Word: falkenhausen
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Once, when Falkenhausen was threatened with 'assassination in Brussels; he calmly issued a proclamation announcing that he would move to the ground floor of his headquarters, and listed the restaurants where he could be found after dark, to make the job for his assassin easier. The assassin never tried it. In 1944, after the plot on Hitler's life, the Gestapo arrested Falkenhausen; he has been in various jails ever since...
...There Excuses? There were two ways of looking at the Falkenhausen case. Many were convinced that Falkenhausen was no war criminal. Others pointed to the fact that he was the head of a German occupation under which atrocities had undoubtedly been committed...
...Much of Falkenhausen's brilliant career gave testimony in his favor. A professional soldier, he fought in the Boxer war, in World War I (when Turkey was Germany's ally) became chief of staff of the Seventh Ottoman Army. Between wars, he was a member of the Steel Helmet, a right-wing but anti-Nazi party. He retired from the Reichswehr in 1930, went to China as Chiang Kai-shek's military adviser, became his good friend and stayed on to help him fight the Japanese even after Germany had formed the Axis...
...rule in Belgium was more lenient than German occupations of other enemy countries. When Belgium faced starvation one winter, Falkenhausen made a secret deal with German army officials in Poland to get potatoes for Belgium's hungry cities...
...There a Difference? Prosecution lawyers painted a very different picture of Falkenhausen. Presiding Judge Achille Marechal asked how it happened that a reputed anti-Nazi was given as important a job as Falkenhausen's. The accused general snapped: "I can't answer that. I was told I was being chosen for my competence." When a defense witness reported that many plain Belgians trusted Falkenhausen to help them, the judge declared: "I note that Falkenhausen did nothing [to help them] except perhaps show himself sympathetic...