Archive/File: imt/nca/supp-b/nca-sb-02-kaltenbrunner.17
Last-Modified: 1997/11/24

         Nazi Conspiracy & Aggression, Supplement B
                Shooting of Prisoners of War
                              
     Excerpts from Testimony of Ernst Kaltenbrunner,
     taken at Nurnberg, Germany, 10 November 1945, 1430-
     1545, by Lt. Col. Smith W. Brookhart, IGD. Also
     present: John Albert, Interpreter; Frances Karr,
     Reporter.

Q. Don't you recall who had charge of the military
administration in prisoner of war camps?

A. No.

Q. Do you know General Berger of the SS?

A. Yes, I knew him.

Q. You will recall General Berger had the administration of

                                                 [Page 1321]
                                                            
prisoner of war camps under the SS from 1 October 1944 to
the end.

A. I think that is incorrect because the prisoner of war
camps were not put under the SS but Himmler, as the  Chief
of the German Replacement Army, was put in charge of all
matters concerning war prisoners.

Q. And in turn, General Berger of the SS, acting as
Himmler's deputy by direct order of Hitler, was put in
charge of the PW camps?

A. It is correct that Berger was the general deputy of
Himmler because he was Chief of the SS Chief Office. That
such an order was signed by Hitler, is unknown to me. But I
know that Berger repeatedly represented Himmler in questions
of war prisoners.

Q. How did that come to your attention?

A. One discussed such matters.

Q. Well, tell us about the procedure where, when prisoners
escaped from prisoner of war camps, they were turned over to
the Secret Police, and what was done with them thereafter.

A. They were not turned over to the Gestapo but were given
back to the War Prisoners' Office.

Q. You remember the case of the 80 British flyers who
escaped from Stalag Luft 3, that took place in March 1944?

A. That case is unknown to me.

Q. Don't you remember what Hitler said should have been done
to these men?

A. No.

Q. Then some of the army officials said that they could not
violate the Geneva convention?

A. No.

Q. But your police reported to General Keitel that 50 of
them had already been shot?

A. No.

Q. Don't you remember the reports you got from the camp
commander at Goerlitz?

A. No.

Q. I am sure that was an important enough event to come to
your attention. They took them outside the camp to shoot
them and then cremated them later.

A. You tell me things I do not know.

Q. General Westhoff attempted to find out from the Gestapo
what had happened to these men.

A. If he had negotiations with the Gestapo he did not
negotiate with me.

                                                 [Page 1322]
                                                            
Q. Are you sure?

A. Yes.

Q. You deny knowledge of these 80 British flyers, British
prisoners, having been captured and turned over to the State
Police? What do you say about the general proposition that
the escaped prisoners were turned over to the Gestapo?

A. Such cases are not known to me and in any case, it is
incorrect. I would like to call your attention to the
following fact. You talk now as if always war prisoners, who
escaped and were recaptured, would be turned over to the
Secret State Police. At another point you believe Herr
Warlimont when this man says they were turned over to the
SD. There is a discrepancy.

Q. You said that meeting never took place.

A. I only said now you believe Mr. Warlimont when he says --

Q. What I believe has no bearing on my question to you
wherein I state a fact, as I am about to state, that over
600 American prisoners were found in a Gestapo concentration
camp.

A. That I do not know. That only should have been done on
order from Himmler to the Gestapo. I had nothing to do with
such orders.

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