Show high nazi chief caught in china former gestapo leader Is found in hole where he hid two years CHINA the bedraggled onetime one time ruthless chief of the tha german gestapo in north china and mongolia sighed with relief when he was dragged from an earthen pit under a rambling old neiping house by chinese police it was the melodramatic climax of a two year hunt im glad its over I 1 do not believe I 1 could have stood it much longer I 1 seen the sun for two years gasped charles schmidt who was Himm lers swaggering bully boy here for 18 months st at the height of the tha war emaciated scantily clad and coughing with whit what he said was tuberculosis bercu losis contracted during his hiding sch m idt was meek but garrulous he said he weighed pounds when he went into hiding but now weighed less than cant explain it in a driving rainstorm he was hustled off to the airfield tor for removal to shanghai beside his name on the list hit of wanted nazis was the notation believed implicated in murder but neiping authorities were unable to explain it schmidt himself said he had been sought ever since germany surrendered in may 1945 first by the japanese who feared and hated him a and rd then by the allies after japans defeat after fleeing to tokyo and then back to neiping in 1945 schmidt said he had gone into hid ing to in the house where he was found it was the home of a middle aged german widow of a chinese doctor in Pei pings east city a building full of broken furniture and disordered rubble A chinese re reporter who was the only witness odthe of the arrest sold 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 five feet deep and tour four feet square clad in rags kaes dont move or we will shoot a p policeman oll ceman warned in english clad only in an undershirt and overalls schmidt was lifted out and thrown en an the floor mr charley schmidt said the police captain un unnecessarily we are lo 10 looking king for you yes schmidt replied wearily two years Is a long time he volunteered that he possessed no gun and had destroyed all his papers long ago asked about his successor adelbert schulze who vanished from neiping just as americans were preparing to fly him to shanghai tor for repatriation schmidt was wa contemptuous 1 I heard he was wall w working for the Russ russians fans schmidt said he Is a fool no man can work for more than one master |