The Nizkor Project: Remembering the Holocaust (Shoah)

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Archive/File: imt/tgmwc/tgmwc-03-25-09
Last-Modified: 1999/09/07

There follows in the affidavit a description of
the order for execution issued by the R.S.H.A.
to the commander of the concentration camp
Mauthausen. I omit quoting that description and
continue at the next paragraph:

     "Orders for execution also came without the
     name of the court of justice. Until the
     assassination of Heydrich, these orders
     were signed by him or by his competent
     deputy. Later on the orders  were signed by
     Kaltenbrunner, but mostly they were signed
     by his deputy, Gruppenfuehrer Mueller.
     
     Dr. Kaltenbrunner, who signed the above-
     mentioned orders, had the rank of S.S.
     General (S.S. Obergruppenfuehrer) and was
     the Chief of the Reich Security Main
     Office.
     
     Dr. Kaltenbrunner is about 40 years old,
     height about 1.76 to 1.80 metres, and has
     deep fencing scars on his face.
     When Dr. Kaltenbrunner was only a Higher
     S.S. and Police Officer, he visited the
     camp several times, later on as the Chief
     of Reich Security Main Office (R.S.H.A.) he
     visited the camp too, though much less
     frequently. During these visits, the
     commander usually received him outside the
     building of the camp headquarters and
     reported.
     
                                      [Page 237]
     
     Concerning the American military mission,
     which landed behind the German front in the
     Slovakian or Hungarian area in January,
     1945, I remember when these officers were
     brought to Camp Mauthausen. I suppose the
     number of the arrivals was about 12 to 15
     men. They wore a uniform, which was
     American or Canadian, brown-green colour
     shirt and cloth cap. Eight or ten days
     after their arrival the execution order
     came in by telegraph or teletype.
     Standartenfuehrer Ziereis came to me, into
     my office, and told me: 'Now Kaltenbrunner
     has given permission for the execution.'
     This letter was secret and had the
     signature ' signed Kaltenbrunner.' Then
     these people were shot according to martial
     law and their belongings were given to me
     by Oberscharfuehrer Niedermeier."

The fifth crime for which Kaltenbrunner is
responsible as Chief of the Security Police and
S.D. was the deportation of citizens of occupied
territories for forced labour and the
disciplining of forced labour.

I am sure the Tribunal will recall, without
referring to it, Document 3012-PS. which has
heretofore been received as Exhibit USA 190.
That was the letter from the head of the
Sonderkommando of the Sipo and S.D., which
stated that the Ukraine would have to provide a
million workers for the armament industry and
that force should be used where necessary. That
letter was dated 19th March, 1943.

Kaltenbrunner's responsibility for the
disciplining of foreign labour is shown by
Document 1063B-PS, which has heretofore been
received as Exhibit USA 492. No part of this
letter has been read into the record. This
letter dated 26th July, 1943, was addressed to
Higher S.S. and Police Leaders, Commanders and
Inspectors of the Sipo and S.D., and to the
Chiefs of Einsatz Groups B and D.

The Tribunal will recall that Einsatz Groups A,
B, C, and D, operating in the East, carried out
the extermination of Jews and communist leaders.
This document proves Kaltenbrunner's control
over Einsatz Groups B and D. It is signed
"Kaltenbrunner." The first paragraph provides as
follows:

     "The Reichsfuehrer S.S. has given his
     consent that besides concentration camps,
     which come under the jurisdiction of the
     S.S. Economic Administration Main Office,
     further labour reformatory camps may be
     created, for which the Security Police
     alone is competent. These labour
     reformatory camps are dependent on the
     authorisation of the Reich Security Main
     Office, which can only be granted in case
     of emergency (great number of foreign
     workers, and so forth)."

I now offer Document D-473 as exhib~t next in
order, Exhibit USA 522. It should be right at
the beginning of the Document Book. This letter
signed " Kaltenbrunner " was sent by him under
date of 4th December, 1944, to Regional Offices
of the Criminal Police.

