dtufail/nuremberg-trials-corpus huggingface dataset:
COL. STOREY: Prisoners of war from all nations have to be delivered to the Secret State Police and to be dismissed from imprisonment of war, if a special order to that effect is issued by the OKW or by Wehrkreis Command VI, Department for Prisoners of War. "4. Prisoners of war under suspicion of participation in illegal organizations and resistance movements have to be left to the Gestapo upon request for the purpose of interrogation. They remain prisoners of war and have to be treated as such. The delivery to the Gestapo and their dismissal from imprisonment of war has to take place only by order of the OKW or of Wehrkreis Command VI, Department for Prisoners of War. "In case of French and Belgian prisoners of war and interned Italian military personnel, approval of Wehrkreis Command VI, Department for Prisoners of War, has to be obtained-if necessary by phone-before delivery to the Gestapo for the purpose of interrogation." This decree was known as the " Bullet Decree ." Prisoners of war sent to Mauthausen concentration camp under the decree were executed. I now offer in support of that statement Document 2285-PS, Exhibit Number USA-490. It is in the second volume. Document 2285-PS is an affidavit of Lieutenant Colonel Guivante de Saint Gast and Lieutenant Jean Veith, both of the French Army, which was taken on the 13th of May 1945 in the course of an official military investigation by the United States Army. The affidavit discloses that Lieutenant Colonel Gast was confined at Mauthausen from 18 March 1944 to 22 April 1945 and that Lieutenant Veith was confined from 22 April 1943 until 22 April 1945. I quote from the affidavit, beginning with the third paragraph of Page 1, quoting: "In Mauthausen existed several treatments of prisoners, amongst them the 'action K or Kugel' (Bullet action). Upon the arrival of transports, prisoners with the mention 'K' were not registered, got no numbers, and their names remained unknown except for the officials of the Politische Abteilung.
COL. STOREY: Lieutenant Veith had the opportunity of hearing upon the arrival of a transport the following conversation between the Untersturmfuehrer Streitwieser and chief of the convoy: ~ " 'How many prisoners?' " '15 but two K.' " 'Well, that makes 13.' "The K prisoners were taken directly to the prison where they were unclothed and taken to the 'bathroom.' This bathroom in the cellars of the prison building near the crematory was specially designed for execution (shooting and gassing). "The shooting took place by means of a measuring apparatus-the prisoner being backed towards a metrical measure with an automatic contraption releasing a bullet in his neck as soon as the moving plank determining his height touched the top of his head. "If a transport consisted of too many 'K' prisoners, instead of losing time for the 'measurement' they were exterminated by gas sent into the shower room instead of water." I now pass to another subject, namely: "The Gestapo was responsible for establishing and classifying concentration camps and for committing racial and political undesirables to concentration and annihilation camps for slave labor and mass murder." The Tribunal has already received evidence concerning the responsibility of the Gestapo for the administration of concentration camps and the authority of the Gestapo for taking persons into protective custody to be carried out in the State concentration camps. The Gestapo also issued orders establishing concentration camps, transforming prisoner-of-war camps into concentration camps as internment camps, changing labor camps into concentration camps, setting up special sections for female prisoners, and so forth. The Chief of the Security Police and SD ordered the classification of concentration camps according to the seriousness of the accusation and the chances for reforming the prisoners, from the Nazi viewpoint. I now refer to Documents 1063(a)-PS and 1063(b)-PS in the second volume, Exhibit Number USA-492. The concentration camps were classified as Class I, II, or III.
