dtufail/nuremberg-trials-corpus huggingface dataset:
MAJOR FARR: They are right here. I will offer them in evidence. The first is our Document Number 641-PS. It is a report dated 1 June 1933 and relates the death of Dr. Alfred Strauss, a prisoner in protective custody in Dachau. I offer it in evidence as Exhibit Number USA-490. I shall read a few paragraphs from that report, beginning with Paragraph 1: "On May 24, 1933, the 30-year-old, single, attorney-at-law, Dr. Alfred Strauss from Munich, who was in the concentration camp Dachau as a prisoner under protective custody, was killed by two pistol shots from SS Man Johann Kantschuster who escorted him on a walk, prescribed for him by the camp doctor, outside the fenced part of the camp. "Kantschuster gives the following report: He himself had to urinate; Strauss proceeded on his way. Suddenly Strauss broke away towards the bushes located at a distance of about 6 meters from the line. When Kantschuster noticed it, he fired two shots at the fugitive from a distance of about 8 meters; whereupon Strauss collapsed dead. "On the same day, May 24, 1933, a judicial inspection of the locality took place. The corpse of Strauss was lying at the edge of the wood. Leather slippers were on his feet. He wore airlock on one foot, while the other foot was bare, obviously because of an injury to this foot. Subsequently an autopsy was performed. Two bullets had entered the back of the head. Besides, the body showed several black and blue spots and also open wounds." Skipping now to the last paragraph of the report: "I have charged Kantschuster today with murder and have made application for the opening and execution of a judicial preliminary investigation as well as for the issuance of a warrant of arrest against him." That is the first of the four reports. The significance is that you have, one after the other, murders committed within a short space of time. And, in each instance, an official report by the camp commander or the guard as to the cause of death which was completely disproved by the facts.
MAJOR FARR: The second report, a report dated 1 June 1933, relates to the death of Leonhard Hausmann, another prisoner in Dachau. It is our Document 642-PS and I offer it in evidence as Exhibit Number USA-451.
THE PRESIDENT: I don't think you need read the details.
MAJOR FARR: I will offer it without reading it. The third report which I shall offer is dated 22 May 1933. It relates to the death of Louis Schloss, an inmate of Dachau, and is our Document 644-PS. I offer it in evidence as Exhibit Number USA-452. The fourth document, our Number 645-PS, dated 1 June 1933, relates to the death of Sebastian Nefzger, another Dachau prisoner. I offer this in evidence as Exhibit Number USA-453. These four murders committed within the short space of 2 weeks in the spring of 1933, each by different SS guards, are but a few examples of SS activities in the camps at that very early date. Many similar examples from that period and later periods could be produced. Indeed, that sort of thing was officially encouraged. I call the Tribunal's attention to the disciplinary Regulation for the Dachau Concentration Camp, our Document 778-PS, which has already been introduced in evidence as Exhibit Number USA-247. I want to read the fourth paragraph of the introduction to those rules, a passage which was not read when the document was originally introduced. The fourth paragraph on the first page of the translation and of the original is as follows: "Tolerance means weakness. In the light of this conception, punishment will be mercilessly handed out whenever the interests of the Fatherland warrant it. The fellow countryman who is decent but misled will never be affected by these regulations. But let it be a warning to the agitating politicians and intellectual provocateurs, regardless of which kind: Be on guard not to be caught, for otherwise it will be your neck and you will be silenced according to your own methods." Those regulations were issued in 1933 by SS Fuehrer Eicke, who, it is to be noted, was the commandant of the SS Totenkopf Verbande. Furnishing guard and administrative personnel was not the only function of the SS with relation to the camps.
