Archive/File: people/e/eichmann.adolf/transcripts/Sessions/Session-107-06
Last-Modified: 1999/06/14

Dr. Servatius: I would first note that, as far as I know,
these documents have all already been introduced in the
proceedings.  I would now read out from page three, the top
of page three:


     "My task was to organize the transport by rail required
     to carry out the compulsory transfer from the Warthe
     District of those Poles evicted from their farms by the
     District Commissioners, in order to accommodate ethnic
     Germans.  These Poles were now to be transported to
     Poland.  By Poland I mean the Government General.  I do
     not know any more details about this action which was
     directed by the District Commissioners."

At the bottom, last paragraph:

     "When these compulsory transfers caused difficulties
     and unacceptable situations" - I omit part of the
     sentence - "a separate organization was set up in order
     to run this operation properly.  The Central Office for
     Migrants was set up for this purpose in Posen, under
     the Inspector of the Security Police and the Security
     Service.  A branch office of this Central Office was
     set up in Litzmannstadt.  This was preceded by a field
     office of the Central Office, under Hauptsturmfuehrer
     Barth.  When this field office became an office in its
     own right, I was appointed to head it.  That was in the
     spring of 1940."

At the top of page four, continued:

     "There were several field offices subordinate to my
     office, as well as a transit camp in Litzmannstadt.
     The purpose of the office was to handle the processing
     of the Poles on their way to the Government General,
     after they had been evacuated by offices controlled by
     the Reich Commissioner for the Strengthening of German
     Folkdom; in the transit camp, those Polish families
     which had been identified by the Main Race and
     Settlement Office as qualifying for Germanization were
     sorted out, as well as those Poles whom the Labour
     Office took away as workers for use in the Reich."

At the bottom of the same page:

     "As the head of the Litzmannstadt office, I always sent
     my train requirements to Department IV B 4 in the Head
     Office for Reich Security and no longer dealt directly
     with the Reich Railways.  In the matter of transport,
     the main concern was to ensure that the evacuees were
     deported in good time, so as to guarantee accommodation
     for the settlers as they arrived.  All this was the
     concern of my office in Litzmannstadt."

On page six, on the Lidice affair, in the middle:

     "It has been pointed out to me that the 20.6.1942
     teletype to Eichmann does not mention the term "special
     treatment", but that in my teletype to Ehlich, dated
     22.6.1942, I dictated the following sentence: `I have
     notified IV B 4 of the transfer of these children, on
     the assumption that they are destined for special
     treatment'.  I would like to state on that: I do not
     remember exactly what was in my mind when I drafted the
     teletype.  It is my opinion that I did not then take
     the words "special treatment" to mean extermination.  I
     am sure that at that time I was not aware of, and
     familiar with, the term "special treatment" in the
     sense of extermination.  The children were a special
     matter within our camp operation and required a special
     treatment relative to our conditions."

On page eight it also says the following - there is a
reference to a teletype, and it says there:

     "giving the time of arrival as 11.30 (sic: original
     statement reads 21.30) and asking for the children to
     be met at the station and then immediately assigned to
     suitable camps."  In this document it says that those
     who are not suitable for Germanization are to be sent
     on `via the Polish camps at your end'.  It goes on to
     say, `The children are bringing with them only what
     they have on their bodies.  No special care for them is
     required'.  To-day I no longer have any special
     recollection of these teletypes I have been shown, but
     I would like to point out that, contrary to what it
     says in the remark in this teletype, I had to have
     special care arranged for in the Gneisenaustrasse camp,
     and I did so."

Page nine, below in the middle, I now come to Hungary, the
commando's arrival in Hungary.

     "Around midday on 19.3.1944, i.e. on the Sunday on
     which Hungary was invaded, we arrived in Budapest and
     were for the time being accommodated in a hotel.  At
     first I did not have the impression that we had any
     fixed organization and division of work.  I remember
     that right at the beginning Geschke gave me the
     assignment of establishing contact with the Hungarian
     police, in order to guarantee that supply services in
     Budapest would remain undamaged."

Then, page ten at the top, at the beginning of the
paragraph:

     "At some point Eichmann definitely told me that I was
     now a member of his department.  It is also possible
     that Geschke ordered me there.  I was not on good terms
     with Geschke.  In any case, subsequently, when the
     Hungarians two or three weeks later made rooms
     available, and Eichmann opened an office marked as
     such, I was with him.  He appointed me as his deputy in
     his office."

