I, Otto Hofmann—SS Obergruppenfuehrer und General der Waffen SS und Polizei [Lt. Gen. of SS and police], up to now Hoeherer SS and Polizeifuehrer [higher SS and police leader] in Wehrkreis 5 declare herewith:
1. From 1941 to April 1943 I was chief of the main office for Race and Settlement questions. As such it was my duty to provide for the instruction (with respect to agriculture) of crippled members of the SS, so that these could be settled on farms in the occupied territories, including Poland. I was, therefore, as a rule, kept informed about all orders concerning resettlement in Poland.
2. The executive power, in other words the carrying out of all so-called resettlement actions, that is to say, sending away of Polish and Jewish settlers and those of non-German blood from a territory in Poland destined for Germanization, was in the hands of the Chief of the RSHA' (Heydrich and later Kalten-brunner, since the end of 1942). The Chief of the RSHA also supervised and issued orders to the so-called immigration center (EWZ) which classified the Germans, living abroad who returned to Germany and directed them to the individual farms, already freed. The latter was done in agreement with the chief office of the Reichsfuehrer SS.
3. I know these facts mentioned in paragraph 2 through the orders concerned as well as owing to the continuous contact between the two chief offices and various cases of friction. Ques-
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tions of conflicts as to competence were mostly decided in favor of the chief of the RSHA (Heydrich later Kaltenbrunner). Reichsfuehrer Himmler had a decisive influence in all these questions.
[Signed]: Otto Hofmann
This declaration has been written down by my own hand on two pages at Freising, Germany, on the 4 August 1945 at 1400 hours. This has been done of my own free will. '
I swear to God the Almighty that I will say nothing but the truth, that I will withhold nothing nor add anything.
[Signed]: Otto Hofmann
Subscribed and sworn to before me at Freising, Germany, this 4th day of August 1945. '
[Signed]: Ernest H. Bloch 1st Lt. MI AUS Investigating Officer
Affidavit concerning the removal of Jewish and Polish families and the resettlement of Germanic families in Poland
Authors
Otto Hofmann (SS obergruppenfuehrer, race and settlement office (1941-43))
Otto Hofmann
Austrian-born German SS general, head of the SS Race and Settlement Main Office (1896-1982)
- Born: 1896-03-16 (Innsbruck)
- Died: 1982-12-31 (Bad Mergentheim)
- Country of citizenship: Germany
- Occupation: military personnel; politician
- Member of political party: Nazi Party
- Member of: Schutzstaffel
- Military rank: lieutenant
- Military branch: Imperial German Army
Date: 04 August 1945
Defendant: Ernst Kaltenbrunner
Total Pages: 2
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: L-49
Citation: IMT (page 1880)
HLSL Item No.: 451395
Trial Issues
Criminal organizations (Gestapo, Leadership Corps, Cabinet, SS, SD, OKW) (… Deportation or expulsion of civilian populations from occupied territories… Racial selection and discrimination (theory, screening, relocations, kidna…
Document Summary
L-49: Affidavit: Otto Hofmann, Lt. Gen. of SS and Polich from 1941 - April, 1943, Chief of main office for Race and Settlement Questions