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Shofar FTP Archive File: people/e/eichmann.adolf/transcripts/Sessions/Session-083-05


Archive/File: people/e/eichmann.adolf/transcripts/Sessions/Session-083-05
Last-Modified: 1999/06/09

Judge Halevi:  It would be something like registration,
correct?

Dr. Servatius:  It would not go as far as that; rather,
there would first be questions as to the number of people in
the place, quite generally, in order to go a step further
later on.

Exhibit T/907, document No. 1081.  Police Attache Helm
writes here to a Serbian department - a Croatian department
- concerning the removal of Jews in Croatia.  It is a
communication dated 27 January 1943, and says: "Meeting on
19 January 1943 with SS Hauptsturmfuehrer Abromeit.  As
arranged, I acknowledge the contents of our discussion of 19
January 1943 which took place in the presence of Dr. Kuehnel
and summarized once more complete mutual agreement."  There
follows an enumeration of the individual operations:
immediate operations, transfer to Germany, and at the end it
says: "SS Hauptsturmfuehrer Abromeit assumes complete
responsibility for the immediate transportation."

Witness, would you tell us what were the areas of
responsibility here, what was the basis on which Helm, as
Police Attache, gave instructions here, and what was
Hauptsturmfuehrer Abromeit's position here?

Accused:    Yes.  The records already dealt with show that
the subject of the willingness on the part of the Croatian
Government to hand over the Jews had been dealt with by the
Foreign Ministry.  Other documents show that Ribbentrop and
Himmler reached agreement as regards the transfer of Jews
from the various European countries, and that the Foreign
Ministry, for its part, received the relevant directives
from Ribbentrop.  Parallel with this, the departments of the
Chief of the Security Police and Security Service also
received corresponding directives.

Himmler is at the top here.  The documents dealt with at the
beginning of my testimony gave the composition of the
personnel of the Police Attache's offices, as well as the
jurisdiction of the Police Attache, both with regard to his
immediate superior, the head of the mission, and for
receiving directions from the departments of the
Reichsfuehrer-SS and Chief of the German Police.

Dr. Servatius:  The next exhibit, T/910, document No. 659,
is also a communication which goes via the embassy - Foreign
Ministry.  It deals with the deportation of Jews from
Croatia to Auschwitz.

Witness, here I would like to have a practical question
solved: Who is it that can decide here that someone from
Croatia will be sent to Auschwitz?

Accused:    Only the Chief of Division D of the Economic-
Administrative Head Office, Brigade-Gruppenfuehrer Gluecks,
or else his representative, could decide that they were to
be sent to Auschwitz.  However, the decision to have them
deported at all is not made by the Economic-Administrative
Head Office but by Himmler, or else the Chief of the
Security Police and the Security Service, Heydrich,
Kaltenbrunner.

Dr. Servatius:  What is the route by which such a command
reaches Abromeit?  The initial instruction that the people
were to come to Auschwitz?

Accused:    In accordance with orders, my Section had to
forward it to the Police Attache through the official
channels.

Dr. Servatius:  The next exhibit is T/919, document No.
1094.  This is a telegram, to be forwarded to Abromeit, and
is signed by Attache Group Chief, Dr. Ploetz.  It says: "I
request to pass on the following telegram to
Hauptsturmfuehrer Abromeit.  It concerns evacuation of Jews.
Reference: Current.  In consideration of the changed
situation in the coastal zones of Croatia, which were until
now occupied by the Italians, I request that preparations
for the evacuation of the Jews still remaining in these
areas be initiated immediately.  I request that the
evacuation of the Jews be dealt with energetically, in order
to have the Jewish Question in Croatia cleared up in the
shortest time.  I request an immediate report as to the
number of Jews to be considered for deportation, when the
deportation can be expected.  Possibilities for reception
exist."

Witness, would you explain who gave this order and who was
to implement it.

Accused:    Since this is a basic matter, Section IVB4 could
not have given it on its own initiative.  The Department
Chief himself, no doubt, transmitted the order to the
Attache Group, and the latter acted in this kind of
transmission office for directives.  I should still like to
add that, since Dr. Ploetz was adjutant-general of
Kaltenbrunner, and I think also of Heydrich, it may also be
that Kaltenbrunner issued this order directly to Ploetz.

Presiding Judge: The Attache group mentioned here are the
Police Attaches, are they not?

Accused:    Yes, Your Honour, the Presiding Judge.

Dr. Servatius:  The last document in this group is T/921,
document No. 656.  This is a communication from the German
Ambassador in Zagreb, dated 22 April 1944, to the Foreign
Ministry.  The last paragraph on the first page says: "The
Croatians, for their part, have shown complete understanding
for the measures taken against the Jews.  Intervention was
limited to isolated cases.  The Croatian police was
extremely radical and swift in implementation."  With this I
end the chapter of Croatia.

Now comes the chapter of Greece.  Here, too, I submit a
chart.

