Archive/File: imt/tgmwc/tgmwc-12/tgmwc-12-111.08
Last-Modified: 2000/01/23

Q. And now one last question. The prosecution submitted
Document 661-PS. This document also has a USSR exhibit
number, which I don't know at the moment. This is a document
which has been made to have a bearing on the activities of
the Academy for German Law, of which you were president. The
document has the heading "Legal Formation of Germany's
Polish Policy along Racial-Political Lines" (the Legal part
serves as a text for the Committee on the Rights of National
Minorities in the Academy for German Law). I'm having this
document submitted to you. Please, will you tell me whether
you've ever had this document in your hands before.

A. From whom does it come?

Q. That is the striking part; it is Exhibit USA-300.

A. Does it state anywhere who drew it up or something of the
sort?

Q. The document has no author; nor does it show on whose
order it was compiled.

A. I can say merely that I've never seen the document, that
I never gave an order that it be drawn up; thus I can say
really nothing about it.

Q. It states here that it was found in the Ministry of
Justice in Kassel. Was there a Ministry of Justice in Kassel
in 1940?

A. A Ministry of Justice in Kassel?

Q. Yes.

A. That hasn't existed since 1866.

DR. SEIDL: I have no further questions.

THE PRESIDENT: Then the defendant can return to his seat.

DR. SEIDL: In that case, with the permission of the
Tribunal, I shall call witness Dr. Bilfinger.

THE PRESIDENT: Colonel Smirnov.

COLONEL SMIRNOV: Yes, Sir.

THE PRESIDENT: This document which you produced as Exhibit
USSR-223, which consists of extracts from defendant Frank's
diary, are you offering that in evidence? Apparently some
entries from Frank's diary have already been offered in
evidence; others have not. Are you wishing to offer this in
evidence?

COLONEL SMIRNOV: This document is already submitted in
evidence under two numbers; the first number is 22-PS, which
was submitted by the American prosecution, and the second is
223, USSR Exhibit, and was already submitted by us on 15
February, 1946.

THE PRESIDENT: I see. Have these entries which you have in
this document been submitted under Exhibit USSR-223? You
see, the PS number does not necessarily mean that the
documents have been offered in evidence. The PS numbers were
applied to documents before they were offered in, evidence;
but the USSR-223 does imply that it has been offered in
evidence.

COLONEL SMIRNOV: This document has already been presented in
evidence.

THE PRESIDENT: Colonel Smirnov, what the Tribunal wants to
know is whether you wish to offer this USSR-223 in evidence,
because unless it was read before it hasn't been offered in
evidence or it hasn't gone into the record.

                                                  [Page 130]

COLONEL SMIRNOV: We already read an excerpt on 15 February,
and it is, therefore, already read into the record.

THE PRESIDENT: Very well.

RUDOLF BILFINGER, a witness, took the stand and testified as
follows:-

BY THE PRESIDENT:

Q. Will you stand up, please, and will you tell us your full
name?

A. Rudolf Bilfinger.

Q. Will you repeat this oath after me?

I swear by God, the Almighty and Omniscient, that I will
speak the pure truth and will withhold and add nothing.

(The witness repeated the oath.)

THE PRESIDENT: You may sit down.

DIRECT EXAMINATION

BY DR. SEIDL:

Q. Witness, since when were you active in the R.S.H.A. and
in what position?

A. From the end of 1937 until the beginning of 1943 I worked
in the R.S.H.A. as Government councillor (Regierungsrat) and
later as higher government councillor (Oberregierungsrat)
and expert on legal questions, legal questions in connection
with the police.

Q. Is it correct that on two occasions and at different
times you were head of the department "Administration and
Law" attached to the commander of the Security Police and
the S.D. in Cracow?

A. Yes. In the autumn of 1940 and in 1944 I was head of the
department "Administration and Law" attached to the
commander of the Security Police and the S.D. in Cracow.

