dtufail/nuremberg-trials-corpus huggingface dataset:
THE PRESIDENT: From my activity in the head office "SS Courts" I happen to know a little about the economic control of the concentration camps, and as to this point here, I know that the commands of concentration camps settled their accounts directly with the agencies of the German Reich and had no connection at all with other treasuries or agencies of the Waffen-SS as such. MAJOR JONES: If you please. Now you said in your testimony that the guards in concentration camps had not committed crimes, that whoever else was responsible, Pohl and one or two others, certainly it was not the SS guards. Were you serious when you said that, Witness? REINECKE: In order to avoid misunderstanding, I should like to make it clear here that when I spoke of guards, I meant only those persons who guarded a concentration camp from the outside in contrast to the personnel of the concentration camp who were employed in the command and on the command staff; that is to say, people who had the control within the camp. MAJOR JONES: But both those categories of guards were SS men, were they not? REINECKE: As I have already said, they belonged to the so--called nominal Waffen-SS without having anything to do with it organically. MAJOR JONES: Well, I shall return to that point in a moment. First of all, I want you to look at Document D-924, which will give you a picture of the humanity and ethical attitude of SS guards. I am using a phrase which you used yourself vis à vis the SS. That is Exhibit GB-570, My Lord. It is a report this time from a Dutch source of the evacuation of the Rehmsdorff Camp to Theresienstadt. The first page is a statement by Peter Langhorst, who says: "I am an ex-political prisoner and I have been detained in various prisons and concentration camps, finally in the Rehms-dorff Camp. "At the approach of the Allied armies this camp was evac-uated and the prisoners, about 2,900 men, were put on transport from Rehmsdorff to Theresienstadt. "Mostly these prisoners were Czechs, Poles, Russians, and Hungarian Jews, while there were only a few Dutchmen among them.
THE PRESIDENT: "Of these prisoners only some 500 men actually reached Theresienstadt; the others were simply killed off during the transport by the so-called 'shot in the neck.' "The corpses were thrown into mass graves which were filled up afterward." Then-I need not trouble you with the rest of the statement, but you see a further statement with regard to that matter by Baron Van Lainsweerde of Amsterdam, who was on this transport, who says that-at the end of the second paragraph: "Finally, on 12 November 1944, 1 was imprisoned in the Concentration Camp Rehmsdorff where I stayed until my escape on 20 April 1945.' At the approach of the Allied Forces, the camp at Rehmsdorff was evacuated in great haste and the political prisoners of this camp were transported to the Theresienstadt Camp. "At first the prisoners were transported by train and in goods vans. We arrived by train at Marienbad, where, for causes I do not know, we had a delay of about one week. The vans with the prisoners were kept standing at the station. In the course of that week Allied bombers attacked the Marienbad station and in the confusion some 1,000 prisoners escaped into the surrounding woods. Naturally the entire local service (the SS, Volkssturm, and Hitlerjugend) was set to work to recapture the escaped prisoners, and practically all prisoners, who of course wore their camp clothes and could easily be recognized, were recaptured. These prisoners, about a thousand men, were led back in groups to Marienbad station and there they were killed by the SS guards by a shot in the neck. As both engines of the train had been wrecked during the air attack, the prisoners had to walk all the way from Marienbad to Theresienstadt, Many among them were unable to go so far, and fell down along the road, totally exhausted; without an exception these prisoners were murdered by the guards by a shot in the neck. That evening their bodies were removed by lorry and buried in mass graves in the woods." -- And he says he thinks that he could identify where it was.
THE PRESIDENT: -- "I am fully prepared to assist in tracing them. When the transport started I heard the SS guards saying that the total number of prisoners amounted to 2,775. Only some 500 of these prisoners reached Theresien-stadt. The others were murdered during the transport. Near Lobositz, about 7 kilometers from Theresienstadt, I myself escaped. The leader of the transport was SS Ober-scharführer Schmidt, one of the hangmen of Buchenwald, who also there behaved in a most scandalous way toward the prisoners, and who was known to be a sadist." Do you still, say that the SS guards betrayed the characteristics of decency? REINECKE: I should like to emphasize that I did not say that the SS guards had the characteristics of SS members. I said that our investigations showed that the actual crimes in the concentration camps were committed by members of the commands and that we found no evidence that the guards had any part in them, and ... MAJOR JONES: Then let me show you-let me show you another document, the Document D-959-it will. be Exhibit GB-571-which is a report to the Ministry of the Interior of the Czechoslovak Republic. I want to turn to Page 3 of the report: "Crimes committed by the members of the Allgemeine SS and the Waffen-SS. "The crimes committed by the members of the SS troops against the Czechoslovak and foreign citizens on the territory of the Czechoslovak Republic ... THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Elwyn Jones, isn't it rather late to put in documents of this sort, which are general reports by the govern-ments of Allied countries? The case has been already fully made by the Prosecution and to put in a new document of this sort, which is only a report of an Allied country, seems to the Tribunal to be .an unusual course to take. MAJOR-JONES: With great respect, My Lord, I submit that the Prosecution is entitled to put in documents of this kind in rebuttal of the sort of testimony that this witness is giving.