MAJOR FARR: The entire internal management of the camps, including the use of prisoners, their housing, clothing, sanitary conditions, the determination of their very right to live, and the disposal of their remains, was controlled by the SS. Such management was first vested in the Leader of the SS Death7s-Head Units who had the title of Inspector of Concentration Camps. This official was originally in the SS Hauptamt- represented on the chart by the second box from the left. During the course of the war, in March 1942, control of concentration camps was transferred to another of the departments of the SS Supreme Command, the SS Economic and Administration Department, commonly known as WVHA. That department is indicated on the chart by the 3rd box from the left. And the Court will note under the top box the breakdown "Concentration Camps" which in turn is broken down into "Prison," "Labor," "Medical," and "Administration." That change was announced in a letter to Himmler, dated 30 April 1942, from the Chief of WVHA. The letter is our Document Number R-129 and it has already been received in evidence as Exhibit Number USA-217. I shall not quote from that letter now. This shift of control to WVHA, the economic department of the SS, coincided with a change in the basic purposes of the concentration camps. Political and security reasons, which previously had been the ground for confinement, were abandoned; and the camps were frankly made to serve the slave-labor program. The Tribunal will recall the evidence relating to that program which was presented last week by Mr. Dodd. I shall not deal at any length with the matter again, except to summarize the principal facts bearing on SS responsibility which were demonstrated by that evidence. To satisfy the increased demands for manpower it was not enough to work the inmates of the camp harder. More inmates had to be obtained. The SS, through its police arm, was prepared to satisfy this demand, as through the WVHA it was prepared to work those who were already in the camp.
THE PRESIDENT: Have you got any figures you can give the Tribunal as to the total numbers in the SS and the total numbers who were employed on concentration camps? If you gave us the total number of the SS and the total number employed in concentration camps, we should see what the proportion was.
MAJOR FARR: I think I can only give you these figures: I earlier quoted some figures from D'Alquen in his book published in 1939, in which he said that the total strength of the General SS was about 240,000. That is the General SS, which was not at that time engaged in the guarding of concentration camps. The Totenkopf Verbande (the Death's-Head Units) at that time consisted of some three or four regiments at the most. They were the guards; so that of the personnel who were employed in actual guard duty there were, in 1939, about three or four regiments. The Court will recall that after the war had started, the Totenkopf Verbande were no longer employed in that duty and that the members of the General SS took it up. How many were employed is something that is difficult to estimate. The concentration camp program was constantly expanding; and of course, as more camps were added more personnel was needed. I can't give the Tribunal figures on the number of persons involved in guarding the camps, but one of the matters I think significant is this: We have not only guards, we have administrative personnel; we have the whole of the WVHA which, as I want to show by evidence, had complete control of the management of the concentration camps. The members of the staff office, WVHA, were derived from the General SS; so you have on the one hand the guard personnel, Death's-Head Units up to 1939, and then you have after 1939 more guards from the Allgemeine SS. You have, after 1939, more guards from the General SS and also administrative personnel from WVHA. I do not have figures on how many persons were engaged in one or another phase of the concentration camp activities. You have, of course, the SD and Security Police involved in it, insofar as they went out and seized victims. You have WVHA, the entire administrative personnel of that section involved in it, insofar as they handled administrative matters. Some conception of the number of persons who must have been engaged in the activity may be gained from noting the number of persons involved in a camp.
MAJOR FARR: I have a document, a report by WVHA in August 1944, which reports the number of prisoners who were then on hand in the camps and the new arrivals who were expected. That document is our Document Number 1166-PS, which I will now offer in evidence as Exhibit Number USA-458.
THE PRESIDENT: I don't think we had better go into that tonight. What will you be dealing with tomorrow?
MAJOR FARR: Tomorrow, Sir, I intend to offer evidence showing how WVHA and other SS personnel were involved in the control of every phase of the concentration camp program. That is the first thing. The second thing is to point out the role that the SS played in the persecution of the Jews and their extermination; not with a view to repeating the substantive evidence to show that such acts took place, but to show how many components, how many parts, of the organization were involved in that program. Then I shall consider the role of the SS with respect to preparations for aggressive war and the Crimes against Peace-a relatively brief discussion-and then pass on to the role that the SS played in War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity, set out in Counts Three and Four of the Indictment; and finally, the role of the SS in the colonization program.
