dtufail/nuremberg-trials-corpus huggingface dataset:
DR. ALFRED SEIDL (Counsel for Defendant Frank): MAJOR JONES: Now, just answer this last question, who were the killers? EIZENBERG: They were SS men in SS uniforms. MAJOR JONES: I have no further questions, My Lord. HERR PELCKMANN: Witness, I know your affidavit. As far as I can see from it, you were in Lublin, at first in Lublin. Were there SS men there too, whom you got to know? EIZENBERG: Yes, I knew many of them. I was working in the SS staff offices as an electrician and I was there very often in order to make electrical installations. HERR PELCKMANN: In your affidavit you have given some names-Riedel, Mohrwinkel, and Schramm. EIZENBERG: Yes, I knew them personally. HERR PELCKMANN: They were on this staff? EIZENBERG: Yes, they were on the staff, and its office was located at 21 Warsaw Street. HERR PELCKMANN: Do you also know exactly the ranks which you mentioned in your affidavit as being held by these persons? EIZENBERG: Yes, I know them. HERR PELCKMANN: What, for example, was Riedel? EIZENBERG: Riedel was an Unterscharfuehrer. 485 7 Aug. 46 HERR PELCKMANN: And Mohrwinkel? EIZENBERG: At first he was a Rottenfuehrer and then, as a result of this action, he was promoted to Untersturmfuehrer. HERR PELCKMANN: You just said that Riedel was an Unterscharfuehrer. In your affidavit you said he was an Oberscharfuehrer. EIZENBERG: He had white braid on his shoulder-straps. HERR PELCKATANN: Now, I show you a picture. Please tell me whether that is Riedel or Mohrwinkel, and what is the rank of this SS man. EIZENBERG: This man is neither Mohrwinkel nor Riedel. HERR PELCKMANN: And what is his rank? EIZENBERG: It seems to me that he is a Rottenfuehrer, because there-is nothing on his shoulder-straps, and only a badge on his sleeve. HERR PELCKMANN: Thank you. Now, I shall show you another picture. If I remember the other picture correctly, this would, also have to be a Rottenfuehrer? EIZENBERG: I cannot tell with certainty, but the other one had on his shoulder-straps a white edge all round and here I see two white stripes on this photo, HERR PELCKMANN: Thank you, Witness. THE PRESIDENT: Is that all you wanted?
DR. ALFRED SEIDL (Counsel for Defendant Frank): HERR PELCKMANN: I have no more questions, Your Lordship. THE PRESIDENT: The witness can retire. HERR PELCKMANN: For the information of the Tribunal, I should like to say that these photographs came from the book in Polish on the Warsaw atrocities submitted by the Prosecution yesterday, and the photographs do not show men of the Waffen-SS at all, but policemen. The witness did not notice that. THE PRESIDENT: Well, the witness said he had never seen them before. The witness said he had never seen the man before. We do not need to argue about it. Now, who is your next witness? HERR PELCKMANN: May I submit these pictures to the Tribunal or are they known? They are in the Polish book, in Polish, on Pages VIII, no, IX and XI. It is merely a question of uniform, Mr. President. THE PRESIDENT: You can certainly put them in if you think it worth while; but now will you get on with your case. Is there another witness that you are going to call before Dr. Morgen? HERR PELCKMANN: Yes; I believe the witness Sievers was called by the Prosecution, Your Lordship. 486 7 Aug. 46 THE' PRESIDENT: Well, is he here? THE MARSHAL: Yes, Mr. President. THE PRESIDENT: Well, call him then. THE MARSHAL: Both witnesses are here now, Your Honor, both Sievers and Morgen. THE PRESIDENT: We will go on with Sievers now. MAJOR JONES: Perhaps, My Lord-you did indicate, My Lord, it might be more convenient for Dr. Pelckmann to finish with his witness before Dr. Sievers. THE PRESIDENT: Very well, I do not mind. Call Dr. Morgen then. [The witness Morgen took the stand.] Will you state your full name, please? GEORG KONRAD MORGEN (Witness): Georg Konrad Morgen. THE PRESIDENT: Will you repeat this oath after me: I swear by God-the Almighty and Omniscient-that I will speak the pure truth-and will withhold and add nothing. [The witness repeated the oath.] THE PRESIDENT: You may sit down. HERR PELCKMANN: Witness, in view of the importance of your testimony, I will first ask you in detail about your person. Were you an SS judge of the Reserve? MORGEN: Yes. HERR PELCKMANN: Please speak slowly and pause after each question. What training did you have?
