Evening star., 1945-07-30
BY the Associated Press,

MONDORF, Luxembourg, July 80.
Top Nazi and even some of the
supposed iron men who built and
bossed the German military ma
chine are going to pieces morally
and physically as they wait behind
barbed wire for their war crimes
trials.
Records kept by the Army since
this interrogation center was opened
May 13 told today of the strange
effect of fear and confinement on
the survivors of the German clique
that once ruled Europe.
The records showed that:
Hermann Goering never has re-
covered fully from the abject fear
of death he showed when first
brought here;
Robert Ley, onetime overload OF
German workmen. has shown a
marked physical and moral disin-
tegrat1on and has only one friend
among the dozens of German lead
ers held here-Julius Streicher,
Adolf Hitler's No. l Jew batter.
Streicher, who now processes to
have decided that Jews should be
allowed to live unmolested, wanders
around disconsolately in Ley's COM
pany, the picture of a broken man;
DR.. Hans Frank, Nazi chieftain in
Poland, who arrived at Mondort
wearing only pair of lace panties,
vaccilates between hysteria and
scorn, crying out that Il am a
criminal
Distrust Each Other.
The deterioration is apparent even
in some of the general officers who
planned and helped execute the
most ruthless war in history. They
accepted defeat on the battlefield
but when the symbols of their power
their batons-were taken away
they went to pieces.
Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel
wrote Gen. Eisenhower to protest
the conhscation of his marshal's
baton. Admiral Karl Doenitz, who
succeeded Hitler as Fuehrer, re-
fSented being photographed with a
black number across his shirt front
and wrote to Gen. Eisenhower to tell
him so.
Commenting on the Germans at
titude, Sergt. Robert Book of Mil
Waukee, Wis, assistant in the liza
ison office here, said:
"They looked good while they were
winning, but here behind the wire,
with their authority and their fancy
uniforms gone, they are pretty
sorry lot. They are scared to death.
They distrust each other. They try
to pass the buck and they go into
Mysteries at the slightest thing"
Book said Arthur Seysz-Inquart,
one-time Nazi Minister of Culture
ana overlord of the Netherlands, was
the first internee. He was in on
May 13.
Valet Ordered to Work.
Goering arrived May 20. He came
in the back en- dof a deapons carrier,
sky-blue uniform dusty and dishev-
elled. With him was a valet. The
valet was Immediately ordered to
hard labor.
When Goering was searched he
was found to have a vial Of poison
concealed in a can of soluble coffee
On the vial was the word Gift
which is German for poison. Goer-
ing Gid not explain why he, like
former Minister Joachim Won Rib
bentrop, who also was carrying poi
son when captured, had failed to
use it.
Book said Goering was so nervous
on his arrival that he had to be put
in care of Field Marshal Albert
Kesselring.
He kept saying, 7 think you are
going to kill me tomorrow" Book
related
Commenting on Goering, Col. B. c.
Andrus of Denver, Colo, command
ing officer of the interrogation GEN.
ter, said he was so debased by his
vices he lacks the moral stamina OF
normal men"
Doenitz Still Cynical.
Among the old-line German mill
tary leaders, Admiral DoenitZ has
preserved a cynical exterior most of
the time, except for his outburst
over being photographed. While
watching American soldiers string
ing additional barbwire around the
enclosure, he turned to Sergt. Book
and said: "I don't think this place is
we'll enough protected-what you
need is an extra fence with few
lions and tigers"
Even Won Ribbentrop surrendered
some of his icy calm when he was
advised he had been listed as q
war criminal and would have tc
stand trial.
"A criminal" he exclaimed. Il,
criminal?"
The Nazi foreign minister anc