THE PRESIDENT: Colonization?
MAJOR FARR: That may be an unfortunate word. Perhaps I should have said Germanization program, a program of resettlement, evacuation, colonization, and exploitation of the conquered territories. Those, I think, are the four main functions of the SS which remain to be considered; and I shall endeavor not to go again into the substantive crimes which have already been shown to the Tribunal, but to try to show how almost every department-in fact, every department of the SS and every component-was involved in one or more-and mostly more-of these crimes.
THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal hopes that you will be able to confine yourself to the reading of evidence which is not cumulative.
MAJOR FARR: I have that in mind and I don't intend to do that except to show the figures and components of the SS which were involved in various programs.
THE PRESIDENT: Very well. The Tribunal adjourned until 20 December 1945 at 1000 hours.
MAJOR FARR: May it please the Tribunal, when the Tribunal rose yesterday, we were discussing the number of persons who might be involved in the concentration camp program with which the SS was concerned. Nothing better illustrates the integrated character of the whole organization than the concentration camp program. WVHA, one of the departments of the Supreme Command, handled the administration and control of that camp program and dealt with the victims once they were in the camp. They were assisted by the Death's-Head Units, who furnished the guard personnel for the camps, and subsequently by the Allgemeine SS, which took over guard duties during the war. RSHA played a part in the concentration camp program-the police arm of the SS-because through it the victims were apprehended and taken to the camps. Thus the SD appears in the picture, the personal staff, the first department of the Supreme Command, sort of the top office of the whole organization, and naturally it had much to do with the work of all subordinate departments. Thus when the question is asked how many persons in the SS had something to do with the concentration camp program, it is a question which I think it is impossible to answer. You may point out how many persons were involved in the Death's-Head Units, who originally furnished the guard details; you might estimate how many persons were in the Allgemeine SS, but to say just what percentage of the whole organization was involved in that program, is something which I find myself unable to do. I had just pointed out...
THE PRESIDENT: Can you say that one or another branch of the SS provided the whole of the staff of the concentration camps?
MAJOR FARR: By the staff, I take it, you mean guards at the camp, the camp personnel. You cannot do that. For example, the Death's-Head Units originally started off as being the units which furnished all the guard personnel. Subsequently, their task was taken over by members of the Allgemeine SS.
THE PRESIDENT: Those are both branches of the SS?
MAJOR FARR: Both are branches, yes. Now with respect to the camp commandants, for instance, normally all high ranking officers in the SS were members of the Allgemeine SS, so doubtless personnel would be drawn from that branch. It is certainly not beyond question that some members of the Waffen-SS may have been called on to act as guards in certain camps. I do not think that you can say that there is no component of the SS which may not have had some of its personnel involved in the program.
THE PRESIDENT: That wasn't exactly what I meant. What I meant was: Could you say that one or other branches of the SS furnished the whole staff of the concentration camps?
MAJOR FARR: I don't think I can say that. I think I could say this...
THE PRESIDENT: What other organization was it that furnished a part of the staff of the concentration camps?
MAJOR FARR: You mean an organization other than the SS?
THE PRESIDENT: Yes.
MAJOR FARR: I know of none.
THE PRESIDENT: Then the answer would be "yes" then?
MAJOR FARR: I thought Your Honor was referring to any one branch of the SS which was concerned alone with that. The SS, so far as I know, is the only organization which played a part in the concentration camp picture, except at the very end of the war when I think, as Colonel Storey said yesterday, some members of the SA were also involved as guard personnel of concentration camps.
THE TRIBUNAL (Mr. Biddle): Do you know the total personnel at the end of the war?
MAJOR FARR: Of the entire SS?
THE TRIBUNAL (lair. Biddle): Yes.