DR. ALFRED SEIDL (Counsel for Defendant Frank): MORGEN: I studied law at the Universities of Frankfurt on the Main, Rome, Berlin; at the "Acad6mie de Droit International" at 'The Hague and the "Institute for World Economy and Ocean Traffic" in Kiel. I passed the first examination and the State law examination. Before the war I was a judge at the Landgericht in Stettin. HERR PELCKMANN: Were you a specialist in criminology and in criminal law? MORGEN: No, I had specialized in international law, but later, during the war, when I had to deal with criminal matters and penal law, I did special work in that field. HERR PELCKMANN: How did you come to the SS? MORGEN: I was drafted compulsorily into the General SS. In 1933, 1 belonged to the Reich Board for Youth Training, whose ,students' group was completely incorporated into the General SS. At the beginning of the war I was drafted into the Waffen-SS. 487 7 Aug. 46 HERR PELCKMANN: What rank did you have there? MORGEN: In the General SS I was Staffelanwarter and SS Rottenfuehrer. In the Waffen-SS I was in the end Sturmbannfuehrer of the Reserve. HERR PELCKMANN: What example can you give that you did not believe you were joining a conspiracy when you entered the SS-very briefly; please. MORGEN: In 1936 I published a book on War Propaganda and the Prevention of War. This book, at a time when war was threatening, showed ways and means to prevent war and to forestall the incitement to hostility between nations. The book was examined by the Party and published. Therefore, I could not suppose that the SS or the policy of the Reich Government was directed toward war. HERR PELCKMANN: How did you come to make investigations in the concentration camps? MORGEN: At the order of the Reichsfuehrer SS, and due to my special abilities in criminology, I was detailed by the Main Office SS Courts to the Reich Criminal Police Department in Berlin, which was equivalent to a transfer. Shortly after I arrived there, I was given an assignment to investigate a case of corruption in Weimar. The accused was a member of the concentration camp of Weimar-Buchenwald.
DR. ALFRED SEIDL (Counsel for Defendant Frank): The investigations soon led to the person of the former Commander Koch and many of his subordinates, and beyond that they affected a number of other concentration camps. When these investigations became more extensive, I received full authority from the Reichsfuehrer SS to engage generally in such investigations in concentration camps. HERR PELCKMANN: Why was a special power of attorney from the Reichsfuehrer necessary? MORGEN: For the guards of the concentration camps, the SS and Police courts were competent; that is, in each case the local court in whose district the concentration camp was located. For that reason, because of the limited jurisdiction of its judge, the court was not able to act outside its own district. In these investigations and their extensive ramifications it was important to be able to work in various districts. Besides that, it was necessary to use specialists in criminal investigation, in other words, the Criminal Police. The Criminal Police however could not carry on any investigation directly with the troops, and only by combining juridical and Criminal Police activities was it possible to clear this up, and for this purpose I was given this special power of attorney by the Reichsfuehrer. HERR PELCKMANN: Now, how extensive did these investigations become? You can be brief because the witness Reinecke answered this point in part. 488 7 Aug. 46 MORGEN: I investigated Weimar-Buchenwald, Lublin, Auschwitz, Sachsenhausen, Oranienburg, Hertogenbosch, Krakow; Plaszow, Warsaw, and the Concentration Camp Dachau. And others were investigated after my time. HERR PELCKMANN: How many cases did you investigate? How many sentences were passed? How many death sentences? MORGEN: I investigated about 800 cases, that is, about 800 documents, and one document would affect several cases. About 200 were tried during my activity. Five concentration camp commanders were arrested by me personally. Two were shot after being tried. HERR PELCKMANN: You had them shot? MORGEN: Yes.
