He continues: "However, in the subsequent inoculations with virulent spotted fever which are to be made for the purpose of testing the protective vaccine, one must count on sickness particularly in the control group which has not received the protective vaccine. These after-inoculations are desirable in order to establish unequivocally the effectiveness of the protective vaccines. This time 150 persons will be used for the protective vaccine and 50 for the control inoculations."
In other words, he is stating that these 200 experimental subjects which he is requesting and which Sievers wrote to Pohl about, 150 of them are to be protectively vaccinated with this typhus vaccine he wants to test, 50 of them are not to be vaccinated. Then all 200 are to be artificially infected with typhus, and then in that way he tests the effectiveness of the vaccine.
This, incidentally, is the same series of experiments about which the Witness Schmidt testified to in the extract which we have here offered in evidence. The Tribunal will recall she mentioned 200, roughly 50 of them died.
I turn now to Page 36 of the document book, Document 129, which will be Prosecution Exhibit 226. This is a letter dated 10 July 1944 from Hirt to Haagen passing on the suggestion by Himmler that Haagen should mention in his report that the experiments had been personally furthered by the Reichsfuehrer as well as by the SS Economic and Administrative Main Office and the Institute for Military Scientific Research.
On Page 37, Document NO-131 will be Prosecution Exhibit 227. This again the Prosecution contends shows quite clearly that Haagen was using a virulent typhus virus in the course of his experiments and that he did in fact artificially infect experimental concentration camp inmates. This is a memorandum from Kahnt who was the Chief of Staff to the Chief of the Medical Service of the Luftwaffe, that is to say, at this time, the Defendant Handloser in the medical case. This memorandum was concerned with the typhus research order issued by the Medical Service of the Luftwaffe to Haagen. It concerns the research dealing with the dry typhus vaccine which, of course, has been mentioned in our previous exhibits.
In Paragraph 3 it says: "Please advise whether it may be assumed that the spotted fever epidemic prevailing at Natzweiler at present is connected with the vaccine research."
The Prosecution submits that any such comment or inquiry as that would be rather ridiculous unless Dr. Haagen was in fact using a virulent virus in the course of his research at Natzweiler, and the Chief of Staff to Handloser is here inquiring as to whether or not this research conducted by him has caused a wide-spread epidemic of typhus which was occurring at that time at Naztweiler.
If the Tribunal pleases, we are now turning to a series of documents dealing with a different set of experiments. If you would like to adjourn at this time, it would be a convenient point to break off.
THE PRESIDENT: Very well, we will recess until tomorrow morning at nine-thirty, to meet in Courtroom One and have there an exhibition of motion picture films involved in this case.
MR. McHaney: I assume that the Tribunal wishes to limit the session tomorrow to the exhibition of the pictures?
THE PRESIDENT: You are quite right.
THE MARSHAL: This Tribunal is in recess until 0930 tomorrow morning in Room 600.
(The Tribunal adjourned until 12 April 1947, at 0930 Hours.)
Official transcript of Military Tribunal II, Case 4, in the matter of the United States of America against Oswald Pohl, et all, defendants, sitting at Nurnbert, Germany, on 12 April 1947, 0930, Justice Toms, presiding.
THE MARSHAL: Persons in the Courtroom will please find their seats. The Honorable, the Judges of Military Tribunal II. Military Tribunal II is now in session. God save the United States of America and this honorable Tribunal. There will be order in the courtroom.
THE PRESIDENT: The Marshal will determine whether all of the defendants named in the indictment are present in Court.
THE MARSHAL: May it please Your Honors, all the defendants are present in the dock.
THE PRESIDENT: Very well.
MR. MC HANEY: May it please the Tribunal, the special session this morning has been called for the purpose of exhibiting three documentary films which show conditions in certain concentration camps immediately after those camps were over-run by one or the other of the allied armies. The first film is entitled "Auschwitz"; the second "Maidanek"; and the third "German Concentration Camps."
The first two films, "Auschwitz," and "Maidanek" were made under the supervision of Russian authorities, while the film "German Concentration Camps" was made under the supervision of American authorities.
Before these films are exhibited I would like to present first a certificate which reads as follows:
C E R T I F I C A T E "1. I, Howard J. McCracken, Captain, Army, U.S., Serial Number 0-1055665, do hereby certify that:
1. I am on active duty as the officer in charge of the Reproduction Division in the Office of the Chief of Counsel for war Crimes, APO 124-A. I have hold this position since the inception of the Office of Chief of Counsel for War Crimes under Brigadier General Telford Taylor and previously held the same position in the Office of Chief of Counsel under Mr. Justice Robert H. Jackson."
