Evening star., 1945-11-30
Hess Admits Feigning Amnesio,
Accepts Responsibility for Acts
And Asks to Continue on rial
Nozi Spy Expert Led
Plot to Kill Hitler,
Nuremberg Court Told
BY DANIEL DE LUCE,
Associated Press Foreign Corresponde1

dolf Hess told the international
Military Tribunal today that he
accepted "full responsibility for
all I have done, signed or CO.
signed" and that he wished to
continue on trial with his fellow
Nazis.
Hess declared that he had feigned
loss of memory, even to his own at
torney, for tactical reasons"
The court adjourned for the day
without announcing ruling on the
mental fitness of the former No.
deputy fuehrer, whom Allied psychi-
artists have reported sane, but suf-
fering from hysteria.
Hess case was brought up after a
surprise German witness testified
that Germany's leading spy expert
long plotted against Hitler and
finally was executed in 1914 after
the failure of the bomb plot against
the Fuehrer.
Leader of Anti-Hitler Clique.
Admiral Walter Wilhelm Canaris,
mysterious Greek -blooded chief of
the German Armys counterespion-
age section, was named as a leader
OF the anti-Hitler military clique by
Maj. Gen. Erwin Lahousen, Canaris'
aide. Lahousen was the first wit
ness called by the prosecution to
relate the grim inside story of Ger
man scheming and aggression.
. Tahn11con cold 1Y,t,o
the German spy service disguised as
a commercial agency during the
days of the German republic, hated
Hitler and headed military clique
which plotted against the Nazi
feader from the time he rose to
power. Canaris was among scores
of military leaders executed after
Hitler escaped death in the 1914
assassination attempt.
LahouSen said Canaris unsuccess-
fully protested against mass murder
and il-treatment of Russian prison.
ers, who were starved until "canni-
balism ensued."
Two Generals Ordered Killed.
He said high command orders to
asSassinate two French generals,
Maxine Weygand and Henri Giraud,
were thwarted by CanariS.
Lahousen testified that Field
Marshal Wilhelm Kietel, one of the
defendants, wanted German secret
agents to murder the the French
military leaders after. the fall of
France to remove them as possible
centers of French resistance.
Gen. Weygand was Allied gen.
eralissimo at the time of the fall of
France and later was Marshal Pc
tain's administrator in North Africa.
Gen. Giraud for a time was the Al
ned-recognized French leader in
North Africa.
Cannibalism Laid to Hitler.
The prosecutions surprise witness
declared former Foreign Minister
Joachim Won Ribbentrop once as
serted that "all farms of Poles must
be burned to the ground and all
Jews killed" in the invasion of Po-
land.
Hitler was responsible for the
policy of starvation that led to
cannibalism among Russian prison.
ers, Lahousen declared. He said
preparations were made. to take
Russian prisoners to Germany, but
this was countermanded, we heard,
on Hitler's personal orders"
This meant there was vast con-
gestion at the front, he commented.
People could not be fed nor clothed
and cannibalism ensued. s e Dur
ing repeated trips I undertook with
Canaris I saw some of this with
my own eyes,"
Orders also were issued to brand
some Soviet prisoners, he testified.
Prewar Reconnaissance.
Lahousen disclosed that the Ger
man air force made reconnaissance
fights over London, Leningrad and
Poland in the prewar period just
prior to the invasion of Poland,
September l, 1899.
Discussing Canaris' refusal to
carry out orders to have Gen. Wey-
gand and Gen. Giraud killed, La
housen said the admiral had to in
dulge in subterfuge to avoid carry
ing out the assignment.
q Keitel did not press for the slay-
ing of Gen. Weygand, but got orders
from Hitler in mid-1942 to carry out
g the plot against Gen. Giraud, who
had escaped from the German
fortress at Koenigstein, the witness
said. About this time, Reinhard
Heydrich, chief of the security po-
lice, was assassinated in Prague.
Lahousen said Canaris then told
Field Marshal Keitel that Heydrich
had been commissioned before his
death to carry out the assassination
OF Gen. Giraud and had failed.
Nothing more happened about