Archive/File: imt/tgmwc/tgmwc-05/tgmwc-05-46.01
Last-Modified: 1999/10/05

                                                  [Page 269]

FORTY -SIXTH DAY

WEDNESDAY, 30TH JANUARY, 1946

MARSHAL OF THE COURT: May it please the Court, I desire to
announce that defendants Kaltenbrunner and Seyss-Inquart
will be absent from this morning's session on account of
illness.

THE PRESIDENT: Dr. Babel, I understand that you do not wish
to cross-examine that French witness.

DR. BABEL: That is correct.

THE PRESIDENT: Then the French witness can go home.

M. DUBOST: Thank you, Mr. President.

THE PRESIDENT: M. Dubost, there is one reason why perhaps
that French witness ought not to go. I think I saw her
leaving the Court. Could you stop her, please? I am afraid
that she must stay for today.

M. Dubost, are you going to deal with documents this
morning?

M. DUBOST: Yes, Mr, President.

THE PRESIDENT: Would you be so good as to give us carefully
and slowly the number of the documents first, because we
have a good deal of difficulty in finding them.

M. DUBOST: Yes, Mr. President.

THE PRESIDENT: And specify, also, so far as you can, the
book in which they are to be found.

M. DUBOST: With the permission of the Tribunal, I shall
continue my description of the organisation of the camps and
the way in which they functioned. We gave notice of it last
night by submitting to the Tribunal Document R-91 which is
cited in extracts-in order to attain a double end: to make
up for the lack of labour and to eliminate vain effort...

After Document R-91, which I submitted yesterday and which
the Tribunal will find on Pages 20 and 21 of the second
document book, we shall read Document F-285, particularly
Pages 14, 17, 18 and 19 of the second document book. This
document has been submitted as Exhibit RF 346.

This document is dated 17 December 1942 and is a sequel to
the document which we read to you yesterday. First
paragraph:

   "For important military reasons, which must not be
   specified, the Reichsfuehrer SS and Chief of the German
   Police -

THE PRESIDENT: You read that yesterday.

M. DUBOST: That is correct, Mr. President. Page 18, sixth
paragraph, at the top of the page:

   Poles qualifying for Germanisation and prisoners for
   whom special requests have been made will not be handed
   over."

   Last paragraph, Page 19: "Other papers will not be
   required for workman who are nationals of Eastern
   Countries."

This shows that arrests were made without discrimination, in
order to obtain labour, and that this labour was considered
to be so important that it was sufficient to register it
under serial numbers.

Now, we will show how this labour was utilised. Men were
housed, as the witness Balachowsky said yesterday, near
factories in Dora, in underground caves which they
themselves dug, and where they lived under conditions which

                                                  [Page 270]


violated all the rules of hygiene. At Ohrdruf near Gotha,
the prisoners constructed munition camps: Buchenwald
supplied the labour for Hollerith and Dora and the salt
mines of Neustasstfurt.

The Tribunal will read in Document 274, Page 45, at the
bottom of the page:

   "Ravensbruck supplied the Siemens factories, those of
   Czechoslovakia, and the workshops in Hanover."

This special labour, according to the witness, enabled the
Germans to keep secret the manufacture of certain war
weapons, such as the V-1 and V-2, about which M. Balachowsky
told us: "The deportees had no contact with the outside
world. The work of deportees enabled the Germans to obtain
an output which they could not have obtained even from
foreign workmen."

The French prosecution will now submit document R-129 as
Exhibit RF 348, which the Tribunal will find at Page 22 of
the second document book. The second paragraph of this
document deals with the management of concentration camps:
"The extent of the output of his organisation depends on the
camp commandant."

Fifth paragraph: "The camp commandant is the only one
responsible for the work carried out by the workmen. This
work - I underline the word " work " - this work must, in
the true sense of the word, be exhausting, so that we can
attain the maximum labour output."

Two paragraphs lower on the page, "The duration of the work
is not limited. The duration depends on the nature of the
work to be done and is determined by the camp commandant
alone."

Last paragraph, Page 23 of this book, the four last lines:
"He", the camp commandant - "must combine a technical
knowledge in the economic and military field with wise and
shrewd management of groups of men, from whom he must obtain
a high potential of output."

This document is signed by Pohl, It is dated Berlin, 30
April, 1942.

I should merely like to recall now for the record a document
which we have already quoted in relation to the camp of
Ohrdruf, and which was submitted as Exhibit RF-140.

