Court No. II, Case No. 4.
A No, it was only a formal contract which, during the war, in the case of my death was to make sure that my dependents, my family, would be looked after to a cert in extent. That contract was sent to me. I think it was signed by the DWB because the Monument Society and the Homes Club did not have enough capital.
Q Well, witness, would you tell us whether you worked together with the other offices in the WVHA, and in what way?
AAs I have pointed out already, there was no continuous cooperation. My work depended on my firm, which had no actual contact with the Reich Sector, and the other firms.
Q Witness, the document in Volume 14, the document of the Prosecution 1563, Exhibit 392, page 59 in the English text and page 56 in the German text, - shows that Pohl had detailed financial discussions with the chief of the W offices. Were you present when these discussions were held - insofar as they concerned the other W offices, or only when your firm was concerned?
A I only attended when the balance sheets of my firm were discussed.
Q Was that the same custom with the other firms?
A I assume so, but I was not there.
Q Witness, I am now coming to your own reports which have been submitted by the prosecution - Exhibit 455, Document No. 547 in Document Book No. 17. That is the last document but one in that document book. First of all I would like to go into those reports from a general point of view. What was the purpose you had in making those reports. Why were those reports made?
AAt the order of Obergruppenfuehrer Pohl, I had to report to him every month about my work, that is to say, I had to report to him about the activity in which the club had engaged. The reports were intended for the information of Pohl. Furthermore, these reports were to show for history at a later time the development of the firm. In the reports, therefore, there is not only described my own work but there are Court No. II, Case No. 4.also described those events which took place at the request of Himmler or Pohl.
For example, credit negotiations with the Reich Post Ministry, credit negotiations with the Dresdner Bank, general plans of Himmler, and similar matters.
Q Witness, yesterday you gave us a detailed description that the construction management at Wewelsburg did not come under your office but that it was under the direction of the Wewelsburg office, that is the Fuehrungshauptamt of the SS. Those reports, however, contain detailed data about the activity at Wewelsburg. Can one not from that conclude that the construction management at Wewelsburg was under your management, because, otherwise you would not have to report about it?
A In my reports there are also data about Wewelsburg, and that for the general information of Pohl. That information, that data, was taken from the reports made by the building management at Wewelsburg. Pohl had to be informed about the activity of the building management at Wewelsburg because we had to make available the necessary funds, and because Pohl had to expect that Himmler would talk to him about Wewelsburg, which was his, Himmler's, a favorite project.
Q But just now you have only described to us as to how these reports came about. Now tell us, how did you get the documents, as the building management was not under your direction?
A Bartels reported to Himmler directly, and sent him his monthly reports. Bartels sent me copies of those monthly reports, and from those copies I took the necessary data and incorporated it in my reports.
Q If we have a look at the document as such, this Document 547, is it in its proper order in the form in which it has been submitted to the Tribunal by the prosecution?
A No, it is not in order, and the pages of various reports have been interchanged. The report about July 1941, that is one of the reports, originates in effect from August 1941 and goes on; and that is October figure Roman one, Arabic two. Then there is figure five, all of Court No. II, Case No. 4.a sudden, Arabic five.
From there on the report dates April 1942. And in the same way in the report about April 1942. The pages up to Roman capital A, Arabic four, Resettlement and Acquisition of Real Estate, are taken from the report belonging to the report of April 1942, and within that paragraph the report of April 1942 suddenly breaks off and the information of August 1941 follows. Doctor, I have not got the date here with the page number. Perhaps you can tell the Court.
DR. BERGOLD: May it please your Honor, the photostatic copy of this document which I have does not have it, but perhaps Dr. Ficht can show it to you. I can tell from the page number the pagination has been mixed up here.
BY DR. BERGOLD:
Q Witness, can't one explain that by mentioning some dates?
A On page 3 of the report of August, '41, I report about a decree by Speer of 15 March, '42. That Speer decree could only have been foreseen by Macbeth and his witches. Unfortunately, I altogether lacked the gifts of a prophet.
Q Witness, and now to make it easier for the court, I am going to base my questions about the report such as those being submitted to the Tribunal because otherwise it is too difficult for the Tribunal to keep on turning over the pages.
In the report of 13 August, '41, in the form in which it has been submitted, there are details about the credit negotiations with the Dresdner Bank. The credit refers to the buildings at Wewelsburg. What did you have to do with those negotiations?