COL. STOREY: Class I was for the least serious prisoners, and Class III was for the most serious. Now this Document I063(a)-PS is signed by Heydrich and it is dated the 2d of January 1941. I quote from the beginning with the word "subject," quoting: "Subject: Classification of the concentration camps. "The Reichsfuehrer SS and Chief of the German Police has given his approval to classify the concentration-camps into various categories, which take into account the personality of the prisoner as well as the degree of his harmfulness to the State. Accordingly, the concentration camps will be classified into the following categories: "Category I-for all prisoners charged with minor offenses only and definitely qualified for correction; also for special cases and solitary confinement-Camps Dachau, Sachsenhausen, and Auschwitz I. The latter also applies in part to Category II. "Category Ia-for all old prisoners conditionally qualified for work who could still be used in the medicinal herb gardens Camp Dachau. "Category II-for prisoners charged with major offenses but still qualified for re-education and correction-Camps Buchenwald, Flossenburg, Neuengamme, Auschwitz II. "Category III-for prisoners under most serious charges, also for those who have been convicted previously for criminal offenses; at the same time for asocial prisoners, that is to say, those who can hardly be corrected-Camp Mauthausen." I call Your Honor's attention to the fact that we have been talking about Mauthausen, where the "K" action took place. The Chief of the Security Police and SD had the authority to fix the length of the period of custody. During the war it was the policy not to permit the prisoners to know the period of custody and merely to announce the term as "until further notice." That was established by Document 1531-PS, which has previously been introduced as Exhibit Number USA-248; and the only reason for referring to it is to show that they had the right to fix the length of period of custody.
COL. STOREY: The local Gestapo offices, which made the arrests, maintained a register called the "Haftbuch," and I understand Haftbuch simply means a block or police register. In this register the names of all persons arrested were listed, together with personal data, grounds of arrest, and disposition: When orders were received from the Gestapo Headquarters in Berlin to commit persons who had been arrested to concentration camps, an entry was made in the Haftbuch to that effect. I now offer in evidence the-original of one of these books, and it is Document Number L-358, Exhibit Number USA-495. This book was captured by the 3rd Army when it overran an area; and it was captured by the T-Force on April 22, 1945, near Bad Sulza, Germany. This book is the original register used by the Gestapo at Tomaszow, Poland, to record the names of the persons arrested, the grounds for arrest, and the disposition made of cases during the period from 1 June 1943 to 20 December 1944. In the register are approximately 3,500 names of persons. Approximately 2,200 were arrested for membership in the resistance movements and partisan units. This is a very large book; and I am going to ask the clerk to pass it to Your Honors so that you might get a look at it. It is too big to photograph. And if Your Honors will just turn to one of the pages, I will read what the different columns provide-just any one of the pages. There is a double column. It starts on the left and goes over to the other side. In the first column that heading is simply a number of the man when he comes in. The next column is his name. The third column is the family-a brief family history and his religion. The fourth is the domicile. The next shows the date he was arrested and by whom-that is the fifth column. The next column, the place of arrest. And then the next column, the reason for arrest. And then the next is another number which is apparently a serial number for delivery. And next to the last column is the disposition. And the final column, remarks.
COL. STOREY: Now, out of the 3,500 names that are shown in that book, Your Honors will notice a number of red marks. Those apparently meant the ones that were shot. Of these, 325 were shot. Only 35 of that 325 had first been tried. Nine hundred and fifty out of this list were sent to concentration camps; and 155 were sent to the Reich for forced labor. According to this register, similar treatment was accorded persons who were arrested on other grounds, for instance, Communists, Jews, hostages, and persons taken in reprisal. A large number are shown to have been arrested during raids, no further grounds being stated. I particularly refer Your Honors to entries 286, 287, and 288, that is, the numbers in the first column of the register, where the crime charged to the person arrested was "als Juden"; in other words, he was a Jew. And by that you will find a red cross mark; and the punishment given was death. I now pass from this document and simply call attention to Document L-215, which was heretofore introduced as Exhibit Number USA-243. I don't intend to read from it unless Your Honors want to turn to L-215. This is a file of original dossiers on 25 Luxembourgers taken into protective custody for commitment to concentration camps. I will just refer to a sentence of the language in the document. Quoting: "According to the finding of the State Police, he endangers by his attitude the existence and security of the people and the State." And in each case, with reference to those dossiers, that appears as being the reason for the execution of these 25 Luxembourgers. And in connection...
