NAZI SUICIDES

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 102, 27 October 1945, Page 7

NAZI SUICIDES

THE DEATH OF LEY

(By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright.)

LONDON, October 26,

The 'notorious Nazi Labour Front leader,. Robert Ley, who committed suicide in Nuremberg Gaol, where he was awaiting trial as a major war criminal, : had stuffed his throat with shreds torn from his underclothing, and then strangled himself with strips torn from a towel. To. prevent the knots in the'towelling slipping he had soaked it in water. The towel rope was tied to the bend of the flush-pipe of a toilet.

The sentry outside became suspicious when he heard no movement and "called Ley's name several times without getting a reply. When guards entered the prisoner was found seated on the toilet, strangled. Artificial respiration and injections proved unavailing. The son of a peasant, Robert Ley was 55 years of age. He was one of the early members of the Nazi Party. He organised the "Strength Through Joy" workers' holiday movement, and as leader of the Labour Front ruled the lives of more than 20,000,000 German workers.

Commenting on Ley's suicide, a London correspondent says that the suicide psychosis is prominent among the Axis war criminals. Himmler, Laval, and To jo all attempted suicide, the first also with success.

The Allied courts needed these leading men. , They have at their fingertips information which might be vital in determining the guilt, or degree of guilt, of many others on the Allied lists. Himmler was, for this' reason, a great loss, for he, perhaps more than any other,' knew the respective responsibilities of Nazi Party adherents. American intelligence officers state that Ley tried three times previously to commit suicide. He admitted to interrogators that he tried twice to shoot himself,- but the pistol failed. The third time he used cyanide, without effect. Ley's guard has been exonerated. Mrs. Madeleine Wanderer, a 20-year-old ballet dancer, who was Ley's mistress, disclosed that Ley and Goebbels vowed that they would never fall into Allied hands.