A The negotiations which led to a binding agreement about granting a credit, I did not conduct. They were introduced by General Wolff, and Himmler or Pohl concluded them. I merely, when the basic agreement had been concluded, in respect of Himmler's personal affairs for that credit, went and listened to the bank tell us their wishes.
Furthermore, I called up the amounts of credit as they were needed, and I called up the sums as requested by Bartels. As far as amounts of the credit which were due, were not yet needed for Wewelsburg, in order to save interest, I temporarily invested those sums in Reich Treasury securities.
BY THE PRESIDENT:
Q Well, witness, when you speak of the Society you mean the Society for German Cultural Monuments?
A Would you forgive me, Your Honor? That is correct.
Q Did the Society advance any capital for building the inmates' camp at Wewelsburg?
A The camp was first of all built for the RAD (Reich Labor Service) at that time, therefore, it was not intended to house prisoners.
Q It was built for what?
A For the Reich Labor Service.
Q Oh, all right.
AAnd when the prisoners were brought to Wewelsburg, I cannot say for certain whether and how much money Bartels may have given for the completing of any work. That I could not tell from the bulk of the money as it was asked for and from the data which Bartels gave on the use of the money, and which he gave in lump sums.
Q Well, did Bartels have anything to do with the Society?
A No, he was under the Wewelsburg office in the personal staff of the Reichsfuehrer-SS.
Q Well, I am still trying to find out: did the Society advance any money for building or remodeling the inmates' camp? Did you use Society funds for that?
A Your Honor, it is possible that Bartels, who freely disposed of the sums that had been transferred to him during the existence of the labor camp, used money of the Society for the labor camp. From the moment when, at the orders of Himmler, that labor camp became a concentration camp, it is quite out of the question that funds of the Society were used for it because the concentration camp had been entered in the Reich budget, had been allowed for in the Reich budget.
Q Well, my question is suggested by a statement in your report of August 13, 1941. The English translation says: "The expenditures mads by the Society for the inmates' camp in Wewelsburg is being taken over by the Reich."
A That largely refers to the expenditure on behalf of the former Reich Labor Service Camp. That expenditure was made before my days.
Q That is before it was decided to change it to a concentration camp?
A That expenditure was made by the Reich when the camp was transformed into a concentration camp because the former buildings of the Reich Labor Service Camp had passed into the possession of the Reich.
Q Well, then the last sentence in the same paragraph: "Furthermore, the Society can shift over" -- that means transfer -- "approximately 12,000 Reichsmarks per month to the budget of the NSDAP General-SS from one August, 1941."
What does that mean?
A Your Honor, first of all, the translation came through wrongly. In my report it says, "Furthermore the Society may, every month, transfer 12,000 marks to the SS." That is to say, the Nazi Party did temporarily help the Society and not vice-versa. What happened was this. In order to help the Society, the salaries of the staff of the Building Management at Wewelsburg temporarily was paid by the Nazi Party. That is to say, thus the same arrangement was made for the Building Management at Wewelsburg as already existed for the rest of the Wewelsburg office. That arrangement was enforced only until approximately February, 1942, as far as I can recollect. The 12,000 marks were never used ully, because the salaries were not high enough to use that whole amount.
Q Well, it isn't clear. Is it to you, Dr. Bergold?
DR. BERGOLD: Yes, it is clear to me. If I may aid the Tribunal by putting some questions, I should be pleased to do so.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, either by putting some questions or putting your own translation on the witness's answer.
DR. BERGOLD: I can give my own translation. The sentence which attracted the attention of Your Honor -that is to say, the expenditure of 660,000 marks a month, the expenditure for Wewelsburg -- that amount consisted largely of the expenditure made for the Reich Labor Service Camp, which later on was used as a concentration camp. The Reich Labor Service had nothing to do with prisoners, but when Himmler, after the outbreak of war, sent prisoners to Wewelsburg, instead of the Reich Labor Service Camp, those prisoners were sent to the camp of the Reich Labor Service. The expenditure for that camp, however, had already been made. Probably that was in the year 1938. That is before the days when the defendant had anything to do with it. But it is humanly understandable that that expenditure to the tune of 600,000 marks was always used for the so-called prisoners camp. That is what the defendant meant to say by his somewhat vague testimony.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think we understand that there had been an original capital investment, on behalf of the labor front, of 600,000 marks for a labor camp. Now, when the camp was taken over as a concentration camp, somebody had to pay back that 600,000 marks.