At the bottom of page eleven the witness speaks about
transmission of orders and what he knows, and then says
that, in general, he does not know anything.

     "However, I do know that Eichmann was repeatedly
     summoned to Geschke, and that this happened very often.
     I never went with him to Geschke, so I did not hear
     what instructions and orders he received there.
     Eichmann also went several times to see Winkelmann and
     Veesenmayer.  I do not know whether he was summoned to
     see them.  It is my opinion that, as a Higher SS and
     Police Leader, Winkelmann could have issued orders to
     Eichmann."

At the bottom of the same page:

     "By deportation I mean both concentration and also
     despatch.  Novak was our office's liaison with the
     railways and was responsible for transport matters.  It
     is my opinion that he must also have arranged and
     organized deportation transports with the railways.  I
     am referring here to railway trains."

The witness then talks about the activities of Eichmann's
office.  At the top of page 13 he says:

     "I did observe that his typist did not have a great
     deal to do.  Eichmann spent little time in the office
     itself.  He came and went when he wished.  In Budapest
     he had a very full private life which took up a lot of
     his time.  I also do not know anything about Eichmann
     having intervened or having been able to intervene in
     deportations positively or negatively on his own
     initiative.  During the time that I belonged to my
     office in Hungary, I did not notice Eichmann acting on
     his own initiative in the sphere of Jewish affairs,
     either exceeding or acting counter to any instructions,
     of which, moreover, I had no knowledge.  My impression
     of Eichmann was always that he was not the type to do
     something on his own responsibility.  The reason why I
     had this impression was that previously, when I was
     active in the Warthe District, whenever I asked him
     something, he would not immediately take a decision
     himself, but would ask for my query in writing, and
     would send me the reply later.  To-day I no longer
     remember whether I had this impression only from the
     matter of the Lidice children, or whether there were
     various other incidents of the same type in which
     Eichmann evaded giving an immediate decision.  What I
     do remember is that I had always to submit a request
     for a transport train to him in writing, and the same
     was true of changes.  I considered that this
     demonstrated exaggerated caution on the part of
     Eichmann."

Page 14, a reaction to the Kasztner report, in the middle:

     "I have been shown the passage from Kasztner's report,
     pages 26 and 27, in the Israel Prosecution Document
     900, where Kasztner describes two instances of money
     being handed over in my presence.  I wish to state in
     this connection that the words I am described as saying
     were certainly not spoken by me.  I did not make any
     promises of this nature.

     In reply to questioning: It is correct that I
     accompanied Brand and Bandi Gross to Vienna for their
     flight to Turkey.  However, it is not correct that I am
     supposed to have told Brand before the flight left that
     he should make it known abroad that there were still
     decent SS leaders such as myself and Wisliceny.  I
     never said anything of the sort.
     
     In reply to questioning: I do not know any details
     about Becher's business via Brand.  I was never brought
     into this transaction.  Eichmann sent me to Vienna with
     Brand for his flight.  I had to fetch Gross from
     somewhere else, on the orders of a Hauptsturmfuehrer
     from the office of Commander Geschke."
     
     The examination then passes on to the foot march.  The
     witness describes what he saw and then says - I am
     quoting from the last lines at the bottom: "In Budapest
     I went to see Eichmann about the matter; I told him
     about this transport and its state and remonstrated
     with him that this was inadmissible.  I believed that
     he could have intervened in the matter.  The only thing
     Eichmann said when I remonstrated with him was: `You
     have not seen anything.'  Whereupon I went to
     Winkelmann and informed him of my observations, but my
     impression was that he was already informed of the
     circumstances I had observed."

On the same page, at the bottom, last paragraph:

     "Around the end of April or in May 1944, i.e., the
     beginning of May 1944, I lived with Eichmann in a large
     yellow house on the Schwabenberg.  It was a large
     villa, which I thought was lived in only in the summer.
     At the back of the house there was a large flight of
     stairs, underneath which there may have been some sort
     of storage room.  In front of the house was a sandy
     forecourt; the garden at the back of the house dropped
     away steeply.  I do not remember there being a garage,
     hut or shed at the back.  I also do not remember air-
     raid trenches already there or being dug.  The latter I
     would have seen, because very often I came back by the
     early afternoon, as we were not very busy in the
     office.  It may be that there was a tennis court next
     to the villa, below the garden, alongside the next
     parallel road.  We only lived there some three or four
     weeks.  After that Eichmann moved into a villa further
     down the hill."

