The Times Herald from Port Huron, Michigan • Page 11

Times Herald Coming tomorrow on Spotlight: Dr. Bruckheim Family health Health happenings November 25, 1986 of A Backyard frTj norticuure Margaret Thele rj i 111 I ji mm 23 'iMMiMi if i Ji fw "hrs Jn I I i I was chosen by the U.S. Army to work at the trials. She remained in Germany as a court reporter in Frankfort until 1952. Pauline Leonard, second row left, is pictured in this old news photo recording testimony at the Nuren-berg Trials.

The military and civilian trials of Nazi war criminals began in 1946 and ended in 1949. Leonard, Port Huron, was working as a court reporter and stenographer in Washington when she Local woman recorded Nuren berg Trials Gardener program is gearing up The end of the garden season signals the beginning of the Mas- ter Gardener training program. The 1986 class is winding up its I volunteer projects while prepara- tions for the 1987 class are under way. This year, 33 Master Gar-' dener candidates passed the course work and 17 achieved certification. Basic Master Gardener certification, which involves 35 hours of classroom training and 35 hours of community service, was earned by Dan Gorkiewicz, Washington; Gary Tuzinowski and Leonard Opper, both of Al-gonac; Jeanne Arganbright, Marysville; Robert Downer and Rosemary Sloan, both of Marine City; Glen Morningstar, Yale; La Verne Groat, St.

Clair; Nancy Harrison, Harsens Island, and Helen Stevenson, Steve Mary Davis and Lynda Maroney, all of Port Huron. Advanced Master Gardener status was earned by Rosemary Sloan, Marine City; Donna Smith, Port Huron, and Mary Frances Hurt, St. Clair. To receive ad-t vanced Master Gardener status, volunteers must take an additional 25 hours of classroom instruction and put in an additional 50 hours of community service. A special note of appreciation goes to David and Delia Fiedler, Port Huron.

The Fiedlers gave more than 100 hours beautifying Port Huron Township Park, their church in North Street and helping other gardeners understand and resolve plant and pest problems. Other unusaul contributions to the program were given this year by: Steve Revnik for growing more than 15,000 flower plants from seed and for planting and maintaining 35 garden sites in Port Huron. Revnik, 72, is a youngster in the program. Elder status goes to Eva Kitchen, 79, of Goodells, who is working on her volunteer hours. Mary Davis and Maggie Gibbs, members of the Port Huron Beautification Commission, who expanded the realm of horticulture to include a quest for world peace.

Davis and Gibbs are working on the Plant for Peace project and are organizing the 1987 planting of children's peace gardens with area schools, churches, 4-H chapters, and individuals. Lynda Maroney for operating the Cooperative Extension Service garden phones this past season. Maroney logged more than 80 hours answering garden questions and researching the 1987 wild-flower planting project. I would like to extend my grateful appreciation to all of the Master Gardener volunteers for their time, enthusiasm, energy and ideas. Applications for the 1987 Master Gardener program are now available.

Classes will be held from 6 to 10 p.m. Thursdays beginning Jan. 15. Cost of the 12-week training pro-, gram is $40, which includes note- book, reference materials, and registration. Each participant also is expected to donate 35 hours in community service projects either through extension service-sponsored events or with nonprofit organizations.

Application deadline is Dec. 19. For more information, contact Margaret Thele, program coordinator, at the St. Clair County Cooperative Extension Service. Margaret Thele worki tor the SI.

Clair County Cooperative Exteniion Service. Question lor her may ent lo the extension office, 10 MeMorren Port Huron. I 1 33 The guards told us that Friday brought a pall over the entire prison, as apparently none of the prisoners knew until shortly before the hangings that they were the star performers. While our hearings were going on, we could hear the trap dropping for the execution of those prisoners selected for that day's hangings. Pauline Leonard, a court reporter at the Nurenberg Trials 33 g.y.--- By JAMES DONAHUE Times Herald Reporter amine Lunai a L-J shorthand skills II- earned her a front row seat in a major world event the Nurenberg Trials.