DR. BERGOLD: The German Reich paid back to the Society that 600,000 marks, for the Reich then took over those camps, those barracks.
All the expense for the concentration camp came out of the Reich funds.
THE PRESIDENT: I think we understand it.
DR. BERGOLD: I am convinced of that. But I would make a little contribution towards the truth. May it please the Court, my client and I do not wish to mislead the Tribunal; we do not know for certain whether this amount of six hundred thousand marks referred solely to the Reich Labor Service Camp. It is possible that Bartels extended, enlarged that camp somewhat, and that some amounts were later on entered by the Society, went through the Society's books. Bat the defendant cannot know that because Bartels always asked for large sums: 100,000 marks, 200,000 marks; and he did not have to render accounts because his was an independent office, because the society was nothing but the treasurer.
BY DR. BERGOLD:
Q Witness, now I would like you to confirm this. Is it correct that you used the word "prison camp" in your report because at that moment it was used as a prison camp?
A Yes.
Q But by that arrangement, that is to say, that the Reich set up a concentration camp, did you negotiate about who was going to bear the costs or what happened?
A No, I heard that the concentration camp was going to be established from a report by Bartels. I don't know for certain who ordered the enlargement of the concentration camp. I assume that it was Himmler. The Society had nothing to do with the concentration camp. That is evident too from the report of the 14th of May, 1942. There is a report there about the building work which the Society did, and that part was taken from the Bartels report; concerning the expense of the building work, there is no report because the Society itself had nothing to do with the establishment of a concentration camp.
Q Yesterday you told us that you were asked to make available barracks for the building of the concentration camp. That didn't refer to this concentration camp, did it?
A Yes, it did. Bartels was very much interested in increasing his number of workers. Therefore, he urged that work should be done quickly, that the work should be speeded up. He asked me to do him a favor and help him with procuring barracks. I refused that under the pretext that I had no raw material quotas for barracks. During the war I didn't think it was any good to build in Wewelsburg. Bartels tried to get barracks for himself then.
Q Who was the one who saw to it that this concentration camp was being built?
A I can't tell you that exactly. I assume that a building management for new constructions of the Inspectorate of Concentration Camps set to work there. That is true for the building of the concentration camp. As to who dealt with the extension of the former Reich Labor Service Camp or the later concentration camp prisoners' labor camp, that I don't know for certain. It is possible that Bartels had something to do with it.
Well, you have already told us that, Doctor.
Q. Witness, in these reports you mention several times the employment of prisoners. Where did that report come from? Was that your own report?
A. That, to, came from Bartels' report. I mean the reports which Bartels sent to me.
Q. The copies of the original reports?
A. Yes, yes.
BY THE PRESIDENT:
Q. Well, it was no news to you that prisoners were being employed by Bartels? You knew that all the time, didn't you?
A. I heard that in 1939, as I have already testified here, your Honor.
Q. Well, you knew that the concentration camp was established in place of the old labor camp for the purpose of reconverting this old castle. That is what the labor was for there.
A. Yes; first of all, the people from the labot camp and later the people from the concentration camp.
Q. Yes. So the statement about the use of inmates for labor could have come from either you or Bartels. You both knew about it.
A. I knew that prisoners worked there but I didn't know how many worked there, and I didn't know what sort of work they were performing at the time; that I learned, and I took, from Bartels' reports.
Q. Oh, well, I can understand that. You didn't direct the labor yourself nor allocate it?
A. No.
Q. But you knew that Bartels was using it?
A. Yes; I had known that as from 1939.
Q. Well, while I have you on the wire, let me see if I can get the activity of the Society straightened out here. First, there was the Wewelsburg project, the reconstruction of this castle that Himmler ordered.
That was one.
A. I beg your pardon, that was the task of the Wewelsburg office on the personal staff of the Reich Leader-SS which asked for money from the Monument Society at the orders of Himmler for that purpose.
Q. Well, all right. At any rate the Wewelsburg project was one in which you were interested. It is one in which you had to be interested because Himmler said, "Go ahead and do it!"
