WIDESPREAD PLOT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 November 1938, Page 5

WIDESPREAD PLOT

AGAINST HITLER’S LIFE ALLEGED IN GERMANY. FIFTY PERSONS ALREADY SENTENCED. By Telegraph.—Press Association—Copyright. BERLIN. November 14. Following the recent sentences imposed by the People's Court for high treason, a Security Service, numbering 7000 members throughout Germany, which has been entrusted with the Fuehrer's personal safety, is alleged to have unearthed further ramifications of a plot against the regime, including the projected assassination of Herr Hitler and other leaders. Already 50 people have been sentenced and others face trial foi' treason.

Weapons and explosives have been discovered in various parts of Germany.

The People’s Court recently sentenced four Communists for high treason. Peter Kaspar being sentenced to decapitation, August Hirsch to 12 years’ imprisonment, Johannes Schneider to five years’ imprisonment, and Otto Sauter to two years’ imprisonment.

It was stated in evidence that the accused sought to obtain military secrets from soldiers for the information of the Soviet. They conspired to arrange for a mob to march on Berlin on a fixed day. armed with weapons stolen from a barracks, to create and facilitate a popular rising which was to be accompanied by factory explosions, sabotage and strikes.

The day after the trial, Dr Parey and Dr Giebel, the two prosecutors, were killed in a motor crash on the Berlin-Hanover road, while a woman driver in another car and also Dr Parisius, who secured ihe death sentence on Van der Lubbe at the Reichstag fire trial, were injured. The cause of the accident apparently was a stationary lorry whose driver failed to switch on the lights.