Show try nazis in ruins of their handiwork scene of the historic trial 91 per cent destroyed by bombings case sets precedent for outlawing war by BAUKHAGE geici analyst and commentator back irs in germany baukhage reports the war w r crimes trial c cf 21 top nazis with w the same vividness with which he narrated it the their rise to power in the prewar years when he fie was stationed in lit the ha reich arti ci below is the first birst of 01 a series oj 01 articles written witten from gi service 1616 eye street N W washington D C GERMANY I 1 have lust just left the courtroom where as I 1 write the trial of germanys germanas Germ anys war criminals Is still in progress the courtroom Is just above me in n this great stone courthouse which w was s almost untouched by the bombing ing which reduced this most beautiful and famous city to the point that it was declared 81 per cent dead by the experts who followed the occupation by american troops on april 20 1945 I 1 am writing in the press room with reporters from more than a dozen nations about me most of us are in uniform the majority being the uniform of the united states i army which all war cor respondents correspondents in our theater wore ware up until recently correspondents had a simulated rank of captain now we are simply uniformed civilians operating under military orders As I 1 lock look back over the beginnings of this trial the earliest earlie s t discussions before the tribunal itself was formed I 1 have the feeling that we are now looking at something very real actual and factual rather than theoretical and vague at the first gathering the appalling condition of this city produced the feeling that all about it and in it must be chaos too dates back 0 o the bilth century and it grew into such favor and beauty that it bore bor the name of germanys germanas Germ anys treasure tre che chest s t it was a chest of treasures treasure of art song and culture as well as a of the g gold old that poured into the coffers of the merchants now it Is ai a shell and one of Eu ropes best examples of the atmosphere and charm charin of the middle agas Is gone how the nearly people who a are re said to be living in these ruins exist it Is hard to say the streets are cleared some street cars are running some shops are opening a city government Is operating but few houses are livable in some cases parts of great buildings have been restored such cellars as can be cleared of rubble and rooted roofed are crowded A huge air raid shelter steps below the ground contains a small village in itself milestone tit in mans progress it may be that what Is accomplished will be washed out by subsequent stupidities but I 1 believe whether we go forward immediately from this point or not it will remain a milestone in mans effort to accomplish the outlawry of war that it will be a landmark from which others may set their course anew grotius Grot lus father of international law held to the principle that aggressive wars were illegal As Justice Jackson pointed out it was because of the greed tor for land which characterized the and centuries that this concept was thrust aside and the world came to accept the tenet that war in itself was not illegal and it seems to me that all attempts to stop war must be futile so long as such a concept exists in international thinking no one who saw the spontaneous reaction to 0 o justice jacksons opening address to the court could feel that the tremendous mend us effort which has gone into creation Yrea the creation tion and operation of this court can be completely lost for those who have witnessed witnessed these proceedings there Is a striking symbolism in the rise and tall fail of a notion nation which built a vicious culture in less than a decade with one final objective aggressive war which very ideology destroyed it as no nation has been wrecked before here we see before us in the flesh in some cases considerably less flesh than they were adorned with in their heyday hey day the men who conceived and carried out this plan which Is the distillation of the philosophy that might Is right and which negates the whole basis of the moral law which has been established by civilization step by step with the epitome of tons of written evidence with moving pictures with plans and charts the growth of 0 the nazi plan la Is being set forth factually coldly and logically A new chapter Is being written in every session of the court we watched untold unfold before us step by step first in the removal of the physical ability of the german people to resist then in the gradual substitution of nazi concepts tor for the normal human concepts produced by the christian philo philosophy so one of 0 the tha american attorneys quoted a comment of dr schacht on the effect of the destruction ot of the freedom of the press schacht was quoted as having said at a time before he fie knuckled under to hitler that thousands of germans had been killed or imprisoned and not one word was allowed to be printed about it of what use Is martyrdom he asked when it is so concealed that it has no value as an example to others therein lies one of the answers to the moral failure of german resistance by the time the nazis were ready to flu fill their concentration camps with their foreign victims they had learned well the art of handling the resistance of their own people end and smothering it behind a wall of utter silence As the court pointed out the first purpose of the concentration camps the persecution suppression and propaganda was the conquest of the german masses each successive step was traced by the prosecution with the same meticulous detail detail that kept even the prisoners with their ears glued glue d to the headphones and their eyes following the speaker or the exhibits accused make brave show however lor for us in the courtroom more impressive than the things that were done were the men in the prisoners dock who actually did them goering was no longer a name he was a person now leaning back and grinning now with his arms on the tha edge of the rail of the dock his chin resting on them there was rosenberg whose task was to twist the minds of the people with his absurd story of a super race of antl anti semitism there he sat lookin looking 9 down his fingers nervously toying with the telephone cords there was geltel feltel stiff cold proud arrogant all prussian in his uniform stripped though it was of every badge ribbon and insignia he ha maintains himself with dignity but not for a moment does he forget his pose at this writing the psychiatric psychia a analysis of the prisoners h has as not been completed and keitel has ha not been reported upon but I 1 daresay his 1 I Q will be high th though au gh perhaps not equal to that of goering who surprisingly enough stands right at the top goering goerling is tacitly acknowledged as leader by the others to the observers he appeared still the silly poseur although he seemed more reasonable appearing than the fat fai and grinning mannikin I 1 saw as he presided over the reichstag in his comic opera uniform admiral doenitz Eoe nitz who looks like a pile pale shadow Is also at the th top of the 1 I Q list he remains remain almost motionless only occasionally consulting his attorney who appears jo in a german naval uniform as he is on duty with a part of the fleet used in mine sweeping and was released especially for the trial down at the bottom of the list so tar far as intelligence goes Is julius stretcher Str elcher although of far lesser stature than the rest this miserable character Is a symbol of the fall all of he be is meeting his fate in the city in which he rose to power a late fate at which he himself hinted stretcher conducted the last class in nazi indoctrination for lawyers held in this very courtroom where he had been tried by the pre nazi authorities for various misdemeanors and perhaps other crim crimes ea As he concluded his last lecture he pointed to the prisoners dock and said we used to sit over there now we are standing up here but there may be a day when we are sitting down there again he IS sitting down there today in a brand new dock to be sure but I 1 with the same great iron eagle over the high marble frame of the doorway looking down on his cringing head |