THE PRESIDENT: Colonel Storey, you said execution, did you not?
COL. STOREY: I beg your pardon-sending to concentration camps.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes. There is no evidence they were executed?
COL. STOREY: No, Sir; they were committed to concentration camps. And also in connection with that same document there is a form provided by which the Gestapo headquarters in Berlin were notified when the persons were received by the concentration camps. Another document-which has heretofore been received as Exhibit Number USA-279, Document 1472-PS, in the second volume-I am simply going to refer to as a predicate for another. That was a telegram of 16 December 1942 in which Muller reported that the Gestapo could round up some 45,000 Jews in connection with the program of obtaining additional labor in concentration camps. And with reference to the same subject there is Document 1063(d)-PS, which has heretofore been offered as Exhibit Number USA-219. Muller sent a directive to the commanders and inspectors of the Security Police and SD and to the directors of the Gestapo regional offices in which he stated that Himmler had ordered, on 14 December 1942, that at least 35,000 persons who were fit for work had to be put into concentration camps not later than the end of January. Now, in that same connection I offer Document L-41, Volume 1, as Exhibit Number USA-496. This document contains a further directive from Muller dated the 23rd of March 1943 and supplements the directive of 17 December 194t, to which I referred and in which he states that the measures are to be carried out until 30 April 1943. And I would like to quote from the second paragraph on Page 3 of the exhibit: "Care must be taken, however, that only prisoners who are fit for work are transferred to concentration camps, and adolescents only in accordance with the given directives; otherwise, the concentration camps would become overcrowded, and this would defeat the intended aim." In that same connection I offer Document 701-PS, Exhibit Number USA-497. This is a letter dated 21 April 1943 from the Minister of Justice to the public prosecutors and also addressed to the Commissioner of the Reich Minister of Justice for the penal camps in Emsland.
COL. STOREY: Quoting: "Subject: Poles and Jews who are released from the penal institutions of the Department of Justice. Copies for the independent penal institutions. "1. With reference to the new guiding principles for the application of Article 1, Section 2, of the decree of 11 June 1940, Reichspesetzblatt I, Page 877-Attachment I of the decree (RV) of 27 January 1943-9133/2 Enclosure I-III a 2/2629-the Reich Security Main Office has directed by the decree of 11 March 1943-II A 2 Number 100/43-176: "(a) Jews, who in accordance with Number VI of the directives are released from prison, are to be committed for life in the concentration camps Auschwitz or Lublin by the head of lice of the State Police competent for the district in which the prison is located, in compliance with directions issued about protective custody. "The same applies to Jews who in the future are released from prison after serving a sentence of confinement. "(b) Poles, who in accordance with Number VI of the directives are released from prison, are to be taken, by the head office of the State Police competent for the district in which 2 Jan. 46 ' the prison is located, for the duration of the war to a concentration camp in compliance with directions issued concerning protective custody. "The same applies in the future to Poles being released from prison after serving a term of imprisonment of more than 6 months. "In answer to the request of the Reich Security Main Office I ask that in the future: (a) All Jews about to be released and (b) all Poles awaiting release who have served a sentence of more than 6 months, are to be listed to the directorate of the State Police competent for the district for further confinement and, in due time before the end of sentence, are to be placed at its disposal for transfer." And the last paragraph states that this ruling replaces the hitherto ordered return of all Polish prisoners undergoing imprisonment in the Old Reich condemned in the annexed Eastern territory.
