclatives, Tlie organisation had only provided suecour for displaced persons who, in the American zOne, had nuinbered botvveen 300,000 and 400,000. Hiroshima was orily a flea-bite alongside the devastatiou in Gcrmany. He estimated it would take at least 20 years to clear away the del-ris of wai and another 20 years to rebuild what had been distroyed. Bci'ore studedts were rdmitted to German universities i tliev had to perforni a stipulated nuinber of mhn hours in clcaning up rubble.