Then, on the next page, the last paragraph:

     "When I lived together with Eichmann in the yellow
     house, there was a man called Slavik with him.
     However, he did not work in the department; he acted as
     caretaker for our billet.  I do not know whether he
     stayed with Eichmann in his later villa.  Both villas
     were situated in an estate of villages where the houses
     were detached, each in its own garden.  There were
     fruit trees planted at the yellow house.  I do not know
     whether the second house also had fruit trees.  At the
     time Eichmann was driving an amphibious vehicle."

That is what I wanted to read out.

Presiding Judge: Mr. Hausner.

Attorney General: (to the consecutive interpreter) You have
marked passages there, please read them out.
Consecutive interpreter: If these are passages which have
already been read out, should they be read again?

Presiding Judge: No, that is not necessary.

Second paragraph on page nine.

     "After that Eichmann, who held the same rank as I did
     but whom I always considered to be my superior, sent me
     with Wisliceny to summon the Jewish Council; I also
     remember standing subsequently with Wisliceny in front
     of a large group of Jews, with Wisliceny talking about
     what was going to happen.  To-day I no longer remember
     what he said in detail.  The general tendency was
     reassuring.

Page 13, at the bottom:

     "In reply to questioning: I remember an incident when
     Wisliceny asked me to accompany him, in order to fetch
     money.  We then went together to some living room or
     other.  I forget where this room was.  It is possible
     that Kasztner and perhaps Brand, too, were also
     present.  As far as I remember, it was anyhow Wisliceny
     and not Hunsche who was with me.  It is not impossible
     that I fetched money somewhere another time with
     Hunsche."

On page 15:

     "On the way to Budapest, not very far from the
     Hungarian border, I saw groups of Jews, on foot,
     accompanied by Honveds or gendarmerie.  The column of
     Jews was very stretched out, guards were few and far
     between, and the people looked exhausted.  Some of them
     were sitting and lying around on the road."
     
And further down, on the same page - this has already been
read out by Counsel for the Defence.  That is all.

Presiding Judge: I have designated this exhibit IX, and the
appendices as appendices to IX.

Judge Raveh: I wanted to ask Mr. Hausner: Do you consider
this document on which Dr. Servatius had reservations to be
authenticated?

Attorney General: I believe that Dr. Servatius relied
especially on this document.

Judge Raveh: He was basing himself on a reservation about
this document.  That is what I understood.

Attorney General: It is somewhat difficult to accept the
document without accepting precisely what it contains.  We
have no other text or version of this document.  Either one
accepts the document or one does not accept it in its
entirety.  I assumed that this document was precisely one of
those on which Dr. Servatius builds his defence.  He cannot
accept one part and say: Up to here it is authenticated, and
from here this is an addition.

Dr. Servatius: As far as I understand it, this is the first
document of the -

Presiding Judge: Yes, this is the document about which you
spoke earlier.

Dr. Servatius: The document contains both incriminatory
material and exonerative material.  If it is not accepted, I
do not have to defend myself against the document.

Presiding Judge: This is what was shown to Krumey when he
was examined in Germany, and this is how it reached our
files.

Dr. Servatius: Very well, I leave it to the Court's
discretion.

Presiding Judge: In that case, whom would you like to take
now.?

Dr. Servatius: Witness Baer, one of the last commandants of
the Auschwitz concentration camp.  This is the examination
of 6 June 1961 before the Court of First Instance in
Frankfurt am Main.  I would refer to the last page, three,
where it says: "When I took over command matters, Hoess was
there.  However, at that time Hoess was a Bureau Chief in
the Economic and Administrative Main Office, Bureau Group D.
He was not a commandant any longer.  Before I arrived, Hoess
had ceased being a commandant; Liebehenschel had taken over
this post, previously occupied by Hoess.  However, when I
took up my office, Liebehenschel was not present and did not
hand matters over to me.

I did not know the Accused Adolf Eichmann, nor did I have
anything to do with him.  I also did not know of him as
someone in the Head Office for Reich Security.  I do not
wish to answer any further questions."  This is all I wish
to read out from the document.

Presiding Judge: I designate this exhibit - i.e., this
statement by Ber - Number IX.

The Court will adjourn until 3.30 this afternoon.

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