After Fifteen Years

By Leon Jaworski

A Fascinating Behind-The-Scenes Story Of Nazi War Crimes Trials Disclosed Here For The First Time

Leon Jaworski was a prodigal lawyer, the youngest person ever to be admitted to the Texas Bar and was involved in some of the important cases in legal history. His enduring fame came from leading the prosecution of the Watergate case, United States v Nixon, and heading the large Texas based law firm Fulbright and Jaworski.

Jaworski wrote a number of autobiographical books, in this, his first volume of memoirs, he reflects on his wartime career during which he served in the United States Army judge advocate general’s department . He was made chief of the trial section of the war crimes branch in the late stages of the war in Europe. In this office he directed investigations of several hundred cases concerning German crimes against persons living and fighting in the American zone of occupation. He also personally tried two cases—the first having to do with the murder of American aviators shot down over Germany in 1944 and the second involving the doctors and staff of a German sanatorium where Polish and Russian prisoners were put to death. Jaworski had risen to the rank of colonel by the time he returned to civilian life in October 1945.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Normanby Press
• Release date: Nov 6, 2015
• ISBN: 9781786252609

Leon Jaworski

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Text originally published in 1960 under the same title.

© Pickle Partners Publishing 2015, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means, electrical, mechanical or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright holder.

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Although in most cases we have retained the Author’s original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern reader’s benefit.

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AFTER FIFTEEN YEARS

BY

LEON JAWORSKI

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS 5

DEDICATION 6

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 7

ILLUSTRATIONS 8

INTRODUCTION 9

1 – TYRANNY AHEAD 11

2 – A PANORAMA OF GERMANY UNDER HITLER 15

3 – MURDER AMONG COMRADES 17

4 – WHY HOLD WAR CRIME TRIALS? 29

5 – WAR CRIMES TRIALS IN THE AMERICAN ZONE OF OCCUPATION 31

6 – RUSSELSHEIM DEATH MARCH 35

7 – MASS MURDER AT HADAMAR 52

8 – THE DACHAU CONCENTRATION CAMP 65

9 – ASHCAN 71

10 – CONCLUSION 74

REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER 78

DEDICATION

TO THE MEMORY OF MY FATHER

REVEREND JOSEPH JAWORSKI

I DEDICATE THIS VOLUME

To my friend, James A. Clark, distinguished author and columnist, I owe much gratitude for his invaluable aid in providing editorial guidance as well as suggestions as to form and content of this book. Above all, his appraisals of my efforts as this volume was taking form stimulated me to complete this undertaking.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Upon completing a draft of this volume, I submitted it to a few of my friends for criticism, among them being Marvin Hurley, Executive Vice President of the Houston Chamber of Commerce, who was the first to read it; Judge Emil Gumpert, Chancellor and Founder of the American College of Trial Lawyers; Brigadier General C. E. Straight, Assistant Judge Advocate General; Edward Clark, Austin attorney, and Rev. E. R. McWilliams, Regional Director, Houston Chapter of the National Conference of Christians and Jews. Their aid and encouragement induced me to publish it. There are other friends, too, who assisted in various ways, but they are too numerous to mention specifically.

When the idea of writing such a book began to form, several members of the press influenced my decision to proceed, among the first being Arthur Laro, Publisher, and Jack Donahue, Editor, both former Houstonians. Soon thereafter, further stimulus was furnished by the heartening words of George Fuermann, author and columnist.

The members of my immediate family and my esteemed law partners, notably the seniors among them, supplied much of the inspiration to pursue this endeavor to conclusion. I was motivated also by the desire that my son, Joe, now in his second year in the practice of law, know and always remember the truths I have undertaken here to record.

For the honor done me in the Introduction, I express to the Vice President of the United States, with homage, my deep and humble gratitude.

