Archive/File: people/e/eichmann.adolf/transcripts/Sessions/Session-043-06
Last-Modified: 1999/06/01

State Attorney Bar-Or:  It should also to be noted that it
says in the document: "A request for protective arrest is
not necessary for transfer to the concentration camp.
However, the Commandant's office has to be informed that the
transfer to the concentration camp is carried out within the
framework of the deportation measures."

I go on to document No. 538.  This is only part of a
document.  Actually, it only proves that the document was
sent to the Foreign Ministry, for its information, and that
it was received at the Foreign Ministry on 5 October 1943.

Presiding Judge: What do you wish to prove by this?

State Attorney Bar-Or:  The document itself, as I pointed
out, is signed by Mueller.  Its transmission to the Foreign
Ministry is signed by Hunsche from the office of the
Accused.

Presiding Judge: Well, for what purpose is it submitted?

State Attorney Bar-Or:  We want to show that usually the
level of the correspondence determines who signs the letter.
The identity of the person signing does not at all indicate
- this is our view - who writes, who formulates the letter,
who makes the decision.

Presiding Judge: This document is marked T/785.

State Attorney Bar-Or:  And one more document, No. 539, of
12 October 1943, according to which the orders which we have
just seen are transmitted by von Thadden to those Missions
in Europe named here in this document.

Presiding Judge: Here also I do not understand what this is
supposed to prove.

State Attorney Bar-Or:  We have to demonstrate how the
special, extraordinary operations in Bergen-Belsen,
Buchenwald and Ravensbrueck were organized.  This is not a
matter of prisoners in concentration camps, seized in
ordinary police operations; it is a matter of special
prisoners, sent to these camps by order of the Accused
himself, whether they were called exchange camps or by any
other name.

Presiding Judge: But we do not know what letter is being
referred to.

State Attorney Bar-Or:  We have here, in oblique script:
"Bzf. Fotokopie d. Schrbs. d. Chef Sipo v. 23.9.43"
(Photocopy of the letter from the Chief of the Security
Police of 23.9.43, to be attached).

Presiding Judge: And do we have this?

State Attorney Bar-Or:  We have it, I have submitted it, it
is our document No. 537, which was marked T/784.

Presiding Judge: Do you wish to demonstrate how this was
circulated by the Foreign Ministry?

State Attorney Bar-Or:  Yes, that is right.

Presiding Judge: This document is marked T/786.

State Attorney Bar-Or:  I proceed to document No. 547, a
letter of 2 March 1943, from von Thadden, informing the
Accused that, according to information from the Turkish
legation, two Jewish secretaries, Lewin and Hammerschmidt,
have not reported for work already since 25 February,
apparently because they were arrested and deported.  The
Turkish legation asks for the return of these two Jewesses.
I direct the attention of the Court to a remark in the
margin; this is what it says: "Remark: According to oral
information from a member of Department IV, it is known that
the Jewesses Lewin and Hammerschmidt were apparently
arrested because they participated in the spreading of
demoralizing and defeatist writings."  Copy goes to SS
Obersturmbannfuehrer Eichmann.

Presiding Judge: This document will be marked T/787.

State Attorney Bar-Or:  And now document No. 751, a letter
from Kryschak in the office of the Accused to von Thadden at
the Foreign Ministry, dated 6 September 1944.  The subject
is the Jew Heinz Lewin.  It says:

     "The Jew Lewin was  formerly a German citizen and
     became stateless on the basis of Regulation 11 under
     the Reich Citizenship Law.  As a matter of fact, when
     he was arrested at the beginning of this year, because
     he was using false identity papers and had not been
     wearing the Jewish Star, he himself said that he was
     stateless.  Thereupon he was deported to the East.  His
     present whereabouts are not known here.  As for the
     nationality certificate issued by the Consulate General
     of St. Salvador in Geneva, this is obviously a so-
     called 'courtesy passport'."

Presiding Judge: This document will be marked T/788.

State Attorney Bar-Or:  And now, with the permission of the
Court, before I complete the chapter of the documents from
Germany, I intend to submit a sworn declaration, document
No. 455, which was given by Rudolf Emil Brand.  But I want
to say at once that if this document is not before Counsel
for the Defence, and if he perhaps wishes to have its
submission postponed until he has had a chance to look at it
more closely - he has it in his office, I do not know
whether he has it with him at this moment - I am prepared to
defer its submission.  I had thought that I would thereby
complete the documentation about Germany.

Dr. Servatius:  It may be that the document is in my file,
but we did not know that it will be submitted today, and I
should be grateful if it were to be submitted at the next
session.

Presiding Judge: Alright, we shall postpone this.

