The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1946-01-11

Back in Germany, Baukhage reports the
sUar crimes trial OF 81 top Ndzis tOIfh the
same pividness tUith which he narrated
their rise to poioer in the Prefodr years
tolen he pas stationed in the reich. Betoso
is the first Of series OF articles written
from Nuremberg:
WNU Service, 1916 Eye Street N. w.,
Washington, d. G.
NUREMBERG, GERMANY. - I
have just left the courtroom where,
as l write, the trial of Germany's
war criminals is still in progress.
The courtroom is just above me in
this great stone courthouse which
was almost untouched by the bomb
ing which reduced this most beautl-
FIJI and famous city to the point
that it was declared "91 per cent
dead" by the experts who followed
the occupation by American troops
on April 20, 1945.
/ am writing in the press room
with reporters from more than
dozen nations about me. Most of us
are in uniform, the majority being
the uniform of the United States
army, which all war correspondents
in our theater wore. Up until re-
Gently correspondents had a simu-
lated rank of captain. Now we are
simply uniformed civilians operat-
ing under military orders.
AS l look back over the beginnings
Of this trial the earliest discus
sions before the tribunal itself was
formed - have the feeling that we
are now looking at something very
real - actual and factual, rather
than theoretical and vague. At the
first gathering, the appalling condi-
ton of this city produced the feeling
that all about it and in it must be
chaos too. Nuremberg dates back to
the 18th century and it grew into
such favor and beauty that it bore
the name of Germany's treasure
chest 1t was a chest of treasures
of art, song and culture as well as
of the gold that poured into the cof-
fers of the merchants. Now it is
shell, and one of Europe's best ex-
amples of the atmosphere and
charm Of the middle ages is gone.
How the nearly 100000 people who
are said to be living in these ruins
exist it is hard to say. The streets
are cleared, some street cars are
running, some shops are opening, a
city government is operating. But
few houses are livable. In some
cases parts of great Office buildings
have been restored. Such cellars as
can be cleared of rubble and rooted
are crowded. A huge air raid shell
ter $50 steps below the ground con-
tains small village in itself.
Milestone in
Mans Progress
It may be that what Is accom-
plished viii be washed out by SUBJ
sequent stupidities; but ] believe,
whether we 60 forward immediate
ly from this point or not, it will
remain a milestone in mans effort
to accomplish the outlawry Of war,
that it will be a landmark from
which others may set their course
anew. Grotius, father of internation-
al law, held to the principle that
aggressive wars were illegal. AS
Justice jackson pointed out, it was
because Of the greed for land which
characterized the 18th and 18th cen
turtles that this concept was thrust
aside and the world came to accept
the tenet that war in itself was not
illegal. And it seems to me that all
attempts to stop war must be futile
30 long as such a concept exists in
international thinking. No one who
saw the spontaneous reaction to
Justice Jackson's opening address to
the court could feel that the tre-
mendous effort which has gone into
the creation and operation of this
court can be completely lost.
For those who have Witnessed
these proceedings there is a strik-
ing symbolism in the rise and fall
of a nation which built a vicious
culture in less than a decade with
one final objective aggressive wary,
which very theology destroyed 1t as
no nation has been wrecked before.
Here we see before us in the flesh
lin some cases considerably less
flesh than they were adorned with in
their hey-day), the men who con-
ceived and carried out this plan,
which is the distillation Of the phi
losophy that might is right, and
which negates the whole basis of the
moral law which has been estab-
hshed by civilization.
Step by step, with the epitome of
tons of written evidence, with NOV
ing pictures, with plans and charts,