Ross recalls the Nuremberg verdicts 70 years ago today

Seneca’s Lowell Ross was a youngster 70 years ago today, but he still remembers the clamor and the excitement in this country that greeted the end of the Second World War.  And today October 1 marks 70 years of a major post-war event.  It was the day that an International Military Tribunal announced the sentences for two dozen individuals deemed to be war criminals.  A few were acquitted.  Some, however, received prison terms.  But death by hanging was the sentence for several of the 24 judged to be major war criminals.  Ross, a history buff, spoke to 101.7/WGOG NEWS about the naïve impression that some of the captured Nazi Germany military brass held about their future.  Those individuals purported themselves to be professional soldiers who, despite their country’s cause, deserved to be treated with respect.  Ross points to a representative of Allied General Eisenhower who, 15 days after Germany’s surrender, delivered this order to Grand Admiral Donitz, a Nazi general who tried to form a government to replace Hitler’s:  “Gentlemen, I am empowered by the supreme allied commander to inform you that as of this moment, the Flensburg government is dissolved.  You have one half hour to pack one bag before you are taken to your respective places of detention.”  In one small irony, Ross’s is name is Lowell W. Ross.  The Eisenhower representative’s name was Lowell W. Rooks.