Archive/File: imt/tgmwc/tgmwc-03/tgmwc-03-26.01
Last-Modified: 1998/04/07

           The Trial of German Major War Criminals
                       Proceedings of
             The International Military Tribunal
                    Sitting at Nuremberg
                           Germany
                              
                          Published
        Under the Authority of H.M. Attorney-General
             By His Majesty's Stationery Office
                        London: 1946

                      TWENTY-SIXTH DAY
                 Thursday, 3rd January, 1946
                              
                                                  [Page 242]

LT.  HARRIS:  If the Tribunal will recall, at the end of the
last session we had finished reading a portion of the sworn
interrogation of the Gaustabsamtsleiter under the Gauleiter
of Munich and had touched on the point where he said that
Kaltenbrunner issued directives to Dachau to transport
Western European prisoners by truck to Switzerland and to
march the remaining inmates into the Tyrol.

I now offer as Exhibit next in order the first five pages of
the interrogation report of Gottlieb Berger, Chief of the
head office of the S.S., made under oath on 20th September,
1945, in the course of these proceedings. You will find
these pages at the end of the Document Book and this is
offered as Exhibit US.A. 529. These pages have been
translated into German and made available to the defendants.

THE PRESIDENT: Does it have a number?

LT. HARRIS: It has no PS number, Sir. It is at the very end
of the Document Book. I wish to read only one question and
answer from these pages; and I refer to the last question
and answer Page 3 of the Exhibit:

     "Q: Assuming, only for the purposes of this discussion,
     that these atrocities that we hear about are true, who
     do you think is primarily responsible?
     
     "A: The first one, the Commandant; the second one,
     Gluecks; because he was practically responsible for all
     the interior direction of the camps. If one wants to be
     exact, one would have to find out how the information
     service between the camp Commandant and Gluecks
     actually operated. I want to give you the following
     example: During the night of the 22nd and 23rd April I
     was sent to Munich. As I entered the city, I met a
     group of perhaps 120 men dressed in the suits of the
     concentration camps. I asked the guard who was with
     them, 'What about these men?' He told me that these men
     were marching by foot to the Alps. Firstly, I sent him
     back to Dachau. Then I wrote a letter to the
     Commandant, to send no more people by foot to any
     place, but, whenever the Allies advanced any further,
     to give over the camp completely. I did that on my own
     responsibility and I told him that I came straight from
     Berlin and that I can be found in my service post in
     Munich. The Commandant, or his deputy, telephoned at
     about twelve o'clock and told me that he had received
     this order from Kaltenbrunner after he had been asked
     by the Gauleiter of Munich, the Reichskommissar."

The tenth crime for which Kaltenbrunner is responsible as
Chief of the Security Police and S.D. is the persecution of
the Jews. This crime, of course, continued after 30th
January, 1943, and evidence has heretofore been received
that the persecutions continued until and were accelerated
toward the end of the war. Kaltenbrunner took a personal
interest in such

                                                  [Page 243]

matters, as is indicated by Document 2519-PS, which is
offered as Exhibit next in order, Exhibit US.A. 530. This
exhibit consists of a memorandum and an affidavit, and I
invite the attention of the Tribunal to the affidavit.
Quoting from the affidavit:

     "I, Henri Monneray, being first duly sworn, depose and
     say that since 12th September, 1945, I have been and I
     am the member of the French staff for the prosecution
     of Axis Criminality and have been pursuing my official
     duties in this connection in Nuremberg, Germany, since
     12th October, 1945.
     
     In the course of my official duties, at the instruction
     of the French Chief Prosecutor, I examined the personal
     document of the defendant----"

THE PRESIDENT: Is it necessary to read all of this? What is
the object of this affidavit?

LT. HARRIS: To show that this document was derived from the
personal effects of the defendant Kaltenbrunner.

THE PRESIDENT: You can leave out the immaterial parts.

LT. HARRIS: Very good, Sir. Passing to the last sentence of
the affidavit:

     "Said Document 2519-PS is the document which I found in
     the envelope containing Kaltenbrunner's personal
     papers."