DR. ALFRED SEIDL (Counsel for Defendant Frank): Apart from the commanders, there were numerous other death sentences against Fuehrer and Unterfuehrer. HERR PELCKMANN: Did you have any opportunity of gaining personal insight into the conditions in concentration camps? MORGEN: Yes, because I had authority to visit concentration camps. Only a very few persons had this permission. Before beginning an investigation, I examined the concentration camp in question in all its details very closely, inspecting especially those arrangements which seemed particularly important to me. I visited them repeatedly and without notice. I was working mostly in Buchenwald itself for 8 months and have lived there. I was in Dachau for one or two months. HERR PELCKMANN: Since so many visitors to concentration camps say they were deceived, do you consider it possible that you, too, were a victim of such deceit? MORGEN: I have just pointed out that I was not a mere visitor to a concentration camp but I had settled down there for a long residence, I might almost say I established myself there. It is almost impossible to be deceived for such a long time. In addition, the commissions from the Reich Criminal Police Department worked under my instructions, and I placed them directly in the concentration camps themselves. I do not mean to say that in spite of these very intensive efforts I was able to learn of all the crimes, but I believe that there was no deception in regard to what I did learn. HERR PELCKMANN: Did you gain the impression, and at what time, that the concentration camps were places for the extermination of human beings? MORGEN: I did not gain this impression. A concentration camp is not a place for the extermination of human beings. I must say that my first visit to a concentration camp-I mentioned the first one was Weimar-Buchenwald-was a great surprise to me. The 489 7 Aug. 46 camp is situated on wooded heights, with a wonderful view. The installations were clean and freshly painted. There was much lawn and flowers. The prisoners were healthy, normally fed, sun-tanned, working ... PRESIDENT: When are you speaking of?
DR. ALFRED SEIDL (Counsel for Defendant Frank): When are you speaking of? MORGEN: I am speaking of the beginning of my investigations in July 1943. HERR PELCKMANN: What crimes did you discover? MORGEN: Pardon me, I had not-may I continue? HERR PELCKMANN: Please, be more brief. MORGEN: The installations of the camp were in good order, especially the hospital. The camp authorities, under the Commander Diester, aimed at providing the prisoners with an existence worthy of human beings. They had regular mail service. They had a large camp library, even books in foreign languages. They had variety shows, motion pictures, sporting contests and even had a brothel. Nearly all the other concentration camps were similar to Buchenwald. PRESIDENT: What was it they even had? MORGEN: A brothel. HERR PELCKMANN: What crimes did you learn about? MORGEN: As I said before, the investigations were based on a suspicion of corrupt practices. In time however, I was obliged to come to the conclusion that besides those crimes, killings had also occurred. HERR PELCKMANN: How did you reach the suspicion that killings had occurred? MORGEN: I learned that the starting point for the corruption was the assignment of Jews to the camps after the action of 1938. I made it a point to learn all the possible facts about this action, and in doing so I found that the majority of the prisoners who were suspected of knowing something about these cases of corruption, had died. This peculiar frequency of killings was noticeable; it struck me because other prisoners who were not in any key positions remained in Buchenwald for years in the best of health, and were still there, so that it was rather remarkable that it was just certain prisoners who might have been possible witnesses who had died. I thereupon examined the files concerning these deceased prisoners. The files themselves offered no clues to suspect illegal killings. The dates of the deaths were years apart and in each case different causes of death were given. But it struck me that the majority of these deceased, prisoners had been put into the camp 490 7 Aug.