"2. The two documentary films entitled "Auschwitz" and "Maidanek" were obtained by this office from the Information Control Division, Office of Military Government for Land Greater Hesse."
"3. The film entitled "Nazi Concentration Camps" was introduced in evidence before the International Military Tribunal in Case Number 1, as USA Exhibit No. 79."
"4. These films are in the same condition as when received by this office and have not been altered, distorted, or changed in any manner."
HOWARD J. MC CRACKEN "Subscribed and sworn to before me this _______day of April 1947.
Charles W. Mays, Colonel" I also wish to present another certificate concerning the two Russian films.
This certification rends as follows:
9 April 1947 "The moving pictures, "Auschwitz" and "Maidanek" for lease through the Bureau of SOVEXPORTFILM in Germany, are documentary films."
"The documentary film "Auschwitz" is a 1945 release of the Central Order of the Red Banner Studio."
"It was filmed on the spot by M. Oshurkov, N. Rykov, K. Katub-Kade, A. Pavlov, and A Vorontnov."
"The documentary film, "Maidanek", a kino document of the Atrocities Perpetrated by the Germans in the Extermination Camp of Maidanek in the City of Lublin, was filmed by A sofin, R. Karmen and V. Schatland."
"This film is a release of the Central Order of the Red Banner Studio's documentary films for 1944."
"No changes in either film have been made after release."
"This certification is given to the American Lessee of the film."
"Representative, SOVEXPORTFILM in Germany - (signed) V. Balandin."
This certification is in Russian, and I shall have the original, together with English translations, filed with the Secretary-General.
The first film to be shown will be "Auschwitz," and is offered by the Prosecution as Exhibit 225. The second film "Maidanek" will continue more or less immediately following the showing of "Auschwitz," and is offered as Prosecution Exhibit 226.
I understand that there will be a short break following the showing of the first two films, and we will make our offer on the last film at the end of the recess.
DR. SEIDL: Mr. President, I do not object to the admissibility of the motion pictures which the Allied Forces have made. The reason I don't object is because we have had an opportunity earlier on to see the film. On the other hand, I am not in a position to make a similar declaration with regard to the other two films since the defense has so far not seen the other films. I , therefore, beg to reserve myself the right to object to the admissibility of these other two films if the occasion should arise, even after they have been shown.
THE PRESIDENT: It is obviously even impossible for you to object to something you haven't seen, and it is impossible for the court to rule on something that is hasn't seen, so you will reserve the right to object at any time to any of these exhibits.
DR. SEIDL: I should also like to make the following statement: The first film deals with conditions in concentration camps such as they existed when the Allied Forces arrived. I should like to add right now that during proceedings evidence will be submitted which will show that at the time when the enemy began to threaten the camps supervision of the camps was transferred from the main administrative office to the respective higher SS police leaders and that after that period they were responsible for conditions and that they particularly had to decide upon the question whether the camp was to be handed over or whether it should be evacuated.
THE PRESIDENT: You can make any explanations at the proper time.
(At this time the films "Auschwitz", Prosecution Exhibit 225, and "Maidanek", Prosecution Exhibit 226, were exhibited.)
THE MARSHAL: There will be a recess for 10 minutes. A recess was taken.
THE MARSHAL: The Tribunal II is again in session.
MR. Mc HANEY: If the Tribunal please, the next film, "Nazi Concentration Camps", will be Prosecution Exhibit 227.
(At this time the film "Nazi Concentration Camps", Prosecution Exhibit 227, was exhibited.)
THE PRESIDENT: The court will be in recess until 9:30 o'clock Monday Morning. The Marshal will so announce.
THE MARSHAL: The court will recess until 9:30 Monday morning.
(The Tribunal adjourned until 9:30 hours, Monady, 14 April 1947.)
Official Transcript of the American Military Tribunal in the Matter of the United. States of America against Oswald. Pohl, et al., defendants, sitting at Nurnberg, Germany, on 14 April 1947, 0930-1630, Justice Toms presiding.
MR. McHANEY: May it please the Tribunal, I would first like to correct two mistakes in the record. The first one is to remember the films which were exhibited on Saturday morning. The were given the exhibit numbers 225 for the Auschwitz film, 226 for the Majdanek, and 227 for the Nazi Concentration Camps. I should like to have those re-numbered in the proper sequence, which will be, for the Auschwitz film, Exhibit Number 228; for the Majdanek film, prosecution Exhibit 229; and for the Nazi Concentration Camps film, prosecution Exhibit Number 230.
