3. , which deals in part with “Special Case—Extension Red-Green,” declares (part 2 of 2)
“2. The Plenipotentiary General for Arbeitseinsatz will be responsible for regulating the conditions of labor (wage policy) employed in the Reich Territory, having regard to the requirements of Arbeitseinsatz.
“3. The Plenipotentiary General for Arbeitseinsatz is part of the Four Year Plan. In cases where new legislation is required, or existing laws required to be modified, he will submit appropriate proposals to me.
“4. The Plenipotentiary General for Arbeitseinsatz will have at his disposal for the performance of his task the right delegated to me by the Fuehrer for issuing instructions to the higher Reich authorities, their branches and the Party offices, and their associated organisms and also the Reich Protector, the General Governor, the Commander-in-Chief, and heads of the civil administrations. In the case of ordinances and instructions of fundamental importance a report is to be submitted to me in advance.” (1666-PS)
By a Hitler decree of 30 September 1942 Sauckel was given extraordinary powers over the civil and military authorities of the territories occupied by Germany. The decree (1903-PS) provided as follows:
“I herewith authorize the Deputy General for the Arbeitseinsatz, Reich-governor and district leader (Gauleiter) Fritz Sauckel to take all necessary measures for the enforcement of my decree referring to a Deputy General for the Arbeitseinsatz of 21 March 1942 (Reichsgesetzblatt, I, page 179) according to his own judgment in the Greater German Reich, in the Protectorate, and in the Government General (General-gouvernement) as well as in the occupied territories, measures which will safeguard under all circumstances the regulated deployment of labor (Geordneter Arbeitseinsatz) for the German war-economy. For this purpose he may appoint commissioners (Beauftragte) to the bureaux of the military and civilian administration. These are subordinated directly to Deputy General for the Arbeitseinsatz. In order to carry out their tasks, they are entitled to issue directives to the competent military and civilian authorities in charge of the Arbeitseinsatz and of wage-policy.
“More detailed directives will be issued by the Deputy General for the Arbeitseinsatz.
“Fuehrer-Headquarters, 30 Sept. 1942.
“The Fuehrer “(signed) Adolph Hitler.” (1903-PS)
Within a month after his appointment, Sauckel sent Rosenberg his “Labor Mobilization Program”, which might more appropriately be termed Sauckel’s “Charter of Enslavement.” This program envisaged the forcible recruitment and the maximum exploitation of the entire labor resources of the conquered areas and of prisoners of war in the interests of the Nazi war machine, at the lowest conceivable degree of expenditure to the German State. Sauckel explained his plans in these terms:
“It must be emphasized, however, that an additional tremendous number of foreign labor has to be found for the Reich. The greatest pool for that purpose are the occupied territories of the East. Consequently, it is an immediate necessity to use the human reserves of the Conquered Soviet Territory to the fullest extent. Should we not succeed in obtaining the necessary amount of labor on a voluntary basis, we must immediately institute conscription or forced labor.
“Apart from the prisoners of war still in the occupied territories, we must, therefore, requisition skilled or unskilled male and female labor from the Soviet territory from the age of 15 up for the labor mobilization * * *.”
* * * * * *
“The complete employment of all prisoners of war as well as the use of a gigantic number of new foreign civilian workers, men and women, has become an undisputable necessity for the solution of the mobilization of labor program in this war.” (016-PS)
Sauckel proceeded to implement this “Charter of Enslavement” with certain basic directives. In Regulation No. 4, which he issued on 7 May 1942, Sauckel provided that if voluntary recruitment of foreign workers was unsuccessful, compulsory service should be instituted. This regulation provides:
“The recruitment of foreign labor will be done on the fundamental basis of volunteering. Where, however, in the occupied territories the appeal for volunteers does not suffice, obligatory service and drafting must, under all circumstances, be resorted to. This is an indisputable requirement of our labor situation.” (3044-PS)
Sauckel provided also for the allocation of foreign labor in the order of its importance to the Nazi war machine. Sauckel’s regulation No. 10 of 22 August 1942 had these aims:
“* * * 3. The resources of manpower that are available in the occupied territories are to be employed primarily to satisfy the requirements of importance for the war, in Germany itself. In allocating the said labor resources in the Occupied Territories, the following order of priority will be observed:
“(a) Labor required for the troops, the occupation authorities, and the civil authorities;
“(b) Labor required for the German armaments (Ruestungen);
“(c) Labor required for food and agriculture;
“(d) Labor required for industrial work other than armaments, which is in the interest of Germany;
“(e) Labor required for industrial work in the interests of the population of the territory in question.” (3044-A-PS)
Sauckel and agencies subordinate to him exercised exclusive authority over the recruitment of workers from every area in Europe occupied by, controlled by, or friendly to the German nation. Sauckel affirmed this authority in the following decree:
“The recruitment of foreign labor in the areas occupied by Germany, in allied, friendly or neutral states will be carried out exclusively by my commissioners, or by the competent German military or civil agencies for the tasks of labor mobilization.”
* * * * * *
“For the carrying out of recruitment in allied, friendly or neutral foreign countries, my commissioners are solely responsible.” (3044-PS)
Sauckel participated in the formulation of overall labor requirements for Germany and assigned quotas to be filled by and with the assistance of the individuals and agencies mentioned above, with knowledge that force and brutality were the only means whereby his demands could be met. Thus, the Lammer’s report states (1292-PS):
“1. A conference took place with the Fuehrer today which was attended by:
“The Plenipotentiary for the Employment of Labor Gauleiter Sauckel,
“The Secretary for Armament and War Production, Speer,
“The Chief of the Supreme Command of the Army, General Field Marshal Keitel, General Field Marshal Milch,
“The Acting Reich Minister for Food and Agriculture State Secretary Backe,
“The Minister of the Interior, Reichfuehrer SS Himmler, and myself.
(The Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Minister of National Economy had repeatedly asked to be permitted to participate prior to the Conference, but the Fuehrer did not wish their attendance.)
“The Fuehrer declared in his introductory remarks:
‘I want a clear picture:
(1) How many workers are required for the maintenance of German War Economy?
(a) For the maintenance of present output?
(b) To increase its output?
(2) How many workers can be obtained from Occupied Countries, or how many can still be gained in the Reich by suitable means (increased output)? For one thing, it is this matter of making up for losses by death, infirmity, the constant fluctuation of workers, and so forth, and further it is a matter of procuring additional workers.’
“The Plenipotentiary for the Employment of Labor, Sauckel, declared that, in order to maintain the present pool of workers, he would have to add at least 2½ but probably 3 million new workers in 1944. Otherwise production would fall off. Reichsminister Speer declared that he needs an additional 1.3 million laborers. However, this would depend on whether it will be possible to increase production of iron ore. Should this not be possible, he would need no additional workers. Procurement of additional workers from Occupied Territory would, however, be subject to the condition that these workers will not be withdrawn from armament and auxiliary industries already working there. For this would mean a decrease of production of these industries which he could not tolerate. Those, for instance, who are already working in France in industries mentioned above, must be protected against being sent to work in Germany by the Plenipotentiary for the Employment of Labor. The Fuehrer agreed with the opinions of Reichsminister Speer and emphasized that the measures taken by the Plenipotentiary for the Employment of Labor should order no circumstances which would lead to the withdrawal of workers from armament and auxiliary industries working in occupied territories, because such a shift of workers would only cause disturbance of production in occupied countries.
“The Fuehrer further called attention to the fact that at least 250,000 laborers will be required for preparations against air attacks in the field of civilian air raid protection. For Vienna alone, 2,000-2,500 are required immediately. The Plenipotentiary for the Employment of Labor must add at least 4 million workers to the manpower pool, considering that he requires 2½ million workers for maintenance of the present level, that Reich Minister Speer needs 1.3 million additional workers, and that the above-mentioned preparations for security measures against air attacks call for 0.25 million laborers.”
* * * * * *
“The Reichsfuehrer SS explained that the enforcement agents put at his disposal are extremely few, but that he would try helping the Sauckel project to succeed by increasing them and working them harder. The Reichsfuehrer SS made immediately available 2,000 to 2,500 men from concentration camps for air raid preparations in Vienna.”
* * * * * *
“Results of the Conference:
“(1) The Plenipotentiary for Employment of Labor shall procure at least 4 million new workers from occupied territories.” (1292-PS)
Moreover, Sauckel, in requesting the assistance of the Army for the recruitment of 1,000,000 men and women from the occupied Eastern territories, informed Keitel that prompt action was required; and that, as in all other occupied countries, pressure had to be used if other measures were not successful (3012-PS). Finally, Sauckel was informed by Rosenberg that the enslavement of foreign labor was achieved by force and brutality (018-PS). Notwithstanding his knowledge of conditions, Sauckel continued to request greater supplies of manpower from the areas in which the most ruthless methods had been applied. Indeed, when German Field Commanders on the Eastern Front attempted to resist Sauckel’s demands, because forced recruitment was swelling the ranks of the partisans and making the army’s task more difficult, Sauckel sent a telegram to Hitler, dated 10 March 1943, in which he implored him to intervene:
“Therefore, my Fuehrer, I ask you to abolish all orders which oppose the obligation of foreign workers for labor * * *.”
* * * * * *
“If the obligation for labor and the forced recruiting of workers in the East is not possible any more, then the German war industry and agriculture cannot fulfill their tasks to the full extent.” (407-II-PS)
In addition to being responsible for the recruitment of foreign civilian labor by force, Sauckel was responsible for the conditions under which foreign workers were deported to Germany and for the treatment to which they were subjected within Germany. The conditions under which Sauckel’s slaves were transported to Germany, were known to Sauckel (2241-PS). Moreover, he accepted responsibility for these conditions. Regulation Number 4 of 7 May 1942, issued by Sauckel as Plenipotentiary General for the Mobilization of Labor, deals with recruitment, care, lodging, feeding, and treatment of foreign workers of both sexes (3044-PS). By this decree, Sauckel expressly directed that the assembly and operation of rail transports and the supplying of food therefor was the responsibility of his agents until the transports arrived in Germany. By the same regulation, Sauckel directed that within Germany the care of foreign industrial workers was to be carried out by the German Labor Front and that care of foreign agricultural workers was to be carried out by the Reich Food Administration. By the terms of the regulation, Sauckel reserved for himself ultimate responsibility for all aspects of care, treatment, lodging, and feeding of foreign workers while in transit to and within Germany. The regulation reads (3044-PS):
“The care of foreign labor will be carried out.
“a. up to the Reichs border “by my commissioners or—in the occupied areas by the competent military or civil labor mobilization agencies. Care of the labor will be carried out in cooperation with the respective competent foreign organization.
“b. Within the area of the Reich “1. By the German Labor Front in the cases of non-agricultural workers. “2. By the Reich Food administration in the case of agricultural workers. “The German Labor Front and the German Food Administration are bound by my directives in the carrying out of their tasks of caring for the workers.
“The agencies of the labor mobilization administration are to give far-reaching support to the German Labor Front and the German Food Administration in the fulfillment of their assigned tasks.
“My competence for the execution of the care of foreign labor is not prejudiced by the assignment of these tasks to the German Labor Front and the Reichs Food Administration.”
* * * * * *
“b. Composition and operation of the transports.
“The composition and operations of the transports up to the place of work is the task of my representatives, in the occupied territories of the labor mobilization agencies of the military and civil administration. In the countries in which foreign representatives are to direct the transports up to the frontier, the German recruiting agency must take part in the supervision and care of the transports.”
* * * * * *
“c. Supply for the Transports.
“The food supply for the industrial workers in transit within the Reich, is the duty of the (DAF) German workers front, office for labor mobilization.
For the rest, my offices effect the supply for the transport.” (3044-PS)
Sauckel, in an agreement with Ley, the head of the German Labor Front (DAF) dated 2 June 1943, again emphasized his ultimate responsibility by creating a central inspectorate charged with examining the working and living conditions of foreign workers, and reporting thereon to Sauckel’s agency (1913-PS). The agreement reads in part as follows:
“* * * 2. The Reichsleiter of the German Labor Front, Reichsorganisationleiter Dr. Ley, in collaboration with the Plenipotentiary General for the Arbeitseinsatz, Gauleiter Sauckel, will establish a ‘central inspection’ for the continuous supervision of all measures concerning the care of the foreign workers mentioned under 1. This will have the designation:
‘Central inspection for care of foreign workers.’
“The central inspection for the care of foreign workers exercises its functions upon directives and in the name of the Plenipotentiary General for the Arbeitseinsatz and of the Reichsleiter of the German Labor Front. In order to avoid all duplication of work, it will be its sole responsibility, to scrutinize all measures taken for the care of foreign workers employed in the factories and camps, also to remove immediately all defects discovered—as far as possible—on the spot and to issue the necessary instructions for this.
“The authority of the Plenipotentiary General for the Arbeitseinsatz to empower the members of his staff and the presidents of the state employment offices to get direct information on the conditions regarding the employment of foreigners in the factories and camps, will remain untouched.
“3. The central inspection for the care of foreign workers will be continuously in touch with the main office VI of the Plenipotentiary General for the Arbeitseinsatz. It will instruct the office on the general observations made and will make suggestions for changes, if that should become necessary.
“4. The offices of the administration of the Arbeitseinsatz will be constantly informed by the ‘central inspection for the care of foreign workers’ of its observations, in particular immediately in each case in which action of State organizations seems to be necessary.” (1913-PS)
Sauckel was also responsible for compelling citizens of the occupied countries against their will to manufacture implements of war for use in operations against their own country and its allies. These functions were included in the terms of Sauckel’s appointment. (1666-PS)
In a series of reports to Hitler, Sauckel described how successful he had been in carrying out his program. One such report, dated 14 April 1943, states that in a single year Sauckel had incorporated 1,622,829 prisoners of war into the German economy:
“My Fuehrer,
* * * * * *
“1. After having been active as Plenipotentiary for Arbeitseinsatz for one year I have the honor to report to you that 3,638,056 new foreign workers have been added to the German war economy between April 1st. of the last year and March 31st of this year.”
* * * * * *
“Besides the foreign civilian workers another 1,622,829 prisoners of war are employed in the German economy.” (407-V-PS)
A subsequent report dated 3 June 1943, states that 846,511 additional foreign laborers and prisoners of war were incorporated into the German war industry:
“My Fuehrer:
“1. I beg to be permitted to report to you on the situation of the Arbeitseinsatz for the first five months of 1943. For the first time the following number of new foreign laborers and prisoners of war were employed in the German war industry: * * * Total: 846,511”. (407-IX-PS)
9. THE SPECIAL RESPONSIBILITY OF INDIVIDUAL CONSPIRATORS
In addition, the following conspirators who were informed by Sauckel of the quotas of foreign laborers which he required, collaborated with Sauckel and his agents in filling these quotas:
A. Keitel, Chief of the OKW.
The record of a telephone conversation of the Chief of the Economic Staff East of the German Army, dated 11 March 1943, reads in part as follows (3012-PS):
“The plenipotentiary for the Arbeitseinsatz, Gauleiter Sauckel, points out to me in an urgent teletype, that the Arbeitseinsatz in German agriculture as well as all the most urgent armament programs, ordered by the Fuehrer, make the most rapid procurement of approx. 1 million women and men from the newly occupied territories an imperative necessity. For this purpose, Gauleiter Sauckel demands the shipment of 5,000 workers daily beginning 15 March, 10,000 workers male and female beginning 1 April from the newly occupied territories.
“The daily quota of 5,000 (10,000) workers was distributed with the consent of the GBA as follows:
Reich Commissioner Ukraine daily 3,000 (6,000) workers.
Wl Jn South daily 1,000 (2,000) workers.
Wl Jn Center daily 500 (1,000) workers.
Commissioner General White Ruthenia daily 500 (1,000) workers.
“In consideration of the extraordinary losses of workers, which occurred in German war industry because of the developments of the past months, it is now necessary, that the recruiting of workers be taken up again everywhere with all emphasis. The tendency momentarily noticeable in that territory, to limit and/or entirely stop the Reich recruiting program is absolutely not bearable in view of this state of affairs. Gauleiter Sauckel, who is informed about these events, has because of this, turned immediately to General Fieldmarshal Keitel on 10 March 1943, in a teletype, and has emphasized on this occasion, that, as in all other occupied territories, there, where all other methods fail, by order of the Fuehrer a certain pressure must be used.” (3012-PS)
Confirmation of Keitel’s collaboration with Sauckel is also found in the transcript of an interrogation under oath of Sauckel held on the morning of 5 October 1945:
“Q. Was it necessary in order to accomplish the completion of the quotas given to have liaison with the OKW?
“A. I remember that the Fuehrer had given directives to Marshal Keitel, telling him that my task was a very important one, and I, too, have often conferred with Keitel after such discussions with the Fuehrer, when I asked him for his support.
“Q. It was his task to supervise the proper performance of the military commanders in the occupied countries in carrying out their missions, was it not?
“A. Yes, the Fuehrer had told me that he would inform the Chief of the OKW, and the Chief of the Reichs chancellery, as to these missions. The same applies to the Foreign Minister.” (3722-PS)
B. Alfred Rosenberg, Reichs Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories.
The following colloquy is taken from the transcript of an interrogation under oath of Alfred Rosenberg on the afternoon of 6 October 1945:
“Q. Isn’t it a fact, that Sauckel would allocate to the various areas under your jurisdiction the number of persons to be obtained for labor purposes?
“A. Yes.
“Q. And that thereafter, your agents would obtain that labor, in order to meet the quota which had been given; isn’t that right?
“A. Sauckel, normally, had very far-reaching desires, which one couldn’t fulfill unless one looked very closely into the matter.
“Q. Never mind about Sauckel’s desires being far-reaching or not being far-reaching. That has nothing to do with it. You were given quotas for the areas over which you had jurisdiction, and it was up to you to meet that quota?
“A. Yes; it was the responsibility of the administrative officials to receive this quota and to distribute the allotments over the districts in such a way, according to number and according to the age groups, so they would be most reasonably met.
“Q. These administrative officials were part of your organization, isn’t that right?
“A. They were functionaries or officials of the Reichskommissar for the Ukraine, but, as such, they were placed in their office by the Ministry for the Eastern Occupied Territories.” (3719-PS)
Corroboration is to be found in letters written by Sauckel to Rosenberg requesting the latter’s assistance in the recruitment of additional foreign laborers. (017-PS; 019-PS)
C. Seyss-Inquart, Reichscommissar for the Occupied Netherlands.
The transcript of an interrogation under oath of Sauckel on the morning of 5 October 1945, reads in part, as follows:
“Q. For a moment, I want to turn our attention to Holland. It is my understanding that the quotas for the workers from Holland were agreed upon, and then the numbers given to the Reichskommissar Seyss-Inquart to fulfill, is that correct?
“A. Yes, that is correct.
“Q. After the quota was given to Seyss-Inquart, it was his mission to fulfill it with the aid of your representatives; was it not?
“A. Yes. This was the only possible thing for me to do and the same applied to other countries.” (3722-PS)
D. Frank, Governor-General of the Government-General of Poland.
The transcript of interrogation under oath of Sauckel on the morning of 5 October 1945 reveals the part played by Frank:
“Q. Was the same procedure substantially followed of allocating quotas in the General Government Poland?
“A. Yes. I have to basically state again that the only possibility I had in carrying through these missions was to get in touch with the highest German military authority in the respective country and to transfer to them the orders of the Fuehrer and ask them very urgently, as I have always done, to fulfill these orders.
“Q. Such discussions in Poland, of course, were with the General Governor Frank?
“A. Yes. I spent a morning and afternoon in Krakov twice or three times, and I personally spoke to General Governor Frank. Naturally, there was also present Secretary Dr. Goebble.” (3722-PS)
E. The SS, as in all matters involving the use of force and brutality, extended its assistance.
This is clearly indicated in Reichschancellor Lammers’ report of a conference with Hitler attended by, among others, Sauckel, Speer, and Himmler (the Reichsfuehrer SS). The conference proceeded as follows:
“The Plenipotentiary for Employment of Labor, Sauckel, declared that he will attempt with fanatical determination to obtain these workers. Until now, he has always kept his promises as to the number of workers to be furnished. With the best of intentions, however, he is unable to make a definite promise for 1944. He will do everything in his powers to furnish the requested manpower in 1944. Whether it will succeed depends primarily on what German enforcement agents will be made available. His project cannot be carried out with domestic enforcement agents. The Reichsfuehrer SS explained that the enforcement agents put at his disposal are extremely few, but that he would try helping the Sauckel project to succeed by increasing them and working them harder.” (1292-PS)
10. THE SPECIAL RESPONSIBILITY OF SPEER
The use of prisoners of war in the manufacture of arms and munitions, allocated thereto by Sauckel, was confirmed by Speer. Speer stated in an interrogation under oath on 18 October 1945 that 40% of all prisoners of war were employed in the production of weapons and munitions and in subsidiary industries:
“* * * A. In the last phase of production, that is, in the year 1944 when everything collapsed, I had 40% of all prisoners of war employed in the production. I wanted to have this percentage increased.
“Q. And when you say employed in the production, you mean in these subsidiary industries that you have discussed and also in the production of weapons and munitions, is that right?
“A. Yes. That is the total extent of my task.” (3720-PS)
The minutes of the 36th Meeting of the Central Planning Board, of 22 April 1943, report Speer’s statement that:
“* * * 90,000 Russian prisoners of war employed in the whole of the armament industry are for the greatest part skilled men.” (R-124)
Speer actively participated in the planning and execution of the vast program of forcible deportation and enslavement of the citizens of the occupied countries. As Reich Minister of Armaments and Munitions and Chief of the Organization Todt, both of which positions he acquired on 15 February 1942, and by virtue of his later acquisition of control over the armament offices of the Army, Navy and Airforce and the production offices of the Ministry of Economics, Speer was responsible for the entire war production of the Reich, as well as for the construction of fortifications and installations for the Wehrmacht. Proof of the positions held by Speer is supplied by his signed statement. (2980-PS)
The industries under Speer’s control were the most important users of manpower in Germany. According to Sauckel, Speer’s labor requirements received unconditional priority over all other demands for labor. In an interrogation under oath on 22nd September 1945, Sauckel stated:
“The others I only got whatever was left. Because Speer told me once in the presence of the Fuehrer that I am here to work for Speer and that mainly I am his man.” (3721-PS)
Speer has admitted under oath that he participated in the discussions during which the decision to use foreign forced labor was made, that he concurred in the decision, and that it was the basis for the program of bringing foreign workers into Germany by compulsion. The transcript of the interrogation under oath of Speer, on 18 October 1945, contains the following colloquy:
“Q. But is it clear to you Mr. Speer, that in 1942 when the decisions were being taken concerning the use of forced foreign labor that you participated in the discussions yourself?
“A. Yes.
“Q. So that I take it that the execution of the program of bringing foreign workers into Germany by compulsion under Sauckel was based on earlier decisions that had been taken with your agreement?
