The 24

The Allies at last published the list of 24 top Nazis who will be tried in a group as war criminals under the general charge of conspiracy to wage aggressive war. Specific charges, probably, will be brought against each criminal--the Rotterdam and Coventry bombings against Hermann Goring; wholesale murder against Hans Frank, former Nazi overlord of Poland.

All but one of the 24 were in custody. The exception was Martin Bormann, Hitler's deputy and closest adviser in the final days. Contradictory reports that Bormann had or had not been found continued to fly between the Allied capitals.

The list had no glaring omissions, with the possible exception of Field Marshal Alfred Kesselring and Industrialist Fritz von Thyssen. Industrialist Gustav Krupp von Bohlen was there, and so were Militarists Keitel, Jodl, Raeder and Doenitz. There were Financiers Funk and Schacht, ex-Foreign Ministers von Neurath and von Ribbentrop and the cloak-&-dagger diplomat, Franz von Papen; there were names once famous in the Nazi hierarchy --Hess and Streicher, Ley and Rosenberg, and Gauleiter Seyss-Inquart (Netherlands) and von Schirach (Austria). And along with the familiar names were others: Sauckel, the slave-herder; Hans Fritzsche, the propagandist; ex-Interior Minister Wilhelm Frick; Ernst Kalten-brunner, originator of mass execution by gas, and Albert Speer. the brilliant, ruthless organizer of German war production. Of the 24 not more than half were Prussians.

In Nuernberg jail, where most of the accused were held, there was a decided religious trend. More & more of the Nazis asked for Bibles and the services of the U.S. Army chaplains. One of the most devout was Hans Frank, who had walked into captivity clad only in a pair of silk panties.

The trials were to have started some time in September in the Nuernberg courthouse. But choice of counsel for the defendants would cause some delay, and last week the main floor of the courthouse collapsed. Army officers feared repairs might take six months. The only other building in Nuernberg large enough to hold the expected crowds was the opera house, which the authorities had once vetoed, feared because its theatrical air lacked solemnity.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.