I will now read from Document 1584-PS which is in the
appendix of your second document book. It is the sixth
document in the appendix. The document will become Exhibit
RF 349.

The document is signed by Goering and is addressed to
Himmler. The second paragraph definitely establishes the
responsibility of Goering in the criminal utilisation of
this deportee labour. I shall read the second paragraph of
the second page.

   "Dear Himmler:
   
   I ask you to keep at my disposal for air armament the
   greatest possible number of KZ prisoners." (The initials
   KZ mean "concentration camp.") " The experiments made up
   to the present show that this labour can very well be
   used. The situation of the air war necessitates the
   transfer of this air industry to underground workshops.
   It is precisely in such workshops that "KZ" prisoners
   can be best kept together as far as work and housing is
   concerned."

We know then who was responsible for the frightful
conditions which the deportees of Dora had to endure. The
person responsible is in the defendants' dock.

THE PRESIDENT: You did not give us the date of that, did
you?

M. DUBOST: I did not see it on the document.

THE PRESIDENT: Is it 19 February, 1944?

M. DUBOST: On the first page you see that on 19 February,
1944, a letter was addressed to Dr. Braut, referring to
teletypes which are appended and which were sent by the
Field Marshal.

                                                  [Page 271]

THE PRESIDENT: Is it the second letter, the letter that you
read? Is the date of that 19.2.44?

M. DUBOST: It is 15 April, 1944 on the original, of which
this is a photostat.

THE PRESIDENT: And could you tell us what K.Z. means, the
two letters, K.Z.?

M. DUBOST: 15.4.44 on the original of the teletype. That
means concentration camp.

THE PRESIDENT: Yes, I am not talking about that now.

M. DUBOST: K.Z. refers to concentration camps.

THE PRESIDENT: For the accuracy of the record, it appears
that the letter on the second page is not 15 April, 1944,
but 14 February. Is that not so?

M. DUBOST: Yes. It is 14 February, 2030 hours. It is a
teletype, which was registered 15 April, 1944. That was the
cause of my error.

THE PRESIDENT: But, M. Dubost, were you submitting or
suggesting that this letter showed that the defendant
Goering was a party to the experiments which took place, or
only to the fact that these prisoners were used for work?

M. DUBOST: I was not referring to experiments. I was
referring to internment in underground camps, as in the Dora
camp, of which the witness Balachowsky spoke yesterday in
the first part of his testimony.

THE PRESIDENT: Very well.

M. DUBOST: With regard to this will to exterminate, of which
I have been speaking from the beginning of my presentation
this morning, I think it is proved first of all by the text
of Document R-91, which I read yesterday afternoon at the
end of the session, a letter which has not as yet been
authenticated, and by statements made by the witnesses who
brought you the proof that in all the camps in which they
stayed, the same methods of extermination through work were
carried out.

As far as the brutal extermination by gas is concerned, we
have the bills for gases, intended for Oranienburg and
Auschwitz, which we submit to the Tribunal as Exhibit RF-
350. The Tribunal will find translations on Page 27 of the
second document book, Document 1553-PS.

Moreover, I wish to point out, Page 27 of the second
document book, that the French translation of these invoices
- and I do this in order to be quite honest - is not
absolutely in agreement with the German text. Therefore, in
the fifth line for "extermination" read "purification".

The testimony of Madame Vaillant Couturier informed us that
these gases were used for the destruction of lice and other
parasites, and were also used to destroy human beings.
Besides, the quantity of gas which was sent and the
frequency with which it was sent, as you can see from the
great number of invoices, which we offer in evidence, prove
that the gas was used for a double purpose.

We have invoices dated 14 February, 16 February, 8 March, 13
March 20 March, 11 April, 27 April, 12 May, 26 May, and 31
May, which are all submitted as Exhibit RF 350.

THE PRESIDENT: Are you putting in evidence the originals of
these other bills to which you refer on this document?

M. DUBOST: I request the court clerk to hand them over to
your Honour, and I take advantage of this to request the
Tribunal to examine these invoices carefully. You will
observe that the quantities of toxic crystals sent to
Oranienburg and Auschwitz were considerable; from the
invoice of 30 April 1944 the Tribunal will see that 832
kilograms of crystals were sent, giving a net weight of 555
kilograms.

THE PRESIDENT: What is this document that you have just put
in?