“A. Yes, but I must point out that only a very small part of the manpower that Sauckel brought into Germany was made available to me; a far larger part of it was allocated to other departments that demanded them.” (3720-PS)
This admission is confirmed by minutes of Speer’s conferences with Hitler on 10, 11, and 12 August 1942 (R-124). In these meetings Speer related the outcome of negotiations concerning the forcible recruitment of a million Russian laborers for the German armaments industry, and stated that Hitler would agree to any necessary compulsion.
The use of force was again discussed by Hitler and Speer on 4 January 1943. It was decided that stronger measures were to be used to accelerate the conscription of French civilian workers. (556-13-PS).
Speer demanded foreign workers for the industries under his control and used these workers with the knowledge that they had been deported by force and were being compelled to work. Speer has stated under oath, in an interrogation on 18 October 1945 that:
“I do not wish to give the impression that I want to deny the fact that I demanded manpower and foreign manpower from Sauckel very energetically.” (3720-PS)
Speer also admitted, in the course of the same interrogation, that he knew he was obtaining foreign labor, a large part of which was forced labor:
“Q. So that during the period when you were asking for labor, it seems clear, does it not, that you knew that you were obtaining foreign labor as well as domestic labor in response to your requests and that a large part of the foreign labor was forced labor.
“A. Yes.
“Q. So that, simply by way of illustration, suppose that on January 1, 1944 you required 50,000 workers for a given purpose, would you put in a requisition for 50,000 workers, knowing that in that 50,000 there would be forced foreign workers?
“A. Yes.” (3720-PS)
Speer has furthermore stated under oath that he knew at least as early as September 1942 that workers from the Ukraine were being forcibly deported for labor in Germany. He also knew that the great majority of the workers of the Western occupied countries were slave laborers forced against their will to come to Germany. These facts are revealed in his interrogation under oath on 18 October 1945:
“Q. When did you first find out then that some of the manpower from the Ukraine was not coming voluntarily?
“A. It is rather difficult to answer this here, that is, to name a certain date to you. However, it is certain that I knew that at some particular point of time that the manpower from the Ukraine did not come voluntarily.
“Q. And does that apply also to the manpower from other occupied countries, that is, did there come a time when you knew that they were not coming voluntarily?
“A. Yes.
“Q. When, in general, would you say that time was, without placing a particular month of the year?
“A. As far as the Ukraine situation goes, I believe that they did not come voluntarily any more after a few months, because immense mistakes were made in their treatment by us. I should say offhand that this time was either in July, August or September of 1942.
* * * * * *
“Q. But many workers did come from the West, did they not, to Germany?
“A. Yes.
“Q. That means then that the great majority of the workers that came from the Western countries, the Western occupied countries, came against their will to Germany.
“A. Yes.” (3720-PS)
This admission is borne out by other evidence. In April 1943 Speer was informed at a meeting of the Central Planning Board, that in all countries conscription for work in Germany could be carried out only with the active assistance of the police, and that the prevailing methods of recruitment had provoked such violence that many German recruiting agents had been killed (R-124). Again, at a meeting with Hitler to discuss overall manpower requirements for 1944, Speer was informed by Sauckel that labor requirements for the German war economy (including Speer’s requirements of 1,300,000 additional laborers) could be met only if German enforcement agents were furnished to carry out the enslavement program in the occupied countries. (1292-PS)
Notwithstanding his knowledge that foreign workers were being conscripted and deported for use as slave laborers in Germany, Speer formulated requirements for the foreign workers and requested their allocation to industries subject to his control. At another meeting of the Central Planning Board, Speer stated:
“Speer: Now, the labor problem in Germany. I believe it is still possible to transfer some from the western territories. The Fuehrer stated only recently he wishes to dissolve these foreign volunteers as he had the impression that the army groups were carting around with them a lot of ballast. Therefore, if we cannot settle this matter ourselves, we shall have to call a meeting with the Fuehrer to clear up the coal situation. Keitel and Zeitzler will be invited to attend in order to determine the number of Russians from the rear army territories who can be sent to us. However, I see another possibility; we might organize another drive to screen out workers for the mines from the Russian Ps/W in the Reich. But this possibility is none too promising.” (R-124)
At another meeting of the Central Planning Board, Speer rejected a suggestion that labor for industries under his control be furnished from German sources instead of from foreign countries, for these reasons:
“Speer: We do it that way: Kehrl collects the demands for labor necessary to complete the coal-and-iron-plan and communicates the numbers to Sauckel. Probably there will be a conference at the Reich Marshal’s in the next week, and an answer from Sauckel should have arrived by then. The question of recruitment for the armaments industry will be solved together with Weger.
“Kehrl: I wish to urge that the allotments to the mines should not be made dependent on the recruitment of men abroad. We were completely frustrated these last three months because this principle had been applied. We ended December with a deficit of 25,000 and we never get replacements. The number must be made up by men from Germany.
“Speer: No, nothing doing!” (R-124)
Speer also advocated terror and brutality as a means of maximizing production by slave laborers who worked in the industries under his control. In the course of a discussion concerning the supply and exploitation of labor, Speer stated:
“Speer: We must also discuss the slackers. Ley has ascertained that the sick list decreased to one-fourth or one-fifth in factories where doctors are on the staff who are examining the sick men. There is nothing to be said against SS and Police taking drastic steps and putting those known as slackers into concentration camps. There is no alternative. Let it happen several times and the news will soon go round.” (R-124)
Speer is also guilty of compelling Allied nationals and prisoners of war to engage not only in the production of armaments and munitions, but also in direct military operations, against their own country and its actively resisting allies. Speer, as Chief of the Organization Todt, is accountable for its policies which were in direct conflict with the laws of war. The Organization Todt, in violation of the laws of war, impressed allied nationals into its service. Proof of its activity is furnished by an International Labor Office Study of Exploitation of Foreign Labor by Germany:
“The methods used for the recruitment of foreign workers who were destined for employment in the Organization did not greatly differ from the methods used for the recruitment of foreigners for deportation to Germany. The main difference was that, since the principal activities of the Organization lay outside the frontiers of Germany, foreigners were not transported to Germany, but had either to work in their own country or in some other occupied territory.
“In the recruitment drives for foreign workers for the Organization methods of compulsion as well as methods of persuasion were used, the latter usually with very little result * * *.” (L-191)
Similar violations of the laws of warfare are disclosed in (407-VIII-PS).
As Chief of German war production, Speer sponsored and approved the use of prisoners of war in the production of armaments and munitions which were used against their own country and its actively resisting allies. This fact has been demonstrated by the evidence already discussed. To recapitulate:
1. After Speer assumed responsibility for armament production, his primary concern in his discussions with his co-conspirators was to secure a larger allocation of prisoners of war for his armament factories. In a meeting of the Central Planning Board on 22 April 1943, Speer complained that only 30% of the Russian prisoners of war were engaged in the armament industry. (R-124)
2. In an earlier speech, Speer stated that 10,000 prisoners of war were put at the disposal of the armaments industry upon his orders. (1435-PS)
3. Finally, Speer advocated returning escaped prisoners of war to factories as convicts. He said, at a meeting of the Central Planning Board:
“We have to come to an arrangement with the Reichsfuehrer SS as soon as possible so that prisoners of war he picks up are made available for our purposes. The Reichsfuehrer SS gets from 30 to 40,000 men per month. First of all they have to be divided up. From what classes do these people come, anyhow? There certainly is a certain percentage of miners among these people who are picked up. These few thousand men have to go to the mines automatically. Certainly, some educational work has to be done. The men should be put into the factories as convicts. But they have to return to the factories where they were before * * *.” (R-124)
Speer is also guilty of having approved and sponsored the program for using concentration camp labor in Nazi armament factories, which was part of the larger program of extermination through work. The proof of this activity may be summarized and supplemented as follows:
1. Speer proposed measures for the exploitation of the concentration camp labor in armament factories under his jurisdiction. At a meeting with Hitler Speer proposed and Hitler agreed that armament production should not be established within concentration camps but that concentration camp labor should be made available to established armament factories. (R-124)
2. Speer, by arranging for the use of concentration camp laborers in factories under his control, created an increasing demand for such labor. This demand was filled in part by placing in concentration camps persons who would not ordinarily have been sent there. (1063-D-PS)
3. Speer participated in the exploitation of the victims of the Nazi program of extermination through work. He personally selected sites for subsidiary concentration camps which were established near factories in Upper Austria, and knew and approved of the general practice of locating concentration camps near industrial plants which they supplied with labor (Speer’s interrogation under oath on 18 October 1945. (3720-PS)
Speer visited the concentration camp Mauthaussen and factories such as those of Krupp, where concentration camp labor was exploited under barbarous conditions. Despite personal and first-hand knowledge of these conditions, Speer continued to direct the use of concentration camp labor in factories under his jurisdiction. In Speer’s interrogation under oath on 18 October 1945, he stated:
“Q. But, in general, the use of concentration camp labor was known to you and approved by you as a source of labor?
“A. Yes.
“Q. And you knew also, I take it, that among the inmates of the concentration camps there were both Germans and foreigners?
“A. I didn’t think about it at that time.
“Q. As a matter of fact you visited the Austrian concentration camp personally, did you not?”
“A. I didn’t—well I was in Mauthaussen once but at that time I was not told just to what categories the inmates of the concentration camps belonged.
“Q. But in general everybody knew, did they not, that foreigners who were taken away by the Gestapo, or arrested by the Gestapo, as well as Germans, found their way into the concentration camps?
“A. Of course, yes. I didn’t mean to imply anything like that.”
* * * * * *
“Q. Did you ever discuss, by the way, the requirements of Krupp for foreign labor?
“A. It is certain that it was reported to me what Krupp had in foreign workers.
“Q. Did you ever discuss it with any of the members of the Krupp first?
“A. I cannot say that exactly, but during the time of my activities I visited the Krupp factory more than once and it is certain that this was discussed, that is, the lack of manpower.” (3720-PS)
* * * * *
LEGAL REFERENCES AND LIST OF DOCUMENTS RELATING TO THE SLAVE LABOR PROGRAM, THE ILLEGAL USE OF PRISONERS OF WAR, AND THE SPECIAL RESPONSIBILITY OF SAUCKEL AND SPEER THEREFOR
Document │ Description │ Vol. │ Page │ │ │ │Charter of the International Military │ │ │ Tribunal, Article 6 (b, c). │ I │ 5 │ │ │ │International Military Tribunal, │ │ │ Indictment Number 1, Sections III; │ │ 15, 39, │ VIII (B, C, H); X; Appendix A. │ I │ 41, 50, │ │ │ 3737-PS │Hague Convention of 1907 respecting │ │ │ the Laws and Customs of War on Land,│ │590, 597, │ Annex, Articles 6, 46, 52. │ VI │ 598 │ │ │ 3738-PS │Geneva Convention of 1929 relative to │ │ │ treatment of Prisoners of War, │ │ │ Articles 2, 3, 6. │ VI │ 600, 601 │ ————— │ │ │Note: A single asterisk (*) before a │ │ │document indicates that the document │ │ │was received in evidence at the │ │ │Nurnberg trial. A double asterisk (**)│ │ │before a document number indicates │ │ │that the document was referred to │ │ │during the trial but was not formally │ │ │received in evidence, for the reason │ │ │given in parentheses following the │ │ │description of the document. The USA │ │ │series number, given in parentheses │ │ │following the description of the │ │ │document, is the official exhibit │ │ │number assigned by the court. │ │ │ ————— │ │ *016-PS │Sauckel’s Labor Mobilization Program, │ │ │20 April 1942. (USA 168) │ III │ 46 │ │ │ *017-PS │Letter from Sauckel to Reichminister │ │ │for the Occupied Eastern Territories, │ │ │5 October 1942, concerning │ │ │mobilization of foreign labor forces. │ │ │(USA 180) │ III │ 60 │ │ │ *018-PS │Letter from Rosenberg to Sauckel, 21 │ │ │December 1942, concerning labor in the│ │ │East. (USA 186) │ III │ 61 │ │ │ *019-PS │Letter from Sauckel to Rosenberg, 17 │ │ │March 1943, concerning draft of │ │ │workers from the East. (USA 181) │ III │ 65 │ │ │ *031-PS │Memorandum, 12 June 1944, concerning │ │ │evacuation of youths from the │ │ │territory of Army Group “Center”, and │ │ │interoffice memorandum, Ministry for │ │ │Occupied Eastern Territories, 14 June │ │ │1944. (USA 171) │ III │ 71 │ │ │ *054-PS │Report to Reich Ministry for Occupied │ │ │Eastern Territories, 7 October 1942, │ │ │concerning treatment of Ukrainian │ │ │Specialists. (USA 198) │ III │ 90 │ │ │ *084-PS │Interdepartmental report of Ministry │ │ │for Occupied Eastern Territories, 30 │ │ │September 1942, concerning status of │ │ │Eastern laborers. (USA 199) │ III │ 130 │ │ │ *204-PS │Memorandum of conference, │ │ │18 February 1944, concerning release │ │ │of Indigenous Labor for purposes of │ │ │the Reich. (USA 182) │ III │ 215 │ │ │ *254-PS │Letter from Raab to Reichminister for │ │ │Occupied Eastern Territories, 7 June │ │ │1944, concerning burning of houses in │ │ │Wassilkow district. (USA 188) │ III │ 231 │ │ │ *265-PS │Memorandum of oral report by Lyser to │ │ │Rosenberg, 30 June 1943, on situation │ │ │in district Shitomir. (USA 191) │ III │ 234 │ │ │ *290-PS │Letter from Rosenberg Ministry, 12 │ │ │November 1943, concerning burning of │ │ │houses in Mueller’s district. (USA │ │ │189) │ III │ 240 │ │ │ *294-PS │Top secret memorandum signed by │ │ │Brautigam, 25 October 1942, concerning│ │ │conditions in Russia. (USA 185) │ III │ 242 │ │ │ *407-II-PS │Letter from Sauckel to Hitler, 10 │ │ │March 1943, concerning difficulty in │ │ │recruiting of workers in former Soviet│ │ │territories. (USA 226) │ III │ 389 │ │ │ *407-V │ │ │ and VI-PS │Letter from Sauckel to Hitler, 15 │ │ │April 1943, concerning labor │ │ │questions. (USA 209; USA 228) │ III │ 391 │ │ │ *407-VIII-PS │Telegram from Sauckel to Hitler, 17 │ │ │May 1943, concerning foreign labor. │ │ │(USA 210) │ III │ 394 │ │ │ *407-IX-PS │Letter from Sauckel to Hitler, 3 June │ │ │1943, concerning foreign labor │ │ │situation. (USA 229) │ III │ 395 │ │ │ *556-2-PS │Order initialled by Keitel, 8 │ │ │September 1942, for civilians to work │ │ │on “West Wall”. (USA 194) │ III │ 443 │ │ │ *556-13-PS │Sauckel note for the files, 5 January │ │ │1943. (USA 194) │ III │ 444 │ │ │ *654-PS │Thierack’s notes, 18 September 1942, │ │ │on discussion with Himmler concerning │ │ │delivery of Jews to Himmler for │ │ │extermination through work. (USA 218) │ III │ 467 │ │ │ *1063-D-PS │Mueller’s order, 17 December 1942, │ │ │concerning prisoners qualified for │ │ │work to be sent to concentration │ │ │camps. (USA 219) │ III │ 778 │ │ │ *1130-PS │Note, 11 April 1943, and report of │ │ │speech by Koch in Kiev on 5 March │ │ │1943, concerning treatment of civilian│ │ │population in Ukraine. (USA 169) │ III │ 797 │ │ │ *1206-PS │Notes of Goering’s remarks at the Air │ │ │Ministry, 7 November 1941, concerning │ │ │employment of laborers in war │ │ │industries. (USA 215) │ III │ 841 │ │ │ *1292-PS │Memorandum of conference with Hitler, │ │ │4 January 1944, concerning allocation │ │ │of labor, 1944. (USA 225) │ III │ 866 │ │ │ *1352-PS │Reports concerning the confiscation of│ │ │Polish agricultural properties, 16 and│ │ │29 May 1940, signed Kusche. (USA 176) │ III │ 916 │ │ │ *1375-PS │Letter from Frank to Goering, 25 │ │ │January 1940. (USA 172) │ III │ 925 │ │ │ 1381-PS │Secret report of the Reich Ministry │ │ │for the Occupied Eastern Territories │ │ │on Political and Economic Situation in│ │ │these Territories, December 1942. │ III │ 932 │ │ │ *1435-PS │Speech of Speer to Gauleiters, 24 │ │ │February 1942. (USA 216) │ IV │ 16 │ │ │ *1526-PS │Letter from Ukrainian Main Committee │ │ │to Frank, February 1943. (USA 178) │ IV │ 79 │ │ │ *1584-I-PS │Teletype from Goering to Himmler, 14 │ │ │February 1944, concerning formation of│ │ │7th Airforce Group squadron for │ │ │special purposes. (USA 221) │ IV │ 117 │ │ │ *1666-PS │Decree appointing Sauckel General │ │ │Plenipotentiary for Manpower, 21 March│ │ │1942 and decree of Goering conferring │ │ │certain powers on Sauckel, 27 March │ │ │1942. 1942 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, │ │ │pp. 179-180. (USA 208) │ IV │ 182 │ │ │ *1702-PS │Report on evacuation of Kasatin │ │ │November-December 1943. (USA 193) │ IV │ 205 │ │ │ *1726-PS │Statement of Netherlands Government in│ │ │view of Prosecution and punishment of │ │ │the German Nazi War Criminals. (USA │ │ │195) │ IV │ 227 │ │ │ *1742-PS │Directives to Army Commands from │ │ │Goering, 26 October 1942, concerning │ │ │combatting of partisan activities. │ │ │(USA 789) │ IV │ 262 │ │ │ *1903-PS │Decree of Fuehrer on execution of │ │ │decree concerning Deputy General for │ │ │mobilization of labor. Decrees, │ │ │Regulations, Announcements, Vol. II, │ │ │p. 510. (USA 206) │ IV │ 546 │ │ │ *1913-PS │Agreement between Plenipotentiary │ │ │General for Arbeitseinsatz and German │ │ │Labor Front concerning care of │ │ │non-German workers. 1943 │ │ │Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 588. │ │ │(USA 227) │ IV │ 547 │ │ │ *1919-PS │Himmler’s speech to SS │ │ │Gruppenfuehrers, 4 October 1943. (USA │ │ │170) │ IV │ 558 │ │ │ *2220-PS │Lammers report to Himmler, 12 April │ │ │1943, concerning the situation in the │ │ │Government General. (USA 175) │ IV │ 855 │ │ │ *2233-A-PS │Frank Diary, │ │ │Abteilungsleitersitzungen, 1939-1940. │ │ │Minutes of conferences, December and │ │ │May 1940. (USA 173) │ IV │ 883 │ │ │ *2233-B-PS │Frank Diary. Tagebuch. 1940. Part I. │ │ │January-March. (USA 174) │ IV │ 885 │ │ │ *2241-PS │Sauckel Order, 20 July 1942, │ │ │concerning employment of foreign labor│ │ │forces in Germany. (USA 200) │ IV │ 923 │ │ │ *2280-PS │Letter from Reichs Commissar for │ │ │Ostland, 3 May 1943, concerning │ │ │recruiting of manpower in Baltic │ │ │Countries for Reich territories. (USA │ │ │183) │ IV │ 969 │ │ │ *2520-PS │Affidavit of Edward L. Deuss, 1 │ │ │November 1945, concerning approximate │ │ │number of foreigners put to work for │ │ │German War Effort in Old Reich. (USA │ │ │197) │ V │ 257 │ │ │ *2974-PS │Statement by Fritz Sauckel concerning │ │ │positions held. (USA 15) │ V │ 680 │ │ │ *2980-PS │Statement of Albert Speer, concerning │ │ │positions held. (USA 18) │ V │ 685 │ │ │ *3000-PS │Report, from Chief of Main Office III │ │ │with the High Command in Minsk to │ │ │Reicke, 28 June 1943, on experiences │ │ │in political and economic problems in │ │ │the East, particularly White Ruthenia.│ │ │(USA 192) │ V │ 726 │ │ │ *3003-PS │Report of Lt. Haupt concerning the │ │ │situation of war economy in │ │ │Netherlands. (USA 196) │ V │ 726 │ │ │ *3005-PS │Letter from Reich Labor Ministry to │ │ │Presidents of Regional Labor Offices, │ │ │26 August 1941, concerning use of │ │ │Russian PWs. (USA 213) │ V │ 727 │ │ │ *3010-PS │Secret organization order from │ │ │Economic Inspection South, 17 August │ │ │1943, concerning recruitment of │ │ │Workers for the Reich. (USA 184) │ V │ 728 │ │ │ *3012-PS │Order signed Christiansen, 19 March │ │ │1943, to all group leaders of Security│ │ │Service, and record of telephone │ │ │conversation signed by Stapj, 11 March│ │ │1943. (USA 190) │ V │ 731 │ │ │ *3040-PS │Secret order of Reichsfuehrer SS, 20 │ │ │February 1942, concerning commitment │ │ │of manpower from the East. (USA 207) │ V │ 744 │ │ │ *3044-PS │Sauckel Order Number 4, 7 May 1942, │ │ │published in Decrees, Regulations, │ │ │Announcements. (USA 206) │ V │ 756 │ │ │ 3044-A-PS │Sauckel Order Number 10, 22 August │ │ │1942, published in Decrees, │ │ │Regulations, Announcements. │ V │ 764 │ │ │ 3044-B-PS │Instructions concerning Eastern │ │ │Household workers, published in │ │ │Decrees, Regulations, Announcements. │ V │ 765 │ │ │ 3057-PS │Statement of Fritz Sauckel, 5 │ │ │September 1945. │ V │ 853 │ │ │ **3719-PS │Testimony of Alfred Rosenberg, 6 │ │ │October 1945. (USA 187) (Referred to │ │ │but not offered in evidence.) │ VI │ 436 │ │ │ *3720-PS │Testimony of Albert Speer, 18 October │ │ │1945. (USA 220) │ VI │ 438 │ │ │ *3721-PS │Testimony of Fritz Sauckel, 22 │ │ │September 1945. (USA 230) │ VI │ 458 │ │ │ *3722-PS │Testimony of Fritz Sauckel, 5 October │ │ │1945. (USA 224) │ VI │ 459 │ │ │ *3787-PS │Report of the Second Meeting of the │ │ │Reich Defense Council, 25 June 1939. │ │ │(USA 782) │ VI │ 718 │ │ │ *3819-PS │Letter from Sauckel to Fuehrer, 17 │ │ │March 1944; letter from Speer to │ │ │Fuehrer, 5 April 1944; and Minutes of │ │ │conference on 11 July 1944 concerning │ │ │Labor Problem. (GB 306) │ VI │ 760 │ │ │ *D-288 │Affidavit of Dr. Wilhelm Jaeger, 15 │ │ │October 1945. (USA 202) │ VII │ 2 │ │ │ D-305 │Affidavit of Heinrich Buschhauer, 5 │ │ │October 1945. │ VII │ 13 │ │ │ *D-316 │Memorandum to Mr. Hupe, 14 March 1942,│ │ │concerning employment of Russians. │ │ │(USA 201) │ VII │ 20 │ │ │ *EC-68 │Confidential letter from Minister of │ │ │Finance and Economy, Baden, containing│ │ │directives on treatment of Polish │ │ │Farmworkers, 6 March 1941. (USA 205) │ VII │ 260 │ │ │ *EC-194 │Secret memorandum of Keitel concerning│ │ │use of prisoners of war in the war │ │ │industry, 31 October 1941. (USA 214) │ VII │ 336 │ │ │ *L-61 │Express letter from Sauckel to │ │ │Presidents of Landes Employment │ │ │Offices, 26 November 1942, concerning │ │ │employment of Jews and exchange of │ │ │Jews in essential employment against │ │ │Polish labor. (USA 177) │ VII │ 816 │ │ │ *L-79 │Minutes of conference, 23 May 1939, │ │ │“Indoctrination on the political │ │ │situation and future aims”. (USA 27) │ VII │ 847 │ │ │ *L-191 │“The Exploitation of Foreign Labor by │ │ │Germany” (International Labor Office │ │ │Study). (USA 231) │ VII │ 1026 │ │ │ *R-103 │Letter from Polish Main Committee to │ │ │General Government of Poland on │ │ │situation of Polish workers in the │ │ │Reich, 17 May 1944. (USA 204) │ VIII │ 104 │ │ │ *R-124 │Speer’s conference minutes of Central │ │ │Planning Board, 1942-44, concerning │ │ │labor supply. (USA 179) │ VIII │ 146 │ │ │ *R-129 │Letter and enclosure from Pohl to │ │ │Himmler, 30 April 1942, concerning │ │ │concentration camps. (USA 217) │ VIII │ 198 │ │ │ Statement XII │Political Testament of Robert Ley │ │ │written in Nurnberg Prison, October │ │ │1945. │ VIII │ 742 │ │ │ Statement XIII │Outline of Defense of Dr. Robert Ley, │ │ │written in Nurnberg Prison, 24 October│ │ │1945. │ VIII │ 751
XI. CONCENTRATION CAMPS
The Concentration Camp, used against the people of Germany and allied nationals, was one of the fundamental institutions of the Nazi regime. It was a pillar of the system of terror by which the Nazis consolidated their power over Germany. It was a primary weapon in the battle against the Jews, against the Christian church, against labor, against those who wanted peace, against opposition or non-conformity of any kind. It involved the systematic use of terror to achieve the cohesion within Germany which was necessary for the execution of the conspirators’ plans for aggression. It was the final link in a chain of terror and repression which involved the SS and the Gestapo and which resulted in the apprehension of victims and their confinement without trial, often without charges, generally with no indication of the length of their detention.
