The Daily Alaska empire., 1946-08-31
G0ERING, 19
 or H E RS IN
 LAST RANTS
Several Blame Hitler for Ordering Airotifies-
 Verdict Sept. B

NUREMBERG, Germany, Aug. 3l. The verdict in the nine-month- old Nuremberg war crimes trial will be given Sept g, the Tribunal an- nounced today.
 The disclosure was made by Lord Justice Sir Godfrey Lawrence of Britain, presiding, after 20 hench- men of Hitler in the prisoners dock completed their final pleas. Lawrence announced that the h. ternational Military Tribunal would recess until Sept 23, when the yer dict is to be given against Her. mann Goering and his fellow de- fendants and seven Nazi organiza- | tions.
 For four hours the Tribunal heard impassioned speeches by the ringleaders of Hitler's war machine denying they were guiiSy of war atrocities and crimes against hu- manity
 Hitler Blamed
 It was their last cnance to ex- plain Nazl Germany's conduct be- fore they learn their fate. Most of them blamed Hitler for war deyel- opments. Some said nevertheless they were not afraid to die.
 Justice Lawrence praised counsel i of both prosecution and defense for the way they performed their du- tties
 Four of the 24 men originally in- dieted were not in the court. They were Martin Bormann, a Hitler aide several times reported dead, who was t.ed in absentia; Ernst Kal- tenbrunner, secret police chief who suffered cranial hemorrhage; Gustav Von Bohlen and Halbach Krupp, ailing armament maker; and labor boss Robert Ley, who committed suicide.
 Goering shouts
 While the 20 co-defendants sat in the prisoners box, Goering opened the string of last minute speeches by shouting his innocence over and over again iii an impas- stoned l0-minute plea.
 Gaunt, white-faced Rudolph Hess followed Goering. Unleashing storm of abuse. Hitler's one-time deputy attacked the entire proce- dure
 T predicted that witnesses would appear who under oath would make untrue statements and the court would receive affidavits of untrue statements that the defendants would hear astonishing facts" he shouted.
 Courtroom Packed
 The old courtroom, remodelled fer the trials which started Nov. 20, l945, was packed to the doors for the wind-up of the drawn out case against the one-time Nazi leaders, charged with high crim.s against humanity
 The once arrogant Goering kelt his sharp, peering eyes averted from the four-power Allied court, as he read his last words of justi- fication for his conduct.
 In high, strong voice the for mer Reichsmarshal made an ap- peal for the German people, re- gardless of what fate lay in store for himself.
 Never Decreed Murder
 He sought to ameliorate any guilt for himself, however, by declaring. that the prosecution had failed to show by documents proof where and how he could have known ev- erything that happened under Hit Ter, even though he admittedly was the number two Nazi
 T wish to state emphatically, said Goering, never did I decree a murder of single individual" In a final outburst, Goering as- serted he was nevertheless stand ing back of everything I have done"
 yon Ribbentrop's Plea
 Joachim Von Ribbentrop, who followed Hess, defended his conduct as Foreign Minister with the de- claration that Germany sought much the same things as the Unit ed States, Britain and Russia-"the only difference is that they think in terms of continents. we in terms of corridors.
 Tn 1889, I met Stalin in Moscow and he didn't seek peaceful set- clement, he said. The conduct of the man in 1889 was not consider ed a crime against peace"