Archive/File: imt/tgmwc/tgmwc-06-57.07
Last-Modified: 1997/10/26

BY DR. SERVATIUS (counsel for the Leadership Corps):

Q. Witness, in your position you supported Hitler right to
the very end, despite the fact that you knew that an
aggressive war was being waged. How much could the political
leaders know of this?

A. I cannot answer that question, because I am not competent
to do so.

Q. What do you understand by "political leaders"?

A. May I ask another question in return? What does the
defendant's counsel understand by "political leaders,"
concerning whom he asks the question?

Q. Witness, the organisation of the Party does not seem to
be clear to you. here is an Organisation of Political
Leaders, which is indicted in this trial. They are to be
declared criminal to the extent that, from the Reichsleiter
to the Blockleiter, they are to be punished because of their
participation in the Conspiracy to commit all the acts which
are being tried here. This Organisation of Political Leaders
is composed in such a way that 93 per cent. are local group
leaders with their staffs and subordinates.

THE PRESIDENT: I do not think you can ask this witness about
this. He does not know anything about it. He is not
concerned with the charge against the Political Leadership.
I do not think that is proper cross-examination at all.

DR. SERVATIUS: Mr. President, I was going to ask him to what
extent these political leaders might have been in the know,
and then I was going to ask a second question, whether he
was aware that he, as a witness, has contributed materially
to the fact that these people supported the political
leaders of Hitler, because they believed in the sham
structure which the witness himself had assisted in setting up.

THE PRESIDENT: I have already answered you that he did not
know to what extent the political leaders were in the know.

                                                  [Page 269]
                                                            
DR. SERVATIUS: I am also appearing for the defendant
Sauckel, who was responsible for the labor supply.

Q. Have you any knowledge as to whether German prisoners of
war were used in Russian armament industries?

A. I have no authentic or personal information on that
subject. The prisoners of war whom I myself have seen in the
camps where I have been, worked for the immediate
requirements of the camp or in its near vicinity. They did
agriculture or forestry work, and I know from the papers
that some German workers had voluntarily formed groups and
were working in industry. They were proud of the results of
their work. But I do not know in what branches of industry
these people worked.

DR. SERVATIUS: I have no further questions to put to this
witness.

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