Letter: Available for Nuremberg

Sir: By a strange slip you say ('A crime that must not be forgotten'; leading article, 20 January) that General Wilhelm Mohnke could probably have been tried at Nuremberg but was in a Russian prison. Most German prisoners were in Russian prisons, if only because of the way the war went in its last stages. There was no difficulty about getting them out if required. I myself interrogated a number by asking the Russians to find them and send them to Nuremberg.

In any case, Mohnke was not exalted enough to figure in the international trial at Nuremberg. He should have been tried - subject to the availability of evidence - by the British in the British zone of Germany under Control Council Law No 10.

Yours faithfully,

PETER CALVOCORESSI

Bath

20 January