Congressional Investigation of Ilse Koch Case Will Be Influenced by State Department

Decisions made by the Department of State and the Department of the Army may affect the course of the Senate Investigation Sub-Committee’s inquiry into the case of Ilse Koch, whose life sentence for atrocities at the Buchenwald death camp was recently commuted to four years by military government authorities.

William P. Rogers, chief counsel of the sub-committee, has been conferring with Under Secretary of State Robert A. Lovett on the matter, State Department press officer Michael J. McDermott said today. The decision on whether to hold open hearings on the case as originally planned, or to hold closed hearings and only make the report public when it is presented to Congress is entirely up to the sub-committee, McDermott stated. (A United Press story earlier today reported that the committee would base such a decision on the report which they had from the State Department.)

Rogers confirmed that the sub-committee would make the final decision on the method of handling the case. He said, however, that he was discussing the matter with both the State and Army Departments to insure that the investigation would in no way damage the prestige of the military government in Germany. He emphasized that the committee in no way meant to squelch the investigation, but did want to avoid Jeopardizing the reputation of military government authorities.

An Army spokesman said that the Army had not yet received a reply from General Lucius D. Clay, U.S. commander in Europe, on a request from Secretary of the Army Kenneth C. Royall to seek new charges which might be brought against Frau Koch without putting her in double jeopardy. He said the original Indictment of “crimes against humanity” was a very broad one and admitted that it was “a reasonable speculation” that this fast, coupled with the Army’s feeling against calling crimes of Germans against Germans “War Crimes,” might preclude any other charges being found against Frau Koch.