Leonard, Port Huron, was working as a court reporter and stenographer in Washington during World War II, when she was chosen by the U.S. Army to serve as a recorder at the trials. The trials were held 40 years ago by the International War Crimes Tribunal in Nurenberg, West Germany. The tribunal was responsible for trying and sentencing Nazi war criminals. Leonard, 70, said she arrived in Nurenberg in time to see 22 officers of Adolf Hitler's German military, including Hermann Goering, Rudolph Hess and Albert Speer, sentenced to death or prison terms.

She also was there on Oct. 16, 1946, when ten Germans were hanged in an open courtyard just outside the building where she was working. Other hangings occurred there in later months. "It wasn't very pleasant to hear that 'thud' when the trap doors Leonard said. "We saw some of those people for months and got to know them." Leonard stayed after the military portion of the trials were over to help record testimony during the civilian trials of doc- tors and industrial leaders.

Those trials ended in 1949.. The doctors were accused of doing Inhumane experiments on Jews and Gypsies at German prison camps during the war. The leaders of the I.G. Farben Cartel were accused of using slave labor and helping Germany aggressively prepare for the war. "I should have written a book," she said.

Leonard, a native of Paducah, learned shorthand while a student at Lansing Eastern High School and worked for a Lansing bank after graduation. In 1940, she moved to Washington were she worked for the Army at the 9 Times Herald JAMES DONAHUE crimes committed by civilians in the German war effort. During the trials, Leonard said a team of six civilian court reporters would take turns doing 30-' minute sessions in the courtroom. When they weren't in the courtroom, they typed transcripts in an adjoining room. It was grueling work, because the trials Involved simultaneous translations from German into English.

Leonard said everybody wore headphones to hear the English or German translation of what was being said. Lights flashed on a podium to indicate Pauline Leonard, 70, found herself with a front row seat to one of the most infamous trials in history the Nurenberg Trials of Nazi war criminals following World War II. 33 Some of those guys were real slimes. Pauline Leonard 33 the need for speakers to slow down when the interpreters were getting behind. Leonard said some of the things she heard was a shock.

"It was pretty gory. A court reporter gets used to hearing a lot of junk but this wasn't pleasant. Some of those guys were real slimes," she said. She said she watched some of the foremost medical experts in Germany on trial for such things as freezing victims alive, making people drink salt water until they went insane, using the skin of prisoners to make lamp shades, experiments in human sterilization, infecting humans with bacteria and testing drugs on them, and bleeding infected people to death and using their blood tq make vaccines. She said emotions ran high, especially when some of the victims testified.

One day a survivor tried to jump the high rail around the defendant's dock to attack a doctor who had been in charge of the experlmenti, she said. "When we asked the Germans why they would follow Hitler and do such terrible things they said: 'If you didn't have soap, butter and good roads, and somebody came along and promised these things, you would do Leonard said while working In the Palace of Justice she had to pass through the prison where the defendants were housed. She said while the employees never spoke to the prisoners, their faces be- came very familiar to them. Once the prisoners were sen- tenced, those condemned to die were dressed in red outfits, while the other prisoners wore blue clothing. Hanging day was always on Friday.

"The guards told us that Friday brought a pall over the entire prison, as apparently none of the prisoners knew until shortly before the hangings that they were the star performers. While our hearings were going on, we could hear the trap dropping for the execution of those prisoners selected for that day's hangings." said she remembers how one witness, also under the sentence of death, broke down in the middle of giving testimony because he heard the sound of the trap door opening. Ieonard remained in Germany after the trials ended and worked on English-speaking court cases in Frankfort until 1952. She then returned to Washington. The following year she moved to Port Huron as court reporter for Probate Judge Vera Black, and later worked in St.

Clair County Circuit Court. Ix-onard retired In 1976. War Department. It was while she was serving as the conference reporter for the Army, that she was chosen to go to Nurenberg. The first phase of the Nurenberg trials were conducted at the Palace of Justice, with the United States, England, France and Soviet Union each providing two judges.

Leonard said this tribunal was in session before she arrived on Sept. 2, and only existed to try German military officers. The final phase of the trials was conducted only by the United States. These trials involved war.