                                                  [Page 272]

M. DUBOST: 30 April, 1944, but I am taking them at random.

THE PRESIDENT: I am not asking the date. What I want to know
is, what is the authority for this document? It comes, does
it not, from one of the committees set up by the French
Republic?

M. DUBOST: No. Mr. President. This is an American document
which was in the American archives, under the number 1553-
PS.

THE PRESIDENT: M. Dubost, this note at the bottom of
Document 1553-PS was not on the original put in by the
United States, was it?

M. DUBOST: No, Mr. President, but you have before you all
the originals under the number which the clerk of the court
has just handed you.

THE PRESIDENT: Unless you have an affidavit identifying
these originals, the originals do not prove themselves. You
have got to prove these documents which you have just handed
up to us either by a witness or by an affidavit. The
documents are documents, but they do not prove themselves.

M. DUBOST: These documents were found by the American Army
and filed in the Archives of the Nuremberg trial. I took
them from the archives of the American delegation, and I
consider them to be as authentic as all the other documents
which were filed by my American colleagues in their
archives. They were probably captured by the American Army.

THE PRESIDENT: There are two points, M. Dubost. The first
is, that in the case of the original Document 1553-PS, it
was certified, we imagine, by an officer of the United
States. These documents which you have now drawn our
attention to are not so certified by anyone, as far as we
have been able to see. Certainly we cannot take judicial
notice of these documents, which are private documents, and
therefore, unless they are read in court they cannot be put
in evidence. That can all be rectified very simply by a
certificate or by an affidavit to be affixed to these
documents, showing that they are analogous to the document
which is the United States exhibit.

M. DUBOST: They are all United States documents, and they
are all filed in the Archives of the United States in the
American Delegation under the number 1553-PS.

THE PRESIDENT: The American Document 1553-PS has not yet
been submitted to the Tribunal and the Tribunal are of the
opinion that they cannot take judicial notice of it without
any further certification, and they think that some short
affidavit identifying the document must be made.

M. DUBOST: I will request my colleagues of the American
prosecution to furnish this affidavit. I did not think it
possible that this document, which was classified in their
archives, could be ruled out.

This will for extermination, moreover, does not need to be
proved by this document. It is sufficiently established by
the testimony which we have submitted to the Tribunal. The
witness Lampe spoke these words: "No one is to leave this
camp alive. There is only one exit, and that is the chimney
of the crematorium."

Document F-321, Page 49, at the top of the page, Page 36 of
the German text, relates that the only explanation which the
SS men gave to the prisoners was that nobody would leave the
place alive.

On Page 179, the second last paragraph of the French text,
Page 152 of the German text: "The SS told us there was only
one exit - the chimney."

On page 174, Page 148 of the German text, the last
paragraph: "Gassing and Cremation."

The essential purpose of these camps was the extermination
of the greatest possible number of men. They were known as
extermination camps. This destruction, this extermination of
the internees, assumed two different forms. One was
progressive; the other was brutal.

                                                  [Page 273]

In the second document book which is before the Tribunal,
Pages 28, 29, and 30, we find the report of a delegation of
British Members of Parliament dating from April, 1945, this
will be Exhibit RF 351, from which we quote these words (the
third paragraph on Page 29):

   "Although the work of cleaning out the camp had gone on
   busily for over a week before our visit ... our
   immediate and lasting impression was of intense general
   squalor."

Page 30, below the dashes, next to the last paragraph, third
line of this paragraph:

   "We should conclude, however, by stating that it is our
   considered and unanimous opinion, on the evidence
   available to us, that a policy of steady starvation and
   inhuman brutality was carried out at Buchenwald for a
   long period of time; and that such camps as this mark
   the lowest point of degradation to which humanity has
   yet descended."

Likewise, there is the report of a committee including
General Eisenhower on Pages 31, 32 and 33 of the same
document book. We read the second paragraph of the French
extract, Page 32 in your document book:

   "The purpose of this camp was extermination."

In the first paragraph on the top of the page:

   "The means of extermination were blows, torture, over-
   crowding of the dormitories, illness."

Page 32, at the top, in the second document book -

THE PRESIDENT: Will you go a little bit slower over these
numbers. You said, first of all, 31, and then 32. It came
to, us as 22. It is quite impossible to follow you unless we
know the right page.

M. DUBOST: The document L 159 is on Pages 31, 32 and 33 of
the second document book.

Home ·  Site Map ·  What's New? ·  Search Nizkor