State Attorney Bar-Or:  With the permission of the Court, I
now turn to a number of documents dealing with the setting
up and management of the Bergen-Belsen camp, following the
exchange of letters I submitted this morning.  The first
document I wish to submit is No. 1592.  It is a secret note
by von Thadden, dated 12 June 1943, and it is of interest
because it reports the view of a colleague of the Accused, a
man named Oberregierungsrat Kroening from the Aliens' Police
Department of the Head Office for Reich Security.  Kroening
has informed von Thadden of the Foreign Ministry in the
strictest secrecy how people from the Head Office for Reich
Security intend to set up the camp which is intended for
30,000 Jews who have to be kept for the purpose of exchange
against German citizens.

Presiding Judge: This document will be marked T/789.

State Attorney Bar-Or:  With the Court's permission, I
should only like to quote two sentences from this
interesting document.  His confidant had been informed -
writes von Thadden - that these Jews would not be made to
work so hard that thereby they would perish ("dass sie dabei
draufgingen"), but after looking at the programme under
preparation for the camp regulations, it was his impression
that they would be very harshly dealt with, to say the
least.  At the end, von Thadden asks that the source of this
information be kept strictly secret.

Judge Halevi:  How do we know who Kroening is?

State Attorney Bar-Or:  We know Kroening from the
organization chart of the Head Office for Reich Security.
He is quite a well-known personality and had a fairly high
grade.  He was, in fact, in charge of the Aliens' Police,
and in this capacity he was interested in those Jews,
because the subject discussed was the reception of alien
Jews into this camp, not of Jews of the Reich.

Judge Halevi:  But where is the connection with the Accused?

State Attorney Bar-Or:  There is no direct connection with
the Accused.  The interesting point here is that Kroening
does not go to the Accused, but goes secretly, clandestinely
in fact, and tells von Thadden: "Look what is being planned
here in the course of implementing a proposal that came from
you."  The idea of Bergen-Belsen came from the Foreign
Ministry, not from the Accused.

I pass on to document No. 1418.  On 12 August 1943, von
Thadden of the Foreign Ministry reports to Eichmann about
his visit to Bergen-Belsen.  As we know, the location of the
Bergen-Belsen camp was not proposed by the Foreign Ministry,
the location was proposed by the police; however, the plan
was that of the Foreign Ministry.  Von Thadden says, inter
alia:

     "The Foreign Ministry had requested that a fairly large
     number of Jews be held in readiness in a camp, for
     possible exchange against civilian internees in enemy
     states.  It had been envisaged that, in the first
     instance, Jews having special connections abroad would
     be chosen for this purpose, for whose exchange there
     might therefore be an interest in the enemy states. For
     the accommodation of these Jews, the Head Office for
     Reich Security has envisaged the Bergen-Belsen camp.
     However, a visit to the camp has shown the
     following..."

And now he reports in brief about his impressions and says
that the absorptive capacity of the camp in its present
state is only 3,000 persons, etc.  Further on he says, and I
quote one passage:

     "...The Jews will unavoidably come to know the fact
     that, as the Camp Commander mentioned during the
     inspection in the (adjoining) camp for Russian
     prisoners of war - which is a tuberculosis station -
     17,000 out of 18,000 inmates have already died.  Under
     these circumstances, the Jews will actually be provided
     with material suitable for atrocity propaganda abroad.
     From this point of view also, the immediate evacuation
     of the Russians from that concentration camp is
     urgently indicated.  In conclusion, it should be
     mentioned that both the Camp Commander and SS
     Hauptsturmfuehrer Seidel, who is in charge of the group
     of Jews at present housed in this camp, are quite aware
     of its serious weaknesses and shortcomings and are
     trying to provide solutions within the means at their
     disposal."

Presiding Judge: This will be T/790.

State Attorney Bar-Or:  I proceed to document No. 550, again
a note by von Thadden, directed to Weizsaecker, his
immediate superior.  He reports about a press conference,
during which it was suggested that Red Cross representatives
should visit Bergen-Belsen, in order to satisfy themselves
that the arrangements are indeed satisfactory.

Presiding Judge: Theresienstadt is also mentioned here.  Is
this relevant?

State Attorney Bar-Or:  The document is dated 7 October
1944.  That was several months after the first visit of the
Red Cross to Theresienstadt, which took place in June 1944.
At the end of the document, a similar visit to Bergen-Belsen
is mentioned, and there is a request to submit the matter to
Weizsaecker, in order to find out whether the Foreign
Ministry has any special interest in a visit to Bergen-
Belsen, and here it is pointed out that in both these cases
there will presumably be serious objections to the proposed
visit on the part of the Head Office for Reich Security.

Presiding Judge: This will be marked T/791.

State Attorney Bar-Or:  And now, document No. 766.

Judge Halevi:  Who signed this minute? (the previous
document).

State Attorney Bar-Or:  We can see at the top of the
document: "Jr. Inland Ref. LR I Kl. v. Thadden."

Judge Halevi:  Who says that he was in Bergen-Belsen not
long ago and found there the same conditions as in
Theresienstadt?

