Evening star., 1947-05-11
Two Field MarshaIs,
10 Generals Named in
New Nazi Indictments
BY shs Assesiotsd Press

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BY shs As,oeiotsd Press
NUREMBERG, Germany, May
10.-Two German field marshals
and 10 generals were indicted
before an American tribunal to-
day as war criminals, charged
with executing at least $4,000
persons In the Balkans and in
Norway In retaliation for re-
sistance attacks that killed go
German soldiers.
Field Marshal wilhelm List, COM
naander Of the 18th German Army,
and Field Marshal Maximilian Won
Weichs, chief OF the 2nd Army, were
charged with setting UP this yard
stick for executing hostages In the
Balkans:
For the death Of one German
soldier by resistance groups, 100
hostages; for the wounding Of one
German soldier, SO hostages; for
an act Of sabotage. 10 hostages.
Other Generals Indicted.
The indictment. handed down by
Brig. Gen. Telford Taylor, chief
American prosecutor, charged these
generals, La addition to List and
Won Weichs. with war crimes and
crimes against humanity;
Col. Gen. Lothar Rendulic. COM
nander In the Norwegian campaign;
Generals Walter Kuntze, Hermann
Foertsch, Franz Boehme, Wilhelm
Speidel, Kurt Won Geitner, Helmut
Selmy, Hubert Lanz, Ernst DEM
ner and Ernst Won Leyser.
Their crimes. said Gen. Taylor In
the indictment, included murder,
ill-treatment and deportation of
slave labor, plunder Of public and
private property, wanton destruc-
ton of cities, towns and villages and
executions of hostages"
A British military tribunal at
Venice has sentenced Field Marshal
Albert Kesselring, German CON-
mander in Italy. to be shot for
ordering execution Of hostages.
% Specific Instances Listed.
Gen. Taylor. listed % specific In
stances where hostages were shot on
orders of the defendants in Greece,
Albania and Yngoslavia. Prosecutors
Clark Denny and Theodore Fem
stermacher, both of New York, have
the captured orders.
One report to- Marshal List from
the Belgrade commander listed
ALSO citizens executed on charges of
sabotage or infractions of Nazi mill
tary rule.
On October 2, 1e41, the indict-
ment said, the Icommander in Serbia
ordered .2,199 Yugoslav prisoners of
war slain in retaliation for the death
of 81 German soldiers.
The indictment charged that Rem
dulic commanded the army group
that evacuated Finnmark, northern
province of Norway, burned homes,
churches, food, livestock and caused
hundreds to die Of exposure, shot
scores for refusing to leave their
homeland and "left some 81 900 men,
women and children homeless, starry
ing and destitute"
Razing Of Villages Charged.
Rendulic's I'd Panzer Army was
charged with razing villages and
burning the inhabitants alive.
All the defendants were accused
of rounding up civilian populations
and holding them In prison stock
ades as hostages against acts of
sabotage.
when attacks took place these
persons were, without benefit of
n investigation or trial, summarily
hanged or shot," said the indict-
ment
"Other thousands of non-c COM
batants were terrorized, tortured
and murdered These acts Of collec-
tive punishment were part of
deliberate scheme of terror and
intimidation wholly unwarranted
and unjustified by military neces-
sity and in fragrant violation of the
laws and customs of war"
BY these acts, Gen. Taylor
charged, the army commanders
sought to reduce the manpoWer po-
tential of the armies of resistance
and to weaken future generations
in these occupied territories.
Among the instances given was
the Staying of 200 hostages in
Athens in August, 1914, in retalia-
tion for the death of German Gen.
Krech.
Prisoners Treated as Partisans.
Prisoners of war in the Balkans,
the indictment said, were considered
by the German generals as parti-
sans and received no protection as
required by the Geneva Convention.
AS a result thousands of soldiers
AMI prisoners of war were murdered
or ill-treated, the indictment added,
German armies participated also
In rounding up Jews, nationalists,
Gypsies and others for extermina-
ton in concentration camps, the
indictment charged. Among acts
listed were: September %, ls41, the
entire male population of Sabac,
Serbia, was thrown into a concen-
tration camp; October II, 1941, 1000
Jews were executed In Belgrade.
The indictment against the gen.
erals is part Of the program OF
American war crimes courts to bring
former Nazi leaders from all walks
of life to the bar of justice. A re-
port issued yesterday at Dachau
said that since the end of the war
more than 1000 Germans have been
tried there, with 87S persons con-
victed and 271 Of them sentenced to
death in concentration camp cases.