MAJOR FARR: That is something you would have to estimate. I quoted to the Tribunal yesterday the figures that D'Alquen gave as the strength of the Allgemeine SS in 1939. He said then that there were about 240,000 men in the Allgemeine SS. There were, at that time, about four regiments of Death's-Head Units, several other regiments of the Verfugungstruppe, a few thousand personnel involved in the SD, so that I should say in 1939 you had about 250,000 to 300,000 members of the SS. With the outbreak of the war, the Waffen-SS was built up from a few regiments of the Verfugungstruppe to about 31 divisions at the end of the war, which probably would mean that the Waffen-SS by 1945 had had some 400,000 to 500,000 persons involved. I take it that 400,000 to 500,000 members of the Waffen-SS would be in addition to personnel of the Allgemeine SS, who were subject to compulsory military service in the Wehrmacht. So that, if I had to estimate, I would say that probably some 750,000 persons would be the top figure of personnel who had been involved in the SS from the beginning, but that is an estimate.
THE TRIBUNAL (Mr. Biddle): Then you have no breakdown to show how many of those were civilians, clerks, stenographers, soldiers, and so on?
MAJOR FARR: No. When we are talking about SS members, we are not talking about stenographers who worked in the office, who were not members of the SS. By SS members, we mean personnel who took the oath and appeared on the membership list, either as a member of the Allgemeine SS, the Death's-Head Units, or the Waffen-SS. I would think that my figure of 750,000 was a figure including members of the SS, Allgemeine SS, the Totenkopf Verbande, and the Waffen-SS. I was pointing out the shift of control of concentration camps to WVHA in 1942, which was coincident with the shift in the basic purpose of the camps, which heretofore has been concerned with custody of individuals for political and security reasons. Now the basic purpose of the camps was to furnish manpower, and I now want to point out to the Court the agencies of the SS which were involved in that manpower drive. The Tribunal has already received evidence of an order which was issued in 1942, shortly after the transfer to WVHA of concentration camp control, directing Security Police to furnish at once 35,000 prisoners qualified for work in the camps. That order is our Document 1063-PS, and was received in evidence as Exhibit Number USA-219. Thirty-five thousand prisoners were, of course, merely the beginning. The SS dragnet was capable of catching many more slaves. I offer in evidence a carbon, typewritten copy of a directive to all the departments of the SS Supreme Command, issued from Himmler's field headquarters on August 5, 1943. It is our Document Number 744-PS. I offer it as Exhibit Number USA-455. That directive appears on Page 2 of the translation. It implements an order signed by the Defendant Keitel directing the use of all males captured in guerilla fighting in the East for forced labor. The Keitel directive appears on Page 1 of the translation. I shall read only the Himmler directive appearing on Page 2 of the translation. The Tribunal will note that it is addressed to every main office of the SS Supreme Command.
MAJOR FARR: I read that list of addressees of the directive: "(1) Chief of the personnel staff of Reichsfuehrer SS; (2) SS Main Office; (3) Reich Security Main Office; (4) Race and Resettlement Main Office; (5) Main Office, Ordinary Police; (6) SS Economic Administrative Main Office; (7) SS Personnel Main Office; (8) Main Office SS Court; (9) SS Supreme Command, Headquarters of the Waffen-SS; (10) Staff Headquarters of the Reich Commissioner for the Consolidation of Germanism; (11) Main Office Center for Racial Germans; (12) Office of SS Obergruppenfuehrer Heissmeyer; (13) Chief of the anti-partisan combat...." I point out to the Court that every one of the main offices appearing on the chart is a recipient of that directive. The next addressees are the Higher SS and Police Leaders in the various regions. I continue to quote the body of the directive: "Referring to Item 4 of the above-mentioned order, I order that all young female prisoners capable of work are to be sent to Germany for work, through the agency of Reich Commissioner Sauckel. "Children, old women, and old men are to be collected and put to work in the women's and children's camps established by me on estates, as well as on the border of the evacuated area." In April 1944 the SS was called on to produce even more laborers-this time 100,000 Jews from Hungary. The Tribunal will recall the minutes of the Defendant Speer's discussion with Hitler on April 6 and 7, 1944, which were found in our Document R-124 at Page 36 and were read to the Court in evidence as Exhibit Number USA-179-minutes in which Speer referred to Hitler's statement that he would call on the Reichsfuehrer SS to produce 100,000 Jews from Hungary. The last source of manpower had not been tapped. To Jews, deportees, women, and children, there was added the productive power of prisoners of war. It was through the SS that the conspirators squeezed the last drop of labor from such prisoners.