Witness, was the chart drawn according to your draft, and is
it correct?

Accused:    Yes, it was drawn according to my draft.

Presiding Judge: The question was also whether the chart is
correct, and I should like the answer to that.

Accused:    Your Honour, I also said that it is correct.

Interpreter: I did not hear it.

Presiding Judge: I mark this exhibit N/53.

Dr. Servatius:  The first exhibit is T/957, document No.
999.  This is a communication from the Foreign Ministry,
addressed to the embassy in Rome.  Its subject is the Jews
in the Italian-occupied part of Greece.  At the top of page
2 it says: "I utilized the conference with the Italian
authorized representative also to inform him of SS
Sturmbannfuehrer Guenther's instruction for the German-
occupied zone of Salonika-Aegaeis regarding the evacuation
of the Jews."  Exhibit T/958, document No. 344, also belongs
to this.  It is a communication from Luther to the embassy
in Athens.  It says: "The consulate-general in Salonika
received the following instruction: On the order of the Head
Office for Reich Security, and in agreement with the Foreign
Ministry, SS Sturmbannfuehrer Guenther has gone to Salonika
in order to conduct negotiations there on Jewish matters."
And the last sentence: "...Guenther can obviously act only
after agreement with Ambassador Altenburg."

One more exhibit, T/959, document No. 1000, belongs here.
Guenther writes to the Foreign Ministry: "...The temporary
transfer etc. of Wisliceny to Salonika is required for the
preparation and implementation of the planned deportation of
Jews from the Salonika area, within the framework of the
Final Solution of the Jewish Question in Europe.  Agreement
for this is being requested from the Foreign Ministry."

I now submit document No. 1001 which has no T number as yet.
It is being submitted on account of its date - 5 February
1943 - which is significant because on 6 February these
regulations against the Jews had already been issued in
Salonika.  The question is, who pressed for this, and is it
possible that it was already issued on the 6th as the result
of Wisliceny's action.  The Foreign Ministry enquires at the
embassy in Pressburg, where Wisliceny was at the time,
whether he could be transferred.  This was agreed to, for
later on he appears in Salonika.

Presiding Judge: I mark this exhibit N/54.

Dr. Servatius:  Witness, would you explain why both Guenther
and Wisliceny were sent to Salonika; what was the reason,
and what were the instructions?

Accused:    Yes, after the order was given to solve the
Jewish Question also in Greece, Guenther was ordered to go
to Greece to make the necessary investigations and study
personally the subject of organization on the spot.  Only
Mueller could issue such an order; I myself could not
authorize official journeys abroad, I myself had to travel
on Mueller's orders, and was unable to decide on my own
account.

Dr. Servatius:  Witness, you have already told us that you
could not give such instructions; however, the question was:
What was it that those two did?  Why were both of them sent?
Surely, you know the answers to that?

Accused:    Guenther had only been down there a few days and
then returned to Berlin; having carried out his orders, he
reported back, and then - this does not emerge from the
records, but that is how I construed it - he then informed
Mueller of the necessity to have someone from Department IV
on the spot, and so Mueller decided on Wisliceny.

Dr. Servatius:  I submit document No. 426, which has not yet
been presented.  This is a communication of 13 February
1943, on behalf of the Commander in Salonika-Aegaeis, Chief
of Staff, War Administration Counsellor
(Kriegsverwaltungsrat), Dr. Merten, to the President of the
Jewish Community in Salonika.

Presiding Judge: I mark this exhibit N/55.

Dr. Servatius:  It says:

     "In consideration of the fact that all Jewish questions
     in this area of command must be solved uniformly, you
     are commanded to look after the Jews not only in
     Salonika and the immediate surroundings, but after all
     the Jews within the entire area of the Commander of
     Salonika-Aegaeis.... You will receive detailed
     instructions as to your tasks from the Special
     Operations Unit for Jewish Affairs of the Security
     Police in Salonika."

Witness, was the Special Operations Unit subordinate to the
military commander?  Could it give instructions to him, or
was it the other way round?

Accused:    The Special Operations Unit obviously could not
give instructions to the commander; it was the other way
round, it was the military commander who gave instructions
to the Special Operations Unit.

Dr. Servatius:  The next exhibit, T/962, document No. 237,
is a communication signed by Wisliceny to the Jewish
Community in Salonika, for Chief Rabbi Dr. Koretz, 17
February 1943, concerning the marking of Jewish shops and
apartments.  It says: "On the basis of the decree by the
Commander of Salonika-Aegaeis, dated 6 February 1943, you
are informed as follows."  What needs clarification here is
how it was possible that there could be such a decree by the
commander on 6 February 1943, when on 5 February Bratislava
is being asked whether he (Wisliceny) may leave there.

Presiding Judge: But the actual document dates from 17
February 1943, does it not?  I do not see the difficulty.
What was the order of 6 February?  It may have been a
general order that authorization had been granted. My
colleague is showing it to me; that is T/960.  Apparently
that is the order of the commander, signed by Merten for the
commander.