COL. STOREY: The next subject: The Gestapo and the SD participated in deportation of citizens of occupied countries for forced labor and handled the disciplining of forced labor. With reference to the presentation heretofore made concerning forced labor, I do not intend to repeat. However, there were several references to important positions played by the Gestapo and the SD in rounding up persons to be brought into the Reich for forced labor and references in two or three documents that were introduced. I simply want to cite those documents as showing the part that the Gestapo and SD played. Document L-61, Exhibit Number USA-177. It is set out in this document book-I am simply citing it-it is a letter of the 26th of November 1942 from Fritz Sauckel, in which he stated that he had been advised by the Chief of the Security Police and SD under date of 26 October 1942 that during the month of November the evacuation of Poles in the Lublin district would begin in order to make room for the settlement of persons of the German race. The Poles who were evacuated as a result of this measure were to be put into concentration camps for labor as far as they were criminal or antisocial. The Tribunal will also recall the Christensen letter, which is our Document 3012-PS, Exhibit Number USA-190. In that letter it is stated that during the year 1943 the program of mass murders carried out by the Einsatz groups in the East should be modified in order to round up hundreds of thousands of persons for labor in the armament industry. That was in Document 3012-PS, which has heretofore been introduced as Exhibit Number USA-190. And that force was to be used when necessary. Prisoners were to be released so that they could be used for forced labor. When villages were burned down the whole population was to be placed at the disposal of the labor commissioners. Now in that connection the direct responsibility of the Gestapo for disciplining forced workers is shown in our exhibit, Document 1573-PS, Exhibit Number USA-498.
COL. STOREY: This is a secret order signed by Muller himself to the regional Gestapo offices on the 18th of June 1941; and I quote from the document from the beginning. It is addressed: "To all offices of the State Police-to the State Police, attention SS Sturmbannfuehrer R. R. Nosske or deputy at Aachen. "Subject: Measures to be taken against emigrants and civilian workers who come from the Greater Russian areas and against foreign workers. "Reference: None. "To prevent the return of Russian, Ukrainian, White Ruthenian, Cossack, and Caucasian emigrants and civilian workers from the territory of the Reich to the East without authorization and on their own initiative and to prevent attempts of sabotage by foreign workers in German production, I decide as follows: "(1) The managers of the branch offices of the Russian, Ukrainian, White Ruthenian, and Caucasian trustees office, as well as of the relief committees and the leading members of the Russian, Ukrainian, White Ruthenian, Cossack, and Caucasian emigrants' organizations, are to be notified immediately that they are not allowed to leave their domicile without permission of the Security Police until further notice. They are, at the same time, to be told to apply the same measures to the members who are under their care. Their attention is to be called to the fact that they will be arrested upon giving up their job or domicile without permission. I request a check on the presence of branch office leaders, if possible, by daily inquiries, on pretexts. "(2) Emigrants and foreign workers who are specifically charged and who are suspected of intelligence work for the U.S.S.R. are to be arrested if the situation demands it. This step must be prepared; it is, however, not to be executed before the pass word 'Fremdvolker' has been transmitted by means of 'urgent' telegram."
THE PRESIDENT: Do you think you should read the rest of that?
COL. STOREY: I don't think so, Your Honor.
THE PRESIDENT: We will adjourn now for 10 minutes. [A recess was taken.]
COL. STOREY: If the Tribunal please, I next offer in evidence Document 3360-PS, Exhibit Number USA-499, the second volume. Before I hand this document to the translator, I should like to exhibit it to Your Honors. It is an original telegram that was sent to the Gestapo office at Nuremberg. It was discovered by the C.I.C., by Lieutenant Stevens, near Hersbruck, Germany; and Your Honors will notice that parts of it have been burned. It was in connection with some documents that had been buried and they were partially burned when they were buried. This is. one of the telegrams. It is from the Secret State Police, the State Police station at Nuremberg and Furth, and it is dated the 12th of February 1944. I quote from the telegram: "RSHA IV F 1-45/44; the Border Inspector General; urgent, submit immediately. "Treatment of recaptured escaped Eastern laborers."-Ostarbeiter. "On the basis of an order of the RFSS, all recaptured escaped Eastern laborers without exception are, from now on, to be sent to concentration camps. For the purpose of reporting to RFSS, I ask for one single report by teletype to Section IV D (foreign laborers) on 10 March 1944 as to how many of such male or female Eastern laborers were turned over to a concentration camp between today and 10 March 1944." By these methods the Gestapo and SD maintained control over forced labor brought into the Reich. The next subject I go into is that the Gestapo and SD executed captured commandos and paratroopers and protected civilians who lynched Allied fliers. On 4 August 1942 Keitel issued an order which provided that the Gestapo and SD were responsible for taking counter measures against single parachutists or small groups of them with special missions. In substantiation I offer Document Number 553-PS as the exhibit next in order, Exhibit Number USA-500.