The SS through its espionage system tracked down the victims; the criminal police and the Gestapo seized them and brought them to the concentration camps; and the concentration camps were administered by the SS. No attempt will be made to present a complete catalogue of individual brutalities. The emphasis will rather be upon the fundamental purposes for which these camps were used, the techniques of terror which were employed, the large number of their victims, and the death and anguish which they caused.
1. THE BEGINNING OF “PROTECTIVE CUSTODY”
The Nazis realized early that without the most drastic repression of actual and potential opposition they could not consolidate their power over the German people. Immediately after Hitler became Chancellor, the conspirators promptly destroyed civil liberties by issuing the Presidential Emergency Decree of 28 February 1933 (1390-PS). It was this decree which was the basis for “Schutzhaft”, that is, “protective custody”—the power of the Gestapo to imprison people without judicial proceedings. This is made clear by a typical order for protective custody:
“Order of Protective Custody. Based on Article 1 of the Decree of the Reich President for the Protection of People and State of 28 February 1933 (Reichsgesetzblatt I, p. 83), you are taken into protective custody in the interest of public security and order.
“Reason: Suspicion of activities inimical toward the State.” (2499-PS)
Goering, in a book entitled “Aufbau Einer Nation” and published in 1934, sought to give the impression that the camps originally were directed at those whom the Nazis considered “Communists” and “Social Democrats”. At page 89 of this book he stated:
“We had to deal ruthlessly with these enemies of the State. It must not be forgotten that at the moment of our seizure of power over 6 million people officially voted for Communism and about 8 million for Marxism in the Reichstag elections in March.
“Thus the concentration camps were created, to which we had to send first thousands of functionaries of the Communist and Social Democratic parties.” (2324-PS)
In practical operations, the power to order confinement was almost without limit: Frick, in an order which he issued on 25 January 1938, as Minister of Interior, made this clear. Article 1 of this order provided:
“Protective custody can be decreed as a coercive measure of the Secret State Police against persons who endanger the security of the people and the State through their attitude in order to counter all aspirations of enemies of the people and State.” (1723-PS)
This order further provides:
“* * * In a summary of all the previously issued decrees on the cooperation between the Party and the Gestapo I refer to the following and ordain:
“1. To the Gestapo has been entrusted the mission by the Fuehrer to watch over and to eliminate all enemies of the Party and the National Socialist State as well as all disintegrating forces of all kinds directed against both. The successful solution of this mission forms one of the most essential prerequisite for the unhampered and frictionless work of the Party. The Gestapo, in their extremely difficult task, is to be granted support and assistance in every possible way by the NSDAP.” (1723-PS)
A. Persecution of Pacifists.
The conspirators, then, were directing their apparatus of terror against the “enemies of the State”, against “disintegrating forces”, and against those people who endangered the State “with their attitudes”. Whom did they consider as belonging in these broad categories? First, they were the men in Germany who wanted peace. In this connection an affidavit by Gerhart H. Segar declares as follows:
“* * * 2. During the period after World War I up until my commitment to the Leipzig jail and Oranienburg concentration camp in the spring of 1933 following the Nazis’ accession to power in January of that year, my business and political affiliations exposed me to the full impact of the Nazi theories and practice of violent regimentation and terroristic tactics. My conflict with the Nazis by virtue of my identification with the peace movement, and as duly elected member of the Reichstag representing a political faith (Social Democratic Party) hostile to National Socialism, clearly demonstrated that, even in the period prior to 1933, the Nazis considered crimes and terrorism a necessary and desirable weapon in overcoming democratic opposition * * *”
* * * * * *
“* * * (e). That the Nazis had already conceived the device of the concentration camp as a means of suppressing and regimenting opposition elements was forcefully brought to my attention during the course of a conversation which I had with Dr. Wilhelm Frick in December 1932. Frick at that time was Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Reichstag of which I was a member. When I gave an emphatic answer to Frick concerning the particular matter discussed, he replied, ‘Don’t worry, when we are in power we shall put all of you guys into concentration camps.’ When the Nazis came into power, Frick was appointed Reichminister of Interior and promptly carried out his threat in collaboration with Goering, as Chief of the Prussian State Police, and Himmler.” (L-83)
Thus, even before the Nazis had seized power in Germany they had conceived of the plan to repress any potential opposition by terror.
Frick’s statement to Gerhart Segar is completely consistent with an earlier statement which he made on 18 October 1929. Frick at that time declared:
“This fateful struggle will first be taken up with the ballot, but this cannot continue indefinitely, for history has taught us that in a battle, blood must be shed, and iron broken. The ballot is the beginning of this fateful struggle. We are determined to promulgate by force that which we preach. Just as Mussolini exterminated the Marxists in Italy, so must we also succeed in accomplishing the same through dictatorship and terror.” (2513-PS)
There are many additional cases of the use of the concentration camp against the men who wanted peace. There was, for example, a group called the “Bibel Forscher” (Bible Research Workers), most of whom were Jehovah’s Witnesses. Since they were pacifists, the conspirators provided not only for their prosecution in the regular courts, but also for confining them in concentration camps after they had served the judicial sentences. An order by the Secret State Police, Berlin, dated 5 August 1937, provided:
“The Reichsminister of Justice had informed me that he does not share the opinion voiced by subordinate departments on various occasions, according to which, the arrest of the Bibelforschers after they have served a sentence, is supposed to jeopardize the authority of the law courts. He is fully aware of the necessity for measures by the State Police after the sentence has been served. He asks, however, not to bring the Bibelforschers into protective custody under circumstances detrimental to the respect of the law courts * * *.”
* * * * * *
“2. If information regarding the impending release of a Bibelforscher from arrest is received from the authorities carrying out the sentence, my decision regarding the ordering of measures by the State Police, will be asked for in accordance with my circular decree dated 22.4.37, so that transfer to a concentration camp can take place immediately after the sentence has been served. Should a transfer into a concentration camp immediately after the serving of the sentence not be possible, Bibelforschers will be detained in police prisons.” (D-84)
B. Persecution of Trade Union Members.
Labor unions, traditionally opposed to wars of aggression, also felt the full force of Nazi terror. The concentration camp was an important weapon in the campaign against the trade unions. Goering made it plain, for instance, that members of the Social Democratic Party were to be confined in concentration camps (2324-PS). Labor leaders were largely members of that party and soon learned the meaning of “protective custody”.
In this connection, an order that one Joseph Simon should be placed in protective custody, is pertinent (2330-PS). The “reasons” given were as follows:
“Simon was for many years a member of the Socialist Party and temporarily a member of the Union Socialiste Populaire. From 1907 to 1918 he was Landtag deputy of the Socialist Party; from 1908 to 1930 Social Democratic City Counsellor (Stadtrat) in Nurnberg. In view of the decisive role which Simon played in the international trade unions and in regard to his connection with international Marxist leaders and central agencies, which he continued after the national recovery, he was placed under protective custody on 3 May 1933, and was kept, until 25 January 1934, in the Dachau concentration camp. Simon is under the urgent suspicion that even after this date he played an active part in the illegal continuation of the Socialist Party. He took part in meetings which aimed at the illegal continuation of the Socialist Party and propagation of illegal Marxist printed matter in Germany.
“Through this radical attitude which is hostile to the State, Simon directly endangers public security and order.” (2330-PS)
Further instances of this persecution of members of trade unions are contained in (2334-PS) and (2928-PS).
C. Persecution of Jews.
Thousands of Jews, were, of course, confined in concentration camps. (For a fuller discussion of this point see Chapter XII.) Among the wealth of evidence showing the confinement of Germans only because they were Jews, a teletype from SS Gruppenfuehrer Heydrich is typical. This order is dated 10 November 1938, and is addressed to all headquarters of the State Police and all districts and sub-districts of the SD (3051-PS). Paragraph 5 of this teletype, which was entitled “Measures against Jews tonight,” provided:
“* * * 5. Inasmuch as in the course of the events of this night the employment of officials used for this purpose would be possible, in all districts as many Jews, especially rich ones, are to be arrested as can be accommodated in the existing prisons. For the time being only healthy men not too old are to be arrested. Upon their arrest, the appropriate concentration camps should be contacted immediately, in order to confine them in these camps as fast as possible.” (3051-PS)
Himmler in 1943 indicated that use of the concentration camp against the Jews had been motivated, not simply by Nazi racialism, but also by a fear that the Jews might have been an obstacle to aggression. In a speech delivered at a meeting of the SS Major Generals at Posen on 4 October 1943, Himmler sought to justify the Nazi anti-Jewish policy:
“I mean the clearing out of the Jews, the extermination of the Jewish race. It’s one of those things it is easy to talk about—‘The Jewish race is being exterminated’, says one party member, ‘that’s quite clear, it’s in our program, elimination of the Jews, and we’re doing it, exterminating them’. And then they come, 80 million worthy Germans, and each one has his decent Jew. Of course, the others are vermin, but this one is an A-1 Jew. Not one of all those who talk this way has witnessed it, not one of them has been through it. Most of you must know what it means when 100 corpses are lying side by side, or 500 or 1,000. To have stuck it out and at the same time—apart from exceptions caused by human weakness—to have remained decent fellows, that is what has made us hard. This is a page of glory in our history which has never been written and is never to be written, for we know how difficult we should have made it for ourselves, if—with the bombing raids, the burden and deprivations of war—we still had Jews today in every town as secret saboteurs, agitators and trouble-mongers.” (1919-PS)
It is clear from the foregoing evidence that prior to the launching of a Nazi aggression, the concentration camp had been one of the principal weapons by which the conspirators achieved the social cohesion which was needed for the execution of their plans for aggression. After the conspirators launched their aggression and their armies swept over Europe, they brought the concentration camp and the whole system of Nazi terror to occupied countries. In addition, they brought the citizens of the occupied countries to Germany and subjected them to the whole apparatus of Nazi brutality. In a communication to Himmler dated 16 December 1942, Mueller, for the Chief of the Security Police and SD, deals with the seizure of Polish Jews for deportation to concentration camps in Germany. I should like to quote the body of this communication:
“In connection with the increase in the transfer of labor to the concentration camps, ordered to be completed by 30 January 1943, the following procedure may be applied in the Jewish section.
“1. Total number: 45,000 Jews.
“2. Start of transportation: 11 January 1943; End of transportation: 31 January 1943. (The Reich railroads are unable to provide special trains for the evacuation during the period from 15 December 1942 to 10 January 1943 because of the increased traffic of armed forces leave trains).
“3. Composition: The 45,000 Jews are to consist of 30,000 Jews from the district of Byalystock. 10,000 Jews from the Ghetto Theresienstadt, 5,000 of whom are Jews fit for work who heretofore had been used for smaller jobs required for the Ghetto, and 5,000 Jews who are generally incapable of working, also over 60 year old Jews * * *. As heretofore only such Jews would be taken for the evacuation who do not have any particular connections and who are not in possession of any high decorations. 3,000 Jews from the occupied Dutch territories, 2,000 Jews from Berlin—45,000. The figure of 45,000 includes the invalid (old Jews and children). By use of a practical standard, the screening of the arriving Jews in Auschwitz should yield at least 10,000 to 15,000 people fit for work.” (R-91)
The Jews of Hungary suffered the same fate. Between 19 March 1944 and 1 August 1944 more than 400,000 Hungarian Jews were rounded up. Many of these were put in wagons and sent to extermination camps. An affidavit made in London by Dr. Rudolph Kastner, a former official of the Hungarian Zionist Organization, states in part:
“19 March 1944: Together with the German military occupation arrived in Budapest a ‘Special Section Commando’ of the German Secret Police with the sole object of liquidating the Hungarian Jews * * * They arrested and later deported to Mauthausen, all the leaders of Jewish political and business life and journalists, together with the Hungarian democratic and anti-Fascist politicians * * *.”
* * * * * *
“Up to 27 June 1944, 475,000 Jews were deported.”
* * * * * *
“According to statements of Krumey and Wislicseny in February or March 1945 a conference of the officers of IV.B. was called to Berlin by Eichmann in the spring of 1942. He then informed them that the government decided in favor of the complete annihilation of the European Jews and that this will be carried out silently in the gas-chambers. ‘Victory is ours,’ declared Eichmann. ‘The end of the war is near. We must hurry as this is the last chance to free Europe of the Jews. After the war it will not be possible to utilize such methods.’”
* * * * * *
“Commanders of the death-camps gassed only on direct or indirect instructions of Eichmann. The particular officer of IV.B. who directed the deportations from some particular country had the authority to indicate whether the train should go to a death camp or not, and what should happen to the passengers. The instructions were usually carried by the SS-NCO escorting the train. The letters ‘A’ or ‘M’ on the escorting instruction documents indicated Auschwitz or Majdanek; it meant that the passengers were to be gassed. * * * Regarding Hungarian Jews the following general ruling was laid down in Auschwitz: children up to the age of 12 or 14, older people above 50, as well as the sick, or people with criminal records (who were transported in specially marked wagons) were taken immediately on their arrival to the gas chambers.
“The others passed before an SS doctor who, on sight indicated who was fit for work, and who was not. Those unfit were sent to the gas chambers, while the others were distributed in various labor camps.” (2605-PS)
2. “CHARGES” AGAINST CONCENTRATION CAMP INMATES
In the Eastern territories, these victims were apprehended for extermination in concentration camps without any charges having been made against them. In the Western occupied territories, charges were apparently made against some of the victims. Some of the charges which the Nazis considered sufficient basis for confinement in a concentration camp are illustrated in a summary of the file of the dossier of 25 persons arrested in Luxembourg for commitment to various concentration camps and sets forth the charges made against each person (L-215). These charges read as follows:
“Name Charge Place of Confinement
HENRICY— By associating with members of illegal Natzweiler resistance movements and making money for them violating legal foreign exchange rates, by harming the interests of the Reich and being expected in the future to disobey official administrative regulations and act as an enemy of the Reich.
KRIER— By being responsible for advanced sabotage Buchenwald of labor and causing fear because of his political and criminal past. Freedom would only further his anti-social urge.
* * * * * * * *
MONTI— By being strongly suspected of aiding Sachsenhausen desertion.
JUNKER— Because as a relative of a deserter he is Sachsenhausen expected to endanger the interests of the German Reich if allowed to go free.
JAEGER— Because as a relative of a deserter he is Sachsenhausen expected to take advantage of every occasion to harm the German Reich.
* * * * * * * *
LUDWIG— For being strongly suspected of aiding Dachau desertion.” (L-215)
3. USE OF CONCENTRATION CAMPS FOR PRISONERS OF WAR
Not only civilians of the occupied territories, but also prisoners of war were subjected to the concentration camp. A memorandum to all officers of the State Police, signed by Mueller, Chief of the Gestapo, dated 9 November 1941, discusses the “Transportation of Russian Prisoners of War, Destined for Execution, into the Concentration Camps.” (1165-PS). This memorandum states in part:
“The commandants of the concentration camps are complaining that 5 to 10% of the Soviet Russians destined for execution are arriving in the camps dead or half dead. Therefore the impression has arisen that the Stalags are getting rid of such prisoners in this way.
“It was particularly noted that, when marching, for example, from the railroad station to the camp, a rather large number of PWs collapsed on the way from exhaustion, either dead or half dead, and had to be picked up by a truck following the convoy.
“It cannot be prevented that the German people take notice of these occurrences.
“Even if the transportation to the camps is generally taken care of by the Wehrmacht, the population will attribute this situation to the SS.
“In order to prevent, if possible, similar occurrences in the future, I therefore order that, effective from today on, Soviet Russians, declared definitely suspect and obviously marked by death (for example with typhus) and who therefore would not be able to withstand the exertions of even a short march on foot, shall in the future, as a matter of basic principle, be excluded from the transport into the concentration camps for execution.” (1165-PS)
Additional evidence of the confinement of Russian prisoners of war in concentration camps is found in an official report of the investigation of the Flossenburg concentration camp by Headquarters Third United States Army, Judge Advocate Section, War Crimes Branch, dated 21 June 1945 (2309-PS). This report states:
“In 1941 an additional stockade was added at the Flossenburg Camp, to hold 2,000 Russian prisoners. From these 2,000 prisoners only 102 survived.” (2309-PS)
Soviet prisoners of war found their allies in the concentration camps. The same official report continues:
“The victims of Flossenburg included among the Russian, civilians and prisoners of war, German nationals, Italians, Belgians, Poles, Czechs, Hungarians, British and American prisoners of war. No practical means was available to complete a list of victims of this camp, however, since the foundation of the camp in 1938 until the day of liberation it is estimated that more than 29,000 inmates died.” (2309-PS)
Escaped prisoners of war were sent to concentration camps, which were specially set up as extermination centers. A communication from the Secret State Police Office, Cologne, dated 4 March 1944, transmitted the following orders of the OKW—for which Keitel is responsible—concerning escaped prisoners of war:
“1. Every captured escaped prisoner of war who is an officer or a non-working non-commissioned officer, except British and American prisoners of war, is to be turned over to the Chief of the Security Police and of the Security Service under the classification ‘Step III’ regardless of whether the escape occurred during a transport, whether it was a mass escape or an individual one.
“2. Since the transfer of the prisoners of war to the Security Police and Security Service may not become officially known to the outside under any circumstances other prisoners of war may by no means be informed of the capture. The captured prisoners are to be reported to the Army Information Bureau as ‘escaped and not captured’. Their mail is to be handled accordingly. Inquiries of representatives of the Protective Power of the International Red Cross, and of other aid societies will be given the same answer.” (1650-PS)
The same communication carried a copy of an order of SS General Mueller, acting for the Chief of the Security Police and SD, which directed the Gestapo to transport escaped prisoners directly to Mauthausen. The first two paragraphs of Mueller’s order provide:
“The State Police Directorates will accept the captured escaped officer prisoners of war from the prisoner of war camp commandants and will transport them to the Concentration Camp Mauthausen following the procedure previously used, unless the circumstances render a special transport imperative. The prisoners of war are to be put in irons on the transport—not on the station if it is subject to view by the public. The camp commandant at Mauthausen is to be notified that the transfer occurs within the scope of the action ‘Kugel’. The State Police Directorates will submit semi-yearly reports on these transfers giving merely the figures, the first report being due on 5 July 1944 (sharp). * * * For the sake of secrecy, the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces has been requested to inform the prisoner of war camps to turn the captured prisoners over to the local State Police Office and not to send them directly to Mauthausen.” (1650-PS)
It is no coincidence that the literal translation for the German word “Kugel” is “bullet”, since Mauthausen, where the escaped prisoners were sent, was an extermination center.
4. THE NETWORK OF CONCENTRATION CAMPS
Nazi conquest was marked by the establishment of concentration camps over all of Europe. The following report on the location of concentration camps, signed by Pohl, an SS General who was in charge of concentration camp labor policies, indicates the scope of these activities:
“1. At the outbreak of war there existed the following concentration camps:
a Dachau, 1939, 4,000 prisoners, today 8,000.
b Sachsenhausen, 1939, 6,500 prisoners, today 10,000.
c Buchenwald, 1939, 5,300 prisoners, today 9,000.
d Mauthausen, 1939, 1,500 prisoners, today 5,500.
e Flossenburg, 1939, 1,600 prisoners, today 4,700.
f Ravensbrueck, 1939, 2,500 prisoners, today 7,500.
“2. In the years 1940 to 1942 nine further camps were erected, viz.:
a. Auschwitz (Poland)
b. Neuengamme
c. Gusen (Austria)
d. Natzweiler (France)
e. Gross-Rosen
f. Lublin (Poland)
g. Niederhagen
h. Stutthof (near Danzig)
i. Arbeitsdorf.” (R-129)
In addition to these camps in occupied territory, there were many others. The official report by the Headquarters, Third U. S. Army, Judge Advocate Section, War Crimes Branch, contains the following evidence:
“Concentration Camp Flossenburg was founded in 1938 as a camp for political prisoners. Construction was commenced on the camp in 1938 and it was not until April 1940 that the first transport of prisoners was received. From this time on prisoners began to flow steadily into the camp. * * * Flossenburg was the mother camp and under its direct control and jurisdiction were 47 satellite camps or outer-commandos for male prisoners and 27 camps for female workers. To these outer-commandos were supplied the necessary prisoners for the various work projects undertaken.
