dtufail/nuremberg-trials-corpus huggingface dataset:
THE PRESIDENT: You only read that one statement, but where does the person who made the affidavit get his information from?
MAJOR WALSH: I shall be pleased to read that in there, Sir. I made a statement that Eichmann has been the source of the information given to Dr. Wilhelm Hoettl, one of his assistants, and on Page 1 it says: "According to my knowledge, Eichmann was at the time a section leader in Amt IV (Gestapo) of RSHA; and in addition he had been ordered by Himmler to get hold of the Jews in all the European countries and to transport them to Germany. Eichmann was then very much impressed with the fact that Romania had withdrawn from the war in those days. Therefore, he had come to me to get information about the military situation, which I received daily from the Hungarian. . .Ministry of War and from the Commander of the Waffen-SS in Hungary. He expressed his conviction that Germany had lost the war and that he personally had no further chance. He knew that he would be considered one of the main war criminals by the United Nations, since he had minions of Jewish lives on his conscience. I asked him how many that was, to which he answered that although the number was a great Reich secret, he would tell me since I, as a historian too, would be interested and that probably he would not return anyhow from his command in Romania. He had, shortly before that, made a report to Himmler, as the latter wanted to know the exact number of Jews who had been killed." It was on that basis of this information, Sir, that I read the following quotation.
THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal will adjourn now.
THE PRESIDENT: The motion that was made this morning on behalf of the Defendant Kaltenbrunner is denied, and the affidavit is admitted and will not be stricken from the record. But the Tribunal wished me to say that it is open to the Defendants' Counsel, in accordance with the Charter and the Rules , to make a motion, in writing, if they wish to do so, for the attendance of Pfaffenberger for cross-examination and to state in that motion the reasons therefor.
DR. KAUFFMANN: May I now bring up a question similar, though in some respects different, from that of Pfaffenberger? I request that the evidence of Dr. Hoettl, which was read into the record this morning be stricken out again for the following two reasons. As far as I know, Dr. Hoettl is here in Nuremberg...
THE PRESIDENT: One minute. Do you understand that the Tribunal has just denied the motion that you made this morning?
DR. KAUFFMANN: Yes, I understood that perfectly.
THE PRESIDENT: What is your motion now?
DR. KAUFFMANN: I should like to ask that the evidence of Dr. Hoettl be stricken from the record. My reasons for this request are rather different from those given this morning in the Pfaffenberger case. As can be seen from the affidavit, Dr. Hoettl was interrogated on the 26th of November hardly 3 weeks ago. Moreover I gather that Dr. Hoettl is kept in custody here in Nuremberg. No delay would therefore be involved if this witness were called to the stand. This man held a significant position in the SS and for that reason I have already applied in writing that he be called as a witness. I am convinced that there is a large amount of important evidence which he can reveal to the Court. Dr. Hoettl's deposition is infinitely important. The death of millions of people is involved here. His affidavit is based largely on inferences, on hearsay; I believe that the facts are very different, and I would not like to apply later, after weeks or months, for the witness to be brought into Court.
MAJOR WALSH: If the Court please, excerpts from the affidavit of Dr. Wilhelm Hoettl were read into the record this morning for the purpose...
THE PRESIDENT: Wait-what was the number?
MAJOR WALSH: Document 2738-PS.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, go on.
MAJOR WALSH: Dr. Hoettl's affidavit 2738 was in part read into the record this morning for the sole purpose of showing the approximate number of Jews, according to his estimates, that had met death at the hands of the German State. No other portion of his testimony was referred to and the evidence offered was only for the sole purpose of establishing his estimate of the number. His position in the Party and in the state, as well as the position of Adolf Eichmann, the source of his information, was also stated into the record. I believe that Dr. Hoettl, if he is desired for any other purpose by the Defense, may be called by the Defense, but the Prosecution had no other purpose in utilizing his evidence.
THE PRESIDENT: Do you wish to add anything more?
MAJOR WALSH: That is all, Sir.
THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal makes the same ruling in this case as in the case of Pfaffenberger, namely, that the affidavit is admitted in evidence but that it is open to Defendants' Counsel to make a motion, in writing, for the attendance of the witness for cross-examination and to state in that motion the reasons for it.
MAJOR WALSH: During the morning session the Court requested certain information concerning documents that had been offered and accepted in evidence. I refer to Document 1061-PS , the report "The Warsaw Ghetto Is No More." This report, I am told, was prepared for presentation at a meeting of the SS Police leaders to be held on 18 May 1943. That is indicated on Page 45 of the translation before the Court. This document was captured by the 7th United States Army and delivered by them to the G-2 of the United States Forces in the European Theater. In turn they were delivered to Colonel Storey of the United States prosecutors stay, some months ago. The Court also ignored...