DR. ALFRED SEIDL (Counsel for Defendant Frank): 46 hospital or in arrest shortly before their death. This aroused my suspicion for the first time that in these two places murders of prisoners might possibly have occurred. Thereupon I appointed a special official, whose sole task was to investigate the suspicious circumstances, and follow up the rumors which were circulating about the detention quarters, the so-called "Bunker," regarding this killing of prisoners. This very zealous and able detective had to report again and again that he had not found the faintest clue for my suspicions. After two weeks of completely unsuccessful activity, the detective refused further services and asked me ironically whether I myself believed that such rumors of illegal killing of prisoners could be true. Much later, and only by chance did I hit upon the first clue; it struck me that the names of certain prisoners were listed at the same time in the rolls of the camp prison as well as in those of the hospital. In the prison rolls, for example, it said, "Date of release 9 May, 12 o'clock." In the hospital register, "Patient died 9 May, 9:15 a.m." I said to myself, this prisoner cannot be in the camp prison and at the same time a patient in the hospital. False entries must have been made here. I therefore concentrated my efforts on this and I succeeded in getting behind this system, for it was a system, under Commander Koch. The prisoners were taken to a secret place and were killed there, mostly in a cell of the camp prison, and sick reports and death certificates were prepared for the files. They were made out so cleverly that any unprejudiced reader of the documents would get the impression that the prisoner concerned had actually been treated and had died of the seri6us illness which was indicated. HERR PELCKMANN: Then what did you do after learning of these facts? MORGEN: I found out that the medical officer at Buchenwald, SS Hauptsturmfuehrer Dr. Hoven, was principally responsible and I had him arrested.
DR. ALFRED SEIDL (Counsel for Defendant Frank): I informed my investigating commission in the concentration camps, with which we had to deal, of these cunning forgeries and directed their particular attention to investigating systematically whether in other concentration camps such murders had also taken place. We satisfied ourselves at the time of the investigation-and I am speaking of the second half of 1943-that in the Concentration Camps Buchenwald, Sachsenhausen, and Dachau to the best of our knowledge no such killings occurred. In the other concentration camps, however, such cases were found. The persons believed to be guilty were accused, arrested, and charged. HERR PELCKMANN: Why was this not done earlier? MORGEN: I have already said that these deceptive measures were so cunningly contrived that it was not possible to discover them earlier. Above all there was no possibility of clearing up the 491 7 Aug. 46 matter, and then those things-were always done without witnesses. These cases should at all events have been investigated by the SS courts and they were investigated, for every unnatural death of a prisoner had to be reported by teletype to the central offices. Besides that, the specially sworn-in court officer who was in the camp had to go immediately to the place of the occurrences to question the witnesses; sketches and photographs had to be made of the scene and it was a regulation that an autopsy had to take place in every such case of unnatural death. These reports of unnatural deaths, or of deaths suspected of being unnatural, were sent regularly to the SS and Police court; but as I have already said, these reports were so cunningly contrived and the files were in such good order, that even an expert could not have suspected an illegal killing. Of course, proceedings against members of the concentration camp personnel were frequently instituted, some followed by sentences, even death sentences. But these criminal acts seemed to be within range of the usual army rate of 0.5 percent to 3 percent.
DR. ALFRED SEIDL (Counsel for Defendant Frank): If nothing at all had been reported to the SS courts from the concentration camps, or if numerous reports had been made, then it would of course have seemed suspicious. But it was a normal average and nobody could suspect that the concentration camps were a hotbed of such dangerous crimes. It was only through my investigation, which as I said was caused by accident, that we received our first insight into the true state of affairs. HERR PELCKMANN: How did you come onto the track of mass killings? You have just spoken of individual killings. MORGEN: I found traces of mass destructions also by chance. At the end of 1943, 1 discovered two trails at the same time, one leading to Lublin and the other to Auschwitz. HERR PELCKMANN: Please describe the Lublin trail first. MORGEN: One day I received a report from the commander of the Security Police in Lublin. He reported that in a Jewish labor camp in his district a Jewish wedding had taken place. There had been 1,100 invited guests at this wedding HERR PELCKMANN: Go on witness, a little faster. MORGEN: As I said before, 1,100 guests participated in this Jewish wedding. What followed was described as quite extraordinary owing to the gluttonous consumption of food and alcoholic drinks. Among these Jews were members of the camp guard, that is to say some SS men, who joined in this revelry. This report only came into my hands in a roundabout way, some months later, due to the fact that the Commander of the Security Police suspected that the circumstances indicated that some criminal acts had occurred. This was my impression as well, and I thought that this 492 7 Aug. 46 report would give me a clue to another big case of criminal corruption. With this in mind, I went to Lublin and called at the Security/ Police there, but all they would tell me was that the events happened at a camp of the Deutsche Ausrustungswerke. But nothing was known there. I was told it might possibly be a rather odd and shrouded (this was the actual term used) camp in the vicinity of Lublin.
