Evening star., 1942-11-28
|Nazi Officials Seized
In Morocco on Way
To U. 5. as Prisoners
Axis Armistice Group
Lived in Luxury While
Stripping Country
BY HAROLD v. BOYLE,


WITH UNITED STATES ARMY
AT FEDHALA, French Morocco,
Nov. "a Delayed The German
members of the Axis armistice COM
mission captured by the United
States Army in Morocco are on their
way to the United States as prison.
ers of war, it was disclosed today.
The commission members took
good care of themselves as well as
their Fuehrer.
Besides arrangements for ship
ments to the Reich of huge sup
plies Of minerals, phoSphates, wool
and alcohol, they managed to send
relatives and friends back home
costly packages Of food, soap, coffee,
tea, sugar, perfumes and leather
goods.
Lived in Exclusive Hotel.
In the rooms of their exclusive
shorefront hotel were found ex-
pensive stationery, toilet water, the
best wines and other delicacies and
fine Moroccan wallets and luggage.
Lest they lose sight of their duty
in the Arabian Nights wonderland,
portraits of Hitler and Goering
frowned down from the walls beside
the motto, in German, What Would
the Fuehrer Think of This?'
The hotel manager said that 10
members Of the commission were
living at the hotel, the Miramar,
when the Americans struck. Some
were killed within so yards of the
hotel, another was shot and killed
as he tried to drive through the
American lines and others got away
in automobiles.
SOC Of Products Went to Nazis.
At one time, said the manager,
Rene Rougeron, there were SO Ger
mans living at the hotel, including
some who operated an air transport
and mail service to the fatherland.
The commission members did pay
their hotel bills to the end" Rou-
geron said, but they took every
thing they wanted and were very
demanding We hated them but
had to serve them.
They were specialists in their
economic fields and stripped us of
everything. Eighty per cent of our
products went to them and we could
do nothing
They did not dare wear uniforms
as long as Gen. Weygand was in
control in Africa.
They were worried and afraid of
him. AS soon as he was out of the
war, however, they all came out in
uniforms like peacocks.
Hoped For Americans.
He said the French in Africa had
been hoping for more than a year
that the Americans would come.
He was unperturbed by the fact
that the hotel was hit several times
by naval shells during a lombard
ment of shore batteries on nearby
Cape Fedhala.
American Army officials found
huge supplies of wheat, oats and
beans stacked in warehouses at piers
at Safi and other cities-all bound
for Germany.
Natives were overjoyed when told
the food would be returned to them.
Most natives here are undernour-'
ished as result of the Nazi looti1g.
Members of the German Ar1nistice
Commission in Casablanca were
warned in time to escape but left
much equipment behind. They were
quartered in the most luxurious villa
and resort hotels on the city's out
skirts. There they had a magnifi-
cent view of the sea and exclusive
beaches upon which to sun them
selves.
One villa was built in the best
Hollywood style with a private
swimming pool and massage room
in which the Germans were pum-
melled by flunkies each day to keep
down waist lines.