The Tribunal will recall that Kaltenbrunner's
responsibility covered the Criminal Police as
well as the Gestapo. It provides in part, and I
quote, reading at the beginning of the letter:

     "According to the Decree of 30th June,
     1943, crimes committed by Polish and Soviet-
     Russian civilian labourers are being
     prosecuted by the State Police (Head)
     Offices, and even in those cases, where for
     the time being the Criminal Police had,
     within the sphere of its competence,
     carried on the inquiries. For the purpose
     of speeding up

                                      [Page 238]

     the process and in order to save manpower,
     the Decree of 30th June, 1943, is altered,
     and the Criminal Police (Head) Offices are
     authorised as from now on to prosecute,
     themselves, the crimes they are inquiring
     into, within the sphere of their
     competence, in so far as they are cases of
     minor or medium crimes."

I begin with the second paragraph:

     "The following are available to the
     Criminal Police as a means of prosecution:
     
     Police imprisonment.
     Admission into a concentration camp for
     preventive custody as being anti-social or
     dangerous to the community."

And next to the last paragraph:

     "Their stay in the concentration camp is
     normally to be for the duration of the war.
     Besides this, the Criminal Police (Head)
     Offices are authorised to hand over Polish
     and Soviet-Russian civilian labourers in
     suitable cases and with the agreement of
     the competent State Police (Head) Offices
     to the Gestapo's penal camps for the
     'education for labour.' Where the
     possibilities of prosecuting an individual
     case are insufficient because of the
     peculiarity of the case, the case is to be
     handed over to the competent State Police
     (Head) Office.
     
                     Signed: Dr. Kaltenbrunner."
     
In addition to sending foreign workers to
Gestapo labour camps, Kaltenbrunner punished
foreign workers by committing them to
concentration camps. I offer Document 2582-PS as
the exhibit next in order, USA 523.

This is a series of four teletype orders
committing individuals to concentration camps. I
invite the attention of the Tribunal to the
second order dated the 18th of June, 1943, under
which the Gestapo at SaarbrUcken was ordered to
deliver a Pole to the concentration camp
Natzweiler as a skilled workman, and to the
third teletype dated the 12th of December, 1944,
in which the Gestapo at Darmstadt was ordered to
commit a Greek to the concentration camp
Buchenwald because he was drifting around
without occupation, and to the fourth teletype
dated the 9th of February, 1945, in which the
Gestapo at Darmstadt in Benslein was ordered to
commit a French citizen to Buchenwald for
shirking work and insubordination. All of those
orders are signed, Kaltenbrunner.

I offer document 2580-PS as Exhibit next in
order, USA 524. This document contains three
more of these red-form orders for protective
custody, all signed Kaltenbrunner. The first one
shows that a citizen of the Netherlands was
taken into protective custody for work sabotage,
and the second one shows that a French citizen
was taken into protective custody for work
sabotage and insubordination, both under date 2
December, 1944.

The sixth crime for which Kaltenbrunner is
responsible as Chief of the Security Police and
S.D. is the executing of captured commandos and
paratroopers and the protecting of civilians who
lynched Allied fliers.

The Tribunal will recall, I am sure, without
referring to it, the Hitler Order of 18 October,
1942, which was introduced this morning,
Document 498-PS, Exhibit USA 501, to the effect
that commandos, even in uniform, were to be
exterminated to the last man, and that
individual members captured by the police in
occupied territory were to be handed over to the
S.D.

                                      [Page 239]

I now offer document 1276-PS as Exhibit next in
order, USA 525. This is an express top secret
letter from the Chief of the Security Police and
S.D. signed "Mueller, by order," to the Supreme
Command of the Armed Forces, in which the Chief
of the Security Police and S.D. states, and I
quote from the third paragraph of the second
page of the English translation:

     "I have instructed the `Befehlshaber' of
     the Security Police and the S.D. in Paris
     to treat such parachutists in English
     uniform as members of the commando
     operations in accordance with the Fuehrer's
     order of 18 October, 1942, and to inform
     the military authorities in France that
     there must be corresponding treatment at
     the hands of the armed forces."