THE PRESIDENT: Major Walsh, I think the Tribunal also wished to know whether you could tell us to whom the report had been made?
MAJOR WALSH: The report, Sir, according to the teletypes- the daily teletypes, Six-was addressed to the Higher SS and Police Leader East, SS Obergruppenfuehrer and General of the Police Kruger, or his deputy.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you.
MAJOR WALSH: The Court further inquired about Document L-53 and I have obtained some information concerning this document. This document was captured by T-Force of the Counter Intelligence Corps Detachment Number 220, found among the German records at Weimar, Germany, sometime prior to 10 May 1945. The Court further inquired, concerning this document, the meaning of the letters "WB." I regret that I have been unable to obtain definite information as to the meaning of "WB" but it has been suggested to me that it might mean Westbund or Western Ally because it is used in connection with the capture-the destruction of all prisoners before capture by either the WB or the Red Armies, and I presume that it may mean Westbund. The slaughter of the Jews in Europe cannot be expressed in figures alone, for the impact of this slaughter is even more tragic to the future of the Jewish people and mankind. Ancient Jewish communities with their own rich spiritual, cultural, and economic life, bound up for centuries with the life of the nations in which they flourished, have been completely obliterated. The contribution of the Jewish people to civilization, the arts, the sciences, industry, and culture, need not) I am sure, be elaborated upon before this Tribunal. Their destruction, carried out continuously, deliberately, intentionally, and methodically by the Nazis, represents a loss to civilization of special qualities and abilities that cannot possibly be recouped. I have not attempted to recount the multitudinous and diabolical crimes committed against the Jewish people by the state which these defendants ruled, because, with sober regard for contemporary and historical truth, a detailed description of some of these crimes would transcend the utmost reaches of the human faculty of expression. The mind already recoils and shrinks from the acceptance of the incredible facts already related.
MAJOR WALSH: Rather, it is my purpose to elucidate the pattern, the successful and successive stages, the sequence and concurrence of the crimes committed, the pre-determined means to a pre-ordained end. Yet, these cold, stark, brutal facts and figures, drawn largely from the defendants' own sources and submitted in evidence before this Tribunal, defy rebuttal From conception to execution, from the Party program of 1920 to the gloating declarations of Himmler and the Defendant Frank in 1943 and 1944, the annihilation of the Jewish people in Europe was man-made-made by the very men, sitting in the defendants' box, brought to judgment before this Tribunal. Before closing may I acknowledge with appreciation the untiring services of the group of the staff of the United States' Prosecution, through whose painstaking search, analysis, and study, this presentation of evidence was made possible: Captain Seymour Krieger, Lieutenant Brady Bryson, Lieutenant Frederick Felton, Sergeant Isaac Stone, and Mr. Hans Nathan.
COL. STOREY: If the Tribunal please, the next presentation, concerning Germanization and spoliation in occupied countries, will be presented by Captain Sam Harris.
CAPTAIN SAMUEL HARRIS (Assistant Trial Counsel for the United States): May the Tribunal please, documents relating to the Nazi program of Germanization and Spoilation have been assembled in a document book bearing the letter "U." These document books are now being distributed for the use of the members of the Tribunal. I ask Your Honors to note that the tabs on the side of the document book are numbered 1 to 30. The index sheet at the front of the book keys these numbers to the EC, PS, and R numbers of our exhibits. For Your Honors' convenience we have also numbered the pages of each exhibit in pencil at the upper right-hand corner of each exhibit. The documents which we shall introduce were collected by Lieutenant Kenyon, who sits at my right and by Doctors Derenberg and Jacoby. Without their untiring efforts, this presentation would not have been possible. Evidence has already been introduced by Mr. Alderman to prove that the defendants conspired to wage aggressive war. It has also been proved that the desire for Lebensraum was one of the chief forces motivating the conspirators to plan, launch, and wage their wars of aggression. We propose at this time to present evidence disclosing what the conspirators intended to do with conquered territories, called by them Lebensraum, after they had succeeded in overpowering the victims of their aggressions. We have broadly divided this subject into two categories: Germanization and spoliation. When we speak of plans to germanize, we mean plans to assimilate conquered territories politically, culturally, socially, and economically into the German Reich Germanization, we shall demonstrate, meant the obliteration of the former :national character of the conquered territories and the extermination of all elements which could not be reconciled with the Nazi ideology. By spoliation, we mean the plunder of public and private property and, in general, the exploitation of the people and the natural resources of occupied countries. We propose, with the permission of Your Honors, to introduce at this time 30 documents in all.
