Archive/File: imt/tgmwc/tgmwc-03-25-03
Last-Modified: 1999/08/02

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I now pass to another subject, namely "The Gestapo was responsible for
establishing and classifying concentration camps and for committing
racial and political undesirables to concentration and annihilation
camps for slave labour and mass murder."

The Tribunal has already received evidence concerning the
responsibility of the Gestapo for the administration of concentration
camps, and the authority of the Gestapo for taking persons into
protective custody to be carried out in the state concentration camps.
The Gestapo also issued orders establishing concentration camps,
transforming prisoner of war camps into concentration camps as
internment camps, changing labour camps into concentration camps,
setting up special sections for female prisoners, and so forth.

The Chief of the Security Police and S.S. ordered the classification
of concentration camps according to the seriousness of the accusation
and the chances for reforming the prisoners, from the Nazi viewpoint.
I now refer

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to Documents 1063A and 1063B in the second volume, Echibit USA 492.
The concentration camps were classified as Class I, II or III. Class I
was for the least serious prisoners, and Class III was for the most
serious. Now Document 1063A is signed by Heydrich and it is dated 2nd
January, 1941. I quote from the beginning:

     Subject : Classification of the Concentration Camps.
     
     The Reichsfuehrer S.S. and Chief of the German Police has given
     his approval to classify the concentration camps into various
     categories, which take into account the personality of the
     prisoner as well as the degree of his danger to the State.
     Accordingly, the concentration camps will be classified into the
     following categories :
     
     Category I -- for all prisoners charged with minor offences only
     and definitely qualified for correction ; also for special cases
     and solitary confinement -- Camps Dachau, Sachsenhausen and
     Auschwitz 1. The latter also applies in part to Category II.
     
     Category la -- for all old prisoners unconditionally qualified
     for work, who could still be used in the medicinal herb gardens -
     - the Camp Dachau.
     
     Category II -- for prisoners charged with major offences but
     still qualified for re-education and correction -- the Camps
     Buchenwald, Flossenburg, Auschwitz II.
     
     Category III -- for prisoners under most serious charges, also
     for those who have been previously convicted for criminal
     offences ; at the same time for asocial prisoners, that is to
     say, those who can hardly be corrected -- the Camp Mauthausen."
     
I call your Honour's attention to the fact that we have been talking
about Mauthausen, where the " K " action took place.

The Chief of the Security Police and S.D. had authority to fix the
length of the period of custody. During the war it was the policy not
to permit the prisoners to know the period of custody and merely to
announce the term as " Until further notice." That was established by
Document 1531-PS, which has previously been introduced as Exhibit USA
248, and the only reason for referring to it is to show that they had
the right to fix the period of custody.

The local Gestapo offices, which made the arrests, maintained a
register called the "Haftbuch," and, as I understand, "Haftbuch "
simply means a block or police register. In this register the names of
all persons arrested were listed, together with personal data, grounds
of arrest and disposition. When orders were received from the Gestapo
Headquarters in Berlin to commit persons who had been arrested to
concentration camps, an entry was made in the "Haftbuch" to that
effect.
I now offer in evidence the original of one of these books, and it is
Document L-358, Exhibit USA 495. This book was collected by the 3rd
Army when it overran an area, and it was captured by the T Force on
22nd April, 1945, near Bad Sulze, Germany. This book is the original
register used by the Gestapo at Tomassow, Poland, to record the names
of the persons arrested, the grounds for arrest and the disposition
made, of cases during the period from 1st June, 1943, to 20th
December, 1944.

In the register are approximatelv 3,500 names of persons.
Approximately 2,200 were arrested for membership in the resistance
movements and partisan unit. This is a very large book, and I am going
to ask the clerk to pass

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it to your Honours so that you might get a look at it. It is too big
to photograph. And if your Honours will just turn to one of the pages,
I will read what the different columns provide-just any one of the
pages. There is a double column. It starts on the left and goes over
to the other side. In the first column that heading is simply a number
of the man when he comes in. The next column is his name. The third
column is the family-a brief family history and his religion. The
fourth is the domicile. The next shows the date he was arrested and by
whom-that is the fifth column. The next column, the place of arrest.
And then the next column, the reason for arrest. And then the next is
another number which is apparently a serial number for delivery. And
next to the last column is the disposition. And the final column,
remarks.

Now, out of the 3,500 names that are shown in that book, your Honours
will notice a number of red marks. Those apparently meant the ones
that were shot. of those, 325 were shot. Only 35 of that 325 had first
been tried. 950 out of this list were sent to concentration camps and
155 sent to the Reich for forced labour. According to this register,
similar treatment was accorded persons who were arrested on other
grounds, for instance, Communists, Jews, hostages, and persons taken
in reprisal. A large number are shown to have been arrested during
raids, no further grounds being stated.
I particularly refer your Honours to entries 286, 287 and 288, that
is, the numbers in the first column of the register, where the crime
charged to the person arrested was " als Juden " ; in other words, he
was a Jew. And by that you will find a red cross mark, and the
punishment given was death.

