Archive/File: imt/nca/supp-b/nca-sb-02-pohl.13 Last-Modified: 1997/12/10 Nazi Conspiracy & Aggression, Supplement B Widespread Knowledge of Conditions in Concentration Camps Excerpts from Testimony of Oswald Pohl, taken at Nurnberg, Germany, 13 June 1946, 1400-1600, by Lt. Col. Smith W. Brookhart, Jr., IGD. Also present: Richard Sonnenfeldt, Interpreter; Rose W. Cook, Reporter. Q. Kaltenbrunner has told the Tribunal that there were only a handful of people in the WVHA who had any control and knew anything about concentration camps. These are his exact words as they appear at page 7617 of the English transcript of the trial: [Page 1604] "A. there were just a few people in the WVHA who knew how things really were in concentration camps. "Q. Now as far as my question is concerned, you were speaking about a handful of men who did not belong to this group? "A. No, I did not. This handful was Himmler, Pohl, Gluecks, and Mueller and the camp commanders." A. Well, that is complete nonsense. I described to you how these were handled in the WHVA. As for instance, in the case of the use of textiles and turning-in of valuables, from Gluecks and Loerner right on down to the last little clerk they all must have known what went on in the concentration camps, and it is complete nonsense for him to speak of just a handful of men; and if it was like that in my department, naturally, it was exactly the same in his. Just to illustrate to you what I mean, when I went around to the different camps in March as the representative of Himmler, I came to Bergen-Belsen and found terrible conditions there. An epidemic of typhus had broken out, and there were mountains of dead people all over the camp, and I tried to institute emergency measures in order to stop the epidemic, and although I really couldn't do that, I told the Camp Commandant, "Don't let anybody else come to this camp." then there were seven or eight thousand Jews there, and I wanted them to be sent to Theresienstadt to get them out of there, and I dispatched a telegram at once to the RSHA, asking them to have these Jews transferred. Later when I got to Berlin I got on the telephone and I remember I called there three or four times every day, and I don't remember any more whether it was Mueller or Eichmann that I talked to in order to have these people moved. That really shows that I, for instance, had no authority to move people and that this was a matter for the RSHA. Now these things happened and they are facts and there is no use to deny them or lie about them. They just are there and there is nothing you can do about that. Q. All right, why didn't you tell us about this before when I asked you what conditions you found when you were making your trips in early March, and when you denied finding any such conditions? I asked you about nine camps you told us you visited, and you said you didn't observe anything. What did you see at the other camps, dead people also? A. Well it is not that I tried to hide this from you, but I didn't think you asked me about it. Well, in Bergen-Belsen, you couldn't help noticing it, it was very evident, and if I didn't tell you about it, it is because I thought you didn't ask me about it, or maybe I [Page 1605] didn't understand it. I have no interest in not telling you everything I know. It may be I forgot it for the moment, but I will gladly admit it. The only other things I remember about this trip were in Mauthausen. When I arrived there, I saw many sick people there and many of them limping around and I asked Ziereis what medical facilities he had in the camp because these people were not very well cared for.
Home ·
Site Map ·
What's New? ·
Search
Nizkor
© The Nizkor Project, 1991-2012
This site is intended for educational purposes to teach about the Holocaust and
to combat hatred.
Any statements or excerpts found on this site are for educational purposes only.
As part of these educational purposes, Nizkor may
include on this website materials, such as excerpts from the writings of racists and antisemites. Far from approving these writings, Nizkor condemns them and
provides them so that its readers can learn the nature and extent of hate and antisemitic discourse. Nizkor urges the readers of these pages to condemn racist
and hate speech in all of its forms and manifestations.