A. I had to carry out the transfer of real estate and transfer of money and that exhausted my interest.
Q. Well, you had some interests. You did something about Wewelsburg. Well, you have already said so...
A. Yes, I have stated that here.
Q. Then there was the Extern-Stein Foundation. That was the old medieval stones that you told us about: that is two.
Who in the world was King Henry the First?
A. that was an old German emperor. I think around the year one thousand -- but history is not my strong point.
Q. Nor mine, apparently. There was some plan for a memorial for him: King Henry the First Memorial Foundation?
A. Yes.
Q. Did you do anything about it -- I mean was any work carried on?
A. No, the cathedral itself belonged to the Prussian State, and it was the competent regional curator who looked after it.
DR. BERGOLD: May it please the Court, the Tribunal cannot understand that the King Henry Fund referred to a certain cathedral -- a church -- in Quedlinburg.
THE PRESIDENT: I understood that. I asked the witness whether he did anything about it, whether he worked on that project, and he said no.
Then you have the Rest Homes for the women and children and, as part of that, the hospital project?
WITNESS: Yes, that is to say, I had to do with the management of the hospital department. The other aspect, the allocation and accommodation, and all that, was under the direction of the Health Office.
BY THE PRESIDENT:
Q. Well, I am just trying to find out which projects you had something to do with. Now, have I named them all? Have I named all of the projects that you were interested in?
A. Yes.
Q. Say your answer over again.
A. I had to deal with the Extern Stone Foundation, with the King Henry Foundation. Then I was the manager of the rest homes club, and I had to deal with the monument society. That, however, had some other departments as well.
DR. BERGOLD: Your Honor, I am afraid a misunderstanding has arisen here. The defendant, concerning your question about the King Henry Foundation. He understood you to ask him whether he built the King Henry Foundation. He did have work to do for it. He did work for the King Henry Foundation -- however, he didn't build it. He misunderstood you.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, what is the fact? You did some work for the King Henry Foundation.
THE WITNESS: The King Henry Foundation had two managers. The first manager was Obergruppenfuehrer Pohl, but in effect he hardly had anything to do with it. The second manager was the Lord Mayor of Quedlinburg. That is the town where the cathedral is situated. That second manager dealt with all the current work, and he collected the contributions from the towns that were members of the foundation, and he organized guiding parties through the cathedral.
Q. (By Dr. Bergold) What did you have to do with that?
A. About once every year I was sent the documents, the papers, from Lord Mayor Selig , that is to say the man who was the Lord Mayor of Quedlinburg, and I then incorporated those papers in my reports for the information of Obergruppenfuehrer Pohl. In affect that work perhaps took me one day a year.
THE PRESIDENT: And that is all you did with reference to the King Henry Memorial?
THE WITNESS: Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: You just got the report of the Lord Mayor once a year and passed it on to Pohl?
THE WITNESS: Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: Recess.
THE MARSHAL: The Tribunal will recess for fifteen minutes.
(A recess was taken.)
Court No. II, Case No. 4.
THE MARSHAL: The Tribunal is again in session.
BY DR. BERGOLD:
Q Witness, in the report of August 1941 you also have a phrase here about the purchasing of the estate of Boedecken in the year 1941. Was this also carried out at that time?
A No, it was only purchased later on. This is the report of the 14th of May, 1942. This is shown by a following report of the 15th of June 1942, from which it becomes evident that on the 28th of May 1942, the final purchasing contract about the Estate Boedecken was concluded. This was done by way of a peaceful settlement. That was sold at the price of 2.4 million Reichsmarks. First of all the owner's demands were too high, and that is why Himmler had ordered this property to be disappropriated. However, it was not completely disappropriated, because a peaceful settlement was later on reached.
THE PRESIDENT: You testified to that yesterday.
Q (By Dr. Bergold) Witness, in this report of 1941, which we have before us now you talk about the death in Auschwitz of the former administrator of the Castle, Dolansky. We have already mentioned the name of Dolansky. I wish, in order to clear up the suspicion that you might have had something to do with his death, I would like you to tell us just what this matter refers to.
THE PRESIDENT: There is no such suspicion at all. You need not talk about it.
DR. BERGOLD: However, I would like to go into the matter for the reason, because it is shown here just how the Defendant Klein stood up on behalf of an these people, in all cases of that kind.