Dr. Servatius:  I must look at it.

Presiding Judge: T/960 is the order from the military
commander.

Dr. Servatius:  Yes, I've got it now.  It partly corresponds
in its contents to the one signed by Wisliceny.  The
question is whether the military authority acted immediately
on its own initiative, or whether it was subjected to
pressure and was obliged to adopt these measures.

Presiding Judge: All right, I understand.

Dr. Servatius:  The next exhibit is T/970, document No.
1003.  The German Consul General in Salonika writes to the
Foreign Ministry in Berlin on 26 February 1943.  This is a
report about the anti-Jewish measures that have been taken.
It says:

     "The first measures against the local Jews have been
     decreed, to take effect on 26 February 1943.  The two
     regulations are a distinguishing mark by means of a
     Yellow Star of David and ghettoization.  Both measures
     were implemented with surprising speed by the
     representatives of the local Jewish community at the
     initiative of a commission that arrived here under
     Hauptsturmfuehrer Wisliceny, and with the collaboration
     of the local German Security Service, both of which
     keep me informed."

This as regards the second order signed by Wisliceny on 17
January, where it says: "The measures are to take effect as
from 15 February 1943," while the first orders were from the
military authority itself.

Presiding Judge: Here, in exhibit T/960, it also says that
it takes effect on 25 February.  That was given on 6
February, with effect from 25 February.

Dr. Servatius:  "He has to report by 25 February," that is
what it says there.

Presiding Judge: Yes, very well.  It means that Wisliceny
already somehow cast his shadow forward.  Can you explain
that, Mr. Hausner?

Attorney General: It says in part four of the document
itself that the representative of the Security Service is
being awaited.

Presiding Judge: If I understand Dr. Servatius correctly, he
wants to say that meanwhile the military administration
already acted and issued the order before Wisliceny's
arrival.

Dr. Servatius:  Yes.  The next exhibit, T/991, document No.
685, is a minute dated 18 March 1943 for the Reich Foreign
Minister, from Rademacher.  It says here:

     "In the opinion of the Reich Leadership of the SS (SS
     Obersturmbannfuehrer Eichmann), the measures against
     Jews in the telegram (from Rome), No. 1171, dated 12
     March, as planned by the Italians for Greece, are
     insufficient because, on the one hand, they run
     parallel with equally unsatisfactory anti-Jewish
     measures in Italy, while, on the other hand, according
     to past experience, one would do well to doubt the
     honesty with which they are being enforced.  This
     opinion is shared by D 3 on the basis of experiences
     gathered to date."

The Foreign Ministry is thus of the same opinion.

The next exhibit, T/971, document No. 1004, is a
communication from the consulate general in Salonika of 15
March 1943, to the Foreign Ministry, about the beginnings of
the deportations.  It says there:

     "The relevant German departments point out that the
     purpose of the transfer, to protect the German-occupied
     northern Greek territory, would not be attained if the
     Greek Jews were to remain there."

Presiding Judge: It says there "the non-Greek Jews."

Dr. Servatius:  What is significant here are the words: "I
share this view," in the second paragraph, in the middle of
the page.

The next exhibit is T/968, document No. 429.  The military
commander writes to the Jewish Community in Salonika on 21
March 1943: "A Jewish doctor escaped, and expiatory measures
are being ordered.  To begin with, twenty-five Jews are
immediately being arrested as hostages, to be shot at the
least further infringement of the stipulated obligations by
the Jews of Salonika."  It also says that all Jews are
permitted to leave their houses only between the hours of
10:00 and 16:00, otherwise they will be shot on the spot.
In my view, this shows that the Commander of Salonika also
acted on his own initiative.

Presiding Judge: Perhaps we can adjourn when you reach the
end of the present list?  Have you come to the end of your
List No. 30, Dr. Servatius?

Dr. Servatius:  Yes, the end of Greece.

Presiding Judge: There is still one list with the heading
"Greece," with which we shall continue to deal on Monday.

Mr. Hausner, since it is to be assumed that we shall get to
the cross-examination in the course of next week, I should
like to know whether you are prepared for sessions to be
held both in the morning and the afternoon?

Attorney General: For my part I agree, in the hope, which I
entertain, that afterwards the Court will grant me an
interval prior to the summing-up.

Presiding Judge: That is a different matter.  For the moment
I asked about the examination.

Attorney General: I am prepared, so long as there is no
obstacle from other factors.

Presiding Judge: What does that mean?

Attorney General: There is the Accused.

Presiding Judge: We made the present arrangement to enable
Dr. Servatius to consult with the Accused.

Attorney General: That does not apply to me.

Presiding Judge: Not to you, nor to Dr. Servatius during the
course of the examination.  As far as that is concerned,
there is no obstacle.

Attorney General: I shall be ready for two sessions per day,
for cross-examination.

Presiding Judge: The next Session will be on Monday at  8.30
a.m.



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