THE PRESIDENT: The conception that a witness should solemnly say that SS guards com-mitted no atrocities was one which certainly did not occur even to the Prosecution, and in face of testimony of that kind I submit that the Prosecution is well entitled to put in documents which do mot deal with individual cases, which might possibly be objectionable to the Tribunal, but with the whole mass of testimony. I submit that until the very last moment the Prosecution is entitled to put in such documents, regrettable though it is, perhaps, that they, have not been put in before, but I do submit that the Prosecution is entitled to put them in. If Your Lordship pleases, if I might add a further comment to Your Lordship's inquiry: the Defense have, after all, produced over 100,000 affidavits and I do submit that in these circumstances, in view of that mountain of evidence, it is only right that there should rest upon the record the authority of state-ments submitted on behalf of the Prosecution. THE PRESIDENT: What is your submission, with reference to the construction of Article 21, with reference to this document? MAJOR JONES: If Your Lordship pleases, I submit that the terms of Article 21 make it mandatory upon the Tribunal to accept reports of this kind by governments which are submitted by the Prosecution. THE PRESIDENT: Which are the special words to which you refer? MAJOR JONES: The second sentence: "The Tribunal...
THE PRESIDENT: shall also take judicial notice of official governmental documents and reports of the United Nations, including the acts and documents of the committees set up in the various Allied countries for the investigation of war crimes, and the records and findings of military or other tribunals of any United Nations." Now this document, My Lord, is-it has a certificate from the Czechoslovak Minister of the Interior on the face of it, certifying that it is a, state document within the meaning of Article 21, and it bears the signature of the Minister of the Interior himself, so that I submit that quite clearly within the terms of Article 21 it is properly admissible and that in that respect the Tribunal should accept it. THE PRESIDENT: Was there any committee or commission which drew up this document? MAJOR JONES: It is a report of the Czechoslovak Ministry of the Interior itself; it is a report of the State Department. THE PRESIDENT: Report to whom? MAJOR JONES: Furthermore, My Lord, my learned friend, Mr. Griffith-Jones, draws my attention to Article 19 of the Charter: "The Tribunal shall not be bound by technical rules of evidence. It shall adopt and apply to the greatest possible extent expeditious and non-technical procedure, and shall admit any evidence that it deems to have probative value." I do submit that even if you were to find, and I find it hard to think that you would, that this is not a document within the meaning of Article 21, it is admissible under Article 19. THE PRESIDENT: Yes. Now, do you want to say anything, Dr. Pelckmann? BERR PELCKMANN: I believe, Your Lordship, the decision of the Tribunal on this document should be the same as that on the two documents which we attempted in vain to introduce yesterday. Whether this document falls under Article 21, 1 cannot judge;' the Tribunal will decide that. But I refer to the other point of view which Your Lordship has already mentioned. It is very late to submit these documents now.
THE PRESIDENT: Article 21 can only be interpreted to mean that such documents can be submitted during the presenta-tion of the case by the Prosecution. The Prosecution case is now closed, and documents can only be introduced by submitting them to a witness; but since there may be hundreds, perhaps thousands of these cases, the Defense must be given an opportunity to com-ment on them. It is not a question of testing the credibility of the witness, but it is actually a question of new evidence being presented by the Prosecution, and the Defense must have an opportunity of answering it. I do not believe that this is the intention of Article 21, otherwise the Trial would be extended indefinitely. THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal will adjourn and we will sit again at 2 o'clock. [The Tribunal recessed until 1400 hours.] Afternoon Session THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Elwyn Jones, the Tribunal will take judicial notice of the document which you were submitting under Article 21, But they do not think that you need deal with it at great length. MAJOR JONES: If Your Lordship pleases. The Document D-959 will be Exhibit GB-571. [The witness Reinecke resumed the stand.] Witness, have you any knowledge of the part played by SS units in the arrest and ill-treatment of the students of Prague on 17 November 1939? REINECKE: No. About that subject I cannot testify, as the fact of their participation is now becoming known to me for the first time. MAJOR JONES: You had no knowledge of the participation of the 6th SS Totenkopf Standarte in that matter, did you? I am referring to ... REINECKE: No. MAJOR JONES: I am referring, My Lord, to an entry in the previous Czechoslovak report, USSR-60. [Turning to the witness.] You say you had no knowledge of that? This report ... REINECKE: No, I had no knowledge. MAJOR JONES: This report refers further to reprisal measures against civilians suspected of contact with the partisans, in which the SS took part. Do you have any knowledge of SS troops taking part in reprisal measures against civilians?
