Evening star., 1948-02-23
Judge and Prosecutor
AT Nuremberg Trial
Criticize Each Other
By the Associassd Press

FRANKFURT. Germany, Feb. %.
The United States chief prose-
cutor in German war crimes trials
was on record today with a strong
and unprecedented criticism of the
presiding judge in trial just con-
cluded.
Brig. Gen. Telford Taylor blasted
Charles F. Wennerstrum yesterday
for an interview the Judge gave the
Chicago Tribune Friday about the
trial which ended the day before
GA Nuremberg dispatch, copy
righted and published in this
mornings Tribune, quoted the
Judge as saying the prosecution
failed to maintain objectivity
aloof from vindictiveness, aloof
from personal ambitions for con-
victions.")
Gen. Taylor's statement was
issued by Army public relations be-
fore the interview was published.
He said the interview was "subver-
sive of the interests and policies of
the United States" and would be
used "by all the worst elements in
Germany against the best"
Wennerstrum on Way Home.
Justice Wennerstrum, Iowa Su-
preme Court justice from Charlton,
was in the Azores today on a plane
stopover en- route home after seven
months service in Nuremberg.
Hal Foust, Tribune correspondent
who sent the interview, said last
night he was filing new dispatch
about overlapping by the Army at
Nuremberg"
He said he interviewed the judge
behind locked doors and sent the
story at once by press wireless to
the Tribune's Berlin Office.
obviously" Mr.. Foust said,
somebody at Nuremberg read my
copy and reported it to Gen. Tay-
lor"
Information Officer Read Story.
E. c. Deane, public information
oficer here, said he read the story
Saturday night but was not free to
tell how he came into possession"
of 1t.
He first learned of it Friday night.
he said, from somebody who had
overheard the interview. He re-
ported he then tried to talk Mr..
Foust out of sending it, only to be
told it already was on its way
Mr.. Foust said the same thing"
happened some five weeks ago in
Garmisch. Within three hours after
he filed a story, he said, the post
comrnandant asked him about it.
The Army released a letter it said
Gen. Taylor had sent Justice Wen!
nerstrun.
Deplores Nationalistic Stand.
IF you in fact held the opinions
you are quoted as expressing" this
said, you were guilty of grave mis-
conduct in continuing to act in the
case at ALL"
The Tribune quoted the Judge as
deploring ''the nationalist character
of the tribunals and saying, "the
victor in any war is not the best
judge of the war-crime guilt"
"The trials were to have convicted
the Germans of the guilt of their
leaders" he was reported to have
said. They convinced the Germans
merely that their leaders lost the
war to tough conquerors.
The paper quoted Justice Wen
nerstrum as saying the prosecution
selected the captured German docu-
ments used as evidence and the de-
tense had access only to those docusd
ments which the prosecution con-
sidered material to the case"
Withholding of Evidence Denied.
He was said to have reported
that Gen. Taylor tried to call a
judges meeting out of court to
get withdrawal of rule that when
the prosecution introduced part of
a document, the defense be given
the whole thing.
Your statement that the trials
are teaching Germans only that
they lost the war to tough con-
querors would be laughable if its
were not so likely TO
be deplorable," Gen. Taylor's letter
said.
1t denied that the defense was
given only those documents the
prosecution thought relevant and
that the prosecution protested
against giving the defense the COM
plete documents. 1t said the defense '
was allowed to use a great mass"
of documents sent from Washing :
ton. !
Judges Wennerstrum, George
Burke of Michigan and Edward F.
Carter of Nebraska heard the case.
They acquitted two German gen.
erals. They sentenced nine other
men, including Field Marshall Will !
helm List, to terms up to life for I
the slaughter of thousands
of Balkan hostages.
The court held some of the slay- :
lngs mass murder. But it said n
many of the victims were guerrillas
not obedient to international rules
If warfare and therefore not en-
titled to their protection.