New-York tribune., 1920-01-04

he had received from Lieutenant Won
Kessel, acting. as aide to Reinhard.
This order, which was verbal one,
ran thus, according to the testimony
Of another witness at the trial:
Colonel Reinhard is angry with
you; you must shoot as many as you
can, even IL it be $50 men. Colonel
Reinhard does not know what to do
with so many prisoners"
Wholesale Shooting Ordered
That was the fatal order that led to
the shooting Of thirty marines. But 1t
emanated. not from Reinhard. but from
Won Kessell. Marloh was a Prussian
officer and felt bound to obey orders
first and wait for explanations after
ward. He had eighty Of the worst
specimens in his darkroom; and he
would conf1ne his shootings to part
Of these. Then. fortunately, Captain
Centner same along and saw that this
group included many men VIII, had
formerly helped him to guard the
that they were trustworthy. He picked
them out-ffty Of them-and said he
would vouch for them. That left thirty
OF the ostensibly worst men.
Marloh decided that he would re-
strict his executions to these, and
charged one Of his non-coms. with the
work, while he himself stayed in>the
building. The victims were not told
what was about to happen. They were
marched out into the courtyard and
placed in a corner. Ten PAGES distant
stood eight soldiers with rifles These
suddenly opened rapid fire upon the de-
fenscless victims and kept it up until
all were on the ground. All were not
dead. One man; Levin by name, had
had fallen With the r, rest ia and % discreetly cree y
played dead. In his evidence in the
trial he told how he heard the soldiers
carrying out an examination Of the
hodies, how one of them would say,
"This one Is not dead yet"-and then
a pistol shot; and this proceeded until
all were thought to be dead. Levin
later got up, to the surprise Of every
body, and was able to get the protection
Of an officer, who saved him.
Story Shocked Judge
Such was this murder Of the ma
rines." Ono Of the most narrowing
facts connected with it is that most
Of the men, al the presiding Judge
himself said, were evidently innocent.
One witness, a merchant, told how his
young son, who was only fireman In
the building of the marine division and
as such went there to draw his pay, was
which was gift from his sweetheart.
Another man was shot because he wore
q gold watch, which his wife had given
him. These ornaments we're sufficient
proofs, in the eyes Of Marloh, that the
men were plunderers.
But the situation was for Marloh him
self also tragedy. He was by no means
Of that type Of Prussian officer which
became SO we'll known during the war
for their reckless acts. He Is the son
Of simple schoolmaster and was
the army in 1912, became q lieutenant
in 1918 and was In the whole war He
was wounded twenty times and several
OF his wounds were severe, yet he al
ways volunteered again for front serv-
ice. He finally lost his lower left arm
in 1917 and was taken prisoner by the
English, but Ave months later was ex-
changed. He is now twenty-six years
old. Old General Won Oertzen, who has
known Marloh from his childhood, gave
him an unusually high character
But Marloh is not a strong charac-
ter, as he showed by his subsequent
behavior. After having drawn up his
official report of the shooting, in which
he duly referred to his orders, he al
lowed Won Kessel to persuade him to
substitute another report, in which he
made no mention Of his specific orders,
but referred only to Noske's general
order.
Fled to Escape Trial
Then as the agitation carried on in
the Independent Socialist press against
Marloh grew more threatening he al
lowed himself to be persuaded by Won
Kessel and the Rev. DR.. Rump, s'in the
interests Of the country" to run away
in order to escape arrest and trial.