This letter was dated 17th June, 1944. That
executions were carried out by the S.D. pursuant
to the said Hitler order of 18th October, 1942,
while Kaltenbrunner was Chief of the Security
Police and S.D., is indicated by Document 526-PS
heretofore received as Exhibit USA 502 ; that
was the order introduced this morning; I am sure
the Tribunal recalls it.

The policy of the police to protect civilians
who lynched Allied fliers was effective during
the period that Kaltenbrunner served as Chief of
the Security Police and S.D. I now offer
Document 2990-PS as Exhibit next in order, USA
526. This is an affidavit of Walter
Schellenberg, the former Chief of Amt VI of the
R.S.H.A., and provides in paragraph 7 -- this is
all I am going to read from the affidavit:

"In 1944, on another occasion but also in the
course of an Amtschef conference, I heard
fragments of a conversation between
Kaltenbrunner and MillIer. 1 remember distinctly
the following remarks of Kaltenbrunner:

     'All officers of the S.D. and the Security
     Police are to be informed that pogroms of
     the populace against English and American
     terror fliers are not to be interfered
     with. On the contrary, this hostile mood is
     to be fostered.'"

The seventh crime for which Kaltenbrunner is
responsible as Chief of the Security Police and
S.D. is the taking of civilians of occupied
countries to Germany for secret trial and
punishment and the punishment of civilians of
occupied territories by " summary methods." The
fact that this crime continued after the 30th of
January, 1943, is shown by Document 835-PS,
which is offered as Exhibit next in order, USA
527. This is a letter from the High Command of
the Armed Forces to the German Armistice
commission under date 2nd September, 1944. The
document begins, and I. quote:

     "Conforming to the decrees, all non-German
     civilians in occupied territories who have
     endangered the security and readiness for
     action of the occupying power by acts of
     terror and sabotage or in other ways, are
     to be surrendered to the Security Police
     and S.D. Only those prisoners are to be
     accepted who were legally sentenced to
     death or were serving a sentence of
     confinement prior to the announcement of
     these decrees. Included in the punishable
     acts which endanger the security or
     readiness of action of the garrison power,
     are those of a political nature."

The eighth crime for which Kaltenbrunner is
responsible as Chief of the Security Police and
S.D. is the crime of executing and confining
persons in concentration camps for crimes
allegedly committed by their relatives.

                                      [Page 240]

That this crime continued after the 30th
January, 1943, is indicated by Document L-37,
heretofore received in evidence as Exhibit USA
506. That was received this morning. It is the
letter of the Konimandeur of Sipo and S.D. at
Radom, dated the 19th of July, 1944, in which it
was stated that the male relatives of assassins
and saboteurs should be shot and the female
relatives over 16 years of age sent to
concentration camps. I refer again to Document L-
215, which has heretofore been received in
evidence as Exhibit USA 243, and specifically to
the case of Junker, who was ordered by
Kaltenbrunner to be committed to Sachsenhausen
concentration camp by the Gestapo "because as a
relative of a deserter, he is expected to
endanger the interest of the German Reich if
allowed to go free."

