Evening star., 1943-05-16

SOdAo anu AlldhC ouCll uelCIlSS DIS Is DOS.
sible. But Norwegian justice is taking
no chance that some of the witnesses will
have died or disappeared in the mean
time. Thus far very strong cases have
been built up against six Germans and
four Norwegians, all designated by name.
One of the worst of the German tor
turers, strangely enough, is profess
sional musician who, for several years
before the war, was a member of the Oslo
Philharmonic Orchestra-a man named
Schuttauf. At least one of the Quisling
men, Doennum, appears from the evil
dence taken to date to be as bad as any
of the Germans.
The court is set up to be as fair to
these criminals. to 60 as far in protecting
their rights and regulations, as would an
ordinary peacetime Norwegian court be-
fore whom a man might be brought
charged with serious crime. 1t tries to
assess fairly the extent to which the ac-
cused man was acting under orders
which he could not disobey without peril
to himself. Individual criminality is
based on the degree to which the absent
defendant appears to have acted on his
own responsibility.
The court always recognizes, says a
report of it's activities from the Nor
wegian government here, that the chief
culprits in most cases are the "underfed
bookkeeper" Terbosen, and a man named
Rediess - pronounced red eyes - the
head of the gestapo organization and
police general of the Norwegian region.
200 Admitted Executions.
There have been approximately 200
officially announced executions by the
occupying forces in Norway to date
sabotage, storing of arms, maintenance
of illegal wireless transmitters, espionage,
distribution of anti-German propaganda
and attempting to escape from Norway
to join the Allied forces. But some have
been, in the words of Terbosen, 'for dis
turbing the smooth working of economic
conditions"
The total number in prisons and con-
centration camps in Norway itself is
probably about 1000, and about 1000
have been deported to forced labor camps
in Germany and Poland. Among these
is the 60-year-old rector of Oslo Uni
versity, DR.. Seip, who is known to many
in Washington. Several hundred intel
lectuals have been sent to do forced
manual labor in the far north of Norway.
There have been many deaths in these
concentration camps, nearly all attrib-
uted to heart failure" So few have es-
capped that it has been impossible for the
court to start procedures against indi-
vidual commanders staff officers and
guards in these concentration camps,
since it has adopted the policy of never
accepting unsupported evidence. It
recognizes thoroughly the likelihood OF
exaggeration by emotionally wrought up
men who have undergone torture.
Now that greenish-yellow pollen strews
dells of Oslos palace gardens, the ash
trees are in leaf and yellow strands of
blossom cover the gulderring bushes in
all the city's parks it still is drear De-
cember in the soul of Lieut.. Gen. Won
Falkenhorst, the conqueror of Norway,
who has remained in command of the
military forces of occupation for three
years.
He is a short, broad-shouldered man,
his portruding chest covered with rib
bons, hard, square cheek bones and
consciously big mouth. When he
laughs, they say, "the door opens"
The general has little contact with the
populace. He is, say refugees here, ap-
parently a fairly competent officer of
the old Prussian school who serves
loyalty, whoever his masters may be
without regard to their politics. He has
shown himself hard and ruthless in the
execution of his job, but is not accused
of. double-dealing or excessive cruelty.
The rumors are that he gets along
none too well with Terbosen. Here the
situation seems very similar to that In