“Of all these outer-commandos Hersbruck and Leitmeritz (in Czechoslovakia), Oberstaubling, Mulsen and Sall, located on the Danube, were considered to be the worst.” (2309-PS)
5. THE CONCENTRATION CAMP AS AN INSTRUMENT OF TERROR
The savage treatment which was inflicted in these concentration camps upon allied nationals, prisoners of war, and other victims of Nazi terror has been depicted in motion picture evidence. Verbal discussion of this subject may therefore be brief.
The minutes of the Central Planning Committee, on which Speer sat, and where the high strategy of Nazi armament production was formulated, record a conference on the question of squeezing more work out of slave laborers. Speer, who was not generally considered a fanatic like Frick, or a man of Blood and Iron like Goering, handled the problem in this fashion:
“Speer: We must also discuss the slackers. Ley has ascertained that the sick list decreased to one-fourth or one-fifth in factories where doctors are on the staff who are examining the sick men. There is nothing to be said against SS and Police taking drastic steps and putting those known as slackers into concentration camps. There is no alternative. Let it happen several times and the news will soon go around.” (R-124)
The deterrent effect of the concentration camps upon the public was carefully planned. To heighten the atmosphere of terror surrounding the concentration camps, they were shrouded in secrecy. What went on behind the barbed wire enclosures was a matter of fearful conjecture in Germany and the countries under Nazi control.
This was the policy from the very beginning, when the Nazis first came into power in Germany and set up their concentration camp system. An order issued in 1 October 1933 by the Camp Commander of Dachau prescribes a program of floggings, solitary confinement, and executions for the inmates for infractions of the rules. (778-PS) Among the rules were those prescribing a rigid censorship concerning conditions within the camp:
“By virture of the law on revolutionaries, the following offenders, considered as agitators, will be hung. Anyone who, for the purpose of agitating, does the following in the camp, at work, in the quarters, in the kitchens and workshops, toilets and places of rest: politicizes, holds inciting speeches and meetings, forms cliques, loiters around with others; who for the purpose of supplying the propaganda of the opposition with atrocity stories, collects true or false information about the concentration camp and its institution; receives such information, buries it, talks about it to others, smuggles it out of the camp into the hands of foreign visitors or others by means of clandestine or other methods, passes it on in writing or orally to released prisoners or prisoners who are placed above them, conceals it in clothing or other articles, throws stones and other objects over the camp wall containing such information; or produces secret documents; who, for the purpose of agitating, climbs on barracks’ roofs and trees, seeks contact with the outside by giving light or other signals, or induces others to escape or commit a crime, gives them advices to that effect or supports such undertakings in any way whatsover.” (778-PS)
Censorship concerning the camps was complemented by an officially inspired rumor campaign outside the camps. Concentration camps were spoken of in whispers, and the whispers were spread by agents of the secret police. A “Top Secret” order, relating to concentration camps, issued by the Head of the Gestapo and distributed to appropriate police officers, and dated 26 October 1939, provides:
“In order to achieve a further deterrent effect, the following must, in future, be observed in each individual case * * *
“3. The length of the period of custody must in no case be made known, even if the Reichsfuehrer SS and Chief of the German Police or the Chief of the Security Police and the SD has already fixed it.
“The term of commitment to a concentration camp is to be openly announced as ‘until further notice.’
“In most serious cases, there is no objection to the increasing of the deterrent effect by the spreading of cleverly carried out rumour propaganda, more or less to the effect that, according to hearsay, in view of the seriousness of his case, the arrested man will not be released for 2 or 3 years.
“4. In certain cases, the Reichsfuehrer SS and Chief of the German Police will order flogging in addition to detention in a concentration camp. Orders of this kind will, in future, also be transmitted to the State Police District Office concerned. In this case too, there is no objection to spreading the rumor of this increased punishment as laid down in Section 3, paragraph 3, in so far as this appears suitable, to add to the deterrent effect.
“5. Naturally, particularly suitable and reliable people are to be chosen for the spreading of such news.” (1531-PS)
6. THE TREATMENT OF CONCENTRATION CAMP VICTIMS
The deterrent effect of the concentration camps was based on the promise of savage brutality. This promise was fulfilled, to an extent which defies description. Once in the custody of the SS guards, the victim was beaten, tortured, starved, and often murdered through the so-called “extermination through work” program, or through mass execution gas chambers and furnaces of the camps (which were portrayed in the motion picture evidence). The reports of official government investigations furnish additional evidence of conditions within the concentration camps. The official report concerning the concentration camp Flossenberg, prefaced by the Office of the Judge Advocate General of the United States Army, dated 21 June 1945, and supported by attached affidavits and testimony, contains this description:
“The work at these camps mainly consisted of underground labor, the purpose being the construction of large underground factories, storage rooms, etc. This labor was performed completely underground and as a result of the brutal treatment, working and living conditions, a daily average of 100 prisoners died. To the one camp Oberstaubling, 700 prisoners were transported in February 1945 and on the 15th of April 1945 only 405 of these men were living. During the 12 months preceding the liberation, Flossenburg and the branch camps under its control accounted for the death of 14,739 male inmates and 1,300 women. These figures represent the deaths as were obtained from the available records in the camp, however, they are in no way complete as many secret mass executions and deaths took place. In 1941 an additional stockade was added at the Flossenburg camp, to hold 2,000 Russian prisoners. From these 2,000 prisoners only 102 survived.
“Flossenburg Concentration Camp can best be described as a factory dealing in death. Although this camp had in view the primary object of putting to work the mass slave labor, another of its primary objectives was the elimination of human lives by the methods employed in handling the prisoners.
“Hunger and starvation rations, sadism, housing facilities, inadequate clothing, medical neglect, disease, beatings, hangings, freezing, hand hanging, forced suicides, shooting, all played a major role in obtaining their objective. Prisoners were murdered at random; spite killings against Jews were common. Injections of poison and shooting in the neck were everyday occurrences. Epidemics of typhus and spotted fever were permitted to run rampant as a means of eliminating prisoners. Life in this camp meant nothing. Killing became a common thing, so common that a quick death was welcomed by the unfortunate ones.”
* * * * * *
“On Christmas 1944 a number of prisoners were hung at one time. The prisoners were forced to view this hanging. By the side of the gallows was a decorated Christmas tree and as expressed by one prisoner ‘it was a terrible sight, that combination of prisoners hanging in the air and the glistening Christmas tree’.
“In March or April, 13 American or British parachutists were hung. They had been delivered to this camp sometime before and had been captured while trying to blow up bridges.”
* * * * * *
“On April 20, 1945, approximately 15,000 prisoners were assembled to make a forced march in the direction of Concentration Camp Dachau. The evacuation of these prisoners was caused by the impending capture of the camp by the Allies. These 15,000 prisoners were lined up in three groups and started on this march. Only those prisoners who could walk were taken and before leaving Flossenburg, many were executed, as also were those who collapsed in rank awaiting the movement to start the trek. No provision was made for the feeding of these prisoners or sleeping on this trip. They marched in long columns guarded by SS Guards.
“Thousands were killed on the way and the paths which they took were littered with the dead. Groups of from 5 to 50 were taken out and forced to dig pits and then were shot. Many graves were not even covered. As the already starved and weakened prisoners fell from exhaustion, a group of SS guards bringing up the rear would kill them by a shot in the back of the head. All who fell out of line were immediately executed in this manner. Death was also caused by beatings or bashings in the skulls.
“The prisoners marched from Friday till Monday during which time they received only 100 grams of bread. They marched in the rain and slept in the fields in the mud and water. Many died from exhaustion. On the 23rd day of April 1945, between the towns of Cham and Roding, they were liberated by the American troops.” (2309-PS)
Conditions at Mauthausen, one of the most notorious extermination centers, are thus described in an official report of the office of the Judge Advocate General of the Third United States Army, dated 17 June 1945:
“V. Conclusions. There is no doubt that Mauthausen was the basis for long term planning. It was constructed as a gigantic stone fortress on top of a mountain flanked by small barracks.
“Mauthausen, in addition to its permanency of construction had facilities for a large garrison of officers and men, and had large dining rooms and toilet facilities for the staff. It was conducted with the sole purpose in mind of exterminating any so-called prisoner who entered within its walls. The so-called branches of Mauthausen were under direct command of the SS officials located there. All records, orders, and administrative facilities were handled for these branches through Mauthausen. The other camps, including Gusen and Ebensee, its two most notorious and largest branches, were not exclusively used for extermination but prisoners were used as tools in construction and production until they were beaten or starved into uselessness, whereupon they were customarily sent to Mauthausen for final disposal.” (2176-PS)
It is clear from both the motion picture and these reports, which could be supplemented by many similar ones, that the brutal conditions in all concentration camps followed the same general pattern. The widespread incidence of these conditions makes it clear that they were not the result of sporadic excesses on the part of individual jailers, but were the result of policies deliberately imposed from above.
The crimes committed by the Nazis in the concentration camp were on so vast a scale that individual atrocities pale into insignificance. But there are two exhibits in the possession of the prosecution which illustrate the contempt in which the Nazis held human values. The first is a frame showing sections of human skin, taken from human bodies in Buchenwald Concentration Camp and preserved as ornaments. (This was offered by the prosecution as a physical exhibit.) They were selected because of the tattooing which appeared on the skin. Attached to this exhibit is an extract of an official U. S. Army report describing the circumstances under which this exhibit was obtained (3420-PS):
“Mobile Field Interrogation Unit No. 2
PW INTELLIGENCE BULLETIN
“No. 2/20
19 December 1944 “Address Briefs and Requests to HQ, FID, MIS, APO 887 “EXTRACT
“13. Concentration Camp, Buchenwald.
“Preamble. The author of this account is PW Andreas Pfaffenberger, 1 Coy, 9 Landesschuetzen Bn. 43 years old and of limited education, he is a butcher by trade. The substantial agreement of the details of his story with those found in PWIS (H)/LF/736 establishes the validity of his testimony.
“PW has not been questioned on statements which, in the light of what is known, are apparently erroneous in certain details, nor has any effort been made to alter the subjective character of PW’s account, which he wrote without being told anything of the intelligence already known. Results of interrogation on personalities at Buchenwald have already been published (PWIB No 2/12 Item 31).”
* * * * * *
“In 1939, all prisoners with tattooing on them were ordered to report to the dispensary. No one knew what the purpose was. But after the tattooed prisoners had been examined, the ones with the best and most artistic specimens were kept in the dispensary, and then killed by injections, administered by Karl Beigs, a criminal prisoner. The corpses were then turned over to the pathological department, where the desired pieces of tattooed skin were detached from the bodies and treated. The finished products were turned over to SS Standartenfuehrer Koch’s wife, who had them fashioned into lampshades and other ornamental household articles. I myself saw such tattooed skins with various designs and legends on them, such as “Hans’l und Gret’l”, which one prisoner had had on his knee, and ships from prisoners’ chests. This work was done by a prisoner named Wernerbach.” (3420-PS)
The following certificate is also attached to the exhibit:
“I, George C. Demas, Lieut., USNR., associated with the United States Chief of Counsel for the Prosecution of Axis Criminality, hereby certify that the attached exhibit, consisting of parchment, was delivered by the War Crimes Section, Judge Advocate General, U. S. Army, to me in my above capacity, in the usual course of official business, as an exhibit found in Buchenwald Camp and captured by military forces under the command of the Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Forces.” (3421-PS)
This is the conclusion reached in an official U. S. Army report attached to the exhibit:
“Based on the findings in paragraph 2, all three specimens are tattooed human skin”. (3423-PS)
One more example of this pathological phase of Nazi culture, another Nazi trophy, is a human head with the skull bone removed, shrunken, stuffed, and preserved. (This was offered by the prosecution as a physical exhibit.) This head probably belonged to a foreign worker, kidnapped by Sauckel to work in Speer’s armament industry. The Nazis had one of their many victims decapitated after having had him hanged for fraternizing with a German woman; they fashioned this ornament from his head. This represents the end product of the Nazi system, representing both the degradation of the Nazi “master” and the anguish of his victim. The official U. S. Army report attached to this exhibit deals with the manner in which this exhibit was acquired. It reads in part:
“There I also saw the shrunken heads of two young Poles who had been hanged for having relations with German girls. The heads were the size of a fist, and the hair and the marks of the rope were still there.” (3423-PS)
7. THE NUMBER OF VICTIMS
No accurate estimate of how many persons died in the concentration camps can be made. Although the Nazis were generally meticulous record keepers, the records they kept about concentration camps appear to have been incomplete.
Occasionally there is a death book, or a set of index cards, but for the most part, the victims apparently faded into an unrecorded death. The scale of the concentration camp operations is suggested by a set of seven books, the death ledger of the Mauthausen Concentration Camp (physically offered to the court). Each book bears on its cover “Totenbuch” or Death Book—Mauthausen. In these books were recorded the names of some of the inmates who died or were murdered in this camp. The books cover the period from January 1939 to April 1945. They give the name, place of birth, the assigned cause of death and time of death of each individual recorded. In addition each corpse is assigned a serial number. Addition of the serial numbers for the five-year period produces a total figure of 35,318.
Examination of the books reveals the camp’s routine of death. For example, pages 568 to 582 of Volume 5 cover death entries made for 19 March 1945 between fifteen minutes past one in the morning until 2 o’clock in the afternoon. In this space of 12¾ hours, 203 persons are reported as having died. They were assigned serial numbers running from 8390 to 8593. The names of the dead are listed. The victims are all recorded as having died of the same ailment—“heart trouble”. They died at brief intervals. They died in alphabetical order. The first who died was a man named Ackermann who died at one fifteen A.M. The last was a man named Zynger who died at 2 o’clock P.M.
At twenty minutes past two o’clock on the afternoon of the same day, 19 March 1945, the fatal roll call began again, and continued until half past four o’clock. In a space of two hours, 75 more persons died. Once again they died from heart failure and in alphabetical order. The entries are recorded in the same volume, from pages 582 through 586.
Another death book was found at Camp Mauthausen. This is a single volume, which has on its cover the words—“Death Book—Prisoners of War”. Pages 234 through 246 contain entries recording the names of 208 prisoners of war, apparently Russians, who at 15 minutes past midnight on the 10th day of May 1942, were executed at the same time. The book notes that the execution was directed by the Chief of the SD and the SIPO (Heydrich).
It is common knowledge that the anguish of the concentration camp was spread, not only over the Continent of Europe, but over all the world. Even today all over the world people are still seeking word of their friends and relatives who vanished into the Nazi concentration camps and left no trace behind. This fact is emphasized by the 23 November 1945 issue of the weekly newspaper, “Aufbau”, published in the German language in New York City. On the back pages—8, 9, 10, and 11—are published both notices requesting information about friends and relatives, and notices announcing the deaths of persons who were last heard of in a Nazi concentration camp. The personal tragedies, which these notices represent, multiplied an incalculable number of times, is part of the legacy which the Nazi conspirators have left to the world.
* * * * *
LEGAL REFERENCES AND LIST OF DOCUMENTS RELATING TO CONCENTRATION CAMPS
Document │ Description │ Vol. │ Page │ │ │ │Charter of the International Military │ │ │ Tribunal, Article 6 (b, c). │ I │ 5 │ │ │ │International Military Tribunal, │ │ │ Indictment Number 1, Sections III; │ │ 15, 31, │ VIII (A, C); X. │ I │ 41, 53 │ │ │ 3737-PS │Hague Convention of 1907 respecting the │ │ │ Laws and Customs of War on Land, │ │ │ Annex, Article 46. │ VI │ 597 │ │ │ 3738-PS │Geneva Convention of 1929 relative to │ │ │ treatment of Prisoners of War, │ │ │ Articles 2, 3. │ VI │ 600 │ ————— │ │ │Note: A single asterisk (*) before a │ │ │document indicates that the document was│ │ │received in evidence at the Nurnberg │ │ │trial. A double asterisk (**) before a │ │ │document number indicates that the │ │ │document was referred to during the │ │ │trial but was not formally received in │ │ │evidence, for the reason given in │ │ │parentheses following the description of│ │ │the document. The USA series number, │ │ │given in parentheses following the │ │ │description of the document, is the │ │ │official exhibit number assigned by the │ │ │court. │ │ │ ————— │ │ *374-PS │TWX Series of Orders signed by Heydrich │ │ │and Mueller, issued by Gestapo │ │ │Headquarters Berlin, 9-11 November 1938,│ │ │concerning treatment of Jews. (USA 729) │ III │ 277 │ │ │ *392-PS │Official NSDAP circular entitled “The │ │ │Social Life of New Germany with Special │ │ │Consideration of the German Labor │ │ │Front”, by Prof. Willy Mueller (Berlin, │ │ │1938). (USA 326) │ III │ 380 │ │ │ *641-PS │Report of Public Prosecutor General in │ │ │Munich, 1 June 1933, concerning murder │ │ │of Dr. Strauss in Dachau by an SS guard.│ │ │(USA 450) │ III │ 453 │ │ │ *642-PS │Report to Public Prosecutor General in │ │ │Munich, 1 June 1933, concerning murder │ │ │of Hausmann in Dachau by an SS guard. │ │ │(USA 451) │ III │ 454 │ │ │ *644-PS │Report to Public Prosecutor General in │ │ │Munich, 1 June 1933, concerning murder │ │ │of Schloss in Dachau by an SS guard. │ │ │(USA 452) │ III │ 455 │ │ │ *645-PS │Report to Public Prosecutor General in │ │ │Munich, 1 June 1933, concerning murder │ │ │of Nefzger in Dachau by an SS guard. │ │ │(USA 453) │ III │ 457 │ │ │ *778-PS │Disciplinary and Penal Measures for │ │ │Concentration Camp Dachau and Service │ │ │Regulations for the Camp Personnel, │ │ │signed by Eicke, 1 October 1933. (USA │ │ │247) │ III │ 550 │ │ │ 833-PS │Instructions by Admiral Canaris, Head of│ │ │the Abwehr, 2 February 1942, concerning │ │ │prosecution of crimes against the Reich │ │ │or occupying forces in the occupied │ │ │territories. │ III │ 600 │ │ │ *1063-A-PS │Order of Chief of SIPO and SD, 2 January│ │ │1941, concerning classification of │ │ │concentration camps. (USA 492) │ III │ 775 │ │ │ *1063-B-PS │Letter signed by Kaltenbrunner, 26 July │ │ │1943, concerning establishment of Labor │ │ │Reformatory camps. (USA 492) │ III │ 777 │ │ │ *1063-D-PS │Mueller’s order, 17 December 1942, │ │ │concerning prisoners qualified for work │ │ │to be sent to concentration camps. (USA │ │ │219) │ III │ 778 │ │ │ 1063-E-PS │Copy of Mueller’s order, 25 June 1942, │ │ │concerning increased shipments to │ │ │concentration camps. │ III │ 780 │ │ │ 1151-P-PS │Letter from WVHA, 28 March 1942, │ │ │concerning “Action 14 F 13” from files │ │ │of Gross Rosen Concentration camp. │ III │ 808 │ │ │ *1165-PS │Letter from Commandant of concentration │ │ │Camp Gross Rosen, 23 October 1941, and │ │ │letter of Mueller to all Gestapo │ │ │offices, 9 November 1941, concerning │ │ │execution of Russian PWs. (USA 244) │ III │ 821 │ │ │ *1166-PS │Interoffice memorandum of WVHA, 15 │ │ │August 1944, concerning number of │ │ │prisoners and survey of prisoners’ │ │ │clothing. (USA 458) │ III │ 824 │ │ │ 1216-PS │Typewritten memorandum, “Important │ │ │Incidents in Concentration camp Dachau”.│ III │ 846 │ │ │ 1390-PS │Decree of the Reich President for the │ │ │Protection of the People and State, 28 │ │ │February 1933. 1933 Reichsgesetzblatt, │ │ │Part I, p. 83. │ III │ 968 │ │ │ *1531-PS │Directive from RSHA, 26 October 1939, │ │ │concerning execution of protective │ │ │custody, and directive, 12 June 1942, │ │ │concerning third degree. (USA 248) │ IV │ 93 │ │ │ *1584-I-PS │Teletype from Goering to Himmler, 14 │ │ │February 1944, concerning formation of │ │ │7th Airforce Group squadron for special │ │ │purposes. (USA 221) │ IV │ 117 │ │ │ *1584-III-PS │Correspondence between Himmler and │ │ │Goering, 9 March 1944, concerning use of│ │ │concentration camp inmates in aircraft │ │ │industry. (USA 457) │ IV │ 118 │ │ │ 1616-PS │Letter from Dr. Rascher to Himmler, 17 │ │ │February 1943, concerning freezing │ │ │experiments. │ IV │ 133 │ │ │ *1650-PS │Directive to State Police Directorates │ │ │from Chief of SIPO and SD by Mueller, 4 │ │ │March 1944, concerning captured escaped │ │ │PWs except British and American PWs. │ │ │(USA 246) │ IV │ 158 │ │ │ *1723-PS │Order concerning cooperation of Party │ │ │offices with the Secret State Police, 25│ │ │January 1938, published in Decrees, │ │ │Regulations, Announcements, 1937, Vol. │ │ │II, pp. 430-439. (USA 206) │ IV │ 219 │ │ │ *1919-PS │Himmler’s speech to SS Gruppenfuehrers, │ │ │4 October 1943. (USA 170) │ IV │ 558 │ │ │ 1956-PS │Meaning and Tasks of the Secret State │ │ │Police, published in The Archives, │ │ │January 1936, Vol. 22-24, p. 1342. │ IV │ 598 │ │ │ 2107-PS │Law on Secret State Police of 10 │ │ │February 1936. 1936 Preussische │ │ │Gesetzsammlung, pp. 21-22. │ IV │ 732 │ │ │ 2108-PS │Decree for execution of Law on Secret │ │ │State Police of 10 February 1936. 