The second mistake in the record is that at the close of the session on Friday, I had been presenting documents dealing with typhus experiments by Dr. Haagen in the Natzweiler concentration camp, and I called to the Tribunal's attention Document NO 131, which was Prosecution Exhibit 227. That is on Page 37, Document Book 9. That was a letter by Kahnt to Haagen and others, asking Haagen whether the typhus epidemic at Natzweiler was connected with his research work there. I had staked that Kahnt was Chief of staff to Handloser, which, of course, is incorrect. Kahnt was Chief of Staff to Schroeder. Schroeder was the Chief of the Medical Service of the Luftwaffe, and I also had improperly identified Handloser with that position. Kahnt was, in fact, the Chief of Staff to Schroeder, who was Chief of the Medical Service of the Luftwaffe.
THE PRESIDENT: Schroeder was Chief Surgeon of the Luftwaffe or the Wehrmacht?
MR. HcHANEY: Luftwaffe. Handloser was Chief of the Medical Service of the Wehrmacht.
I would like at this time to have the Tribunal direct the Marshal to summon the witness Bielski to the stand again. He is subject to cross examination this morning.
However, with the Tribunal's permission, the Prosecution has a few additional questions which we would like to put to him before he is released to cross examination.
THE PRESIDENT: The Marshal will please bring the witness Bielski to the courtroom.
JERZY BIELSKI -- Continued CROSS EXAMINATION -- Resumed BY MR. ROBBINS:
Q. Herr Bielski, you understand that you are still under oath to tell the whole truth?
A. Yes, I do.
Q. Will you tell the Tribunal again what kind of work you were doing in Auschwitz concentration camp in the middle of 1944?
A. I was always in the electrical detachment, first as an assistant worker and then as a skilled worker, and sometimes as a clerk of the detachment.
Q. Did you in any of your work come into contact with work on the crematoriums or gas chambers?
A. Yes, I worked everywhere because our detachment had to work everywhere. All instalations, all constructions, all electrical equipment was our job, and I worked in the crematorium or gas chambers in Auschwitz perhaps twenty or more times.
Q. Did you have anything to do with requisitioning material for those places?
A. Yes, indeed.
Q. What was your job in that connection?
A. As clerk I had to keep a list of the requirements of the material that was needed for the work which the detachment carried out, and I also had to specify the quantity and the kind of materials and then they were assigned by the chief of the detachment, and then the requirements were approved by the head of the electrical department in the construction detachment concerned, and then they came hack to me, and I took the people and the trucks, and I went to what is called the construction place, where I actually picked up the material from the magazines.
Therefore, I know how this whole machinery for obtaining material looked.
Q. Do you know to whom the requisitions were sent in the WVHA and where the material came from?
A The material, the whole of the material which was collected in the construction building came through the assistance of the department C-6 of the WVHA, and that was mentioned very often on the memoranda. They were always printed WVHA, Department C-6, and all the trucks which were in the courtyard of the construction place came from that department too.
Q Was any man's name mentioned on the requisition slips?
A Yes.
Q Who was that?
A The names of Bischof and Eirenschmalz.
Q What kind of material, will you tell the Court, did you obtain from Eirenschmalz and from C-6?
A The whole of our material, our electric equipment and other material, timber, all that sort of thing, all that we needed to carry out our task, we received from C-6 through the assistance of the construction building.
Q Did you see Bischof in the camp?
A Yes, indeed I have.
Q Did you see Eirenschmalz in the camp?
A. Eirenschmalz I saw in the construction yard.
Q That was in Auschwitz, was it?
A Yes, it was in Auschwitz roughly six hundred or seven hundred yards from our place of work, from our quarters.
Q How many times did you see Eirenschmalz there?
A I remember one particular occasion when I saw Eirenschmalz. That was the end of summer of 1944. At that time we had been liquidated, and commissions arrived consisting of about six or seven people, seven higher officers and SS officers who came from the department construction, and they inspected the construction yard, and they consulted among each other how the construction yards could best be liquidated, and at that time I saw Eirenschmalz together with Bischof.
Q Did you ever see Sommer at the Auschwitz concentration camp?
A You mean Hauptsturmfuehrer Sommer? Yes, indeed I have.
Q How many times did you see him in the concentration camp at Auschwitz?
A I saw him on several occasions when he was sitting on a motor bike. He had a motor bike with the side car, and he was always with that motor bike. Then I saw him, I saw him with an N. C. O. or somebody, a man called Emmerich. He was very well known for his bestiality. Also I saw Sommer accompanied by another officer called Held. I saw Sommer two or three times accompanied by a sturmbannfuehrer who was his superior officer. I do not remember his name any more. All I remember is that he was a sturmbannfuehrer. He was the head of the whole department. All of the labor assignments in Auschwitz were under that officer.