Q. What were the tasks you had to fulfil at different times
in the Government General - in broad outline.

A. In 1940 I had the task of taking over from the Government
General a number of branches of the police administration as
subordinate to the Higher S.S. and Police Leader.

Q. What was the legal position of the Higher S.S. and Police
Leader, and what was his relation to the Governor General?
Did the Higher S.S. and Police Leader receive his
instructions in regard to the Security Police and the S.D.
from the Governor General? Or did he receive them directly
from the Reichsfuehrer S.S. and Chief of the Police,
Himmler.

A. The Higher S.S. and Police Leader from the very beginning
received his instructions directly from Reichsfuehrer S.S.
Himmler.

Q. Is it furthermore true that the Commander of the Security
Police in the Government General and of the S.D. also
received direct orders and instructions from Department IV,
the Gestapo, and from Department V, the Criminal Police in
the R.S.H.A.?

A. Yes, the Commander of the Security Police received many
orders directly from the various departments of the
R.S.H.A., particularly from Departments IV and V.

Q. Did the institution of the State Secretariat for
Security, which took place in 1942, bring about a change in
the legal position of the Governor General with reference to
measures of the Security Police and the S.D.?

A. The appointment of a State Secretary as such did not
alter the legal position of the Governor General or of the
State Secretary. New spheres of activity were merely added
to the State Secretariat for Security.

Q. Do you know of a decree of Reichsfuehrer S.S. and Chief
of the German Police, Himmler, in the year 1939, and what
were its contents?

A. I did know of a decree, probably dated 1939, dealing with
the appointment of the Higher S.S. and Police Leader, which
ruled that the Higher S.S. and Police Leader would receive
his instructions directly from Himmler.

                                                  [Page 131]

Q. The institution of the State Secretariat dated from 7
May, 1942, and is based on a Fuehrer decree. The application
of this decree called forth another decree which deals with
the transfer of official business to the State Secretary for
Security, dated 3 June, 1942. Do you know the contents of
that decree?

A. The essential contents of the decrees cited by you are
known to me.

Q. Is it correct that on the basis of this decree the entire
political police and the criminal police, as had been the
case before, were again subordinated to the State Secretary
for Security within the framework of the Security Police?

A. These two branches from the very beginning were under the
Higher S.S. and Police Leader and later on under the State
Secretary for Security. To this extent the decree did not
bring about a change, but was merely a confirmation.

Q. Is it known to you that in Appendix B of that decree
there are 26 paragraphs in which all the branches of the
Security Police are transferred to the Higher S.S. and
Police Chief as State Secretary for Security?

A. Yes.

Q. Do you know that in this decree, in Appendix B, Jewish
matters are also mentioned specifically?

A. Yes.

Q. Do you know that in paragraph 21 of Appendix B it deals
with:-

  "Fields of activity of the Security Police:
  representation of the Government General at conferences
  and meetings, particularly at conferences and meetings
  with the central offices of the Reich, which deals with
  the above-mentioned fields of activity ..."?

A. I know that this particular matter was dealt with but
whether in paragraph 21 or another paragraph I don't
remember.

Q. Is it also true that on the basis of this decree the
remaining spheres of influence or power over the
Administrative Police were removed from the administration
of the Government General and handed over to the State
Secretary for Security, who was directly under Himmler?

A. That was the intention and the purpose of this decree.
But, contrary to the wording, a certain few branches were
not taken away from the administration, about which there
was continual conflict. As regards the remainder, however,
all branches of the police administration were taken away.

Q. Witness, did the administration of the Government General
have anything to do with the establishment and
administration of concentration camps?

A. To the best of my knowledge, no.

Q. You were with the Chief of the Security Police and S.D.
in Cracow. When did you yourself hear of concentration camps
at Maidanek, Treblinka and Lublin for the first time?