1936 │ │ │Preussische Gesetzsammlung, pp. 22-24. │ IV │ 732 │ │ │ 2169-PS │Quarterly report of the SS medical │ │ │officer of Hmb. Neuengamme concentration│ │ │camp, 29 March 1945. │ IV │ 799 │ │ │ 2171-PS │U. S. Government report B-2833 on │ │ │Numerical Expansion of Buchenwald │ │ │Concentration Camp, during years │ │ │1937-1945. │ IV │ 800 │ │ │ *2176-PS │Report on Mauthausen concentration camp,│ │ │by investigating officer, Office of │ │ │Judge Advocate, Third U. S. Army, 17 │ │ │June 1945. (USA 249). │ IV │ 836 │ │ │ 2187-PS │Order from Main SS economic │ │ │administration office, 14 July 1943, │ │ │concerning beating of female prisoners. │ IV │ 842 │ │ │ *2189-PS │Orders from Department D of Economic and│ │ │Administrative Main Office, 11 August │ │ │1942, concerning punishment by beating. │ │ │(USA 460) │ IV │ 842 │ │ │ 2222-PS │Report of investigation of Buchenwald │ │ │Concentration Camp, by Judge Advocate │ │ │Section, Third United States Army, 25 │ │ │May 1945. │ IV │ 860 │ │ │ *2285-PS │Affidavit, 13 May 1945, by two French │ │ │officers, about shooting of prisoners at│ │ │Mauthausen. (USA 490) │ IV │ 991 │ │ │ *2309-PS │Report by Headquarters Third United │ │ │States Army, 21 June 1945, concerning │ │ │Flossenburg Concentration Camp. (USA │ │ │245) │ IV │ 999 │ │ │ *2324-PS │Extracts from Reconstruction of a │ │ │Nation, by Hermann Goering, 1934. (USA │ │ │233) │ IV │ 1033 │ │ │ *2330-PS │Order of Protective Custody, Police │ │ │Directorate of Nurnberg-Fuerth of Josef │ │ │Simon, Chairman of German Shoemaker’s │ │ │Union, 29 August 1935. (USA 237) │ IV │ 1038 │ │ │ *2334-PS │Affidavits of Lorenz Hagen, Chairman of │ │ │Local Committee, German Trade Unions, │ │ │Nurnberg. (USA 238) │ IV │ 1041 │ │ │ 2344-PS │Reconstruction of a Nation by Goering, │ │ │1934, p. 89. │ IV │ 1065 │ │ │ 2347-PS │Court decisions from 1935 │ │ │Reichsverwaltungsblatt, Vol. 56, pp. │ │ │577-578, 20 July 1935. │ IV │ 1066 │ │ │ 2476-PS │Affidavit of Josef Buehler, 4 November │ │ │1945. │ V │ 228 │ │ │ *2477-PS │Affidavit of Willy Litzenberg, 4 │ │ │November 1945. (USA 518) │ V │ 229 │ │ │ 2478-PS │Affidavit of Willy Litzenberg, 4 │ │ │November 1945. │ V │ 230 │ │ │ *2499-PS │Original Protective Custody Order served│ │ │on Dr. R. Kempner, 15 March 1935. (USA │ │ │232) │ V │ 236 │ │ │ *2513-PS │Extract from The National Socialist │ │ │Workers’ Party as an Association Hostile│ │ │to State and to Republican Form of │ │ │Government and Guilty of Treasonable │ │ │Activity. (USA 235) │ V │ 252 │ │ │ 2533-PS │Extract from article “Legislation and │ │ │Judiciary in Third Reich”, from Journal │ │ │of the Academy for German Law, 1936, pp.│ │ │141-142. │ V │ 277 │ │ │ *2605-PS │Affidavit of Dr. Rudolf Kastner, former │ │ │President of the Hungarian Zionist │ │ │Organization, 13 September 1945. (USA │ │ │242) │ V │ 313 │ │ │ 2615-PS │Affidavit of Dr. Wilhelm Hoettl, 5 │ │ │November 1945. │ V │ 338 │ │ │ 2655-PS │Concordat between the Holy See and the │ │ │German Reich, Article 31. 1933 │ │ │Reichsgesetzblatt, Part II, p. 679, │ │ │687-8. │ V │ 364 │ │ │ *2663-PS │Hitler’s speech to the Reichstag, 30 │ │ │January 1939, quoted from Voelkischer │ │ │Beobachter, Munich edition, 1 February │ │ │1939. (USA 268) │ V │ 367 │ │ │ *2745-PS │Order for commitment to concentration │ │ │camp, 7 July 1943, Kaltenbrunner’s │ │ │signature. (USA 519) │ V │ 383 │ │ │ *2753-PS │Affidavit of Alois Hoellriegl, 7 │ │ │November 1945. (USA 515) │ V │ 393 │ │ │ *2928-PS │Affidavit of Mathias Lex, deputy │ │ │president of the German Shoemakers │ │ │Union. (USA 239) │ V │ 594 │ │ │ *3051-PS │Three teletype orders from Heydrich to │ │ │all stations of State Police, 10 │ │ │November 1938, on measures against Jews,│ │ │and one order from Heydrich on │ │ │termination of protest actions. (USA │ │ │240) │ V │ 797 │ │ │ *3249-PS │Affidavit of Dr. Franz Blaha, 24 │ │ │November 1945. (USA 663) │ V │ 949 │ │ │ *3420-PS │U. S. Army report on human skin exhibits│ │ │at Buchenwald Concentration Camp. (USA │ │ │252) │ VI │ 122 │ │ │ *3421-PS │Certificate accompanying human skin │ │ │exhibit. (USA 253) │ VI │ 123 │ │ │ *3423-PS │U. S. Army report on identification of │ │ │tattooed human skins. (USA 252) │ VI │ 123 │ │ │ *3590-PS │Charges and findings against Weiss and │ │ │others tried by U. S. Military Court at │ │ │Dachau. (USA 664) │ VI │ 288 │ │ │ *3601-PS │Affidavit of Sidney Mendel, 28 December │ │ │1945, concerning the connection of │ │ │Frick’s Ministry of Interior with │ │ │concentration camps. (GB 324) │ VI │ 313 │ │ │ *3751-PS │Diary of the German Minister of Justice,│ │ │1935 concerning prosecution of church │ │ │officials and punishment in │ │ │concentration camps. (USA 828; USA 858) │ VI │ 636 │ │ │ *3762-PS │Affidavit of SS Colonel Kurt Becher, 8 │ │ │March 1946, concerning the │ │ │responsibility of Kaltenbrunner for │ │ │concentration camp executions. (USA 798)│ VI │ 645 │ │ │ *3844-PS │Statement of Josef Niedermayer, 7 March │ │ │1946, concerning Kaltenbrunner’s part in│ │ │“bullet” orders at Mauthausen │ │ │concentration camp. (USA 801) │ VI │ 782 │ │ │ *3846-PS │Interrogation of Johann Kanduth, 30 │ │ │November 1945, concerning crematorium at│ │ │Mauthausen and the activities of │ │ │Kaltenbrunner there. (USA 796) │ VI │ 788 │ │ │ *3868-PS │Affidavit of Rudolf Franz Ferdinand │ │ │Hoess, 5 April 1946, concerning │ │ │execution of 3,000,000 people at │ │ │Auschwitz Extermination Center. (USA │ │ │819) │ VI │ 787 │ │ │ *3870-PS │Affidavit of Hans Marsalek, 8 April │ │ │1946, concerning Mauthausen │ │ │Concentration Camp and dying statement │ │ │of Franz Ziereis, the Commandant. (USA │ │ │797) │ VI │ 790 │ │ │ *D-84 │Gestapo instructions to State Police │ │ │Departments, 5 August 1937, regarding │ │ │protective custody for Bible students. │ │ │(USA 236) │ VI │ 1040 │ │ │ *D-569 │File of circulars from Reichsfuehrer SS,│ │ │the OKW, Inspector of Concentration │ │ │Camps, Chief of Security Police and SD, │ │ │dating from 29 October 1941 through 22 │ │ │February 1944, relative to procedure in │ │ │cases of unnatural death of Soviet PW, │ │ │execution of Soviet PW, etc. (GB 277) │ VII │ 74 │ │ │ *D-728 │Circular, 15 March 1945, from NSDAP │ │ │Gauleitung Hessen-Nassau to the │ │ │“Kreis”-Leaders of the Gau, concerning │ │ │Action by the Party to keep Germans in │ │ │check until end of the War. (GB 282) │ VII │ 174 │ │ │ *D-745-A │Deposition of Anton Kaindl, 8 March │ │ │1946, concerning SS personnel │ │ │supervising concentration camps. (USA │ │ │811) │ VII │ 208 │ │ │ *D-745-B │Deposition of Anton Kaindl, 19 March │ │ │1946, concerning SS personnel │ │ │supervising concentration camps. (USA │ │ │812) │ VII │ 209 │ │ │ *D-746-A │Deposition of Fritz Suhren, 8 March │ │ │1946, concerning SS personnel │ │ │supervising concentration camps. (USA │ │ │813) │ VII │ 209 │ │ │ *D-746-B │Deposition of Fritz Suhren, │ │ │19 March 1946, concerning SS personnel │ │ │supervising concentration camps. (USA │ │ │814) │ VII │ 210 │ │ │ *D-748 │Affidavit of Karl Totzauer, 15 March │ │ │1946, concerning SS personnel │ │ │supervising concentration camps. (USA │ │ │816) │ VII │ 211 │ │ │ *D-749-B │Statement of Rudolf Hoess, │ │ │20 March 1946, concerning SS personnel │ │ │supervising concentration camps. (USA │ │ │817) │ VII │ 212 │ │ │ *D-750 │Deposition of August Harbaum, │ │ │19 March 1946, concerning SS personnel │ │ │supervising concentration camps. (USA │ │ │818) │ VII │ 213 │ │ │ *L-83 │Affidavit of Gerhart H. Seger, 21 July │ │ │1945. (USA 234) │ VII │ 859 │ │ │ *L-215 │File of orders and dossiers of 25 │ │ │Luxembourgers committed to concentration│ │ │camps at various times in 1944. (USA │ │ │243) │ VII │ 1045 │ │ │ *R-91 │Telegram from Mueller, SS Gruppenfuehrer│ │ │to Reichsfuehrer SS, 16 December 1942. │ │ │(USA 241) │ VIII │ 60 │ │ │ *R-124 │Speer’s conference minutes of Central │ │ │Planning Board, 1942-44, concerning │ │ │labor supply. (USA 179) │ VIII │ 146 │ │ │ *R-129 │Letter and enclosure from Pohl to │ │ │Himmler, 30 April 1942, concerning │ │ │concentration camps. (USA 217) │ VIII │ 198
XII. THE PERSECUTION OF THE JEWS
It had long been a German theory that the First World War ended in Germany’s defeat because of a collapse behind the lines. In planning for future wars it was determined that the home front must be secured to prevent a repetition of this 1918 debacle. Unification of the German people was essential to successful planning and waging of war. Hence, the Nazi political goal must be sought:—“One race, one State, one Fuehrer.” Free trade unions must be abolished, political parties (other than the NSDAP) must be outlawed, civil liberties must be suspended, and opposition of every kind must be swept away. Loyalty to God, church, and scientific truth was declared to be incompatible with the Nazi regime.
The anti-Jewish policy was part of this plan for unification because it was the conviction of the Nazis that the Jews would not contribute to Germany’s military program, but on the contrary would hamper it. The Jew must therefore be eliminated. This view is clearly borne out by a statement contained in a speech of Himmler’s at a meeting of SS Major Generals on 4 October 1943:
“We know how difficult we should have made it for ourselves if with the bombing raids, the burdens and deprivations of war, we still had the Jews today in every town as secret saboteurs, agitators, and trouble-mongers; we would now probably have reached the 1916-17 stage when the Jews were still in the German national body.” (1919-PS)
The treatment of the Jews within Germany was as much a part of the Nazi plan for aggressive war as was the building of armaments and the conscription of manpower.
1. HATE-PROPAGANDA AGAINST JEWS
The objective of the elimination and extermination of the Jews, could not be accomplished without certain preliminary measures. One of these was the indoctrination of the German people with hatred against the Jews.
The first evidence of the Party policies in this direction was expressed in the Party program of February 1920 (1708-PS). Paragraphs (4) and (6) of that program declared:
“* * * Only a member of the race can be a citizen. A member of the race can only be one who is of German blood without consideration of confession.”
* * * * * *
“* * * The right to determine matters concerning administration and law belongs only to the citizen; therefore, we demand that every public office of any sort whatsoever, whether in the Reich, the county or municipality, be filled only by citizens.” (1708-PS)
Hitler, at page 724 and 725 of Mein Kampf, spoke of the Jew. If the National Socialist movement was to fulfill its task, he declared:
“It must open the eyes of the people with regard to foreign nations and must remind them again and again of the true enemy of our present day world. In the place of hate against Aryans—from whom we may be separated by almost everything, to whom, however, we are tied by common blood or the great tide of a common culture—it must dedicate to the general anger the evil enemy of mankind as the true cause of all suffering.
“It must see to it, however, that at least in our country he be recognized as the most mortal enemy and that the struggle against him may show, like a flaming beacon of a better era, to other nations too, the road to salvation for a struggling Aryan mankind.” (2662-PS)
A flood of abusive literature of all types and for all age groups was published and circulated throughout Germany. Illustrative of this type of publication is the book Der Giftpilz. (1778-PS). This book brands the Jew as a persecutor of the labor class, a race defiler, a devil in human form, a poisonous mushroom, and a murderer. This particular book was used to instruct school children to recognize the Jew by caricatures of his physical features, (pages 6 and 7); and to teach them that the Jew abuses little boys and girls, (page 30), and that the Jewish Bible permits all crimes (pages 13-17). Streicher’s periodical, Der Stuermer, (issue no. 14 for April 1937) in particular, went to such extremes as to publish the statement that Jews at the ritual celebration of their Passover slaughtered Christians:
“The numerous confessions made by the Jews show that the execution of ritual murders is a law to the Talmud Jew. The former chief rabbi, and later monk, Teofite, declared that the ritual murders take place especially on the Jewish Purim in memory of the Persian murders, and Passover in memory of the murder of Christ. The instructions are as follows:
“The blood of the victims is to be tapped by force. On Passover it is to be used in wine and matzos. Thus, a small part of the blood is to be poured into the dough of the matzos and into the wine. The mixing is done by the Jewish head of the family. The procedure is as follows:
“The family head empties a few drops of the fresh and powdered blood into the glass, wets the fingers of the left hand with it and sprays, blesses, with it everything on the table. The head of the family then says, ‘Thus we ask God to send the ten plagues to all enemies of the Jewish faith.’ Then they eat, and at the end the head of the family exclaims, ‘May all Gentiles perish, as the child whose blood is contained in the bread and wine.’
“The fresh, or dried and powdered blood of the slaughtered is further used by young married Jewish couples, by pregnant Jewesses, for circumcision and so on. Ritual murder is recognized by all Talmud Jews. The Jew believes he absolves himself thus of his sins.” (2699-PS)
The Jew-baiting publication, Der Stuermer, was published by Streicher’s publishing firm (2697-PS). In one issue of this periodical, Streicher, speaking of the Jewish faith, said:
“The Holy Scripture is a horrible criminal romance abounding with murder, incest, fraud and indecency.”
* * * * * *
“The Talmud is the great Jewish book of crimes that the Jew practices in his daily life.” (2698-PS)
This propaganda campaign of hate, of which the above quotations are but random samples, was too widespread and notorious to require further elaboration.
2. DISCRIMINATORY DECREES AGAINST JEWS
When the Nazi Party gained control of the German State, the conspirators used the means of official decrees as a weapon against the Jews. In this way the force of the state was applied against them.
Jewish immigrants were denaturalized (1933 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, page 480, signed by Frick and Neurath).
Native Jews were precluded from citizenship (1935 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, page 1146, signed by Frick).
Jews were forbidden to live in marriage or to have extra-marital relations with persons of German blood (1935 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, page 1146, signed by Frick and Hess).
Jews were denied the right to vote (1936 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, page 133, signed by Frick).
Jews were denied the right to hold public office or civil service positions (1933 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, page 277, signed by Frick).
Jews were relegated to an inferior status by the denial of common privileges and freedoms. Thus, they were denied access to certain city areas, sidewalks, transportation, places of amusement, restaurants (1938 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, page 1676).
Progressively, more and more stringent measures were applied, even to the denial of private pursuits. They were excluded from the practice of dentistry (1939 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, page 47, signed by Hess).
The practice of law was denied to them (1938 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, page 1403, signed by Frick and Hess).
The practice of medicine was forbidden them (1938 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, page 969, signed by Frick and Hess).
They were denied employment by press and radio (1933 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, page 661).
They were excluded from stock exchanges and stock brokerage (1934 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, page 661).
They were excluded from farming (1933 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, page 685).
In 1938 they were excluded from business in general and from the economic life of Germany (1938 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, page 1580, signed by Goering).
The Jews were also forced to pay discriminatory taxes and huge atonement fines. Their homes, bank accounts, real estate, and intangibles were expropriated.
A report of a conference under the chairmanship of Goering, and attended by Funk, among others, which was held at 11 o’clock on 12 November 1938 at the Reich Ministry for Air, quotes Goering as saying:
“One more question, gentlemen, what would you think the situation would be if I’d announced today that Jewry shall have to contribute this one billion as a punishment.”
* * * * * *
“I shall choose the wording this way that German Jewry shall, as punishment for their abominable crimes, etc., etc., have to make a contribution of one billion; that’ll work. The pigs won’t commit another murder. I’d like to say again that I would not like to be a Jew in Germany.” (1816-PS)
Following these whimsical remarks a decree was issued over the signature of Goering, fining German Jews the sum of one billion Reichsmarks (1938 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, page 1579, dated 12 November 1938, signed by Goering).
Similar decrees are contained in 1939 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, page 282, signed by Goering; and in 1941 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, page 722, signed by Frick and Bormann.
Finally, in 1943, the Jews were placed beyond the protection of any judicial process by a decree signed by Bormann and Frick, among others; the police were made the sole arbiters of punishment and death (1943 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, page 372, signed by Frick and Bormann).
3. ANTI-JEWISH BOYCOTTS, RAIDS, AND VIOLENCE
Simultaneously with the passage of these decrees and their execution, still another weapon was wielded by the Party and the party-controlled state. This was the openly sponsored and official anti-Jewish boycotts. The published diary of Joseph Goebbels, at page 290, contains this entry for 29 March 1933:
“The boycott appeal is approved by the entire cabinet.” (2409-PS)
Again, on 31 March 1933, he wrote:
“We are having a last discussion among a very small circle and decide that the boycott is to start tomorrow with all severity.” (2409-PS)
Streicher and Frank, together with Himmler, Ley, and others, were members of a central committee who conducted the 1933 boycott against the Jews. Their names are listed in National Socialist Party correspondence for 29 March 1933. (2156-PS)
In this early 1933 violence against the Jews, raids were conducted on synagogues by uniformed Nazis. Attending members of the synagogues were assaulted, and religious insignia and emblems were desecrated. A report of such an occurrence was contained in an official dispatch from the American Consul General in Leipzig, dated 5 April, 1943, which stated:
“In Dresden several weeks ago uniformed Nazis raided the Jewish prayer house, interrupted the evening religious service, arrested 25 worshippers, and tore the holy insignia or emblems from their headcovering worn while praying.” (2709-PS)
At a meeting in Nurnberg, before the representatives of the German press, Streicher and Mayor Liebel of Nurnberg revealed in advance to the gathered members of the press that the Nurnberg synagogue was to be destroyed. The minutes of this meeting, dated 4 August 1938, read as follows:
“The breaking up of the synagogue (information must still be secret)
“On August 10, 1938 at 10 o’clock a. m., the breakup of the synagogues will commence. Gauleiter Julius Streicher will personally set the crane into motion with which the Jewish symbols, Star of David, etc., will be torn down. This should be arranged in a big way. Closer details are still unknown.” (1724-PS)
Streicher himself supervised the demolition, according to a newspaper account of 11 August 1938, which described the scene:
“In Nurnberg the Synagogue is being demolished; Julius Streicher himself inaugurates the work by a speech lasting more than an hour and a half. By his order then—so to speak as a prelude of the demolition—the tremendous Star of David came off the cupola.” (2711-PS)
These accounts of violence were not localized anti-Semitic demonstrations, but were directed and ordered from a centralized headquarters in Berlin. This fact is established by a series of teletype messages sent by the Berlin Secret State Police Headquarters to police chiefs throughout Germany on 10 November 1938, which contained instructions pertaining to the prearranged demonstration (3051-PS). One of these confidential orders, signed by Heydrich, provides:
“Because of the attempt on the life of the Secretary of the Legation von Rath in Paris tonight, 9-10 November 1938, demonstrations against Jews are to be expected throughout the Reich. The following instructions are given on how to treat these events:
“1. The Chiefs of the State Police, or their deputies, must get in telephonic contact with the political leaders who have jurisdiction over their districts and have to arrange a joint meeting with the appropriate inspector or commander of the Order Police to discuss the organization of the demonstrations. At these discussions the political leaders have to be informed that the German police has received from the Reichsfuehrer SS and Chief of the German Police the following instructions, in accordance with which the political leaders should adjust their own measures.
“a. Only such measures should be taken which do not involve danger to German life or property. (For instance synagogues are to be burned down only when there is no danger of fire to the surroundings.)
“b. Business and private apartments of Jews may be destroyed but not looted. The police is instructed to supervise the execution of this order and to arrest looters.” (3051-PS)
4. THE PROGRAM FOR THE COMPLETE ELIMINATION OF JEWRY
At this point the gradual and mounting campaign against the Jews was prepared for the achievement of its ultimate violent ends. The German people had been indoctrinated, and the seeds of hatred had been sown. The German state was armed and prepared for conquest. The force of world opinion could now safely be ignored. Already the Nazi conspirators had forced out of Germany 200,000 of its former 500,000 Jews. The Nazi-controlled German state was therefore emboldened, and Hitler in anticipation of the aggressive wars already planned cast about for a provocation.
In his speech before the Reichstag on 30 January 1939, Hitler declared:
“If the international Jewish financiers within and without Europe succeed in plunging the nations once more into a world war, the result will not be the Bolshevication of the world and the victory of Jewry, but the obliteration of the Jewish race in Europe.” (2663-PS)
The chief editor of the official organ of the SS, the “_Schwarze Korps_,” expressed similar sentiments on 8 August 1940:
“Just as the Jewish question will be solved for Germany only when the last Jew has been deported, so the rest of Europe should also realize that the German peace which awaits it must be a peace without Jews.” (2668-PS)
Other officials of the Party and State voiced the same views. Rosenberg wrote for the publication “World Struggle,” which in the April and September 1941 issues declared:
“The Jewish question will be solved for Europe only when the last Jew has left the European continent.” (2665-PS)
Hans Frank entered this apologetic note in his diary:
“Of course, I could not eliminate all lice and Jews in only a year’s time. But in the course of time, and above all, if you will help me, this end will be attained.” (2233-C-PS)
A. Registration.
The first step in accomplishing the purpose of the Nazi Party and the Nazi-dominated state, to eliminate the Jew, was to require a complete registration of all Jews. Inasmuch as the anti-Jewish policy was linked with the program of German aggression, such registration was required not only within the Reich, but successively within the conquered territories. For example, registration was required, by decree, within Germany (Reichsgesetzblatt Part I, 1938, page 922, 23 July, signed by Frick); within Austria (Reichsgesetzblatt, Volume 1, 1940, page 694, 29 April); within Poland (Kurjer Krakowski, 24 October, 1939); in France (Journal Official No. 9, page 92, 30 September, 1940); in Holland (Verordnungsblatt, No. 16, 10 January, 1941, signed by Seyss-Inquart).
B. Segregation into Ghettos.
The second step was to segregate and concentrate the Jews within restricted areas, called ghettos. This policy was carefully worked out, as is illustrated by the confidential statement taken from the files of Rosenberg (212-PS). This memorandum of Rosenberg’s, entitled “Directions for Handling of the Jewish Question”, states:
“The first main goal of the German measures must be strict segregation of Jewry from the rest of the population. In the execution of this, first of all, is the seizing of the Jewish population by the introduction of a registration order and similar appropriate measures * * *.”
