Evening star., 1945-06-03


Secretary Anthony Eden of Great Brit
ain revealed the other day.
Still other German war criminals are
in hiding either in the Reich or in for
merly occupied countries, and it is likely
some of them will be brought to light
in the near future.
One question still under study in
London is whether the Allies shall at
tempt to punish Germans and other
Axis leaders for atrocities against minor
tiles of their nationality, such as the
Jews in Germany.
In March, 1914, after particularly
heinous pogromS had been reported in
the Nazi-dominated Balkan states, the
late President Roosevelt announced:
In one of the blackest crimes in all
history-begun by the Nazis in the days
of peace and multiplied by them hun
dred times in time of war-the whole
sale systematic murder of the Jews of
Europe goes on unabated every hour
1t is therefore fitting that we
should again proclaim our determina-
ton that none who participated in these
acts Of savagery shall 60 unpunished.
All who knowingly take part
in the deportation of Jews to their
death in Poland, or Norwegians and
French to their death in Germany, are
equally guilty with the executioner. All
who share the guilt shall share the
punishment"
Plans Are Not Revealed.
Acting Secretary of State Grew an
nounced recently that the State Depart
ment had worked out proposals "for the
realization of the object stated by the
President" However, he declined to
make them public.
The British are understood to believe
that the punishment of Nazis and Axis
satellites in other countries should be
left up to the Allied military govern
ments in those areas. AS matter of
fact, the British long maintained in
sessions of the War Crimes Commits
sion that major war criminals should be
dealt with summarily without affording
them a trial before an international
tribunal
They supported this stand by the
argument that there were no provisions
of international law dealing with war
criminals and that consequently it was
useless to set up court. Lately, how
ever, they have been persuaded to
change their position and now are agree
able to the establishment of military
tribunal.
When-as is expected-this tribunal Is
set up, the jor Axis war criminals
will be hailed before it like common
felons and confronted with evidence of
their guilt. They will be prosecuted by
a group of Allied jurists. President
Truman recently named Justice Robert
H. Jackson of the United States Su-
preme Court to represent this country
He will be aided by Maj. Gen. William
j. Donovan, Sidney s. Alderman, counsel
for the Southern Railway, and Assist
ant Attorney General Francis NJ Shea.
Justice Jackson is now in London.
Stern Justice Probable.
Great Britain has appointed Sir Da-
vid Maxwell Fyfe, an eminent jurist, as
its chief prosecutor.
II the Russians fail in the end to join
in the work of the United Nations War
Crimes Commission it is assumed that
they will try war criminals in their
own military courts. In fact, some such
trials already have taken place. Under
the Moscow agreement it is assumed
that the Allies may turn over to the
Russians for trial any Nazis in their
custody who took personal part in
major atrocities on Soviet soil.
AS is known, German war crimes in
Eastern Europe were on much larger
scale than in the west. For example,
Russian investigatory commission re-
ported recently that the most horrible
crime" of the war was committed at
the Osweicim concentration camp in
Poland, where, it was charged, some
100000 persons were killed.
In view of Russia's suffering at the
hands of the Germans during the 1941-
1914 occupation of her territory, it can
be expected that Nazi war criminals will
receive stern justice before Red tri-
bunals