The ninth crime for which Kaltenbrunner is
responsible as Chief of the Security Police and
S.D. is the clearance of Sipo and S.D. prisons
and concentration camps. I refer the Tribunal to
Document L-53, which was received in evidence as
Exhibit USA 291. This was the letter from the
Kommandeur of the Sipo and S.D. Radom, dated
21St July, 1944, in which it is stated that the
Kommandeur of the Sipo and S.D. of the
Government General had ordered all Sipo and S.D.
prisons to be cleared and, if necessary, the
inmates to be liquidated. I now offer Document
3462-PS as Exhibit next in order, USA 528. This
is the sworn interrogation of Bertus Gerdes, the
former Gaustabsanitsleiter under the Gauleiter
of Munich. This interrogation was taken in the
course of an official military investigation of
the U.S. Army. In this interrogation Gerdes was
ordered to state all he knew about
Kaltenbrunner. I am only going to read a very
small portion of his reply, beginning on the
third paragraph of page 2:

     "Giesler told me that Kaltenbrunner was in
     constant touch with him because he was
     greatly worried about the attitude of the
     foreign workers and especially inmates of
     concentration camps Dachau, Muehldorf and
     Landsberg, which were in the path of the
     approaching Allied armies. On a Tuesday in
     the middle of April 1945, I received a
     telephone call from Gauleiter Giesler
     asking me to be available for a
     conversation that night. In the course of
     our personal conversation that night, I was
     told by Giesler that he had received a
     directive from Kaltenbrunner by order of
     the Fuehrer, to work out a plan without
     delay for the liquidation of the
     concentration camp at Dachau and the two
     Jewish labour camps in Landsberg and
     Muehldorf. The directive proposed to
     liquidate the two Jewish labour camps at
     Landsberg and Muehldorf, by use of the
     German Luftwaffe, since the construction
     area of these camps had previously been the
     targets of repeated enemy air attacks. This
     action received the code name of ' Wolke A-
     I.' "

I now pass to the second paragraph on page 3,
continuing quoting from this interrogation:

     "I was certain that 1 would never let this
     directive be carried out. As the action
     'Wolke A-I ' should already have become
     operational for some time, I was literally
     swamped by couriers from Kaltenbrunner and
     moreover I was supposed to have discussed
     the details of the Muehldorf and Landsberg
     actions in detail with the two Kreisleiter
     concerned. The couriers who were in most
     cases S.S. officers, usually S.S.
     lieutenants, gave me terse and strict
     orders to read and initial. The orders
     threatened me with the most terrible
     punishment, including execution, if I did
     not comply with them. However, I could
     always
     
                                      [Page 241]
     
     excuse my failure to execute the plan
     because of bad flying weather and lack of
     gasoline and bombs. Therefore,
     Kaltenbrunner ordered the Jews in Landsberg
     to be marched to Dachau in order to include
     them in the Dachau extermination
     operations, and the Muehldorf action to be
     carried out by the Gestapo.
     
     Kaltenbrunner also ordered an operation --
     ' Wolkenbrand ' -- for the concentration
     camp at Dachau, which provided that the
     inmates of the concentration camp at Dachau
     were to be liquidated by poison with the
     exception of Aryan nationals of the Western
     Powers.
     
     Gauleiter Giesler received this order
     direct from Kaltenbrunner an discussed, in
     my presence, the procurement of the
     required amounts poison with Dr. Hartfeld,
     the Gau Health Chief. Dr. Hartfeld promise
     to procure these quantities when ordered
     and was advised to await my further
     directions. As I was determined to prevent
     the execution this plan in any event, 1
     gave no further instructions to Dr.
     Hartfeld.
     
     The inmates of Landsberg had hardly been
     delivered at Dacha when Kaltenbrunner sent
     a courier declaring the action Wolkenbran
     was operational.
     
     I prevented the execution of the Wolke A-I
     and Wolkenbrand by giving Giesler the
     reason that the Front was too close and
     asked him transmit this on to
     Kaltenbrunner.
     
     Kaltenbrunner therefore issued directives
     in writing to Dachau transport all Western
     European prisoners by truck to Switzerland
     an to march the remaining inmates into the
     Tyrol, where the final liquidation of these
     prisoners was to take place without fail."

THE PRESIDENT: The Court will adjourn now.

                 (The Tribunal adjourned until 1000 hours on 3rd
                                 January, 1946)

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