* * * * * *
“* * * All rights of freedom for Jews are to be withdrawn. They are to be placed in ghettos and at the same time are to be separated according to sexes. The presence of many more or less closed Jewish settlements in White Ruthenia and in the Ukraine makes this mission easier. Moreover, places are to be chosen which make possible the full use of the Jewish manpower in case labor needs are present. These ghettos can be placed under the supervision of a Jewish self-government with Jewish officials. The guarding of the boundaries between the ghettos and the outer world, is, however, the duty of the Police.
“Also, in the cases in which a ghetto could not yet be established, care is to be taken through strict prohibitions and similar suitable measures that a further intermingling of blood of the Jews and the rest of the populace does not continue.” (212-PS)
In May 1941 Rosenberg, as the Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories, issued directions confining the Jews to ghettos in the Ukraine:
“After the customary removal of Jews from all public offices, the Jewish question will have to have a decisive solution, through the institution of ghettos.” (1028-PS)
The policies set forth in the foregoing utterances of Rosenberg were not accidental, isolated, or the views of one individual. They were the expressed State policies. Von Schirach played his part in the program of ghettoization. His speech before the European Youth Congress held in Vienna on 14 September 1942 was reported on page 2, column 2 of the Vienna edition of the “Voelkischer Beobachter” of 15 September, as follows:
“Every Jew who exerts influence in Europe is a danger to European culture. If anyone reproaches me with having driven from this city, which was once the European metropolis of Jewry, tens of thousands upon tens of thousands of Jews into the ghetto of the East, I feel myself compelled to reply: I see in this an action contributing to European culture.” (3048-PS)
One of the largest ghettos was within the city of Warsaw. The official report made by SS Major General Stroop concerning this ghetto is entitled “The Warsaw Ghetto Is No More.” (1061-PS)
The report thus describes the ghetto:
“The Ghetto thus established in Warsaw was inhabited by about 400,000 Jews. It contained 27,000 apartments with an average of 2½ rooms each. It was separated from the rest of the city by partition and other walls, and by walling-up of the thoroughfares, windows, doors, open spaces, etc. * * *” (1061-PS)
Conditions within this ghetto are indicated in the statement of the report that an average of six persons lived in every room. (1061-PS)
Himmler received a report from the SS Brigade Fuehrer Group A, dated 15 October 1941, which further illustrates the establishment and operation of the ghettos. (L-180) The report states:
“Apart from organizing and carrying out measures of execution, the creation of ghettos was begun in the larger towns at once during the first day of operations. This was especially urgent in Knowno because there were 30,000 Jews in a total population of 152,400.”
* * * * * *
“In Riga the so-called ‘Moskau Suburb’ was designated as a ghetto. This is the worst dwelling district of Riga, already now mostly inhabited by Jews. The transfer of the Jews into the ghetto district proved rather difficult because the Latvians dwelling in that district had to be evacuated and residential space in Riga is very crowded. 24,000 of the 28,000 Jews living in Riga have been transferred into the ghetto so far. In creating the ghetto, the Security Police restricted themselves to mere policing duties, while the establishment and administration of the ghetto as well as the regulation of the food supply for the inmates of the ghetto were left to civil administration; the labor officers were left in charge of Jewish labor.
“In the other towns with a larger Jewish population ghettos shall be established likewise.” (L-180)
Jews were forced into ghettos in the Polish Province of Galicia. The conditions in these ghettos are described in the report from Katzmann, Lt. General of Police, to Krueger, General of the Police East, dated 20 June 1943, and entitled “Solution of Jewish Question in Galicia.” (L-18):
“Nothing but catastrophical conditions were found in the ghettos of Rawa-Ruska and Rohatyn * * *.”
* * * * * *
“* * * The Jews of Rawa-Ruska, fearing the evacuation, had concealed those suffering from spotted fever in underground holes. When evacuation was to start the police found that 3,000 Jews suffering from spotted fever lay about in this ghetto. In order to destroy this center of pestilence at once every police officer inoculated against spotted fever was called into action. Thus we succeeded to destroy this plague-boil, losing thereby only one officer. Almost the same conditions were found in Rohatyn * * *.”
* * * * * *
“Since we received more and more alarming reports on the Jews becoming armed in an ever-increasing manner, we started during the last fortnight in June 1943 an action throughout the whole of the district of Galicia with the intent to use strongest measures to destroy the Jewish gangsterdom. Special measures were found necessary during the action to dissolve the ghetto in Lwow where the dug-out mentioned above had been established. Here we had to act brutally from the beginning, in order to avoid losses on our side; we had to blow up, or to burn down several houses. On this occasion the surprising fact arose that we were able to catch about 20,000 Jews instead of 12,000 Jews who had registered. We had to pull at least 3,000 Jewish corpses out of every kind of hiding places; they had committed suicide by taking poison. * * *”
* * * * * *
“* * * Despite the extraordinary burden heaped upon every single SS-Police officer during these actions, mood and spirit of the men were extraordinarily good and praiseworthy from the first to the last day * * *.” (L-18)
These acts of removal and slaughter were not entirely without profit. The report continues:
“Together with the evacuation action, we executed the confiscation of Jewish property. Very high amounts were confiscated and paid over to the Special Staff ‘Reinhard’. Apart from furniture and many textile goods, the following amounts were confiscated and turned over to Special Staff ‘Reinhard’ * * *
“20.952 kilograms of gold wedding rings. 7 Stamp collections, complete. 1 Suit case with pocket knives. 1 basket of fountain pens and propelled pencils. 3 bags filled with rings—not genuine. 35 wagons of furs.” (L-18)
The thoroughness of the looting is illustrated by an item listing 11.73 kilograms of gold teeth and inlays. (L-18)
By the end of 1942, Jews in the General Government of Poland had been crowded into fifty-five localities, whereas before the German invasion there had been approximately 1,000 Jewish settlements within this same area. This fact is reported in the 1942 Official Gazette for the General Government, No. 94, page 665, 1 November 1942.
C. Forced Labor.
The Jews, having been registered and confined within the ghettos, now furnished a reservoir for slave labor. The difference between slave labor and “labor duty” was this: the latter group were entitled to reasonable compensation, stated working hours, medical care and attention, and other social security measures, while the former were granted none of these advantages, being in fact, on a level below that of slaves.
Rosenberg set up within his organization for the Occupied Eastern Territories a department which, among other things, was to seek a solution for the Jewish problem by means of forced labor. His plans, contained in a memorandum entitled “General Organizations and Tasks of our Office for the General Handling of Problems in the Eastern Territory,” and dated 29 April 1941, read as follows:
“A general treatment is required for the Jewish problem for which a temporary solution will have to be determined (forced labor for the Jews, creation of Ghettos, etc.).” (1024-PS)
Thereafter Rosenberg issued instructions that Jewish forced labor should be utilized for every manual labor task:
“The standing rule for the Jewish labor employment is the complete and unyielding use of Jewish manpower regardless of age in the reconstruction of the occupied eastern territories.”
* * * * * *
“Violations against German measures, especially against the forced labor regulations, are to be punished by death to the Jews.” (212-PS)
From the ghettos Jewish labor was selected and sent to a concentration area. Here the usable Jews were screened from those considered worthless. For example, a contingent of 45,000 Jews could be expected to yield 10,000 to 15,000 usable laborers. This estimate is based on an RSHA telegram to Himmler, marked “Urgent” and “Secret”, and dated 16 December 1942.
“In the total of 45,000 are included physically handicapped and others (old Jews and children). In making a distribution for this purpose, at least 10,000 to 15,000 laborers will be available when the Jews arriving at Auschwitz are assigned.” (1472-PS)
The report from Lieutenant General of Police, Katzmann, to General of the Police East, Krueger, clearly outlines the nature of the Jewish forced labor:
“The best remedy consisted of the formation, by the SS and Police Leader, of forced labor camps. The best opportunity for labor was offered by the necessity to complete the ‘Dg.4’ road which was extremely important and necessary for the whole of the southern part of the front, and which was in a catastrophically bad condition. On October 15th 1941, the establishment of camps along the road was commenced, and despite considerable difficulties there existed, after a few weeks only, seven camps containing 4,000 Jews.”
* * * * * *
“Soon more camps followed these first ones, so that after a very short time the completion of fifteen camps of this kind could be reported to the Superior Leader of SS and Police. In the course of time about 20,000 Jewish laborers passed through these camps. Despite the hardly imaginable difficulties occurring at this work I can report today that about 160 kilometers of the road are completed.”
* * * * * *
“At the same time all other Jews fit for work were registered and distributed for useful work by the labor agencies.
* * * When the Jews were marked by the Star of David, as well as when they were registered by the labor agencies, the first symptoms appeared in their attempts to dodge the order of the authorities. The measures which were introduced thereupon led to thousands of arrests. It became more and more apparent that the civil administration was not in a position to solve the Jewish problem in an approximately satisfactory manner. Then, for instance, the municipal administration at Lwow had no success in their attempts to house the Jews within a closed district which would be inhabited only by Jews. This question, too, was solved quickly by the SS and Police Leaders through subordinate officials. This measure became the more urgent as in the winter, 1941, big centers of spotted fever were noted in many parts of the town.”
* * * * * *
“During this removal of the Jews into a certain quarter of the town several sluices were erected at which all the work-shy and asocial Jewish rabble were caught during the screening and treated in a special way. Owing to the peculiar fact that almost 90% of artisans working in Galicia were Jews, the task to be solved could be fulfilled only step by step, since an immediate evacuation would not have served the interest of War Economy.”
* * * * * *
“* * * Cases were discovered where Jews, in order to acquire any certificate of labor, not only renounced all wages, but even paid money themselves. Moreover, the organizing of Jews for the benefit of their employers grew to such catastrophical extent that it was deemed necessary to interfere in the most energetic manner for the benefit of the German name. Since the administration was not in a position and showed itself too weak to master this chaos, the SS and Police Leader simply took over the entire disposition of labor for Jews. The Jewish labor agencies, which were manned by hundreds of Jews, were dissolved. All certificates of labor given by firms or administrative offices were declared invalid, and the cards given to the Jews by the labor agencies were revalidated by the police offices by stamping them. In the course of this action, again, thousands of Jews were caught who were in possession of forged certificates or who had obtained, surreptitiously, certificates of labor by all kinds of pretexts. These Jews also were exposed to special treatment.” (L-18)
D. Extermination.
(At this point a strip of motion picture footage taken, presumably, by a member of the SS, and captured by the United States military forces in an SS barracks near Augsburg, Germany, was shown to the tribunal. The film depicts what is believed to be the extermination of a ghetto by Gestapo agents, assisted by military units.
The following scenes are representative:
2. A naked girl running across the courtyard
Scene 3: An older woman being pushed past the camera, and a man in SS uniform standing at the right of the scene.
37. A man with a bleeding head is hit again
Scene 39: A soldier in German military uniform, with a rifle, stands by as a crowd centers on a man coming out of the house.
Scene 44: A soldier with a rifle, in German military uniform, walks past a woman clinging to a torn blouse.
45. A woman is dragged by her hair across the street.)
The means of accomplishing the extermination of the Jews are discussed in the diary of Hans Frank, then Governor-General of Occupied Poland (2233-D-PS). In a cabinet session on Tuesday, 16 December 1941 in the Government Building at Cracow, Frank made a closing address, as follows:
“As far as the Jews are concerned, I want to tell you quite frankly that they must be done away with in one way or another. The Fuehrer said once: ‘Should united Jewry again succeed in provoking a world-war, the blood of not only the nations which have been forced into the war by them, will be shed, but the Jew will have found his end in Europe’. I know that many of the measures carried out against the Jews in the Reich at present are being criticized. It is being tried intentionally, as is obvious from the reports on the morale, to talk about cruelty, harshness, etc. Before I continue, I want to beg you to agree with me on the following formula: We will principally have pity on the German people only, and nobody else in the whole world. The others, too, had no pity on us. As an old National-Socialist, I must say: This war would only be a partial success if the whole lot of Jewry would survive it, while we would have shed our best blood in order to save Europe. My attitude towards the Jews will, therefore, be based only on the expectation that they must disappear. They must be done away with. I have entered negotiations to have them deported to the East. A great discussion concerning that question will take place in Berlin in January, to which I am going to delegate the State Secretary Dr. Buehler. That discussion is to take place in the Reich Security Main Office with SS-Lt. General Heydrich. A great Jewish migration will begin, in any case.
“But what should be done with the Jews? Do you think they will be settled down in the ‘Ostland’, in villages? This is what we were told in Berlin: Why all this bother? We can do nothing with them either in the ‘Ostland’ nor in the ‘Reichskommissariat’. So liquidate them yourself.
“Gentlemen, I must ask you to rid yourself of all feeling of pity. We must annihilate the Jews, wherever we find them and wherever it is possible, in order to maintain there the structure of the Reich as a whole. This will, naturally, be achieved by other methods than those pointed out by Bureau Chief Dr. Hummel. Nor can the judges of the Special Courts be made responsible for it, because of the limitations of the framework of the legal procedure. Such outdated views cannot be applied to such gigantic and unique events. We must find at any rate a way which leads to the goal, and my thoughts are working in that direction.
“The Jews represent for us also extraordinarily malignant gluttons. We have now approximately 2,500,000 of them in the General Government, perhaps with the Jewish mixtures and everything that goes with it, 3,500,000 Jews. We cannot shoot or poison those 3,500,000 Jews, but we shall nevertheless be able to take measures, which will lead, somehow, to their annihilation, and this in connection with the gigantic measures to be determined in discussions from the Reich. The General Government must become free of Jews, the same as the Reich. Where and how this is to be achieved is a matter for the offices which we must appoint and create here. Their activities will be brought to your attention in due course.” (2233-D-PS)
This was not the planning and scheming of an irresponsible individual, but the expression by the Governor-General of Occupied Poland, of the official policy of the German State.
Rosenberg’s notion of the means to be taken against the Jews is expressed in a secret “Document Memorandum for the Fuehrer—Concerning: Jewish Possessions in France,” dated 18 December 1941. Rosenberg urges plundering and death:
“* * * In compliance with the order of the Fuehrer for protection of Jewish cultural possessions, a great number of Jewish dwellings remained unguarded. Consequently, many furnishings have disappeared because a guard could, naturally, not be posted. In the whole East the administration has found terrible conditions of living quarters, and the chances of procurement are so limited that it is not practical to procure any more. Therefore, I beg the Fuehrer to permit the seizure of all Jewish home furnishings of Jews in Paris, who have fled or will leave shortly, and that of Jews living in all parts of the occupied West, to relieve the shortage of furnishings in the administration in the East.
“2. A great number of leading Jews were, after a short examination in Paris, again released. The attempts on the lives of members of the armed forces have not stopped; on the contrary they continue. This reveals an unmistakable plan to disrupt the German-French cooperation, to force Germany to retaliate, and, with this, evoke a new defense on the part of the French against Germany. I suggest to the Fuehrer that, instead of executing 100 Frenchmen, we substitute 100 Jewish bankers, lawyers, etc. It is the Jews in London and New York who incite the French communists to commit acts of violence, and it seems only fair that the members of this race should pay for this. It is not the little Jews, but the leading Jews in France, who should be held responsible. That would tend to awaken the Anti-Jewish sentiment.
“(Signed) A. Rosenberg.” (001-PS)
(1) Starvation. Chief among the methods utilized for the annihilation of the Jewish people was starvation. Policies were designed and adopted to deprive the Jews of the most elemental necessities of life. Hans Frank, then Governor-General of Poland, wrote in his diary that hunger rations were introduced in the Warsaw Ghetto (2233-E-PS). Referring to the new food regulations of August 1942, he noted that by these food regulations more than one million Jews were virtually condemned to death.
“That we sentence 1,200,000 Jews to die of hunger should be noted only marginally. It is a matter of course that should the Jews not starve to death it would we hope result in a speeding up of the anti-Jewish measures.” (2233-E-PS)
In pursuance of the deliberate policy of Jewish starvation, Jews were prohibited from pursuing agricultural activities in order to cut them off from access to sources of food. A document entitled “Provisional Directives on the Treatment of Jews”, issued by the Reichscommissar for the Ostland, provided:
“Jews must be cleaned out from the countryside. The Jews are to be removed from all trades, especially from trade with agricultural products and other foodstuffs.” (1138-PS)
Jews were also excluded from the purchase of basic food, such as wheat products, meat, eggs, and milk. A decree dated 18 September 1942, from the Ministry of Agriculture, provided:
“Jews will no longer receive the following foods, beginning with the 42nd distribution period (19 October 1942): meat, meat products, eggs, wheat products (cake, white bread, wheat rolls, wheat flour, etc.) whole milk, fresh skimmed milk, as well as such food distributed not on food ration cards issued uniformly throughout the Reich but on local supply certificates or by special announcement of the nutrition office on extra coupons of the food cards. Jewish children and young people over ten years of age will receive the bread ration of the normal consumer.” (1347-PS)
The sick, the old, and pregnant mothers were excluded from the special food concessions allotted to non-Jews. Seizure by the State Police of food shipments to Jews from abroad was authorized, and Jewish ration cards were distinctly marked with the word “Jew” in color across the face of the cards, so that the store-keepers could readily identify and discriminate against Jewish purchasers.
According to page 110 of an official document of the Czechoslovakian government published in 1943 and entitled “Czechoslovakia Fights Back,” Jewish food purchases were confined to certain areas, to certain days, and to certain hours. As might be expected, the period permitted for the purchases occurred during the time when food stocks were likely to be exhausted. (1689-PS)
By Special Order No. 44 for the Eastern Occupied Territories, dated 4 November 1941, Jews were limited to rations as low as only one-half of the lowest basic category of other people, and the Ministry of Agriculture was empowered to exclude Jews entirely or partially from obtaining food thus exposing the Jewish community to death by starvation. A bulletin issued by the Polish Ministry of Information, dated 15 December 1942, concludes that upon the basis of the nature of the separate rationing and the amount of food available to Jews in the Warsaw and Cracow ghettos, the system was designed to bring about starvation:
“In regard to food supplies they are brought under a completely separate system, which is obviously aimed at depriving them of the most elemental necessities of life.” (L-165)
(2) Annihilation. Annihilation within the ghettos is illustrated and glorified in the report of Major General of the Police Stroop, entitled “The Warsaw Ghetto is No More.” (1061-PS)
This report bound in leather profusely illustrated, typed on heavy bond paper, and almost 75 pages in length, is the almost unbelievable recital of a proud accomplishment by Stroop, who signed the report with a bold hand. Stroop in his report first pays tribute to the bravery and heroism of the German forces who participated in the ruthless actions against a defenseless group of Jews numbering, to be exact 56,065—including infants and women. His report relates day-by-day progress in the accomplishment of his mission—to destroy and to obliterate the Warsaw Ghetto. According to this report, the ghetto, which was established in Warsaw in November 1940, was inhabited by about 400,000 Jews; and prior to the action for the destruction of this Ghetto, some 316,000 had already been deported.
These are some of the boastful and vivid account’s of the scenes within the Warsaw Ghetto:
“The resistance put up by the Jews and bandits could be broken only by relentlessly using all our forces and energy by day and night. On 23 April 1943 the Reichsfuehrer SS issued through the Higher SS and Police Fuehrer East at Cracow his order to complete the combing out of the Warsaw Ghetto with the greatest severity and relentless tenacity. I therefore decided to destroy the entire Jewish residential area by setting every block on fire, including the blocks of residential buildings near the armament works. One concern after the other was systematically evacuated and subsequently destroyed by fire. The Jews then emerged from their hiding places and dugouts in almost every case. Not infrequently, the Jews stayed in the burning buildings until, because of the heat and the fear of being burned alive, they preferred to jump down from the upper stories after having thrown mattresses and other upholstered articles into the street from the burning buildings. With their bones broken, they still tried to crawl across the street into blocks of buildings which had not yet been set on fire or were only partially in flames. Often the Jews changed their hiding places during the night, by moving into the ruins of burnt-out buildings, taking refuge there until they were found by our patrols. Their stay in the sewers also ceased to be pleasant after the first week. Frequently from the street, we could hear loud voices coming through the sewer shafts. Then the men of the Waffen SS, the Police or the Wehrmacht Engineers courageously climbed down from the shafts to bring out the Jews and not infrequently they then stumbled over Jews already dead, or were shot at. It was always necessary to use smoke candles to drive out the Jews. Thus one day we opened 183 sewer entrance holes, and at a fixed time lowered smoke candles into them, with the result that the bandits fled from what they believed to be gas in the center of the former Ghetto, where they could then be pulled out of the sewer holes there. A great number of Jews who could not be counted were exterminated by blowing up sewers and dugouts.
“The longer the resistance lasted the tougher the men of the Waffen SS, Police, and Wehrmacht became. They fulfilled their duty indefatigably in faithful comradeship, and stood together as models and examples of soldiers. Their duty hours often lasted from early morning until late at night. At night search patrols with rags wound round their feet remained at the heels of the Jews and gave them no respite. Not infrequently they caught and killed Jews who used the night hours for supplementing their stores from abandoned dugouts and for contacting neighboring groups or exchanging news with them.
“Considering that the greater part of the men of the Waffen SS had only been trained for three to four weeks before being assigned to this action, high credit should be given to the pluck, courage and devotion to duty which they showed. It must be stated that the Wehrmacht Engineers, too, executed the blowing up of dugouts, sewers and concrete buildings with indefatigability and great devotion to duty. Officers and men of the police, a large part of whom had already been at the front, again excelled by their dashing spirit.
“Only through the continuous and untiring work of all involved did we succeed in catching a total of 56,065 Jews whose extermination can be proved. To this should be added the number of Jews who lost their lives in explosions or fires, but whose number could not be ascertained.” (1061-PS)
At the beginning of his report Stroop lists the losses of German troops:
“For the Fuehrer and their country the following fell in the battle for the destruction of Jews and bandits in the former ghetto of Warsaw * * *” [Fifteen names are thereafter listed].
“Furthermore, the Polish police sergeant Julian Zielinski, born 13 November 1891, 8th Commissariat, fell on 19 April 1943 while fulfilling his duty. They gave their utmost, their life. We shall never forget them.
“The following were wounded * * *” [There follow the names of 60 Waffen SS personnel] “11 watchmen from training camps, probably Lithuanians; 12 Security Police officers in SS units; 5 men of the Polish Police; and 2 regular army personnel, engineers.” (1061-PS)
The story continues in the daily teletype reports, from which the following are excerpts:
“Our setting the block on fire achieved the result in the course of the night that those Jews whom we had not been able to find despite all our search operations left their hideouts under the roofs, in the cellars, and elsewhere, and appeared on the outside of the buildings, trying to escape the flames. Masses of them—entire families—were already aflame and jumped from the windows or endeavored to let themselves down by means of sheets tied together or the like. Steps had been taken so that these Jews as well as the remaining ones were liquidated at once.”
* * * * * *
“When the blocks of buildings mentioned above were destroyed, 120 Jews were caught and numerous Jews were destroyed when they jumped from the attics to the inner courtyards, trying to escape the flames. Many more Jews perished in the flames or were destroyed when the dugouts and sewer entrances were blown up.”
