Evening star., 1945-05-17
HimmIer, Ribbentrop,
Sfreicher Hunted in
Bavaria and Austria
BY the Associated Press,

6S the Associated Press.
BERCHTESGADEN, May l7.-Ar
unrelenting search was beins
pressed today for Heinrich Hmm.
Ter, Joachim von Ribbentrop ane
the notorious anti Semitic, Juliu.
Streicher, in the Alpine passes, vii.
lagos and chalets of Bavaria anc
Austria.
Already in Allied hands are 1t
Col. Otto Skorzeny, No. 2 man ir
Himmler's organization; Ernst Kal.
tenbrunner, Himmler's first assist.
ant, and DR.. Robert Ley labor front
leader and creator of the Naz
strength through joy" organization
Himmler, Ribbentrop and Stretch
er remained the three most impor.
tant Nazi bigwigs at large, if it is
true that Hitler is dead, and all
three may be caught in this area
Gn London today Foreign Sec
retary Eden told Commons the
British government had received
no information as to Ribbentrop's
whereabouts.)
Rescued Mussolini.
Skorzeny headed a select band of
saboteurs and special agents who led
the German raiding party which
rescued Benito Mussolini in Septem-
ber, 1943. Kaltenbrunner admitted
undertaking to organize an anti
Russian underground resistance
movement. Ley, officers said, was
the handspring of the Nazi Were
wolf movement.
Even generals of divisions in this
area were taking a personal part in
the huge manhunt.
Himmler is known to have been
at his summer home at Tegensee,
east of here, April 27. At that time
Hitler and his propaganda chief
Joseph Goebbels possibly we're dead
in Berlin.
1t is known that a concentra ation
of Himmler's SIS men has been
huddled southeast of here for weeks
and 1t is assumed they have given
an oath to defend him.
Each curtain-covered window in
the tiny villages, each chalet high
on a snow-covered slope, each man
or woman summing on distant ledge
becomes subject of curiosity as the
hunt is pressed.
Anti-Nazis Aid Search.
The search is being aided by anti
NaZi Bavarians and Austrians, who
have given tips which led to some
of the most spectacular captures in
recent days.
Ironically, one of the leading
figures in an anti-Nazi band that
worked efficiently through the years
of Nazi rule within a stones throw
of Hitlers chalet here was a JeweSs
who cannot now be named.
An American officer who spent
years in Germany before the war
and who for that reason was picked
for special task said the work in
which she was engaged was smaller,
more compact, more efficient and
more deadly than even the Maquis
in France.
They never played us false" he
said. They promised to deliver
and did,
Sullen, dull-eyed DR.. Ley was
bearded when he was captured by
the 101st Air-borne Division.
Wearing an overcoat over his
pajamas, a green hat and thick
soled shoes, he first pretended he
was DR.. Ernst Distelmeyer, but
when this disguise was penetrated
ne reached for vial and tried to
take it's contents. His shoes were
searched for hidden razor blades.
James Pringle, Associated Press
photographer, and I were the only
newspaper correspondents present
when he was brought in
Hitler's Secretary Interviewed.
Gerhardt Herrgesell, chief of
Adolf Hitler's secretarial staff, in
an interview yesterday gave sew
eral sidelights on the probable
whereabouts of some of the Fuehr-
ers chief aides.
Picturing Hitler as moaning that
II have lost all faith in the Wehr-
macht and I have lost all faith
in the waffen S." Herrgesell said:
"Hlmmler wanted to see the
Fuehrer. The Fuehrer said he did
not want to see him. declaring, He
can't influence me-"
1t seemed unlikely that Himmler,
after that, would have been welcome
in the areas of the German high
command in the north.
Last Stand Described.
Herrgesell said Martin Bormann,
successor of Rudolf Hess as deputy
party leader, had sworn to die in
Berlin with Hitler.
Although he said he had not wit
messed the reported last stand of
nigh Nazis in the Reichschancellery
Herrgesell declared that Hitler made
up his mind on April % to remain
In the German capital to the end
He quoted Hitler as saying:
Il have always given orders not to
now I can only follow my
own commands"
Herrgesell said he himself left Ber-
lin on April % and few to Berchtes-
gaden after Hitler had ordered all
persons not considered indispensable
TO leave the capital
Final Decision Made.
The secretary, a member of the
Hitler encourage for years, asserted
that numerous persons had appealed
to the Nazi leader to change his
mind, but that Hitler had declared:
II now make the final decision that
I stay and die"
Hitlers sweetheart. Eva Braun,
decided to stay with him to the last.
HerrgeSell said. But whether she
did or not he could not say.
Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph
Goebbels went to Hitler with "a
plea that if nothing else can be
saved, let us fight on against Boil
shevism,' the secretary said. l
Hitler Is Vague