THE PRESIDENT: All right.
Q (By Dr. Bergold) Please give us a rather short statement on that, Witness, in accordance with the statement just made by the Presiding Judge.
A That time limit should also be after 1942. In the fall of 1941 I went to Busau, and here I heard that the man in charge of the castle, the Hauptsturmfuehrer Ratz -- he was protected by Himmler, and he had a Court No. II, Case No. 4.very low number as a member in the SS - he had caused Dolansky to be arrested.
Rats had heard through a spy that Dolansky had participated in a plot to assassinate Himmler. As a result of Dolansky's arrest, and the arrest of also another person, I had a very severe dispute with Ratz, because I did not trust Ratz completely. Against the objections of Ratz, I went to Olmuetz, the Gestapo Agency there, and there it was confirmed to me that Ratz and the Gestapo had found out through a spy of the plot against Himmler. In spite of this, I intervened on behalf of Dolansky, and the Gestapo assured me that Dolansky would be released after - six-month period. When Dolansky was in confinement I let his family go on living in their apartment, and I continued to pay his salary, and to the son of Dolansky I gave a job in administering a certain pit which was located in the area. Since I took these measures on behalf of the family I had to include Dolansky's death in this report.
Q In this case also you were able to find out that the protective custody order had been issued as a result of a very detailed investigation?
A Yes.
Q They where you talk about Kranichfeld and you state that inmates had also been employed there, what can you say about that?
A This place belongs in the report and it should be in April of 1942. At kranichfeld - Kranichfeld also had its own construction management. It was directed by Obersturmfuehrer Giesemann whom I have also mentioned before. He was on the personal staff of the Reichsfuehrer-SS. Here we had the same conditions which prevailed at Wewelsburg. Giesemann received his instructions exclusively from Himmler. The reports about the construction work at Kranichfeld were also included in my monthly report.
In agriculture, inmates were only employed on a temporary basis, and this was done as a result of the Speer decree, according to which the construction work had to be temporarily discontinued. The agricultural work was very easy work, among other things the inmates Court No. II, Case No. 4.picked up stones from the fields.
This is work which the peasants with the children in that area usually have to do every three to four years. For here the soil has many little stones, and it is a rather poor area for agriculture. The construction work was begun in the summer of 1941, and on the first of January 1943 this construction work was completed.
Q Under "4" in this report of 1941 you talk about the Best Home Society, but this probably should be included in the report of 1942.
A Yes. The Best Home Society was only founded in April, 1942.
DR. BERGOLD: May it please the Tribunal, I thank you for the kind attention, however, I can't fight while sitting down.
THE PRESIDENT: You apparently are not very comfortable. If you want to sit down, of course, you may.
DR. BERGOLD: Very well, your Honor.
Q (By Dr. Bergold) Witness, I am now coming to the 14th of May, 1942. Here under I/A/2 you tell us about the program of the construction work, and what can you say in that connection?
A From this part of the report it becomes clearly evident that for the construction work at Wewelsburg not the Society for the Care of Monuments but exclusively the Office Wewelsburg, under the then Gruppenfuehrer Taubert and Obersturmbannfuehrer Bartels, was solely responsible.
Q In this connection it would interest me to know what rank in the General-SS did you hold at that time, at the time when this report was written?
A I was a Sturmbannfuehrer in 1942.
Q Therefore you had a lower rank than Bartels?
A Yes.
Q With regard to the statements you make here about the inmate camp, was that taken from the report of Bartels?
A Yes, it was taken from the report of Bartels.
Q In this report under Article III, l/A/3, you state that you Court No. II, Case No. 4.had taken some action with respect to the priority numbers given to the work.
You have told us that you had nothing to do with the actual construction, and now here you are still dealing with the priority numbers given to the construction work. Just how can you explain the apparent contrast between your report and your testimony?
AAs a result of the raw-material law which was issued by Speer, I had obtained knowledge of this particular law, and severe punishment was imposed whenever this decree was violated. I was afraid that Bartels who was very generous with these things, being an artist, would not take sufficient care of this construction material. I, therefore, told him in a comradely way about the Specifications contained in that law. Bartels then went to Muenster to the Commissioner for Construction Economy there, and he himself negotiated about the development of this construction work. I myself was not any more concerned with these negotiations.