DR. ALFRED SEIDL (Counsel for Defendant Frank): I found out the camp and the commander, who was Kriminalkommissar Wirth. I asked Wirth whether this report was true or what it meant. To my great astonishment, Wirth admitted it. I asked him why he permitted members of his command to do such things and Wirth then revealed to me that on the Fuehrer's orders he had to carry out the destruction of Jews. HEIRR PELCKMANN: Please go on, Witness, to describe your investigations. MORGEN: I asked Wirth what this had to do with the Jewish wedding. Then, Wirth described the method by which he carried out the extermination of Jews, and he said something like this: "One has to fight the Jews with their own weapons, that is to say "pardon me for using this expression-"one has to cheat them." Wirth staged an enormous deceptive maneuver. He first selected Jews who would, he thought, serve as column leaders, then these Jews brought along other Jews, who worked under them. With that smaller or medium-sized detachment of Jews, he began to build up the extermination camps. He extended this staff of Jews, and with these Jews Wirth himself carried out the extermination of the Jews. Wirth said that he had four extermination camps and that about 5,000 Jews were working at the extermination of Jews and the seizure of Jewish property. In order to win Jews for this business of extermination and plundering of their brethren of race and creed, Wirth gave them every freedom and, so to speak, gave them a financial interest in the spoliation of the dead victims. As a result of this attitude, this sumptuous Jewish wedding had come about. Then I asked Wirth how he killed Jews with these Jewish agents of his. Wirth described the whole procedure that went off like a film every time. The extermination camps were in the east of the Government General, in big forests or uninhabited wastelands. They were built up like a Potemkin village. The people arriving there had the impression of entering a city or a township. The train drove into a dummy railroad station.
DR. ALFRED SEIDL (Counsel for Defendant Frank): After the escorts and the train personnel had left the area, the cars were opened and the Jews got out. They were surrounded by these Jewish labor detachments, and Kriminalkommissar Wirth or one of his representatives made a speech. He said, "Jews, you were brought here to be resettled, but 493 7 Aug. 46 before we organize this future Jewish State, you must of course learn how to work. You must learn a new trade. You will be taught that here. Our routine here is, first, every one must take off his clothes so that your clothing can be disinfected, and you can have a bath so that no epidemics will be brought into the camp." After he had found such calming words for his victims, they started on the road to death. Men and women were separated. At the first place, one had to deliver the hat; at the next one, the coat, collar, shirt, down to the shoes and socks. These places were faked cloakrooms, and the person was given a check at each one so that the people believed that they would get their things back. The other Jews had to receive the things and hurry up the new arrivals so that they should not have time to think. The whole thing was like an assembly line. After the last stop they reached a big room, and were told that this was the bath. When the last one was in, the doors were shut and the gas was let into the room. As soon as death had set in, the ventilators were started. When the air could be breathed again, the doors were opened, and the Jewish workers removed the bodies. By means of a special procedure which Wirth had invented, they were burned in the open air without the use of fuel. HERR PELCKMANN: Was Wirth a member of the SS? MORGEN: No, he was a Kriminalkommissar in Stuttgart. HERR PELCKMANN: Did you ask Wirth how he arrived at this devilish system? MORGEN: When Wirth took over the extermination of the Jews, he was already a specialist in mass-destruction of human beings. He had previously carried out the task of getting rid of the incurably insane.