Leon Jaworski

Houston, Texas

May, 1961

ILLUSTRATIONS

General Garrison Davidson, President of the Court at Darmstadt

The Author Questions a Witness

Court Scene at the Darmstadt Trial

Moment of Judgment for Hartgen as His Death Sentence is Pronounced

Hadamar, Scene of Mass Murder

Ward IB, Where Victims Received their Fatal Innoculations

The Accused at Hadamar

Representatives of the United Nations War Crimes Commission

Irmgard Huber Identifies Her Statement

The Author Cross-Examines Alfons Klein

INTRODUCTION

by

LYNDON B. JOHNSON

VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

The middle years of the Twentieth Century—more than any other in mankind’s experience—have witnessed the marshalling and the use of forces too vast for individual men to comprehend readily. There are those who despair before the very magnitude of such forces which shape the destiny of the world and the human race with such seemingly impersonal power. Yet a book such as this—personal and modest as it is—serves as a timely and useful antidote against such despair.

The essence of Leon Jaworski’s narrative is a reminder that the vast forces of our time are not so impersonal, that their impact falls upon the lives of individuals, and that today as since time began, men rise to the challenge of the forces they encounter.

Leon Jaworski was born the son of a minister, admonished from childhood, as he relates, never to hate my fellow man. Through his Texas youth, through his student years at Baylor University, through his start toward brilliant legal success in the Thirties, Jaworski never contemplated what the forces of the century held in store for him.

But, in time, when forces of organized and contrived hatred plunged Europe and the world into destructive war, it fell to this young man from Texas to become for his government the Chief of the War Crimes Trial Section in the American Zone of Occupation in the European Theatre—responsible for bringing to account those who had turned hate against their fellow man. While Leon Jaworski has written little of himself in this volume, the narrative relates the inspiring story of his growth to master the forces of evil which he had never expected to encounter.

That, to me, is the inspiration of his story. Great forces need not be always and only for evil ends, for, as this book attests, men of good purpose can and will rise to such challenges—and become their master. The ultimate triumph of good is not to be assured by our despair but by our faith, and, beyond faith, by our diligence and our labors. As evil works without ceasing, so those on the side of freedom, peace, and justice must never cease to work—confident that their higher purpose will by such efforts ultimately prevail among all men.

In his own life, the author—one of the most outstanding citizens of Texas—epitomizes this concept of the always active, always working believer in the triumph of right. Having seen the price of hate, Leon Jaworski has dedicated himself to overcoming the weeds of hate which grow in any unattended field. For the past five years he has been Protestant Chairman of the Houston work of the National Conference of Christians and Jews. He is clearly a man wonderfully tolerant of the differences among men, vigorously intolerant of those who would exploit such differences to turn man against man.

I am glad that my friend and counselor, so distinguished and successful a citizen, has taken time to recount this story—of one man responding against the great forces which move our century.

WASHINGTON, D. C.

May, 1961

1 – TYRANNY AHEAD

Many lines have been written since the close of World War II about Hitler and his immediate subordinates—the top echelon of the Nazi Hierarchy. They have been condemned by public opinion and by the judgment of the International Military Tribunal. The impression most commonly left by commentators is that the responsibility for Germany’s tragic years could be laid solely at the feet of these leaders and their immediate associates. This is a misconception. The reasons for Germany’s dark days and her eventual downfall go far beyond the handiwork of these leaders themselves.

The world now recognizes that Hitler and his henchmen were madmen—vicious and heartless tyrants. They were also crafty and scheming, and quite capable of deluding the masses. But Hitler made few pretenses. He had not long been engaged in his nefarious endeavors when it became evident to the German people that his was a program designed to trample on human rights and lives. Although many of his moves, especially in the earlier days of his regime, were clothed in deception, as his strategy unfolded it was evident that he was bent on a course of injustice and devastation; that he was determined to achieve his end regardless of the price and the means he had to employ.

However, let us not forget that the German people were forewarned by none other than Hitler himself as to what his program would be. In Mein Kampf, which he wrote in prison, Hitler spelled out quite clearly the persecutions and oppressions he would have to invoke to bring about, for instance, the Master Race social advances he advocated. In clear and unmistakable terms, he described the Frankenstein