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Show Trial of Nazis Historic r:; Attempt to Outlaw War y,-Mh f Xk r Defense Attorneys Co-Operate to Test the ,f : Validity of Effort to Prove Aggression I i-; . 1 Is Illegal Instrument of Policy. f ; ' By BAUKIIAGE JSeivs Analyst and Commentator. mony which might tend to stir up ill will among the Allies. As we faced the German attorneys attor-neys in the press room in the court house at one of the conferences which they requested, I could not help, feeling that they were approaching ap-proaching their Job in a businesslike ma iner and that they were not permitting per-mitting the fact that it was victor versus vanquished to influence their attitude. I might add that some of the reporters' questions weie asked with ill-concealed emotional motives rather than a desire to obtain information. in-formation. This always annoys trained newsmen. They have no objection ob-jection when a reporter presses hard for an answer or makes charges in response to which he might expect an explanation, but baiting always brings a protest from the majority. Finds Stretcher Out of Place It may prove to have been a mistake mis-take to include Streicher among the prisoners. As one lawyer here put it, "He's in too fast company." What he meant was that Streicher simply was not important enough in the Nazi set-up to make him responsible. responsi-ble. He was perhaps chosen as a symbol of the particularly petty side of Nazi Jew-baiting. The other prisoners from the first have had little to do with him. His newspaper, newspa-per, which was devoted entirely to anti-Semitism, was an obscene sheet and it went out of existence when it was found that Streicher had diverted party funds. I saw his sheet when I was in Germany before and it was one of those miserable attempts at-tempts at satire which is simply dirty and not at all funny. This trial is concerned with more important matters than Streicher's sordid affairs and it is regrettable that he was included with the others, who. evil though they may be, for the most part are criminals worthy of consideration by a respectable court of law. As one of the members of the American delegation said to me. the real importance of the trial is that it satisfies the allied peoples. They must be assured that it is conducted fairly and they must see its significance. In Justice Jackson's words: "What makes this inquest significant signifi-cant is that these prisoners represent rep-resent sinister influences that will lurk in the world long after their bodies have turned to dust. They are living symbols of . . . intrigue and war-making which have embroiled em-broiled Europe generation after generation. . . . Civilization can afford af-ford no compromise with the social forces which would gain renewed strength if we deal ambiguously or indecisively with men in whom these forces now survive." When Justice Jackson spoke those words I was looking at the prisoners. prison-ers. All were listening quietly. Suddenly Sud-denly Keitel began writing feverishly. feverish-ly. I am sure that he felt that such "intrigue and wa'r-making" as ne had engaged in was perfectly legal and proper. To eliminate that viewpoint is even more important than eliminating eliminat-ing Keitel. German teen-agers, one of the greatest problems in the restoration restora-tion of law and order, are in some places getting one phase of democratization demo-cratization instruction in the American national game. Reports from Frankfurt indicate that in many places American troops are lending their equipment and are teaching the Germans baseball. This has been done spontaneously without any suggestions from the military government, which, however, how-ever, looks upon it with approval. Of course, the G.I.s well known affection for children, for which the soldiers of World War I were equally equal-ly famous, tends to put the emphasis on this phase of fraternization witn the more youthful segment of the German population. Naturally, any perpetuation of the Hitler youth movement has been stopped and this leaves the boys, especially those of high school age (since the secondary schools are still closed), with plenty of time on their hands. Getting them to spend their time on a baseball diamond instead of on the street corners is bound to be a healthy move. . WNU Service. 1G16 Eye Street N. W., Washington, D. C. NUERNBERG, GERMANY. Glancing back across the hours and days spent in this broken city at the tremendous effort which has gone into the presentation of the American case at the war criminal trials, one can see with aching clarity clar-ity the pitiful shortcomings of human hu-man achievement in the spiritual field as compared to our material progress. The very court house is a reminder remind-er of this strange Inconsistency of civilization. The beautiful renasci-mento renasci-mento building stands In the midst of ruins which testify to the almost unbelievable power of the machines ma-chines of destruction. Among the statues of the world's great law givers giv-ers carved upon its walls is that of Hugo Grotius, the father of international interna-tional law, who lived in Holland in the 17th century. It was he who laid down the principle that aggressive aggres-sive war was illegal by asserting that there was a difference between a just war (of self defense) and an unjust war. Until now, in the middle of the 20th century, no major effort has been made to enforce that principle. princi-ple. Indeed, the tendency veered sharply away from that concept and only today I heard comment within with-in a short distance of the court room Itself echoing fentiments expressed in American military circles to the effect that it was unwise to attempt to prosecute as criminals the German Ger-man military leaders like Doenitz and Keitel and perhaps Raeder and Jodl. The argument which is set lorth and which is the heart of the military leaders' case in this trial was hinted at in the words of Jodl when he made his plea that "What I have done I had to do and I did It with a clear conscience before my people, my God and the world. It was taken then that the military defense would be that the high officers offi-cers merely carried out orders as the officers of any nation would. Jackson faced that issue squarely at the very beginning and that is why he threw his full weight into the argument that these men, all of them, participated in a conspiracy to wage an aggressive war. And he proved it with charts showing the organization of the Nazi party, how it interlocked with the state, and then how each step followed the preceding pre-ceding one toward a planned goal of aggression. If the Americans win their case. It will be a great achievement and. one long overdue, for it has taken nearly three centuries to produce a concerted effort to write into international inter-national law the concept that aggressive ag-gressive war is Just what Grotius said it was illegal and that the men responsible for planning and carrying it out were criminals. There exists universal condemnation condemna-tion of all the separate acts of murder, mur-der, pillage, destruction, enslavement enslave-ment which war produces. Jackson believes that this fact makes condemnation con-demnation of the tiling that produces pro-duces them sound and logical. It was very plain that when the German defense counsel heard Jackson's speech and later when they, like the press, were almost buried under the avalanche of evidence evi-dence in the documents produced, they did not have a definite plan of defense to meet the allegations, either general or specific. Trial Conducted With Dignity Shortly after Jackson's address 1 learned to my surprise of a remark of one of the leading defense lawyers which he made to a close friend. He said that he considered Justice Jackson's presentation a splendid contribution to international law if the court should accept it and that he believed that it represented a forward step of great importance of which he himself fully approved. I might say that so far throughout the proceedings both sides have shown a keen respect for each other and a number of the German lawyers who are professors in universities or accepted authorities on international law are expected to contribute toward to-ward the ultimate purpose of the outlawry of war insofar as 'hey can do so without injuring their clients' cases. It may be possible that attempts will be made to sabotage sabo-tage the trial by Introducing testi- BARBS ...by Caukhage r The commercial globesters of the near tomorrow will follow trails (o remote corners of the world that the war made possible. The giant planes that will be able to carry you and your friends from the United States due east or west, or north or south, and back to the United States again, will have weather information from hitherto incommunicable areas, frequently where weather originates. And the planes will land on air-strips in many places where a few years back no white man had been seen. In some parts of Germany, France and Italy it Is still believed that if you bury a drop of your blood under a rose tree, you will always have rosy cheeks. Blushes don't count Headline in a Washington news . paper: "Unemployment Prospects Brighter.' That hardly seems an occasion for cheer. |