A. May I correct you? I was attached to the Commander of the
Security Police.

Q. Yes, the Commander of the Security Police.

A. I heard of Maidanek for the first time when Lublin and
Maidanek were occupied by the Russians; and through
propaganda I heard for the first time what the name Maidanek
meant, when Governor General Frank ordered an investigation
regarding events in Maidanek and responsibility for these
events.

Q. According to your own observation, generally sneaking,
what were the relations like between the Governor General
and the S.S. Obergruppenfuehrer Krueger, and what were the
reasons for those relations?

A. Relations between them were very bad from the beginning.
The reasons were partly questions of organisation and of the
use of the police and partly differences of opinion.

Q. What do you mean by differences of opinion? Do you mean
different opinions regarding the treatment of the Polish
population?

A. I can still recollect one example which concerned the
confirmation of

                                                  [Page 132]

Police Drumhead Court Martial sentences by Governor General
Frank. In opposition to Krueger's opinion, he either failed
to confirm a number of sentences or else mitigated them
considerably. In this connection I remember such differences
of opinion.

Q. Were these sentences which were passed in connection with
the so-called A.B. action?

A. I know nothing of an A.B. action.

Q. You came to the Government General later, did you?

A. I came to the Government General in August, 1940.

DR. SEIDL: I have no further questions for this witness.

THE PRESIDENT: Do any of the defendants' counsel want to ask
questions?

DR. MERKEL (Defence Counsel for the Gestapo): May I put a
few questions to the witness.

BY DR. MERKEL:

Q. Witness, the prosecution states that the Secret State
Police was a circle of persons formed in accordance with a
mutual intention, and that membership in it was voluntary.
Since you had an especially high position in the R.S.H.A., I
ask you to tell me briefly what you know about these
questions?

A. Of the members of the Secret State Police only a small
part were volunteers. The former officials, the officials of
the former Political Department of the Central Police
Office, constituted the nucleus of the membership of the
Secret State Police. The various State Police Offices were
created from these former Political Departments of the
Central Police Office, and at the same time practically all
the officials from these former Political Departments were
taken over. In Berlin, for example, there was Department 1-A
of the Central Police Office.

Apart from that, administrative officials were transferred
from other administrative authorities to the Secret State
Police, or were detailed to go there. In the course of the
years people from other administrations and offices were
forced to transfer to the Secret State Police. Thus, for
instance, the entire Customs Frontier Service was
transferred to the Secret State Police in 1944 by order of
the Fuehrer. At about the same time all intelligence
personnel were transferred.

In the course of the war numerous members of the Waffen S.S.
who were no longer eligible for active military service were
detailed to the Secret State Police. In addition many people
who originally had had nothing to do with police work were
drafted as emergency employees of the Secret State Police.

Q. If I summarise it by saying that the Secret State Police
was a Reich authority and that the German Law Governing
Civil Servants applied in the case of its employees, is that
correct?

A. Yes.

Q. Was it possible for the officials to resign from the
Secret State Police easily?

A. It was extremely difficult and, in fact, impossible to
resign from the Secret State Police. One could resign only
in very special circumstances.

Q. It has been stated here with reference to the composition
of the Secret State Police personnel that there was the
following proportion: executive officers: about 20 per
cent.; administrative officials: about 20 per cent.; and
routine employees: approximately 60 per cent. Are these
figures about right?

A. I have no general information about the composition of
the personnel but for certain offices about which I knew
more, these figures would probably be approximately right.

Q. Under whose jurisdiction were the concentration camps in
Germany and in the occupied countries?

A. The concentration camps were under the jurisdiction of
the Economics and Administration Main Office under S.S.
Gruppenfuehrer Pohl.

                                                  [Page 133]

Q. Did the Secret State Police have anything to do with the
administration of the concentration camps?

A. No. It may be that at the beginning certain concentration
camps here and there were administered by the Secret State
Police directly for a short period. That was probably the
case in individual instances. But in principle even at that
time, and later on without exception, the concentration
camps were administered by the Economics and Administration
Main Office.

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