Reprieve

At 9 o'clock on a foggy morning last week, the door of Landsberg Prison, where the U.S. holds some 500 German war criminals, swung open. Out came 29 men in rough-fitting ski pants, blue or grey jackets, no ties. They blinked at the waiting crowds. Berthold Krupp rushed up to older brother Alfried, heir to the bomb-shattered steel and munitions empire (only branch producing: the locomotive works), thrust a bouquet of daffodils and tulips into his hands. The two rode off in a black sedan to a champagne breakfast at Landsberg's best hotel.

Said 43-year-old Alfried, head of the Krupp dynasty that had armed Germany in three wars: "I hope it will never be necessary to produce arms again."

Krupp's reprieve roused wide Allied apprehension. The Paris-Presse saw "all that the French detest in Germany--the Prussian spirit, pan-Germanism, militarism, industrial dumping--" walking abroad again.

In freeing Alfried Krupp (who had been condemned to twelve years' imprisonment as a war criminal), and reviewing the sentences of 100 others, U.S. High Commissioner John McCloy and U.S. commander in Europe General Thomas Handy relied on the findings of an advisory board* on clemency. McCloy commuted to varying terms of imprisonment the sentences of 21 others who wore red jackets--Landsberg's garb for men who are condemned to death.

Only seven men in Landsberg still wore the red jacket; they would hang within a week.

*Its members: the Hon. David W. Peck presiding justice, appellate division, New York Supreme Court, chairman; Commissioner Frederick A. Moran, chairman, New York Board of Parole; Brigadier General Conrad E. Snow assistant legal adviser, Department of State.

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