     I now read the memorandum:

     "Radio message to Gruppenfuehrer S.S. Major General
     Fegelein, Headquarters of the Fuehrer, through
     Sturmbannfuehrer S.S. Major Sansoni, Berlin:
     
     Please inform the Reichsfuehrer S.S. and report to the
     Fuehrer that all arrangements against Jews, political
     and concentration camp internees in the Protectorate
     have been taken care of by me personally to-day. The
     situation there is one of calmness, fear of Soviet
     successes and hope of an occupation by the Western
     enemies.
                                             Kaltenbrunner."

THE TRIBUNAL (Mr. Biddle): That is not dated?

LT. HARRIS: This is not dated.

The eleventh crime for which Kaltenbrunner is responsible is
the persecution of the Churches. It is unnecessary to
present specific evidence that this crime continued after
30th January, 1943, since this was one of the fundamental
purposes of the Security Police and S.D., as has already
been shown.

These are the crimes for which the defendant Kaltenbrunner
must answer. As to his criminal intent, there is no need to
go outside the record before this Tribunal. On 1st December,
1945, in these proceedings the witness Lahousen was asked on
cross-examination, "Do you know Mr. Kaltenbrunner?"

After describing his meeting with Kaltenbrunner on a day in
Munich when a university student and his sister were
arrested and executed for distributing leaflets from the
auditorium, Lahousen said -- and I wish to quote only to two
sentences on Page 324 (Part I.) of the transcript:

     "I can easily reconstruct that day. It was the first
     and last time that I saw Kaltenbrunner, with whose name
     was known to me. Of course, Kaltenbrunner mentioned
     this subject to Canaris, and witnesses were there, and
     everybody was under the terrible impression of what had
     happened, and Kaltenbrunner spoke about that to Canaris
     in a manner
     
                                                  [Page 244]
     
     for which cynicism would be a very mild description.
     This is the only thing I can say to this question."

Kaltenbrunner was a life-long fanatical Nazi. He was the
leader of the S.S. in Austria prior to the Anschluss and
played a principal role in the betrayal of his native
country to the Nazi Conspirators. As higher S.S. and Police
Leader in Austria after the Anschluss, he supervised and had
knowledge of the activities of the Gestapo and the S.D. in
Austria. The Mauthausen concentration camp was established
in his jurisdiction and he visited it several times. On at
least one occasion he observed the gas chamber in action.
With this knowledge and background he accepted, in January,
1943, appointment as Chief of the Security Police and S.D.,
the very agencies which sent such victims to their deaths.
He held that office to the end, rising to great prominence
in the S.S. and the German Police and receiving high honours
from Hitler. Like other leading Nazis, Kaltenbrunner sought
power; to gain it, he made his covenant with crime.

COL. STOREY: If the Tribunal please, next will be some
witnesses and Colonel Amen will handle the interrogation.

COLONEL JOHN H. AMEN: May it please the Tribunal, I wish to
call, as a witness for the prosecution, Mr. Otto Ohlendorf.
Your Lordship will note that his name appears under Amt III
on the chart on the wall.

THE PRESIDENT: What did you say appeared?

Q. The name of this witness appears under Amt III of the
chart, R.S.H.A., the large square, the third section down.

THE PRESIDENT: I see it.

Otto Ohlendorf, 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.)

BY COLONEL AMEN:

Q. Where were you born?

A. In Hohen Egelsen.

Q. How old are you?

A. Thirty-eight years old.

Q. When, if ever, did you become a member of the National
Socialist Party?

A. 1925.

Q. When, if ever, did you become a member of the S.A.?

A. For the first time in 1926.

Q. When, if ever, did you become a member of the S.S.?

A. I must correct myself. I answered the first question as
if I were speaking of my membership in the S.S.

Q. When did you become a member of the S.A.?

A. In the year 1923.

Q. When, if ever, did you join the S.D.?

A. In 1936.

Q. What was your last position in the S.D.?

A. Amt Chief of Amt III in the R.S.H.A..

Q. Turning to the chart on the wall behind your back, will
you tell the Tribunal whether you can identify that chart in
any way?

A. This chart was seen previously by me and worked on by me
and I can consequently identify it.

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