Last-minute efforts to save from the gallows seven Nazi war criminals convicted of the mass murder of Jews and others failed here today, as U.S. authorities indicated that the seven condemned Germans may be hanged at dawn tomorrow.
Eleventh hour petitions from the seven, airmailed from Frankfurt, were turned down yesterday in Washington by Judge Edward A. Tamm of U.S. District Court. Appeals made by Germans today to U.S. High Commissioner John J. McCloy appeared to be in vain.
A U.S. Army officer refused to say when the executions would take place. Relatives of the seven condemned men had been notified by official telegrams that they could make final visits to the prisoners today. Normally prisoners today. Normally prisoners are executed in the pre-dawn hours of the day following such final visits. The condemned men, and the crimes for which they were sentenced, are:
Hans Schaidt, for three years SS Adjutant at the infamous Buchenwald concentration camp. In command during a period when 5,000 prisoners died monthly, and director of “Command 99,” a special group charged with killing Jews and gypsies.
Georg Schallarmair, former roll-call chief at Muehldorf concentration camp. Convicted of having personally beaten prisoners to death and of overseeing the extraction of gold from teeth of slain inmates.
Oswald Pohl, former SS General in charge of all German concentration camps. Units under him carried out the liquidation of Jews in the Oswiscim concentration camp. The destruction of the Warsaw ghetto and pillage and murder of Jews in East Europe.
Otto Ohlendorf, former Major General in charge of an extermination group in Russian which slaughtered 90,000 men, women and children, most of than Jews.
Werner Braune, former Gestapo official convicted of carrying out the “Simperepol Massacre” of thousands of Jews and gypsies.
Erich Maumann, former SS Brigadier General, in command of an extermination unit which killed 3,539 people in 24 hours.
Paul Blobel, former SS Colonel, found guilty of ordering the killing of 60,000 Jews in the notorious two-day massacre at Kiev.
United States authorities have forbidden press coverage of the hanging of the seven condemned German war criminals. The U.S. Army spokesman told reporters that the press ban was decreed by U.S. High Commissioner McCloy and Gen. Thomas T. Handy, Commander of the U.S. armed forces in Europe. Press coverage was permitted at the Nuremberg executions of Nazi war criminals.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