CAPTAIN SAMUEL HARRIS (Assistant Trial Counsel for the United States): These documents lay bare some of the secret plans of the conspirators to germanize, to plunder, to despoil, and to destroy. They do not, of course, tell the whole story of all the conspirators' plans in this field. In some instances proof of the plan is derived from the acts committed by the conspirators. But these few documents are particularly illuminating with respect to the conspirators' plans for Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Russia; and they indicate the outlines of carefully conceived plans for the rest of Europe. Others who follow will fill in this outline by showing a series of outrages committed on so vast a scale that no doubts will exist that they were committed according to plan. Poland was, in a sense, the testing ground for the conspirators'. theories upon Lebensraum; and I turn to that country first. The four western provinces of Poland were purportedly incorporated into Germany by an order of 8 October 1939. This order, which was signed by Hitler, Lammers, and Defendants Goering, Frick, and Hess, is set forth in Reichsgesetzblatt , 1939, Part I, Page 2042; and we ask the Tribunal to take judicial notice thereof. These areas of Poland are frequently referred to in correspondence among the conspirators as "incorporated Eastern Territories." The remainder of Poland, which was seized by the Nazi invaders, was established as the Government General of Poland by an order of Hitler dated 12 October 1939. By that same order Defendant Hans Frank was named Governor General of the newly created Government General; and Defendant Seyss-Inquart was named Deputy Governor General. This order is set forth in Reichsgesetzblatt , 1939, Part I, Page 2077; and we ask the Tribunal also to take judicial notice of it. The plans with respect to Poland were rather complicated; and I believe that the significance of specific items of proof may be more readily apparent if, in advance of the introduction of the documents, I am permitted briefly to indicate the broad pattern of these plans.
CAPTAIN SAMUEL HARRIS (Assistant Trial Counsel for the United States): We submit that the documents we are about to introduce on Poland show the following: First: The conspirators specifically planned to exploit the people and material resources of the Government General of Poland in order to strengthen the Nazi war machine, to impoverish the, Government General, and to reduce it to a vassal state. At a later stage plans were formulated for creating islands of German settlements in the more fertile regions of the Government General in order to engulf the native Polish population and accelerate the process of Germanization. Second: The incorporated area of Poland, which was deemed to be a part of the German Reich, was to be ruthlessly germanized. To that end, the conspirators planned: (a) To permit the retention of the productive facilities in the incorporated area, all of which, of course, would be dedicated to the Nazi war machine. (b) They planned to deport to the Government General many hundreds of thousands of Jews, members of the Polish intelligentsia, and other non-compliant elements. We shall show that the Jews who were deported to the Government General were doomed to speedy annihilation. Moreover, since the conspirators felt that members of the Polish intelligentsia could not be germanized and might serve as a center of resistance against their New Order, they too went be eliminated. (c) They planned to deport all able-bodied Polish workers to Germany for work in the Nazi war machine. This served the twofold purpose of helping to satisfy the labor requirements of the Nazi war machine and preventing the propagation of a new generation of Poles. Mr. Dodd has already produced abundant proof on this topic, and I shall do no more than refer to it. (d) They planned to mould all persons in the incorporated area who were deemed to possess German blood into German subjects who would religiously adhere to the principles of National Socialism. To that end the conspirators set up an elaborate racial register. Those who resisted or refused to co-operate in this program were sent to concentration camps.
CAPTAIN SAMUEL HARRIS (Assistant Trial Counsel for the United States): (e) They planned to bring thousands of German subjects into the incorporated area for purposes of settlement. (f) And finally, they planned to confiscate the property-particularly the fauns-of the Poles, the Jews, and all dissident elements. The confiscation of the property of Jews was part of the conspirators' larger program of extermination of the Jews. Confiscation likewise served three additional purposes: (1) It provided land for the new German settlers and enabled the conspirators to reward their adherents; (2) dispossessed Polish property owners could be shipped to Germany for work in the production of implements of war; and (3) the separation of Polish farmers from their wives furthered the plan to prevent the growth of a new generation of Poles. We turn now to the specific items of proof. I first offer in evidence Document Number EC-344 (16), which is Exhibit Number USA-297. This document is a report of an interview with Defendant Frank on 3 October 1939 and was found among the files of the OKW, which were assembled in bulk at the Fechenheim document center. This particular document was included in a large report prepared in the OKVV by one Captain Varain at the direction of General Thomas, then chief of the. military economic staff of the OEVV. I quote from the first 19 lines of Page 3 of the English text. The German text appears on Page 29, lines 25-36, and Page 30, lines 1-6. The report states, and I quote: "In the first interview which the chief of the Central Division and the liaison officer between the Armament Department Upper East and the Chief Administrative Officer (subsequently Governor General) had with Reich Minister Frank on 3 October 1939 in Posen, Frank explained the instruction which had been entrusted to him by the Fuehrer and the economic political directives according to which he intended to administer Poland.