MAJOR FARR: I refer to a statement by the Defendant Speer which appears in our Document R-124 at Page 13 of the translation, the document itself having already been introduced in evidence as Exhibit Number USA-179. The statement is found at Page 7, last paragraph of the original, Page 13 of our Document R-124, the next to the last paragraph on Page 13. That appears in Volume 2 of the document book. I quote: "Speer: 'We have to come to an arrangement with the Reichsfuehrer SS as soon as possible so that PW's he picks up are made available for our purposes. The Reichsfuehrer SS gets from 30,000 to 40,000 men per month."' In order to insure SS control over the labor of prisoners of war, the Reichsfuehrer SS was finally appointed as head of all prisoner-of-war camps on 25 September 1944. I offer in evidence the letter referring to his appointment. It is our Document 058-PS. It is Exhibit Number USA-456. It will be found in Volume 1 of the document book. That letter is a circular letter from the Director of the Party Chancellery dated 30 September 1944 and signed "M.-Bormann." I quote, beginning with the first paragraph of that letter: "1. The Fuehrer has ordered under the date of 25 September 1944: " 'The custody of all prisoners of war and interned persons, as well as prisoner-of-war camps and installations with guards, are transferred to the Commander of the Reserve Army from 1 October 1944.' " Passing to Paragraph 2 of the letter, I shall read Subparagraphs (a) and (c); I quote: "2. The Reichsfuehrer SS has commanded: "(a) In my capacity as Commander of the Reserve Army, I transfer the affairs of prisoners of war to SS Obergruppenfuehrer and General of the Waffen-SS, Chief of Staff of the Volkssturm, Gottlob Berger." Skipping now to Subparagraph (c): "(c) The mobilization of labor of the prisoners of war will be organized in joint action of SS Obergruppenfuehrer Berger and SS Obergruppenfuehrer Pohl with the appropriate offices for allocation of labor.
MAJOR FARR: "The strengthening of security in the field of prisoner-of-war affairs is to be accomplished between SS Obergruppenfuehrer Berger and the Chief of the Security Police, SS Obergruppenfuehrer Dr. Kaltenbrunner." Thus the SS finally took over direction and control of prisoner-of-war-camps. So impressive were the results obtained from SS concentration camp labor that in 1944 the Defendant Goering called on Himmler for more inmates for use in the aircraft industry. The Tribunal will recall his teletype to Himmler, our Document 1584-PS, Part 1, which was read in evidence by Mr. Dodd as Exhibit Number USA-221. Let me now read Himmler's reply to that teletype. It is our Document 1584-PS, Part 3, and will be found on Page 2. I offer it in evidence as Exhibit Number USA-457. I quote the beginning of that letter: "Most Honored Reich Marshal: "Following my teletype letter of 18 February 1944, I herewith transmit a survey on the employment of prisoners in the aviation industry. "This survey indicates that at the present time about 36,000 prisoners are employed for the purposes of the Air Force. An increase to a total of 90,000 prisoners is contemplated. "The production program is being discussed, established, and executed by the Reich Ministry of Aviation and the chief of my Economic Administrative Main Office, SS Obergruppenfuehrer and General of the Waffen-SS Pohl. "We assist with all the forces at our disposal. "The task of my Economic Administrative Main Office, however, is not solely fulfilled with the allocation of the prisoners to the aviation industry, as SS-Obergruppenfuehrer Pohl and his assistants take care of the required working speed through constant control and supervision of the work-groups (Kommandos) and therefore have some influence on the results of production.