Q Will you describe one of the occasions on which you saw Sommer?
A Yes, that was in the winter of 1943 or the beginning of 1944. At that time we worked, we electricians worked together with a detachment of builders in what was called the security work block, security work shop. That was roughly one kilometer outside the camp near the construction yard. There we had an electrical installation, and in the next block the electrical installation wasn't ready yet. Various things were still missing, and that was where the builders worked, and at that time Sommer and two N. C. O.'s appeared. Sommer appeared on a motor bike, and he made a lot of noise and ran into the block crying and shouting because he didn't see the inmates do any work, and then too, which I saw after he was dead, he took a brick, he took a brick and broke his skull, because that was a very notorious method. The spirit behind that method was Kramer. He invented that method and tried it out on inmates.
THE PRESIDENT: Just a minute, he took a brick and broke something. Who took a brick?
THE WITNESS: The brick was picked up by Sommer.
Q And what did he do with it?
A He took the brick and hit him from behind on the skull, and that was what broke the inmate's skull, and the inmate collapsed and was dead. I saw that myself.
THE PRESIDENT: I still don't know what he hit him on.
THE WITNESS: He hit him on the head with a brick.
THE PRESIDENT: Oh, his head.
JUDGE MUSSMANO: Skull.
THE PRESIDENT: Oh, skull.
Q And by his hands?
A Yes, he took the brick into both hands and with his whole force hit him on the head from behind.
Q Did you see any other methods of treatment by Sommer toward any of the inmates?
A Yes, he usually had a whip in his hand and he hit inmates with that whip, but at that time he was also very notorious with that method of hitting people on the heads with bricks. That was how he killed a great friend of mine, a Polish trooper called Weiss. He killed him while he was working. Sommer came along as a surprise, and he took a great big brick and again hit him on the head.
Q If you were to see Sommer and Eirenschmalz today could you identify them?
A Yes.
Q Will you stand up and see if you can identify them from the persons in the dock, please?
A Yes, certainly. (The witness left the stand to identify the prisoners.) This is Eirenschmalz and the other is Sommer.
MR. ROBBINS: May the record show that the witness properly identified the defendants, Eirenschmalz and Sommer?
THE PRESIDENT: The record will so indicate.
MR. ROBBINS: May I inquire of the Tribunal if the record shows the Defendant Sommer's remarks to the witness when he was identified?
THE PRESIDENT: I think it was the Defendant Eirenschmalz who spoke. The translators inform the Court that Eirenschmalz said, "I am the other one."
MR. ROBBINS: And does the record show what the Defendant Sommer said?
THE PRESIDENT: I didn't observe that the Defendant Sommer said anything.
MR. ROBBINS: Very well, your Honor.
Court No. 2 Case IV
Q. Herr Biolski, do you recall a time in the middle of 1944 when Hungarian transports were bought into Auschwitz Concentration Camp?
A. Yes, I do. There were many transports which reached Auschwitz at that time. For four or five months Hungarian transports kept arriving. And just as in the case of the earlier transports for gassing, they brought many pieces of valuable property. That was why in Auschwitz, opposite the SS kitchen and behind the so-called theatre building, there were six or seven wooden barracks in which there was a detachment consisting mostly of Jews, who worked there. Their task was to collect all of the shoes which had belonged to the gassed people. They had to search these shoes, tear off the soles and then take out things like gold, jewels and money and hand them over to the inspector for the SS. At that time, every day there were more than ten thousand shoes, for instance, which were handed in, and after the searching most of those shoes were burned in a nearby pit.
Q. Did you see the barracks where the shoes were inspected?
A. Yes.
Q. Did you see some of the shoes after -
A. Yes, indeed, I did.
Q. Do you know upon whose order this searching of the shoes was instigated?
A. Yes.
Q. And will you tell us how you know that?
A. I know that that happened upon orders from Pohl and that the work was carried out on Pohl's orders. Two German capos and an SS man of the construction detachment told me that after Pohl's last visit to Auschwitz the SS men actually said that our leaders reached the decision at that time that shoes should not be destroyed altogether and all the money which might be in the shoes should be taken from the shoes and then handed over.
Q. On Friday you testified that you saw certain inmates who were taken into the gas chamber in Auschwitz at the same time that Pohl Court No. 2 Case IV was there.
A. Yes.
Q. Will you tell us what physical condition those inmates were in?
A. At that time, in that particular case, I saw very well that the inmates were ill, very weak physically and they all came from the hospital in Auschwitz. They had been taken from the hospital or otherwise they were emaciated prisoners of the camp who had no strength left at all. They were weak persons who were incapable of doing any more work.
