The Nizkor Project: Remembering the Holocaust (Shoah)

Twenty-Sixth Day: Thursday, 3rd January, 1946
(Part 1 of 15)


[Page 242]

LT. HARRIS: If the Tribunal will recall, at the end of the last session we had finished reading a portion of the sworn interrogation of the Gaustabsamtsleiter under the Gauleiter of Munich and had touched on the point where he said that Kaltenbrunner issued directives to Dachau to transport Western European prisoners by truck to Switzerland and to march the remaining inmates into the Tyrol.

I now offer as Exhibit next in order the first five pages of the interrogation report of Gottlieb Berger, Chief of the head office of the S.S., made under oath on 20th September, 1945, in the course of these proceedings. You will find these pages at the end of the Document Book and this is offered as Exhibit US.A. 529. These pages have been translated into German and made available to the defendants.

THE PRESIDENT: Does it have a number?

LT. HARRIS: It has no PS number, Sir. It is at the very end of the Document Book. I wish to read only one question and answer from these pages; and I refer to the last question and answer Page 3 of the Exhibit:

"Q: Assuming, only for the purposes of this discussion, that these atrocities that we hear about are true, who do you think is primarily responsible?

"A: The first one, the Commandant; the second one, Gluecks; because he was practically responsible for all the interior direction of the camps. If one wants to be exact, one would have to find out how the information service between the camp Commandant and Gluecks actually operated. I want to give you the following example: During the night of the 22nd and 23rd April I was sent to Munich. As I entered the city, I met a group of perhaps 120 men dressed in the suits of the concentration camps. I asked the guard who was with them, 'What about these men?' He told me that these men were marching by foot to the Alps. Firstly, I sent him back to Dachau. Then I wrote a letter to the Commandant, to send no more people by foot to any place, but, whenever the Allies advanced any further, to give over the camp completely. I did that on my own responsibility and I told him that I came straight from Berlin and that I can be found in my service post in Munich. The Commandant, or his deputy, telephoned at about twelve o'clock and told me that he had received this order from Kaltenbrunner after he had been asked by the Gauleiter of Munich, the Reichskommissar."

The tenth crime for which Kaltenbrunner is responsible as Chief of the Security Police and S.D. is the persecution of the Jews. This crime, of course, continued after 30th January, 1943, and evidence has heretofore been received that the persecutions continued until and were accelerated toward the end of the war. Kaltenbrunner took a personal interest in such

> [Page 243]

matters, as is indicated by Document 2519-PS, which is offered as Exhibit next in order, Exhibit US.A. 530. This exhibit consists of a memorandum and an affidavit, and I invite the attention of the Tribunal to the affidavit. Quoting from the affidavit:

"I, Henri Monneray, being first duly sworn, depose and say that since 12th September, 1945, I have been and I am the member of the French staff for the prosecution of Axis Criminality and have been pursuing my official duties in this connection in Nuremberg, Germany, since 12th October, 1945.

In the course of my official duties, at the instruction of the French Chief Prosecutor, I examined the personal document of the defendant----"

THE PRESIDENT: Is it necessary to read all of this? What is the object of this affidavit?

LT. HARRIS: To show that this document was derived from the personal effects of the defendant Kaltenbrunner.

THE PRESIDENT: You can leave out the immaterial parts.

LT. HARRIS: Very good, Sir. Passing to the last sentence of the affidavit:

"Said Document 2519-PS is the document which I found in the envelope containing Kaltenbrunner's personal papers."

I now read the memorandum:

"Radio message to Gruppenfuehrer S.S. Major General Fegelein, Headquarters of the Fuehrer, through Sturmbannfuehrer S.S. Major Sansoni, Berlin:

Please inform the Reichsfuehrer S.S. and report to the Fuehrer that all arrangements against Jews, political and concentration camp internees in the Protectorate have been taken care of by me personally to-day. The situation there is one of calmness, fear of Soviet successes and hope of an occupation by the Western enemies.

Kaltenbrunner."

THE TRIBUNAL (Mr. Biddle): That is not dated?

LT. HARRIS: This is not dated.

The eleventh crime for which Kaltenbrunner is responsible is the persecution of the Churches. It is unnecessary to present specific evidence that this crime continued after 30th January, 1943, since this was one of the fundamental purposes of the Security Police and S.D., as has already been shown.

These are the crimes for which the defendant Kaltenbrunner must answer. As to his criminal intent, there is no need to go outside the record before this Tribunal. On 1st December, 1945, in these proceedings the witness Lahousen was asked on cross-examination, "Do you know Mr. Kaltenbrunner?"

After describing his meeting with Kaltenbrunner on a day in Munich when a university student and his sister were arrested and executed for distributing leaflets from the auditorium, Lahousen said -- and I wish to quote only to two sentences on Page 324 (Part I.) of the transcript:

"I can easily reconstruct that day. It was the first and last time that I saw Kaltenbrunner, with whose name was known to me. Of course, Kaltenbrunner mentioned this subject to Canaris, and witnesses were there, and everybody was under the terrible impression of what had happened, and Kaltenbrunner spoke about that to Canaris in a manner

[Page 244]

for which cynicism would be a very mild description. This is the only thing I can say to this question."

Kaltenbrunner was a life-long fanatical Nazi. He was the leader of the S.S. in Austria prior to the Anschluss and played a principal role in the betrayal of his native country to the Nazi Conspirators. As higher S.S. and Police Leader in Austria after the Anschluss, he supervised and had knowledge of the activities of the Gestapo and the S.D. in Austria. The Mauthausen concentration camp was established in his jurisdiction and he visited it several times. On at least one occasion he observed the gas chamber in action. With this knowledge and background he accepted, in January, 1943, appointment as Chief of the Security Police and S.D., the very agencies which sent such victims to their deaths. He held that office to the end, rising to great prominence in the S.S. and the German Police and receiving high honours from Hitler. Like other leading Nazis, Kaltenbrunner sought power; to gain it, he made his covenant with crime.

COL. STOREY: If the Tribunal please, next will be some witnesses and Colonel Amen will handle the interrogation.

COLONEL JOHN H. AMEN: May it please the Tribunal, I wish to call, as a witness for the prosecution, Mr. Otto Ohlendorf. Your Lordship will note that his name appears under Amt III on the chart on the wall.

THE PRESIDENT: What did you say appeared?

Q. The name of this witness appears under Amt III of the chart, R.S.H.A., the large square, the third section down.

THE PRESIDENT: I see it.

Otto Ohlendorf, will you repeat this oath after me: I swear by God, the Almighty and Omniscient, that I will speak the pure truth and will withhold and add nothing.

(The witness repeated the oath.)

BY COLONEL AMEN:

Q. Where were you born?

A. In Hohen Egelsen.

Q. How old are you?

A. Thirty-eight years old.

Q. When, if ever, did you become a member of the National Socialist Party?

A. 1925.

Q. When, if ever, did you become a member of the S.A.?

A. For the first time in 1926.

Q. When, if ever, did you become a member of the S.S.?

A. I must correct myself. I answered the first question as if I were speaking of my membership in the S.S.

Q. When did you become a member of the S.A.?

A. In the year 1923.

Q. When, if ever, did you join the S.D.?

A. In 1936.

Q. What was your last position in the S.D.?

A. Amt Chief of Amt III in the R.S.H.A..

Q. Turning to the chart on the wall behind your back, will you tell the Tribunal whether you can identify that chart in any way?

A. This chart was seen previously by me and worked on by me and I can consequently identify it.


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