COL. STOREY: I quote from the first page of the translation, the first part of Paragraph 3: "Insofar as single parachutists are captured by members of the Armed Forces, they are to be delivered, after report to the competent Abwehr office, to the nearest agency of the Chief of the Security Police and SD without delay." Now, if the Tribunal please, to divert from the text: Colonel Taylor will present the Nazi High Command and a few of their orders. This is one and there is another one with which he is going to deal extensively. My purpose in introducing these orders now is to show the part that the Gestapo and SD played in connection with those orders. "Unless both these conditions are fulfilled, the Fuehrer and Supreme Commander does not anticipate that criminal proceedings within the occupied territories will have the necessary deterrent effect. "In all other cases the prisoners are, in the future, to be transported to Germany secretly, and further dealings with the offenses will take place here; these measures will have a deterrent effect because (a) the prisoners will vanish without leaving a trace, (b) no information may be given as to their whereabouts or their fate." Now, skipping the next paragraph, to the second paragraph below: "In case the competent military court and the military commander, respectively, are of the opinion that an immediate decision on the spot is impossible, and the prisoners are therefore to be transported to Germany, the counter-intelligence offices have to report this fact directly to the RSHA in Berlin (SW 11), Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse 7, in care of Dr. Fischer, Director of Criminal Police, stating the exact number of prisoners and of the groups which belong together as the case may be. Isolated cases, where the superior commander has an urgent interest in the case being dealt with by a military court, are to be reported to the RSHA. A copy of the entire report to the Reich Security Main Office is to be sent to Amt Ausland Abwehr, Section Abwehr III.
COL. STOREY: "The RSHA on the basis of available accommodation will determine which office of the state police has to accept the prisoners. The latter office will communicate with the competent Abwehr office and determine with it the particulars of the removal, particularly whether this will be carried out by the Secret Field Police, the Field Gendarmerie, or the Gestapo itself, as wed as the place and manner of the handing over of the material." After the civilians arrived in Germany no word of the disposition of their cases was permitted to reach the country from which they came or their relatives. I now offer Document 668-PS, Exhibit Number USA-504. This is a letter of the Chief of the Security Police and the SD, dated the 24th of June 1942; and I quote from the first page of the English translation: "It is the intent of the directive of the Fuehrer and Supreme Commander of the Wehrmacht concerning prosecution of criminal acts against the Reich or the occupation forces in Occupied Territories, dated 7 December 1941,"-that is the order that I first referred to-"to create, for deterrent purposes, through the transportation into Reich territory of persons arrested in occupied areas on account of activity inimical to Germany, uncertainty about the fate of prisoners among their relatives and acquaintances. This goal would be jeopardized if the relatives were to be notified in cases of death. Release of the body for burial at home is inadvisable for the same reason, and beyond that also because the place of burial could be misused for demonstrations. "I therefore propose that the following rules be observed in the handling of cases of death: "a. Notification of relatives is not to take place. "b. The body will be buried at the place of decease in the Reich. "c. The place of burial will, for the time being, not be made known." Now passing to the next activity of the SD and Gestapo, which was that they arrested, tried, and punished citizens of occupied countries under special criminal procedure and by summary methods.