October 18, 1947
Los Angeles
For the past five days, ten hours at a stretch, Chuck Harader, 28, pianist/composer of 2208 Cahuenga Street, has been riding a Vermont Avenue bus, trying to match female riders to his ideal, a gal called Susan Simpson who, he says, he "dated" last summer on numerous evening bus trips into Griffith Park. She never told him where she lived or let him escort her off the conveyance, but he adores her all the same.
She's even sent him letters, asking him to meet her at their usual place (that would be the Monroe St. bus stop just south of City College), and later asking why he had failed to make the date, and suggesting a mysterious "Steve" would be incensed by her actions. He must have missed her when he got off the bus to grab a bite. He won't make that mistake again. And so Chuck rides, with his weekly pass, sandwiches and coffee thermos by his side, ready to protect his lady... if he can just find her again.
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Mass Execution
Boss Unbothered
by Conscience
NEURNBERG, Oct. 17(A.P.)—S.S. Gen. Erich Naumann, whose commandos killed thousands of Jewish men, women and children on the eastern front, told a war crimes court today he saw nothing wrong with that.
He was one of the leading defendants in the case against the Einsatz command groups which Gestapo Chief Heinrich Himmler formed to eradicate whole races.
Naumann’s statement was in answer to a question by Judge Michael A Musmanno, president of the tribunal, about whether he felt any misgivings in carrying out the orders for mass killings.
He said at first he had some doubts about the humanity of such conduct, but that he reconciled it quickly as a “National Socialist (Nazi) and a soldier.”
Naumann said he believed any order from Adolf Hitler was superior to his own conscience.
“Then you saw nothing wrong with shooting down defenseless people?” the court asked.
“No, it was necessary to win the war,” said Naumann.
Counsel for other defendants tried to draw from Naumann a declaration that he was more responsible than his men. He contended that only Hitler was responsible for the mass killing order and that he had no reason to doubt that his men carried it out “completely.”
Naumann was unable to estimate how many victims fell before his firing squads. Another defendant, Otto Ohlendorf, asserted his group alone killed 90,000.
Musmanno asked Ohlendorf if he would have killed his own flesh and blood on Hitler’s orders. Ohlendorf replied yes.
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In April 1948, Gen. Naumann and Maj. Gen. Ohlendorf were among 14 S.S. officers sentenced to be hanged, but court battles delayed their execution for several years.
Executed June 7, 1951, were:
S.S. Gen. Oswald Pohl; chief concentration camp administrator, destroyed the Warsaw Ghetto.
S.S. [Maj.] Gen. Otto Ohlendorf; supervised units that killed 90,000 civilians in the Soviet Union.
S.S. Gen. Erich Naumann; led forces that killed 3,530 Jews and Gypies in central Russia in less than a month.
S.S. Col. Werner Braune; led a massacre of “racial undesirables” in the Crimea.
S.S. Col. Paul Blobel; led the slaughter of 60,000 people, including 33,000 Jews, in two days in Kiev.
S.S. Lt. Hans Schmidt; adjutant at Buchenwald.
S.S. Sgt. Georg Schallermair; official beat inmates to death at Muehlendorf concentration camp.
Each was given 90 seconds to speak and sources said all of them emphasized that “Germany must beware of people who call themselves Germany’s friends.”
Michael A. Mussmano was elected to Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court in 1951 and died in 1968. His papers are in special collections at Pittsburgh’s Duquesne University and include detailed personal interviews with many former top Nazis.
Quote of the day: "Capt. Charles R. Sisto, sitting in the jump seat, decided to engage the gustlock while in flight to determine what action if any it would have on the control and attitude of the plane while in level flight.”
Civil Aeronautics Board investigation into what caused an American Airlines plane carrying 53 people from Dallas to Los Angeles to turn upside-down in flight.
www.lmharnisch.com
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