Dr. Wilhelm Hoettl, after being sworn, declares:
I was a member of the SD from 1938 until the German collapse except for two interruptions during the years 1939 and 1941-1943. Until 1939 I had charge of the department "Catholic Church" with the SD in Vienna, subsequently I was employed in Department VI, Foreign Information Service.
In connection with my activities in Vienna, I made the acquaintance of Obersturmbannfuehrer Eiehmann, whom I met again in 1943 as a section chief in Department IV of the Gestapo. There he handled the Department for Jews [Judenreferat].
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2615—PS
2615—PS
In August 1944 at the occasion of a visit in my apartment in Budapest, Eichmann told me that he had to make a report for Himmler on the number of Jews killed, and that he estimated the sum-total of the Jews killed as 6 millions. Of those 4 million had been killed in the extermination institutions in the East, while the additional 2 millions were killed by shootings—mainly by the Einsatzgruppen of the SIPO and the SD during the campaign in the East.
About 1942 I had a conversation with SS-Brigade commander Dr. Stahlecker who had been in command of such an Einsatzgruppe of the SIPO and the SD in the East. He told me that he had been ordered by Obergruppenfuehrer Heydrich to take command of such an Einsatzgruppe, whose field of action was the area of an Army group. He had the order to exterminate the Jews in that district by shootings.
From my conversations with Eichmann and Stahlecker and other members of the SIPO and the SD I conclude that the Jews were killed since the beginnings of the Russian campaign (1941), at first by the Einsatzgruppen of the SIPO and the SD and later —probably since the beginning of 1943—in the extermination camps in the East.
The arrest of the Jews and their shipment to the extermination camps was carried out by a special detachment [Sonderkommando] under the direction of Eichmann, which was composed of members of the SIPO—especially Gestapo. Heydrich had given the instructions for this to Eichmann. In the RSHA his chief was the head of the Gestapo, SS Obergruppenfuehrer Mueller.
[signed] Dr. Wilhelm Hoettl
Subscribed and sworn to before me this 5th day of November 1943.
[signed] Whitney R. Harris Lieut., U. S. Naval Reserve
Affidavit concerning the SS operations to exterminate Jews, including the extermination camps and the einsatzgruppen operations
Authors
Wilhelm Hoettl (Dr., SS major; office VI of RSHA)
Wilhelm Hoettl
SS officer
- Born: 1915-03-19 (Vienna)
- Died: 1999-06-27 (Altaussee)
- Country of citizenship: Austria; Germany
- Occupation: historian
- Member of political party: Nazi Party
- Member of: Schutzstaffel
- Educated at: University of Vienna
- VIAF ID: https://viaf.org/viaf/14270178
Date: 05 November 1945
Total Pages: 1
Language of Text: English
Source of Text: Nazi conspiracy and aggression (Office of United States Chief of Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality. Washington, D.C. : U.S. Government Printing Office, 1946.)
Evidence Code: PS-2615
Citation: IMT (page 1953)
HLSL Item No.: 451624
Notes:The year was mis-typed as 1943; 1945 is correct. This document was entered as miscellaneous evidence (judicial notice) without an exhibit number. Hoettle cites Eichmann's report of 4 million killed in the camps and 2 million by shooting.
Trial Issues
Criminal organizations (Gestapo, Leadership Corps, Cabinet, SS, SD, OKW) (… Extermination of the Jews (IMT, NMT 4, 9) Concentration camp system (administration, forced labor, abuse of inmates)… Einsatzgruppen operations (IMT, NMT 9)
Document Summary
PS-2615: Statement re extermination of Jews