State Attorney Bar-Or:  We know exactly who he is, Your
Honour.  A few minutes ago I submitted von Thadden's report
to Eichmann, in which he dwells on his visit in Bergen-
Belsen.  That was document No. 1418, T/790.  Von Thadden
knew the situation in Bergen-Belsen precisely.

I move on to document No. 766.  This, too, was a minute by
von Thadden intended for the Foreign Minister and dated 12
October.  It deals with a request by von Otter of the
Swedish legation in Berlin who was trying to obtain
permission to emigrate to Sweden for two children by the
name of Bondi.  I only wish to draw your attention to the
two last paragraphs, on page 4 of the document, where he
says that "the Head Office for Reich Security refuses to
enter into any discussion about these cases, as the
competent specialist informed me, because, in accordance
with the order of the Reichsfuehrer-SS, Jews who have
already been confined to a ghetto must not be released.

Presiding Judge: This will be marked T/792.

State Attorney Bar-Or:  Our document No. 688 also refers,
inter alia, to the Bergen-Belsen camp.  It is a letter from
the Accused to von Thadden, dated 18 January 1945.  It
should be said in parenthesis that this is the latest
document to reach us which bears the signature of the
Accused.  This was already after he returned from Hungary on
24 December 1944.  Here the subject is a Jew who had been
sent to Bergen-Belsen from Salonika.  Eichmann says that his
body was cremated and the ashes were buried in Bergen-
Belsen.  No will was found.  It seems that the authorities
protecting this Jew approached Eichmann through the
intermediary of von Thadden at the Foreign Ministry, in
order to clarify what happened to this Jew.  His estate, so
it says here, passed to his sons who are in the
Aufenthaltslager (sojourn camp) Bergen-Belsen.  The death
certificate is enclosed.  Eichmann suggests that suitable
information should be given to the vice-consul on this
matter.

Presiding Judge: This will be marked T/793.

State Attorney Bar-Or:  We shall hear about the situation in
the camp immediately after its liberation by the British
army from a witness whom I shall call at a later date.

Now I proceed, with the Court's permission, to the chapter
of Austria.  First I shall submit the "Second Decree about
the German Citizenship in the Region of Austria (im Lande
Oesterreich) of 30 June 1939," our document No. 1610. The
meaning of this decree, which was signed by Frick, the
Minister for the Interior, on 30 June 1939, was, in effect,
the application of most of the orders in force in Germany at
that time to the territory of Austria.

Presiding Judge: This will be marked T/794.

State Attorney Bar-Or:  As regards the Austrian chapter
before the War, the Court is already familiar with the
minutes drawn up by Dr. Loewenherz, of which the original
had to go to the Zentralstelle, and the copies were kept.  I
should like to submit several of these minutes, insofar as
they concern the period under discussion.

Presiding Judge: Did we not receive all of them in the
volumes which have been submitted?

State Attorney Bar-Or:  We have received the report of Dr.
Loewenherz, Your Honour.  I dealt with that report only up
to a certain time, and I shall still return to it, but I do
not think that the Court has received all the minutes.
These minutes are not bound, they are, each one of them, a
separate document.

No.1136 is signed by Dr. Loewenherz, a memo about a
conversation he had with Brunner.  This is the same
Stillhaltekommisar (Interim Commissioner) Brunner who was
eventually transferred and became head of the Zentralstelle
fuer juedische Auswanderung (Central Office for Jewish
Emigration) in Vienna, until the end of the deportation of
the Jews from Vienna.  This minute is dated 28 October 1939.
The Accused is mentioned in connection with instructions
that from the Hachshara places 500 to 600 persons are to be
sent to Palestine, but the rest have to be included in the
transports to Poland.

Presiding Judge: This will be marked T/795.

State Attorney Bar-Or:  The next minute, No. 1137, is also
signed by Dr. Loewenherz.  It is a memo about a visit by
Loewenherz to the Accused.  He says that the Accused
accepted a report from him and authorized him, Loewenherz,
to negotiate with Troper on the basis of this report.  He
also said he was prepared to refrain from sending transports
from Austria to Poland if the Joint Distribution Committee
would declare itself ready to provide the Jewish Community
in Vienna with foreign currency until the end of 1940.

Presiding Judge: This will be marked T/796.

State Attorney Bar-Or:  I go on to No. 1138, a memo by Dr.
Engel of the Vienna Community about his conversation with
Eichmann on 11 December 1939.  He also writes about
information received from Eichmann by telephone that all the
males (living in a certain hostel) have to obtain exit
visas, otherwise they will be sent to Buchenwald.

Presiding Judge: This will be marked T/797.

State Attorney Bar-Or:  I go on to No. 1139, a memo by Dr.
Loewenherz about his visit to Eichmann's offices in Berlin,
Kurfuerstenstrasse 116, on 19 December 1939.  Among other
things, it says here that Eichmann expressed appreciation
for the achievements of the Community, on the assumption
that the above-mentioned conditions would be fulfilled, and
declared that there would be no further transports from
Austria to Poland.

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