I now pass from this document and merely call attention to Document L-
215, which was heretofore introduced as Exhibit USA 243. I do not
intend to read from it unless your Honours want to turn to L-215. This
is a file of original dossiers on 25 Luxembourgers taken into
protective custody for commitment to concentration camps. I will just
refer to a sentence of the language in the document. Quoting :

     "According to the finding of the State Police he endangers by his
     attitude the existence and security of the People and the State."

And in each case, with reference to those dossiers, that appears as
the reason for the execution of these 25 Luxembourgers. And in
connection --

THE PRESIDENT : Colonel Storey, you said execution, did you not ?

COLONEL STOREY : I beg your pardon -- sending to concentration camps.

THE PRESIDENT : Yes. There is no evidence they were executed.

COLONEL STOREY : No, sir ; they were committed to concenttation camps.
And also in connection with that same document there is a form
provided by which the Gestapo Fleadquarters in Berlin were notified
when the persons were received by the concentration camps.

Another document -- which has heretofore been received as Exhibit USA
279, Document 1472-PS, in the second volume -- I am simply going to
refer to it as a predicate for another. That was a telegram of 16th
December, 1942, in which Mueller reported that the Gestapo could round
up some 45,000 Jews in connection with the programme of obtaining
additional labour in concentration camps. And with reference to the
same subject there is Document 1063-D-PS, which has heretofore been
offered as Exhibit USA 219, Mueller sent a directive to the commanders
and inspectors

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of the Security Police and S.D. and to the directors of the Gestapo
regional offices, in which he stated that Himmler had ordered on 14th
December, ordered on 14th December, 1942, that at least 35,000
persons, who were fit for work, had to be put into concentration camps
not later than the end of January.

Now, in that same connection I offer Document L-41, volume 1, as
Exhibit USA 496. This document contains a further directive from
Mueller dated 23rd March, 1943, and supplements the directive of 17th
December, 1942, to which I referred, and in this he states that the
measures are to be carried out until 30th April, 1943. And I would
like to quote from the second paragraph on page 3 of the exhibit.

     "Care must, however, be taken that only prisoners who are fit for
     work are transferred to concentration camps, and adolescents only
     in accordance with the given directives ; otherwise, the
     concentration camps would become overcrowded, and this would
     defeat the intended object."

In that same connection I offer Document 701-PS, Exhibit USA 497. This
is a letter dated 1st April, 1943, from the Minister of Justice to the
Public Prosecutors and also addressed to the Commissioner of the Reich
Minister of Justice for the penal camps in Emsland. Quoting :

     "Regarding Poles and Jews who are released from the penal
     institutions of the Department of Justice. Instructions for the
     independent penal institutions.
     
     1. With reference to the new guiding principles for the
     application of Article 1, Section 2, of the decree of 11th June,
     1940, Reich Legal Gazette I S. 887 -- Attacliment I of decree
     (RV) of 27th January, 1943 -- 913-2 enclosure I-IIIa 2-2629 --
     the Reich Chief Security Office has directed by the decree of
     11th March, 1943 -- 11 A 2 number 100-43-176:
     
     (a) Jews, who in accordance with number VI of the guiding
     principles are released from a penal institution, are to be taken
     by the State Police (Chief) Office competent for the district in
     which the penal institution is located, to be detained for the
     rest of their lives in the concentration camps Auschwitz or
     Lublin in accordance with the regulations for protective custody
     that have been issued.

     The same applies to Jews who in future are released from a penal
     institution after serving sentence of confinement.
     
     (b) Poles, who in accordance with Number VI of the guiding
     principles are released from a penal institution, are to be taken
     by the State Police (Chief) Office competent for the district in
     which the penal institution is located, to be placed for the
     duration of the war in a concentration camp in accordance with
     the regulations on protective custody that have been issued.
     
     The same applies in the future to Poles, who after serving a term
     of imprisonment of more than six months, are to be discharged by
     a penal institution.
     
     Conforming to the request of the Chief Office for Reich Security,
     I ask that in the future :
     
     (a) All Jews to be discharged;
     
     (b) All Poles to be discharged;
     
     who have served a sentence of more than six months, be
     transferred for further confinement to the State Police (Chief)
     Office competent for the
     
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     district, and are to be placed promptly at its disposal before
     the end of sentence, for collection."

And the last paragraph states that this ruling replaces the hitherto
ordered return of all Polish prisoners undergoing imprisonment in the
Old Reich condemned in the annexed Eastern territory.

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