Q. Were all of them weak, as far as you could see?
A. In this particular case, certainly. And they were almost naked. They had only small pieces of shirts on that. That indicated that they all came from the hospital or so-called ambulances, and were sent there in an ambulance, and they had left their clothes behind in the hospital.
Q. Just one further question: You mentioned Bischof in connection with Eirenschmalz a moment ago. Will you tell the Tribunal what position Bischof occupied, please?
A. Yes. Bischof was a Sturmbannfuehrer and he was the head of the building inspectorate at Auschwitz. He was in charge of our detachment in 1944, but not at Auschwitz, but at a place nearby, Kochlowitz, and he constructed that actually and the inspectorate was transferred from Auschwitz to Kochlowitz and Bischof was in charge there. He was known as the head of the building inspectorate. He visited us very often. He had the building office and we always knew he was the head of the building inspectorate.
MR. ROBBINS: The Prosecution has no further questions.
CROSS-EXAMINATION BY DR. SEIDL:
Q. Witness, on Friday you said that you yourself had observed gassings at Auschwitz. Where was the building where you say you observed people being gassed?
A. These gassings to which I testified took place in the gas Court No. 2 Case IV chamber near Crematorium 3.
Q. Is that inside the camp or outside the concentration camp?
A. That was inside the big guard compound of the camp, Birkenau, and it was near the barracks of Birkenau.
Q. Do you know whether there was a comp in Auschwitz called Monnowitz?
A. Yes, it is known to me.
Q. What did the building look like where you saw people being gassed? Can you give a precise description of it?
A. That was not in Monnowitz; that was in Auschwitz.
Q. What did the building look like?
A. It wasn't a building; it was a subterranean cellar and it was about thirty meters long and fifteen meters wide. All you could see from above was a little hill or something which was about a half a meter above ground, and in the middle of this there was a window and the entrance was on the left-hand side. The entrance was inclined to the left and there were three of four little steps which led downstairs. Later on the gas chamber was changed, perhaps three or four months later on. Later on there was no more entrance from the outside, only indirectly from the crematorium; but at first the entrance was from the outside -- and at that time from the window which was made in the workshop next to our own workshop. I know that later on the building was changed and the gas chamber was changed, instead of the window there was a little opining which was used.
Q. And at what time do you allege to have observed these things?
A. I observed this from ten o'clock in the morning until we finished work; that is to say, half-past four.
Q. If I remember correctly, you said on Friday that this was in June, 1943.
A. Yes, in June, 1943.
Q. At what distance were you from the gas oven?
A. It wasn't a gas oven, only a sort of gas cellar. We were not always standing at the same point. We changed our place. Sometimes we were forty meters away from it and sometimes eighty meters.
Q. You alleged that you saw the Defendant Pohl both in the morning and afternoon?
A. Yes.
Q. In the afternoon there was a large number of persons present, as you said on Friday. Who else was there with Pohl? Did you recognize anybody in Pohl's staff?
A. I counted them very well. There were twenty-two or twentythree people. Almost all of them were guests. There were only six permanent members of the Auschwitz staff. The others were all guests of Pohl's; they came from the outside. There was Bodermin, and two civilians were there. We were puzzled why there should be civilians, but we didn't find an answer.
Q. Is it known to you that SS Gruppenfuehrer Gluecks was at Auschwitz?
A. You mean Gloeck: What was the name?
Q. Gloecks.
A. Yes, he came to Auschwitz, but I didn't see him on that occasion, and I didn't see him from very closely. All inmates knew that sometimes the General of the Waffen SS and Obergruppenfuehrer Glueck, or Gluecks, would come to the camp; but whether he was there on that particular occasion I am not able to say now.
Q. How often had you seen Obergruppenfuehrer Pohl before, before June 1943?
A. Before then I saw him perhaps five times, before June, 1943.
Q. And you think it is out of the question that in June, 1943, you might have confused persons and that you saw somebody else who you thought was Pohl?
A. I know very well that it was Pohl at that time, near the gas chamber. I saw him in the afternoon when he was very close by and he asked the leader of our detachment what we were doing and our detachment leader reported to him and Pohl looked at us and looked at every single one of us, at what we were doing, and he stood there for about five minutes and talked to other officers.
He talked about the electricity installations, the extension of the electrical network in that particular part of the camp.
DR. SEIDL: I have no further questions.
BY DR. von STEIN:
Q. I believe I understood you correctly to say that you saw Eirenschmalz in late summer, 1944, in Auschwitz, is that right?