The Competent Court of Justice, Bad Toelz/Upper Bavaria, Germany

Re: Request for Legal Assistance

The main hearing in the criminal proceedings against the Accused Adolf Eichmann is at present taking place in this Court.

In the context of this main hearing, I request you to extend reciprocal legal assistance to this Court by interrogation on oath of the following witness:

Hans Juettner, Herdestr. 1, Bad Toelz/Upper Bavaria.

The witness is to be examined as to the following allegations of the Accused:

(1) that his (the witness') statement that the Accused is responsible for the foot march is based only on the information given by the Higher SS and Police Leader Winkelmann;

(2) that the officer acting for the Accused, on being asked by the witness, did not rely on an order of the Accused but on an order given by a higher echelon.

To complete the deposition of the witness, I request that the witness also be asked the following questions which were drawn up by Counsel for the Accused:

(1) When did you meet columns of Jews, on the highway between the Austrian frontier and Budapest, who were being led on foot to the frontier?

(2) Is it true that you remonstrated with Winkelmann because of this foot march?

(3) How did Winkelmann express himself on the subject of this foot march?

(4) When answering your question as to who was responsible, did he distinguish between the technical execution, the initiative, and the order to act?

(5) Did Eichmann's representative rely on an order of the Accused himself or on an order of the authority superior to the Accused?

In conclusion I request to ask the witness the following questions that were drawn up by the Attorney General:

(1) Is your declaration of 3 May 1948 (NG5216) true to the facts?

(2) Was your official journey to Budapest at that time in connection with the taking over of the Weiss_Manfred Works?

I request you to summon to the examination of the witness the representative of the Attorney General of the State of Israel, c/o H.E. Ambassador, Dr. F.E. Shinnar, Israel Mission, Cologne, as well as Dr. R. Servatius, Counsel for the Accused, Hohenzollernring 14, Cologne, and to afford them on their part the opportunity to ask the witness any questions which might result from his answers.

There is no objection to the aforementioned representatives of the parties obtaining copies of the record of the examination.

Please forward the original of the record of the examination to this Court.

(-) Moshe Landau, President of the Trial Court

- 1AR 121/61 -

The Court of First Instance, Bad Toelz

15 June 1961

Record of Compliance with the Request for Legal Assistance by Israel in the Criminal Proceedings against Eichmann by way of Examination of the Witness Hans Juettner, Herdestr. 1, Bad Toelz by the Court of First Instance, Bad Toelz, 15 June 1961.

Present:

Judge of Court of First Instance (Amtsgerichtsrat) Goldmund, of the Court of First Instance, as Judge

Official of the Court Gebhardt, as Recording Clerk.

Before this court appeared Mr. Erwin S. Shimron as the representative of the Attorney General of the State of Israel. He submitted a certified photocopy of his appointment as representative of the Attorney General of the State of Israel for all proceedings and hearings of witnesses outside the State of Israel in the criminal trial against Adolf Eichmann;

Mr. Dieter Wechtenbruch, Counsel for the Defence;

also the witness, Hans Juettner.

The witness was examined, after he had first been informed of the subject of the hearing, had been admonished to tell the truth, and had been advised of the penalties for perjury, for negligently giving false evidence on oath, and for giving unsworn false evidence.

In his evidence he stated:

My name is Hans Juettner, I am 67 years old and married. I am the proprietor of a sanatorium in Bad Toelz, Herdestrasse

1. I am neither related nor connected by marriage to the Accused, Adolf Eichmann.

As to the matter in question, I can state, after the representative of the Attorney General showed me Prosecution document No. 1297 concerning an affidavit by the witness Juettner made on 3 May 1948:

I As to the allegations by the Accused:

(1) In November 1944, I travelled, accompanied by Obersturmbannfuehrer Becher, from Vienna to Budapest. On the way, on Hungarian territory, we found columns of Jews guarded by Hungarian Honved soldiers, moving in the direction of Vienna. He [Becher] said to me, more or less: "We shall meet the `Eichmann Regiment' (Standarte Eichmann)." I asked him what this was, because I imagined that this was a military unit. Then Becher enlightened me that it meant the deportation of Jews from Budapest to the Austrian frontier. After I had seen the columns, I went to Higher SS and Police Leader Winkelmann in Budapest, in order to enquire who was responsible for these transports and to protest against them. Winkelmann knew of these transports. He maintained that he had nothing to do with them, that this was Eichmann's concern. Then I asked him who Eichmann was. Winkelmann explained to me that he (Eichmann) was the Head of a Section of the Head Office for Reich Security over which he, Winkelmann, had no authority. In this Section, Eichmann was dealing with the Jewish Question. My understanding that the Accused Eichmann was responsible for the foot march was based mainly on Winkelmann's information.

(2) The junior officer at the time who came to me from Eichmann's Section told me, after I remonstrated with him on these deportations, that his unit belonged to the Secret State Police in the Head Office for Reich Security, that they had their own orders, and that I had no business to tell him what to do. He spoke to me in a very insolent manner. I was told that Eichmann was not present, and that this junior officer had come in his stead.

Counsel for the Defence declared that with the above part of the hearing, questions Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 5 of Counsel for the Accused had already been answered.

II As to question 4 of Counsel for the Accused:

I did not talk with Winkelmann about the question who was responsible for the initiative for the transports and their technical execution. A discussion about that was superfluous, after Winkelmann had declared that he was out of contact, that he had nothing to do with this matter.

III

(1) My statement of 3 May 1948, is true to the facts. I stand by it entirely to this very day.

When questioned by Counsel for the Accused:

I did not mention Becher's expression, "Eichmann Regiment" in my declaration, because I did not recall it at the time.

On 19 May 1960, I was interrogated in Munich by a Senior State Attorney of the State Attorney's office at the District Court of Frankfurt on Main. At this hearing I suddenly recalled Becher's expression, "Eichmann Regiment" in connection with the transports of Jews, and I mentioned it to the examining attorney.

On questions by the representative of the Attorney General:

(1): When I gave my statement on 3 May 1948, in the presence of Dr. Kasztner, whom I did not know at the time, Dr. Kasztner interrupted me and confirmed that my statement was correct. I then asked him who he was and in what capacity he was present. Dr. Kasztner told me that, on the same day on which I had called on Winkelmann because of the transports of the Jews, he, Kasztner, had been present when Eichmann had been asked to come and see me. Eichmann had refused to speak to me. He had ordered a junior officer to go to see me.

(2): My official journey to Budapest at that time was also in connection with the taking over of the Weiss_Manfred Works.

The statement was read out to the witness; he approved it and signed it.

(-) Hans Juettner

The witness was sworn according to law.

(-) Kurt Goldmund, Judge of the First Instance
(-) Klotilde Gebhardt, Official of the Court

[ Previous | Index | Next ]

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