Evening star., 1947-08-31
BY the Assoeioted Press

PEIPING, Aug. 30.-Sighing with
relief, the bedraggled one-time ruth
less chief of the Nazi Gestapo in
North China and Mongolia was
hauled from an earthen pit under
a rambling old Peiping house by
Chinese police today in the melo-
dramatic climax of two-year hunt.
I'm glad it's over. I do not
believe I could have stood it much
longer. I haven't seen the sun for
two years." gasped Charley Schmidt,
who was Heinrich Himmler's swag-
gering bully-boy here for 10 months
at the height of the war.
Emaciated, scantily clad and
coughing with what he said was
tuberculosis contracted during his
hiding, Schmidt was meek but gar
rulous. None of his old bravado
remained.
In a driving rainstorm, he was
hustled off to the airf1eld for re-
moval to Shanghai. Beside his
name on the list of wanted Nazis
was the notation believed, impli-
Gated in murder" but Peiping au-
thorities were unable to explain it..
Schmidt himself said he had been
sought ever since Germany sur
rendered in May, 1915; first by the
japanese, who feared and hated
him, and then by the Allies after
Japan's defeat.
Between the two surrenders, the
Nazi said, he fled from China to
Tokyo. There he learned from the
German embassy that the Japanese
wanted him. With a forged pass
port, he returned to China July s,
1945. Two days afterward, the
Japanese arrested him in a German
club.
They wanted me to turn over
the names of Chinese who had col
laborated with the Nazis," Schmidt
said. II refused. Then learned
they wanted to bump me off because
I had spoiled some Of their little
schemes"
He did not say what these schemes
were or how he got out Of japanese
custody, but declared that while
Japan still was at war he had gone
into hiding in the house where he
was found today.
1t was the home of a middle-aged
German widow of a Chinese doctor
in Peiping's east city-a building
full of broken furniture and dis
rubble.
Schmidt said that when Japan
surrendered he emerged briefly, but
heard the Americans were looking
for him, so returned to the dugout
where Is Chinese police found him.
A Chinese reporter who was the
only witness of the arrest said the
police made a long search of the
house-their third in recent months
and finally rolled back a rug and
found a trapdoor. Beneath it,
Schmidt crouched in a hole about
5 feet deep and 4 feet square.
Destroyed All Papers.
Don't move or we will shoot" a
policeman warned in English. Clad
only in an undershirt and overalls,
he was lifted out and thrown onto
the floor while his mouth was in
spected for a possible poison capsule
such as his boss, Himmler, had used.
"Mr. Charley Schmidt" said the
police captain unnecessarily, I'VE are
looking for you"
YES Schmidt replied wearily.
1.-TWO years is long time"
He volunteered that he possessed
no gun and had destroyed all his
papers long ago.
Asked about his successor, Adel-
bert Schulze, who vanished from
Peiping Wednesday just as Ameri-
cans were preparing to fly him to
Shanghai for repatriation, Schmidt
was contemptuous.
II heard he was working for the
Russians" Schmidt said. He Is a
fool. No man can work for more
than one master"
Most of Time Spent in Hole.
Complaining Of chest pains