* * * * * *
“Not until the blocks of buildings were well aflame and were about to collapse did a further considerable number of Jews emerge, forced to do so by the flames and the smoke. Time and again the Jews try to escape even through burning buildings. Innumerable Jews whom we saw on the roofs during the conflagration perished in the flames. Others emerged from the upper stories in the last possible moment and were only able to escape death from the flames by jumping down. Today we caught a total of 2,283 Jews, of whom 204 were shot, and innumerable Jews were destroyed in dugouts and in the flames.”
* * * * * *
“The Jews testify that they emerge at night to get fresh air, since it is unbearable to stay permanently within the dugouts owing to the long duration of the operation. On the average the raiding parties shoot 30 to 50 Jews each night. From these statements it was to be inferred that a considerable number of Jews are still underground in the Ghetto. Today we blew up a concrete building which we had not been able to destroy by fire. In this operation we learned that the blowing up of a building is a very lengthy process and takes an enormous amount of explosives. The best and only method for destroying the Jews therefore still remains the setting of fires.”
* * * * * *
“Some depositions speak of three to four thousand Jews who still remain in underground holes, sewers, and dugouts; The undersigned is resolved not to terminate the large-scale operation until the last Jew has been destroyed.” (1061-PS)
The teletype message of 15 May 1945 indicates that the operation is in its last stage:
“A special unit once more searched the last block of buildings which was still intact in the Ghetto, and subsequently destroyed it. In the evening the chapel, mortuary, and all other buildings in the Jewish cemetery were blown up or destroyed by fire.” (1061-PS)
On 24 May 1943 the final figures were compiled by Major General Stroop:
“Of the total of 56,065 caught, about 7,000 were destroyed in the former Ghetto during large-scale operation. 6,929 Jews were destroyed by transporting them to T.II [believed to be Treblinka Camp No. 2]. The sum total of Jews destroyed is therefore 13,929. Beyond the number of 56,065 an estimated number of 5 to 6,000 Jews were destroyed by being blown up or by perishing in the flames.” (1061-PS)
It was not always necessary, or perhaps desirable, to place the Jews within Ghettos to effect elimination. In the Baltic States a more direct course of action was followed. According to a report by SS Brigade Fuehrer Stahlecker to Himmler, dated 15 October 1941, entitled “Action Group A,” which was found in Himmler’s private files, 135,567 persons, nearly all Jews, were murdered in accordance to basic orders directing the complete annihilation of Jews. SS Brigade Fuehrer Stahlecker continues his report:
“* * * To our surprise it was not easy at first to set in motion an extensive pogrom against the Jews. Klimatis, the leader of the partisan unit, mentioned above, who was used for this purpose primarily, succeeded in starting a pogrom on the basis of advice given to him by a small advanced detachment acting in Kowno and in such a way that no German order or German instigation was noticed from the outside. During the first pogrom in the night from 25 to 26 June the Lithuanian partisans did away with more than 1,500 Jews, setting fire to several synagogues or destroying them by other means and burning down a Jewish dwelling district consisting of about 60 houses. During the following nights about 2,300 Jews were made harmless in a similar way. * * *”
* * * * * *
“It was possible, though, through similar influences on the Latvian auxiliary to set in motion a pogrom against the Jews also in Riga. During this pogrom all synagogues were destroyed and about 400 Jews were killed.” (L-180)
Nazi ingenuity reached its zenith with the construction and operation of the gas van as a means of mass annihilation of the Jews. A description of the operation of these vehicles of death is fully set forth in a captured Top Secret document dated 16 May 1942, addressed to SS Obersturmbannfuehrer Rauff, 8 Prince Albrecht-Strasse, Berlin, from Dr. Becker, SS Untersturmfuehrer. The report reads in part:
“The overhauling of vans by groups D and C is finished. While the vans of the first series can also be put into action if the weather is not too bad, the vans of the second series (Saurer) stop completely in rainy weather. If it has rained for instance for only one half hour, the van cannot be used because it simply skids away. It can only be used in absolutely dry weather. It is only a question now whether the van can only be used standing at the place of execution. First the van has to be brought to that place, which is possible only in good weather. The place of execution is usually 10 to 15 km away from the highways and is difficult of access because of its location; in damp or wet weather it is not accessible at all. If the persons to be executed are driven or led to that place, then they realize immediately what is going on and get restless, which is to be avoided as far as possible. There is only one way left; to load them at the collecting point and to drive them to the spot.
“I ordered the vans of group D to be camouflaged as house-trailers by putting one set of window shutters on each side of the small van and two on each side of the larger vans, such as one often sees on farm houses in the country. The vans became so well-known, that not only the authorities but also the civilian population called the van ‘death van’, as soon as one of these vehicles appeared. It is my opinion the van cannot be kept secret for any length of time, not even camouflaged.”
* * * * * *
“Because of the rough terrain and the indescribable road and highway conditions the caulkings and rivets loosen in the course of time. I was asked if in such cases the vans should be brought to Berlin for repair. Transportation to Berlin would be much too expensive and would demand too much fuel. In order to save those expenses I ordered them to have smaller leaks soldered and if that should no longer be possible, to notify Berlin immediately by radio, that Pol. Nr. is out of order. Besides that I ordered that during application of gas all the men were to be kept as far away from the vans as possible, so they should not suffer damage to their health by the gas which eventually would escape. I should like to take this opportunity to bring the following to your attention: several commands have had the unloading after the application of gas done by their own men. I brought to the attention of the commanders of those S.K. concerned the immense psychological injuries and damages to their health which that work can have for those men, even if not immediately, at least later on. The men complained to me about headaches which appeared after each unloading. Nevertheless they don’t want to change the orders, because they are afraid prisoners called for that work, could use an opportune moment to flee. To protect the men from those damages, I request orders be issued accordingly.
“The application of gas usually is not undertaken correctly. In order to come to an end as fast as possible, the driver presses the accelerator to the fullest extent. By doing that the persons to be executed suffer death from suffocation and not death by dozing off as was planned. My directions now have proved that by correct adjustment of the levers death comes faster and the prisoners fall asleep peacefully. Distorted faces and excretions, such as could be seen before, are no longer noticed.
“Today I shall continue my journey to group B, where I can be reached with further news.
“Signed: Dr. Becker, SS Untersturmfuehrer.” (501-PS)
A letter signed by Hauptsturmfuehrer Truehe on the subject of S-vans, addressed to the Reich Security Main Office, Room 2-D-3-A, Berlin, and marked “Top Secret,” establishes that the vans were used for the annihilation of the Jews. The message reads:
“A transport of Jews, which has to be treated in a special way, arrives weekly at the office of the commandant of the Security Police and the Security Service of White Ruthenia.
“The three S-vans which are there are not sufficient for that purpose. I request assignment of another S-van (five tons). At the same time I request the shipment of twenty gas hoses for the three S-vans on hand (two Diamond, one Saurer), since the ones on hand are leaky already.
(signed) The Commandant of the Security Police and the Security Service, Ostland.” (501-PS)
It appears that a certain amount of discord existed between officials of the German government as to the proper means and methods to be used in connection with the extermination program. A secret report dated 18 June 1943, addressed to Rosenberg, complained that five thousand Jews killed by the police and SS might have been used for forced labor, and chided them for failing to bury the bodies of those liquidated:
“The fact that Jews receive special treatment requires no further discussion. However, it appears hardly believable that this is done in the way described in the report of the General Commissioner of 1 June 1943. What is Katyn against that? Imagine only that these occurrences would become known to the other side and exploited by them! Most likely such propaganda would have no effect only because people who hear and read about it simply would not be ready to believe it.”
* * * * * *
“To lock men, women, and children into barns and to set fire to them does not appear to be a suitable method of combatting bands, even if it is desired to exterminate the population. This method is not worthy of the German cause and hurts our reputation severely.” (R-135)
Gunther, the prison warden at Minsk, in a letter dated 31 May 1943, addressed to the General Commissioner for White Ruthenia, was critical by implication. This letter, entitled, “Action Against Jews,” reads:
“On 13 April 1943 the former German dentist Ernst Israel Tichauer and his wife, Elisa Sara Tichauer, nee Rosenthal, were committed to the court prison by the Security Service. Since that time all German and Russian Jews who were turned over to us had their golden bridgework, crowns, and fillings pulled or broken out. This happens always one to two hours before the respective action.
“Since 13 April 1943, 516 German and Russian Jews have been finished off. On the basis of a definite investigation gold was taken only in two actions—on 14 April 1943 from 172, and on 27 April 1943 from 164 Jews. About fifty percent of the Jews had gold teeth, bridgework, or fillings. Hauptscharfuehrer Rube of the Security Service was always personally present and he took the gold along, too.
“Before 13 April 1943 this was not done.
(signed) Gunther, Prison Warden.” (R-135)
The foregoing letter was forwarded to Rosenberg, as Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories, on June 1943. The covering letter to Rosenberg reads:
“The enclosed official report from the warden of the prison in Minsk is submitted to the Reich Minister and the Reich Commissar for Information.
“(signed) The General Commissar in Minsk.” (R-135)
A further complaint is contained in a secret letter addressed to General of Infantry, Thomas, Chief of the International Armament Department, dated 2 December 1941 (3257-PS). The writer of this letter apprehensively stated his reason for not forwarding the communication through official channels:
“For the personal information of the Chief of the Industrial Armament Department I am forwarding a total account of the present situation in the Reichskommissariat Ukraine in which the difficulties and tensions encountered so far and the problems which give rise to serious anxiety are stated with unmistakable clarity.
“Intentionally I have desisted from submitting such a report through official channels or to make it known to other departments interested in it because I do not expect any results that way, but to the contrary am apprehensive that the difficulties and tensions and also the divergent opinions might only be increased due to the peculiarity of the situation.”
* * * * * *
“Jewish problem:
“Regulation of the Jewish question in the Ukraine was a difficult problem because the Jews constituted a large part of the urban population. We therefore have to deal—just as in the General Government—with a mass problem of policy concerning the population. Many cities had a percentage of Jews exceeding fifty percent. Only the rich Jews had fled from the German troops. The majority of Jews remained under German administration. The latter found the problem more complicated through the fact that these Jews represented almost the entire trade and even a part of the manpower in small and medium industries besides the business which had in part become superfluous as a direct or indirect result of the war. The elimination therefore necessarily had far-reaching economic consequences and even direct consequences for the armament industry (production for supplying the troops).”
* * * * * *
“The attitude of the Jewish population was anxious—obliging from the beginning. They tried to avoid everything that might displease the German administration. That they hated the German administration and army inwardly goes without saying and cannot be surprising. However, there is no proof that Jewry as a whole or even to a greater part was implicated in acts of sabotage. Surely there were some terrorists or saboteurs among them just as among the Ukrainians. But it cannot be said that the Jews as such represented a danger to the German armed forces. The output produced by Jews who, of course, were prompted by nothing but the feeling of fear, was satisfactory to the troops and the German administration.
“The Jewish population remained temporarily unmolested shortly after the fighting. Only weeks, sometimes months later, specially detached formations of the police executed a planned shooting of Jews. The action as a rule proceeded from east to west. It was done entirely in public with the use of the Ukrainian militia, and unfortunately in many instances also with members of the armed forces taking part voluntarily. The way these actions, which included men and old men, women, and children of all ages were carried out was horrible. The great masses executed make this action more gigantic than any similar measure taken so far in the Soviet Union. So far about 150,000 to 200,000 Jews may have been executed in the part of the Ukraine belonging to the Reichskommissariat; no consideration was given to the interests of economy.
“Summarizing, it can be said that the kind of solution of the Jewish problem applied in the Ukraine which obviously was based on the ideological theories as a matter of principle had the following results:
“(a) Elimination of a part of partly superfluous eaters in the cities.
“(b) Elimination of a part of the population which hated us undoubtedly.
“(c) Elimination of badly needed tradesmen who were in many instances indispensable even in the interests of the armed forces.
“(d) Consequences as to foreign policy—propaganda which are obvious.
“(e) Bad effects on the troops which in any case get indirect contact with the executions.
“(f) Brutalizing effect on the formations which carry out the execution—regular police.” (3257-PS)
Lest it be thought that these conditions existed only in the East, the official Netherlands government report by the Commissioner for Repatriation as relates similar treatment of the Jews in the West (1726-PS). The German measures taken against the Dutch Jews—discriminatory decrees, anti-semitic demonstrations, burning of synagogues, purging of Jews from the economic life of their country, food restrictions, forced labor, concentration camp confinement, deportation, and death—all these measures follow the same pattern that was effected throughout Nazi-occupied Europe. The official Netherlands report states that full Jews, liable to deportation, numbered 140,000. The total number of actual Jewish deportees was 117,000, representing more than eighty-three per cent of all the Jews in the Netherlands. Of these, 115,000 were deported to Poland for slave labor, and after departure all trace of them was lost. Regardless of victory or defeat to Germany, the Jew was doomed. It was the expressed intent of the Nazi state that whatever the German fate might be the Jew would not survive. (1726-PS)
A Top Secret message from the commandant of the SIPO and SD for the Radom District, addressed to SS Hauptsturmfuehrer Thiel on the subject, “Clearance of Prisons,” reads as follows:
“I again stress the fact that the number of inmates of the SIPO and SD prisons must be kept as low as possible. In the present situation, particularly, those suspects handed over by the civil police need only be subjected to a short, formal interrogation, provided there are no serious grounds for suspicion. They are then to be sent by the quickest route to a concentration camp, should no court-martial proceeding be necessary or should there be no question of discharge. Please keep the number of discharges very low. Should the situation at the front necessitate it, early preparations are to be made for the total clearance of prisons. Should the situation develop suddenly in such a way that it is impossible to evacuate the prisoners, the prison inmates are to be liquidated and their bodies disposed of as far as possible (burning, blowing up the building, etc.). If necessary, Jews still employed in the armament industry or on other work are to be dealt with in the same way.
“The liberation of prisoners or Jews by the enemy, be it the WB [perhaps means ‘West-Bund,’ or ‘Western Ally’] or the Red Army, must be avoided under all circumstances, nor may they fall into their hands alive.” (L-53)
(3) Mass Disposal of Jews in Concentration Camps. The concentration camps were utilized to dispose of literally millions of Jews, who died by mass shooting, gas, poison, starvation, and other means. The part which the concentration camps played in the annihilation of the Jewish people is indicated in an official Polish report on Auschwitz Concentration Camp (L-161). In Auschwitz during July 1944 Jews were killed at the rate of 12,000 daily:
“* * * During July 1944, they were being liquidated at the rate of 12,000 Hungarian Jews daily, and as the crematory could not deal with such numbers, many bodies were thrown into large pits and covered with quick lime.” (L-161)
The official Polish Government Commission Report on the Investigation of German crimes in Poland describes the concentration camp at Treblinka in these terms:
“* * * In March 1942, the Germans began to erect another camp, Treblinka B, in the neighborhood of Treblinka A, intended to become a place of torment for Jews.
“The erection of this camp was closely connected with the German plans aiming at a complete destruction of the Jewish population in Poland which necessitated the creation of a machinery by means of which the Polish Jews could be killed in large numbers. Late in April 1942, the erection of the first three chambers was finished in which these general massacres were to be performed by means of steam. Somewhat later the erection of the real death building was finished, which contains ten death chambers. It was opened for wholesale murders early in autumn 1942 * * *.” (3311-PS)
The report of the Polish commission describes graphically the procedure for extermination within the camp:
“* * * The average number of Jews dealt with at the camp in summer 1942 was about two railway transports daily, but there were days of much higher efficiency. From autumn 1942 this number was falling.
“After unloading in the siding all victims were assembled in one place where men were separated from women and children. In the first days of the existence of the camp the victims were made to believe that after a short stay in the camp, necessary for bathing and disinfection, they would be sent farther east, for work. Explanations of this sort were given by SS men who assisted at the unloading of the transports and further explanations could be read in notices stuck up on the walls of the barracks. But later, when more transports had to be dealt with, the Germans dropped all pretenses and only tried to accelerate the procedure.
“All victims had to strip off their clothes and shoes, which were collected afterwards, whereupon all victims, women and children first, were driven into the death chambers. Those too slow or too weak to move quickly were driven on by rifle-butts, by whipping and kicking, often by Sauer himself. Many slipped and fell, the next victims pressed forward and stumbled over them. Small children were simply thrown inside. After being filled up to capacity the chambers were hermetically closed and steam was let in. In a few minutes all was over. The Jewish menial workers had to remove the bodies from the platform and to bury them in mass graves. By and by, as new transports arrived, the cemetery grew, extending in eastern direction.
“From reports received, it may be assumed that several hundred thousands of Jews have been exterminated in Treblinka.” (3311-PS)
An official United States government report issued by the Executive Office of the President of the United States, War Refugee Board, on the German camps at Auschwitz and Birkenau, sets forth the number of Jews gassed in Birkenau in the two-year period between April 1942 and April 1944. The figure printed in this report is not a typographical error. The number is 1,765,000. (L-22)
5. RESULTS OF THE EXTERMINATION PROGRAM
The huge scale of the Jewish eliminations is also reflected in the bookkeeping and statistics of the Germans themselves. The 16 December 1941 entry in the diary of Hans Frank contains these figures:
“The Jews for us also represent extraordinarily malignant gluttons.
“We have now approximately 2,500,000 of them in General Government—perhaps with the Jewish mixtures, and everything that goes with it, 3,500,000 Jews.” (2233-D-PS)
On 25 January 1944, three years and one month later, Frank wrote in his diary these words:
“At the present time we still have in the General Government perhaps 100,000 Jews.” (2233-F-PS)
Thus, in this period of three years, according to the records of the then Governor-General of Occupied Poland, between 2,400,000 and 3,400,000 Jews had been eliminated.