Q Under the next paragraph, 4, you speak about the fact that Bartels on his own initiative had requested that an investigation should begin. He made that request with Himmler. Were you trying to complain because he interfered in your competence, because you alone were competent for that?
A: No, I only complained about the fact that Bartels did not notify us about his actions. Bartels would do whatever he wanted to. He could have requested that a disappropriation procedure should be instituted. However, the society would have had to submit the funds in order to purchase this property. Furthermore, I was of the opinion that a disappropriation procedure at that time was quite appropriate.
Q: Witness, on Page 3 of the report of the 14th of May 1942, in the form in which it has been submitted now, you spoke about the fact that a request had been made, that guards should be. furnished to Office-I. This was the office for the allocation of inmates. Did you or your society make this request, or who initiated it?
A: These statements also originated in the report of Bartels. The request must have been made by either Bartels or by a competent camp leader. The society had nothing to do with that.
Q: Did this further also belong actually in the report of 1942 or in the report of August, 1941? Can't that be seen from the designation which is given to the reports?
A: From the designation "Office.I, Main Department for the Allocation of Inmates," it becomes evident that this part of the report originated in 1941.
Q: Then on the same page you talk about the procurement of raw material, and you talk about the priority numbers to be given. Are you here referring to your own activity, or did this also come from the report of Bartels?
A: These statements also originated with the report of Bartels. Bartels, as the competent man in the construction management, took this action.
DR. BERGOLD: May it please the Tribunal, may I point out that here in the second paragraph on Page 3 of the original report of the 15th of May, 1942, under Paragraph 3, the following is stated, and I quote.
I would like to read this part of the report. "Because of the priority numbers which were given, a report was submitted to the personal staff. The answer has not as yet arrived." It can be seen here that this report originated with another report because it is stated here that to the personal staff a report has been submitted about the priority numbers to be given to the various material. Only the office at Wewelsburg could have submitted this report to the personal staff or its subdivision, namely the Construction Management at Wewelsburg. Therefore, here we see the absolute truth of what the defendant has testified to.
Q: (By Dr. Bergold): Witness, under "H" in this report, capital "H" you spoke about a stone quarry at Preussisch Felmerstod. Since in the first Affidavit-Schwarz the fact has been mentioned that inmates were badly treated in the stone quarries, I would like to ask you to tell us now whether in this stone quarry, Preussisch Felmerstod, inmates worked, or just what was done in the stone quarry?
A: This stone quarry at Preussisch Felmerstod was not leased. A falcon would stay in this particular quarry, which is a very rare bird. That is why this particular place was placed under the protection of the state. Because of this protection of nature the Prussian Forest Administration Office at Wewelsburg refused to lease this particular area. From Wewelsburg inmates could not be furnished to this particular stone quarry because the stone quarry was located fifty kilometers away from Wewelsburg.
Q: And now my final question with regard to your report. I want to ask you the following. In this form of the report of 1942 under L/C with regard to Kranichfeld you state that you requested for an exceptional approvement so that you could actually carry out and continue the repair of this castle.
You have told us that you neither had anything to do with this construction work, why then did you do so instead of the competent construction management?
A: Giesemann also who was in charge of the construction management, as an artist maintained the point of view that an exceptional permission was not necessary in this case. Since the castle belonged to the society I feared that if he violated the building regulations the owner might be punished. For this reason I was careful enough to obtain the exceptional permission so that we would not have any difficulties.
Q: I am now again coming to another subject. Please tell us what ranks you held in the course of your career in the SS and when you achieved the individual ranks so that we will be able to overlook the entire matter.
A: When I was employed by the Society for the Promotion and Care of German Cultural Monuments, I was an Unterscharfuehrer. That was a noncommissioned officer's rank. With an assimilation of rank to my legal education, I was rather quickly promoted to Sturmbannfuehrer. In the summer of 1940 I was still a Hauptsturnfuehrer, and then in the fall I was promoted to Sturmbannfuehrer. Later on, because of my activity for the rest homes, and because so much time had passed, I was promoted once more, and this time I was promoted to Obersturmbannfuehrer. That was on the 1st of December, 1943.
Q: Do these ranks correspond to the same grades in the Waffen-SS, or is there any difference?
A: The rank in a semi-military organization, does not have the same importance as an officer's rank in a troop unit.