CAPTAIN SAMUEL HARRIS (Assistant Trial Counsel for the United States): According to these directives, Poland could be administered only by utilizing the country by of ruthless exploitation; removal of all supplies-raw materials, machines, factory installations, et cetera-which are important for the German war economy; availability of all workers for work within Germany; reduction of the entire Polish economy to the absolute minimum necessary for the bare existence of the population; closing of all institutions, especially technical schools and colleges in order to prevent the growth of a new Polish intelligentsia. Poland"-Defendant Frank stated-and this is an exact quotation-"Poland shall be treated as a colony; the Poles shall be the slaves of the Greater German World Empire." I should like also to quote from the last six lines of the English text of this Exhibit. In the German text it is lines 18 to 23 of Page 30. Defendant Frank further stated, and I quote: "By destroying Polish industry its subsequent reconstruction after the war would become more difficult, if not impossible, so that Poland would be reduced to its proper position as an agrarian country which would have to depend upon Germany for importation of industrial products." As further proof of the defendant's plan to plunder and despoil the Government General of Poland, I next offer in evidence Document Number EC 410, which is Exhibit Number USA-298. In addition to the proof of the defendant's plans to plunder and despoil the Government General, this document demonstrates the difference in treatment which the conspirators planned for the incorporated area of Poland and the Government General. It is a copy of a directive issued and signed by Defendant Goering on 19 October 1939 and was likewise found among the captured OKW files. I quote from lines 1 to 19 on Page 1 of the English text. In the German text it is all of Page 1 and the first line of Page 2. Defendant Goering's directive states, and I quote: "In the meeting of October 13th I have given detailed instructions for the economical administration of the occupied territories.
CAPTAIN SAMUEL HARRIS (Assistant Trial Counsel for the United States): I will repeat them here in short: "1. The task for the economic treatment of the various administrative regions is different, depending on whether a country which will be incorporated politically into the German Reich is involved or whether we deal with the Government General, which in all probability, will not be made a part of Germany. "In the first-mentioned territories the reconstruction and expansion of the economy, the safeguarding of all their production facilities and supplies must be aimed at, as well as a complete incorporation into the Greater German economic system at the earliest possible time. On the other hand, there must be removed from the territories of the Government General all raw materials, scrap materials, machines, et cetera which are of use for the German war economy. Enterprises which are not absolutely necessary for the meager maintenance of the naked existence of the population must be transferred to Germany, unless such transfer would require an unreasonably long period of time and would make it more practical to exploit those enterprises by giving them German orders to be executed at their present location." Once the Government General had been stripped of its industrial potential, the defendants planned to leave the country desolate. Not even the war damage was to be repaired. This is the clear import of the documents previously introduced and is likewise made clear by Document Number EC-411, which. is Exhibit Number USA-299. I offer this document in evidence. This document is a copy of an order dated So November 1939, by Defendant Hess, in his capacity as Deputy Fuehrer. This document was also found in the captured OKW files. I quote the English and German teats in their entirety. Defendant Hess stated, and I quote: . "I hear from Party members who came from the Government General that various agencies, as for instance, the Military Economic Staff, the Reich Ministry for Labor, et cetera, intend to reconstruct certain industrial enterprises in Warsaw. However, in accordance with a decision by Minister Dr.
CAPTAIN SAMUEL HARRIS (Assistant Trial Counsel for the United States): Frank approved by the Fuehrer, Warsaw shall not be rebuilt nor is it the intention of the Fuehrer to rebuild or reconstruct any industry in the Government General." Turning from the defendants' program of economic spoliation in the Government General to their program of deportation and resettlement, I next offer in evidence Document Number 661-PS, which is Exhibit Number USA-300. This is a secret report, prepared by the Academy of German Law in January 1940, upon plans for the mass migration of Poles and Jews from incorporated areas of Poland to the Government General and for the forcible deportation of able-bodied Poles to Germany. This document was obtained from the ministerial collecting center at Kassel, Germany. The date does not appear in the English translation, but it is clearly set fort h on the cover page of the original document as January 1940. Before quoting from this document, I ask first that the Tribunal take judicial notice of the decree of 11 July 1934, embodied in the Reichsgesetzblatt , Part I, Page 605, 11 July 1934, which provided that the Academy of German Law would be a public corporation of the Reich under the supervision of the Reich Ministers of Justice and the Interior, and that its task would be: "To promote the reconstruction of German legal life and to realize, in constant close collaboration with the competent legislative organizations, the National Socialist program in the entire sphere of the law." Second, before quoting from the aforementioned of the Academy of German Law, I should like to offer in evidence Document Number 2749-PS, which is Exhibit Number USA-301. This is the title page of the publication of the Academy of German Law for 1940. It is offered for the purpose of showing that Defendant Frank was the President of the Academy of German Law during the period that the above-mentioned secret report of the Academy was made. The document specifically states, and I quote: "Reich Minister Dr.