The total number of Jews who died by Nazi hands can never be definitely ascertained. It is known, however, that 4 million Jews died in concentration camps, and that 2 million Jews were killed by the State Police in the East, making a total of 6 million murdered Jews. The source of these figures is Adolph Eichmann, Chief of the Jewish Section of the Gestapo. The figures are contained in an affidavit made by Dr. Wilhelm Hoettl, Deputy Group Leader of the Foreign Section of the Security Section, AMT VI, of the RSHA. Hoettl, in his affidavit, states as follows:
“Approximately 4 million Jews had been killed in the various concentration camps, while an additional 2 million met death in other ways, the major part of which were shot by operational squads of the Security Police during the campaign against Russia.” (2738-PS)
Hoettl describes the source of his information as follows:
“According to my knowledge, Eichmann was at that time the leader of the Jewish Section of the Gestapo, and in addition to that he had been ordered by Himmler to get a hold of the Jews in all the European countries and to transport them to Germany. Eichmann was then very much impressed with the fact that Rumania had withdrawn from the war in those days. Moreover, he had come to me to get information about the military situation which I received daily from the Hungarian Ministry of War and from the Commander of the Waffen-SS in Hungary. He expressed his conviction that Germany had now lost the war and that he personally had no further chance. He knew that he would be considered one of the main war criminals by the United Nations, since he had millions of Jewish lives on his conscience. I asked him how many that was, to which he answered that although the number was a great Reich secret, he would tell me since I, as a historian, would be interested, and that he would probably not return anyhow from his command in Rumania. He had, shortly before that, made a report to Himmler, as the latter wanted to know the exact number of Jews who had been killed.” (2738-PS)
* * * * *
LEGAL REFERENCES AND LIST OF DOCUMENTS RELATING TO THE PERSECUTION OF THE JEWS
Document │ Description │ Vol. │ Page │ │ │ │Charter of the International Military │ │ │ Tribunal, Article 6 (b, c). │ I │ 5 │ │ │ │International Military Tribunal, │ │ │ Indictment Number 1, Sections IV (D) 3│ │ │ (d); X (B). │ I │ 20, 55 │ │ │ 3737-PS │Hague Convention of 1907 respecting the │ │ │ Laws and Customs of War on Land, │ │ │ Annex, Article 46. │ VI │ 597 │ ————— │ │ │Note: A single asterisk (*) before a │ │ │document indicates that the document was│ │ │received in evidence at the Nurnberg │ │ │trial. A double asterisk (**) before a │ │ │document number indicates that the │ │ │document was referred to during the │ │ │trial but was not formally received in │ │ │evidence, for the reason given in │ │ │parentheses following the description of│ │ │the document. The USA series number, │ │ │given in parentheses following the │ │ │description of the document, is the │ │ │official exhibit number assigned by the │ │ │court. │ │ │ ————— │ │ *001-PS │Memorandum for the Fuehrer signed │ │ │Rosenberg, 18 December 1941, concerning │ │ │Jewish possessions in France. (USA 282) │ III │ 1 │ │ │ *014-PS │Report to Fuehrer, 20 March 1941, │ │ │concerning shipment of Jewish property. │ │ │(USA 784) │ III │ 40 │ │ │ *015-PS │Letter and report of Rosenberg to │ │ │Hitler, 16 April 1943, concerning │ │ │seizure of ownerless Jewish art │ │ │possessions. (USA 387) │ III │ 41 │ │ │ *025-PS │Conference report of 4 September 1942 │ │ │concerning the importation of domestic │ │ │workers from the East into the Reich. │ │ │(USA 698) │ III │ 67 │ │ │ 041-PS │Memorandum, Rosenberg to Hitler, 3 │ │ │October 1942, concerning seizure of │ │ │Jewish property. │ III │ 80 │ │ │ 053-PS │Interoffice report from Hans Koch to │ │ │Rosenberg, 5 October 1941, concerning │ │ │political situation in Ukraine. │ III │ 83 │ │ │ *069-PS │Letter from Bormann to Rosenberg, 17 │ │ │January 1939, enclosing order of 28 │ │ │December 1938, concerning decisions on │ │ │Jewish question. (USA 589) │ III │ 116 │ │ │ 078-PS │Regulations issued by Heydrich, 28 June │ │ │1941, for treatment of political │ │ │prisoners of war. │ III │ 123 │ │ │ *136-PS │Certified copy of Hitler Order, 29 │ │ │January 1940, concerning establishment │ │ │of “Hohe Schule”. (USA 367) │ III │ 184 │ │ │ *141-PS │Goering Order, 5 November 1940, │ │ │concerning seizure of Jewish art │ │ │treasures. (USA 368) │ III │ 188 │ │ │ *154-PS │Letter from Lammers to high State and │ │ │Party authorities, 5 July 1942, │ │ │confirming Rosenberg’s powers. (USA 370)│ III │ 193 │ │ │ 155-PS │“Einsatzstab”, administrative │ │ │regulations, 30 September 1942. │ III │ 194 │ │ │ *171-PS │Undated report on “Library for │ │ │Exploration of the Jewish Question” by │ │ │the Hohe Schule District Office. (USA │ │ │383) │ III │ 200 │ │ │ 197-PS │Memorandum of a conference in HQ OKH │ │ │Quartermaster General, 27 August 1941, │ │ │concerning transfer of administration of│ │ │Ukraine from Wehrmacht to civilian │ │ │authorities; signed by Labs, Ministerial│ │ │Director. │ III │ 210 │ │ │ *212-PS │Memorandum from Rosenberg file │ │ │concerning instructions for treatment of│ │ │Jews. (USA 272) │ III │ 222 │ │ │ 285-PS │Henlein letter to Rosenberg, 31 October │ │ │1938. │ III │ 238 │ │ │ 286-PS │Rosenberg letter to Henlein, 15 October │ │ │1938. │ III │ 239 │ │ │ *374-PS │TWX Series of Orders signed by Heydrich │ │ │and Mueller, issued by Gestapo │ │ │Headquarters Berlin, 9-11 November 1938,│ │ │concerning treatment of Jews. (USA 729) │ III │ 277 │ │ │ 406-PS │Memorandum by Gauleiter Streicher, 14 │ │ │April 1939, concerning certain acts │ │ │against Jews. │ III │ 388 │ │ │ *501-PS │Collection of four documents on │ │ │execution by gas, June 1942, one signed │ │ │by Dr. Becker, SS Untersturmfuehrerat │ │ │Kiev, 16 May 1942. (USA 288) │ III │ 418 │ │ │ *502-PS │Order, 17 July 1941, entitled │ │ │“Regulations for the Commandos of the │ │ │Chief of the SIPO and SD which are to be│ │ │activated in Stalags”. (USA 486) │ III │ 422 │ │ │ 579-PS │Three letters, District Commissioner, │ │ │Employment Director at Riga, and │ │ │Economic Directorate in Latvia, 21 July │ │ │1941, 10 February 1942 and 6 July 1942, │ │ │concerning forced Jewish labor in Riga │ │ │and Latvia. │ III │ 444 │ │ │ *654-PS │Thierack’s notes, 18 September 1942, on │ │ │discussion with Himmler concerning │ │ │delivery of Jews to Himmler for │ │ │extermination through work. (USA 218) │ III │ 467 │ │ │ 682-PS │Thierack’s notes on discussion with │ │ │Goebbels, 14 September 1942, concerning │ │ │groups to be exterminated. │ III │ 496 │ │ │ *701-PS │Letter from Minister of Justice to │ │ │Prosecutors, 1 April 1943, concerning │ │ │Poles and Jews who are released from │ │ │Penal institutions of Department of │ │ │Justice. (USA 497) │ III │ 510 │ │ │ 765-PS │Teletype message from Heydrich to all SD│ │ │and Police, 10 November 1938, concerning│ │ │“Measures against Jews tonight”. │ III │ 545 │ │ │ 841-PS │Secret Order of Goering, 28 December │ │ │1938, concerning Jewish problem. │ III │ 606 │ │ │ 847-PS │Hitler Decree, 5 July 1942, stating │ │ │Rosenberg’s powers. │ III │ 610 │ │ │ 878-PS │Draft of Order signed by Keitel, 12 │ │ │September 1941, providing that Jews may │ │ │be put in labor-columns. │ III │ 636 │ │ │ *998-PS │“German Crimes Against Czechoslovakia”. │ │ │Excerpts from Czechoslovak Official │ │ │Report for the prosecution and trial of │ │ │the German Major War Criminals by the │ │ │International Military Tribunal │ │ │established according to Agreement of │ │ │four Great Powers of 8 August 1945. (USA│ │ │91) │ III │ 656 │ │ │ 1012-PS │Teletype from OKH to Military Commander │ │ │of France, 3 February 1942, concerning │ │ │consultation of Hitler and Keitel about │ │ │shooting of Jews and Communists. │ III │ 664 │ │ │ 1015-B-PS │Report on activities of Special Staff │ │ │for Pictorial Art, October 1940 to July │ │ │1944. │ III │ 666 │ │ │ *1024-PS │Memorandum, 29 April 1941, concerning │ │ │organization for handling problems in │ │ │the Eastern Territories. (USA 278) │ III │ 685 │ │ │ *1028-PS │Memorandum from Rosenberg file, 7 May │ │ │1941, concerning instructions for a │ │ │Reichskommissar in the Ukraine. (USA │ │ │273) │ III │ 690 │ │ │ *1061-PS │Official report of Stroop, SS and Police│ │ │Leader of Warsaw, on destruction of │ │ │Warsaw Ghetto, 1943. (USA 275) │ III │ 718 │ │ │ *1138-PS │Enclosure in letter from Reich │ │ │Commissioner for Baltic States to │ │ │Rosenberg, 13 August 1941, concerning │ │ │provisional directives on treatment of │ │ │Jews in area of Reichskommissariat │ │ │Ostland. (USA 284) │ III │ 800 │ │ │ *1166-PS │Interoffice memorandum of WVHA, 15 │ │ │August 1944, concerning number of │ │ │prisoners and survey of prisoners’ │ │ │clothing. (USA 458) │ III │ 824 │ │ │ 1189-PS │Special Order No. 44, 4 November 1941, │ │ │concerning feeding of civilian │ │ │population in Occupied Eastern │ │ │Territories. │ III │ 833 │ │ │ *1301-PS │File relating to financing of armament │ │ │including minutes of conference with │ │ │Goering at the Air Ministry, 14 October │ │ │1938, concerning acceleration of │ │ │rearmament. (USA 123) │ III │ 868 │ │ │ *1347-PS │Extract of decree, 18 September 1942, │ │ │Ministry of Agriculture, concerning food│ │ │supply for Jews. (USA 285) │ III │ 914 │ │ │ 1384-PS │Stenographic report of Hitler discussion│ │ │with Keitel and Zeitzler, 8 June 1943. │ III │ 959 │ │ │ 1412-PS │Decree relating to payment of fine by │ │ │Jews of German nationality, 12 November │ │ │1938. 1938 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p.│ │ │1579. │ IV │ 6 │ │ │ 1415-PS │Police regulation concerning appearahce │ │ │of Jews in public, 28 November 1938. │ │ │1938 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 1676.│ IV │ 6 │ │ │ *1472-PS │Copy of telegram from Mueller to │ │ │Himmler, 16 December 1942, concerning │ │ │recruiting Jewish labor. (USA 279) │ IV │ 49 │ │ │ *1517-PS │Memorandum from Rosenberg concerning │ │ │discussion with the Fuehrer, 14 December│ │ │1941. (USA 824) │ IV │ 55 │ │ │ *1689-PS │“Czechoslovakia Fights Back”, a document│ │ │of the Czechoslovak Ministry of Foreign │ │ │Affairs, 1943. (USA 286) │ IV │ 198 │ │ │ *1708-PS │The Program of the NSDAP. National │ │ │Socialistic Yearbook, 1941, p. 153. (USA│ │ │255; USA 324) │ IV │ 208 │ │ │ *1724-PS │Announcement in Press Conference, 4 │ │ │August 1938 of breaking up of synagogue.│ │ │(USA 266) │ IV │ 224 │ │ │ *1726-PS │Statement of Netherlands Government in │ │ │view of Prosecution and punishment of │ │ │the German Nazi War Criminals. (USA 195)│ IV │ 227 │ │ │ *1778-PS │Book “The Poisonous Mushroom”, published│ │ │in Nurnberg 1938, concerning Jews. (USA │ │ │257) │ IV │ 358 │ │ │ *1816-PS │Stenographic report of the meeting on │ │ │The Jewish Question, under the │ │ │Chairmanship of Fieldmarshal Goering, 12│ │ │November 1938. (USA 261) │ IV │ 425 │ │ │ *1919-PS │Himmler’s speech to SS Gruppenfuehrers, │ │ │4 October 1943. (USA 170) │ IV │ 558 │ │ │ *1948-PS │Letter from Governor in Vienna, 7 │ │ │November 1940, evidencing RSHA │ │ │instructions to recruit Jews from forced│ │ │labor. (USA 680) │ IV │ 586 │ │ │ 2000-PS │Law for protection of German blood and │ │ │German honor, 15 September 1935. 1935 │ │ │Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, No. 100, p. │ │ │1146. │ IV │ 636 │ │ │ *2124-PS │Decree introducing the Nurnberg Racial │ │ │Laws into Austria, 20 May 1938. 1938 │ │ │Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 594. (GB │ │ │259) │ IV │ 755 │ │ │ 2153-PS │Defeat the Enemy of the World, published│ │ │in National Socialist Party │ │ │Correspondence No. 358, 30 March 1933. │ │ │(GB 166) │ IV │ 760 │ │ │ *2154-PS │Streicher decrees, published in National│ │ │Socialist Party Correspondence, No. 359,│ │ │31 March 1933. (GB 167) │ IV │ 760 │ │ │ *2156-PS │Announcement of Central Committee for │ │ │defense against Jewish horror and │ │ │boycott agitation, 29 March 1933, │ │ │published in National Socialist Party │ │ │Correspondence No. 357. (USA 263) │ IV │ 761 │ │ │ *2233-C-PS │Frank Diary. Tagebuch. 1940. Part IV. │ │ │October-December. (USA 271) │ IV │ 890 │ │ │ *2233-D-PS │Frank Diary. Regierungsitzungen. 1941. │ │ │October-December. Entry of 16 December │ │ │1941 at pp. 76-77. (USA 281) │ IV │ 891 │ │ │ *2233-E-PS │Frank Diary. │ │ │Regierungs-Hauptabteilungsleiter-Sitzung│ │ │en. 1942. Entry of 24 August 1942. (USA │ │ │283) │ IV │ 893 │ │ │ *2233-F-PS │Frank Diary. Tagebuch. 1 January 1944-28│ │ │February 1944. Entry of 25 January 1944 │ │ │at p. 5. (USA 295) │ IV │ 902 │ │ │ 2237-PS │Letter from Reich Commissar for Reunion │ │ │of Austria with the German Reich to │ │ │Goering, 18 November 1938, concerning │ │ │actions against the Jews in November │ │ │1938. │ IV │ 918 │ │ │ *2409-PS │Extracts from The Imperial House to the │ │ │Reich Chancellery by Dr. Joseph │ │ │Goebbels. (USA 262) │ V │ 83 │ │ │ 2583-PS │Quotation from speech made by Streicher,│ │ │31 October 1939. │ V │ 311 │ │ │ 2602-PS │Telegram, Wilson to Secretary of State, │ │ │Washington, 10 November 1938. │ V │ 311 │ │ │ 2603-PS │Letter from Kemp, U. S. Consul General │ │ │in Bremen, to Secretary of State, 10 │ │ │November 1938, concerning Anti-Jewish │ │ │demonstrations in Bremen. │ V │ 312 │ │ │ 2604-PS │Report of American Consul General to │ │ │Wilson, U. S. Ambassador in Berlin, 12 │ │ │November 1938, concerning Anti-semitic │ │ │persecution in Stuttgart Consular │ │ │District. │ V │ 312 │ │ │ *2605-PS │Affidavit of Dr. Rudolf Kastner, former │ │ │President of the Hungarian Zionist │ │ │Organization, 13 September 1945. (USA │ │ │242) │ V │ 313 │ │ │ 2613-PS │Extracts from “The Black Book of │ │ │Poland”. │ V │ 332 │ │ │ 2617-A-PS │Reports of Department Interior │ │ │Administration from the Office of Chief │ │ │of District Warsaw, published by The │ │ │General Government for Poland, 1940, p. │ │ │59. │ V │ 339 │ │ │ *2662-PS │Extract from Mein Kampf, 39th edition, │ │ │1933, pp. 724-725. (USA 256) │ V │ 366 │ │ │ *2663-PS │Hitler’s speech to the Reichstag, 30 │ │ │January 1939, quoted from Voelkischer │ │ │Beobachter, Munich edition, 1 February │ │ │1939. (USA 268) │ V │ 367 │ │ │ *2665-PS │The Jewish Question Past and Present, │ │ │from World Battle. (USA 270) │ V │ 367 │ │ │ *2668-PS │“And Don’t Forget the Jews”, from the │ │ │Black Corps, 8 August 1940, No. 32, p. │ │ │2. (USA 269) │ V │ 367 │ │ │ 2671-PS │Decree regarding the Designation of │ │ │Business Enterprises in the Government │ │ │General, from Verordnungsblatt of │ │ │Governor-General for Occupied Polish │ │ │Territory, No. 8, p. 61, 30 November │ │ │1939. │ V │ 367 │ │ │ 2672-PS │Decree concerning designation of Jews │ │ │and Jewesses in the Government General, │ │ │from Verordnungsblatt of the │ │ │Governor-General for Occupied Polish │ │ │Territory, 1939, p. 61. │ V │ 368 │ │ │ 2673-PS │Extract from “The Archive”, No. 90, 30 │ │ │October 1941, p. 495. │ V │ 369 │ │ │ 2682-PS │Excerpts from Voelkischer Beobachter │ │ │concerning restriction against Jews, 5 │ │ │December 1938, No. 339, p. 5. │ V │ 369 │ │ │ 2683-PS │Universities barred for Jews, published │ │ │in Voelkischer Beobachter, 16 November │ │ │1938. │ V │ 371 │ │ │ *2697-PS │Article: “The Chosen People of the │ │ │Criminals” from Der Stuermer, No. 2, │ │ │January 1935. (USA 259) │ V │ 372 │ │ │ *2698-PS │Article: “Two little Talmud Jews”, from │ │ │Der Stuermer, No. 50, December 1938. │ │ │(USA 260) │ V │ 372 │ │ │ *2699-PS │Article on Ritual Murder, from Der │ │ │Stuermer, No. 14, April 1937. (USA 258) │ V │ 372 │ │ │ 2700-PS │Article: “The Ritual Murder”, from Der │ │ │Stuermer, No. 28, July 1938. │ V │ 373 │ │ │ 2704-PS │Decree concerning Prohibition of Jewish │ │ │Religious Slaughter, from │ │ │Verordnungsblatt of the Governor-General│ │ │for Occupied Polish Territory, 1939, p. │ │ │7. │ V │ 373 │ │ │ *2709-PS │Report by Ralph C. Busser, American │ │ │Consul-General in Leipzig, 5 April 1933,│ │ │concerning Anti-Jewish movement in │ │ │Central Germany. (USA 265) │ V │ 375 │ │ │ 2710-PS │Adolf Hitler Speaks, quoted from │ │ │Voelkischer Beobachter, 26 February │ │ │1938, No. 57, p. 4. │ V │ 376 │ │ │ *2711-PS │Article: “Symbolic Action”, published in│ │ │Fraenkische Tageszeitung-Nurnberg, 11 │ │ │August 1938. (USA 267) │ V │ 376 │ │ │ 2712-PS │Anti-Jewish demonstrations throughout │ │ │the Reich, from Voelkischer Beobachter, │ │ │11 November 1938, No. 315, p. 2. │ V │ 376 │ │ │ 2715-A-PS │Anti-semitic demonstrations in the │ │ │Entire Reich, published in Voelkischer │ │ │Beobachter, No. 315, 11 November 1938, │ │ │p. 2. │ V │ 377 │ │ │ 2736-PS │Time without Precedent, by Dr. Joseph │ │ │Goebbels, 4th edition, 1942, p. 531. │ V │ 380 │ │ │ 2737-PS │The Party Program, Nature, Fundamentals │ │ │and Goals of the NSDAP, by Alfred │ │ │Rosenberg, 25th Printing, 1943, p. 27. │ V │ 380 │ │ │ *2738-PS │Affidavit of Wilhelm Hoettl, 26 November│ │ │1945. (USA 296) │ V │ 380 │ │ │ **3047-PS │File notes on conference in Fuehrer’s │ │ │train on 12 September 1939; report on │ │ │execution of Jews in Borrisow; and │ │ │entries from diary of Admiral Canaris. │ │ │(USA 80) (Referred to but not offered in│ │ │evidence.) │ V │ 766 │ │ │ *3048-PS │Speech by von Schirach before European │ │ │Youth Congress in Vienna, published in │ │ │Voelkischer Beobachter, 15 September │ │ │1942. (USA 274) │ V │ 776 │ │ │ *3051-PS │Three teletype orders from Heydrich to │ │ │all stations of State Police, 10 │ │ │November 1938, on measures against Jews,│ │ │and one order from Heydrich on │ │ │termination of protest actions. (USA │ │ │240) │ V │ 797 │ │ │ *3058-PS │Letter from Heydrich to Goering, 11 │ │ │November 1938, reporting action against │ │ │the Jews. (USA 508) │ V │ 854 │ │ │ *3063-PS │Letters of transmission enclosing report│ │ │about events and judicial proceedings in│ │ │connection with anti-semitic │ │ │demonstrations of 9 November 1938. (USA │ │ │332) │ V │ 868 │ │ │ 3253-PS │Affidavit, 26 November 1945, of Dr. │ │ │Benno F. T. Martin. │ V │ 959 │ │ │ *3257-PS │Letter from Armament Inspector in the │ │ │Ukraine to General Thomas, Chief of the │ │ │Industrial Armament Department, 2 │ │ │December 1941, enclosing report by Prof.│ │ │Seraphim on Jewish Problem in Ukraine. │ │ │(USA 290) │ V │ 994 │ │ │ *3311-PS │Charge No. 6 against Hans Frank, │ │ │submitted by Polish Government to │ │ │International Military Tribunal. (USA │ │ │293) │ V │ 1104 │ │ │ *3319-PS │Foreign Office Correspondence and │ │ │reports on anti-Jewish action in foreign│ │ │countries. (GB 287) │ VI │ 4 │ │ │ *3358-PS │German Foreign Office circular, 31 │ │ │January 1939, “The Jewish Question as a │ │ │factor in German Foreign Policy in the │ │ │year 1938”. (GB 158) │ VI │ 87 │ │ │ *3428-PS │Letter from Kube, 31 July 1942, │ │ │concerning combatting of Partisans and │ │ │action against Jews in White Ruthenia. │ │ │(USA 827) │ VI │ 131 │ │ │ *3663-PS │Letter, 31 October 1941, and reply 15 │ │ │November 1941, concerning execution of │ │ │Jews. (USA 825) │ VI │ 401 │ │ │ *3666-PS │Letter from Braeutiger to Reich │ │ │Commissioner for East, 18 December 1941,│ │ │concerning Jewish question. (USA 826) │ VI │ 402 │ │ │ 3688-PS │Notice from the Foreign Office, 24 │ │ │September 1942, concerning evacuation of│ │ │Jews from Occupied Territories. │ VI │ 403 │ │ │ *3762-PS │Affidavit of SS Colonel Kurt Becher, 8 │ │ │March 1946, concerning the │ │ │responsibility of Kaltenbrunner for │ │ │concentration camp executions. (USA 798)│ VI │ 645 │ │ │ *3803-PS │Covering letter enclosing a letter from │ │ │Kaltenbrunner dated 30 June 1944, │ │ │concerning forced labor of Jews in │ │ │Vienna. (USA 802) │ VI │ 737 │ │ │ *3840-PS │Statement of Karl Kaleske, 24 February │ │ │1946, concerning the elimination of the │ │ │Warsaw Ghetto. (USA 803) │ VI │ 775 │ │ │ *3841-PS │Statement of SS and Polizeifuehrer │ │ │Juergen Stroop, 24 February 1946, │ │ │concerning elimination of the Warsaw │ │ │Ghetto. (USA 804) │ VI │ 776 │ │ │ *3846-PS │Interrogation of Johann Kanduth, 30 │ │ │November 1945, concerning crematorium at│ │ │Mauthausen and the activities of │ │ │Kaltenbrunner there. (USA 796) │ VI │ 783 │ │ │ *3868-PS │Affidavit of Rudolf Franz Ferdinand │ │ │Hoess, 5 April 1946, concerning │ │ │execution of 3,000,000 people at │ │ │Auschwitz Extermination Center. (USA │ │ │819) │ VI │ 787 │ │ │ *3870-PS │Affidavit of Hans Marsalek, 8 April │ │ │1946, concerning Mauthausen │ │ │Concentration Camp and dying statement │ │ │of Franz Ziereis, the Commandant. (USA │ │ │797) │ VI │ 790 │ │ │ D-229 │Extract from pamphlet “Judges Letters” │ │ │concerning judgment of Lower Court, 24 │ │ │April 1942, on concealment of Jewish │ │ │identification. │ VI │ 1091 │ │ │ D-251 │Lieberman memorandum, 27 September 1945,│ │ │describing method of transport, gassing,│ │ │and cremation. │ VI │ 1100 │ │ │ D-734 │Note of conversation between Reich │ │ │Foreign Minister and Duce in presence of│ │ │von Mackenson, Alfieri and Bastianini, │ │ │25 February 1943. │ VII │ 188 │ │ │ *D-736 │Notes on discussion between Fuehrer and │ │ │Horthy on 17 April 1943. (GB 283) │ VII │ 190 │ │ │ EC-265 │German Foreign Office telegram, 1 │ │ │October 1940, concerning the Jews in │ │ │Occupied French Territory. │ VII │ 375 │ │ │ *L-18 │Official report, Katzmann to General of │ │ │Police Krueger, 30 June 1943, concerning│ │ │“Solution of Jewish Question in │ │ │Galicia”. (USA 277) │ VII │ 755 │ │ │ *L-22 │Public reports of War Refugee Board, │ │ │Washington, on German Extermination │ │ │Camps Auschwitz and Birkenau, April │ │ │1944. (USA 294) │ VII │ 771 │ │ │ *L-53 │Order from Commandant of the SIPO and SD│ │ │for the Radom District to Branch Office │ │ │in Tomaschow, 21 July 1944, on clearance│ │ │of prisons. (USA 291) │ VII │ 814 │ │ │ *L-161 │British War Office Report “Poland │ │ │(Auschwitz) Concentration Camp”, 31 May │ │ │1945. (USA 292) │ VII │ 908 │ │ │ *L-165 │Polish Ministry of Information, Press │ │ │Bulletin, published in Polish │ │ │Fortnightly Review, 15 December 1942, │ │ │concerning Jewish Food Situation. (USA │ │ │287) │ VII │ 908 │ │ │ *L-180 │Report by SS Brigade Commander │ │ │Stahlecker to Himmler, “Action Group A”,│ │ │15 October 1941. (USA 276) │ VII │ 978 │ │ │ *R-135 │Letter to Rosenberg enclosing secret │ │ │reports from Kube on German atrocities │ │ │in the East, 18 June 1943, found in │ │ │Himmler’s personal files. (USA 289) │ VIII │ 205 │ │ │ Statement XI │Farewell Message of Robert Ley Found in │ │ │Nurnberg prison, 25 October 1945, after │ │ │discovery of his suicide. │ VIII │ 740 │ │ │ Statement XII │Political Testament of Robert Ley │ │ │written in Nurnberg Prison, October │ │ │1945. │ VIII │ 742 │ │ │ Statement XIII │Outline of Defense of Dr. Robert Ley, │ │ │written in Nurnberg Prison, 24 October │ │ │1945. │ VIII │ 749 │ │ │ Statement XIV │Hungarian Relations with Germany Before │ │ │and During the War by Nicholas Horthy, │ │ │Jr., Nurnberg, 22 February 1946. │ VIII │ 756