THE PRESIDENT: REINECKE: I can testify to that insofar as it is known to me in which manner the Waffen-SS was being employed. I know that the Waffen-SS-and in this case it can only be the Waffen-SS which is meant-was fighting at the front. MAJOR JONES: I just want you to look at the last paragraph but one in Paragraph 2, Page 4 of Document D-959, Page 4, the paragraph-it is the fourth paragraph down in the English text. "On 5 May 1945, after having plundered the village of Javorisko in the district of Litovel, the SS burned it down. During this execution the SS troops shot in the nape of the neck or killed in the burning houses all the male inhabitants of the village from the age of 15 to 70 years. Women with children, after having been ill-treated, were driven away. The execution, at which 38 men lost their lives, took place because the inhabitants of the village were suspected of hiding partisans." Have you any knowledge of that action or of actions of that kind that the SS took part in? REINECKE: No. Such actions never became known to me. Obviously, we are here concerned with the last fight for Prague. MAJOR JONES: I want you to turn to some further evidence about the ill-treatment by SS guards of transports of prisoners from concentration camps. The fifth paragraph on Page 5 of the report refers to 312 persons being beaten to death or shot, and their bodies buried in a coal pit. And you see it stated there that the beatings and killings were done by SS guards. It is very much like the Dutch report, is it not? And then there follows in the last section, crimes committed during the Prague revolution in May 1945, further accounts of SS atrocities. Now, Witness, I want you to look at a new Document, D-878, which will be GB-572, which is a r1eport from the Statistical-the Scientific Statistical Institute of the Reichsführer SS on the com-position of the SS.
THE PRESIDENT: I want you to look, if you will, at the third page of the account, that is a page marked "Page L" That sets out the-I am sorry, My Lord, I have not a translation of this, but I think the entries will speak for themselves. They are' quite clear. That is headed "Total strength of the SS as on 30 June 1944." You will see it shows "Allgemeine SS" excluding-and the translation, I think, is, excluding those members who, at the moment, are serving as reserves of the Waffen-SS, "Nicht einberufen." Total called up 66,614. THE PRESIDENT: 64,000. MAJOR JONES: 64,000. Called up in the Wehrmacht, 115,908. Called up to the labor front, 722. In miscellaneous duties, 19,254, a total of 200,498 of the Allgemeine SS. Now, can you tell the Tribunal whether those "not called up" among the 64,000 odd were performing police duties, or were some of those performing police duties? REINECKE: In my view the figures which are contained in the document refer to members of the General SS who were neither called up nor were carrying out any other type of activity -- in other words, who were following their civilian occupations at home, that is to say, who were used in economic life. MAJOR JONES: The last category of 19,254 "on miscellaneous duties," were those people who were forming the personnel of the Einsatzkommandos? REINECKE: That is absolutely out of the question, because the personnel of the Einsatzkommandos only consisted of a few hundred men. The conception of the "sonstiger Einsatz" (on miscellaneous duties) must refer to some other function which I cannot define at the moment. MAJOR JONES: Well, now, you see that that page shows the total in the Waffen-SS of 594,443. Now I want you to turn to Page 24 of this report. THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Elwyn Jones, what is the final total described as? MAJOR JONES: The total SS total 794,941. THE PRESIDENT: Yes, but what does the second German word there mean? MAJOR JONES: "Insgesamt"-"altogether," My Lord. THE PRESIDENT: "Altogether." I see. MAJOR JONES: You turn to Page 24 and.
THE PRESIDENT: you will see that the-that total of members of the Waffen-SS of 594,443 is divided up into various categories: There are first, the Feldtruppenteile, which are field units, 368,654. Then the next is, I understand, the recruiting staff, 21,365. The next category, training and reserve, 127,643. The schools, 10,822. Then other units and offices directly subordinate to the SS leadership head office, 26,544. And then in the head offices, 39,415, making the grand total of 594,443. Now, those-that entry of 26,544, other units and offices directly sub-ordinate to SS leadership head office, who were those men? Were they the personnel of the Einsatzkommandos? REINECIKE: I beg to repeat the answer I have just given you. That number cannot refer in any way to the personnel of these Einsatzkommandos; because the personnel of the Einsatzkommandos had nothing to do with the SS itself, but came from various depart-ments of the executive, in particular from the Police. This figure of 26,544 members of the SS must refer to members of offices and units who were not employed at the head offices, but who, on the other hand, were not fighting at the front either, but who were in the Reich territory with some.. MAJOR JONES: Witness, will you next turn to Page 28 of this document, which- shows how the 39,415 described on Page 24 as being members of the head offices of the Waffen-SS are employed. It starts: SS Main Office, 9,349; Waffen-SS men engaged in the SS Eco-nomic and Administrative Main Office-I beg your pardon, the second line-Waffen-SS men engaged in the Race and Resettlement Main Office of the SS, 2,689. That was the office headed by Himm-ler which yesterday you said-you said had nothing to do with the SS, the Waffen-SS, at all. And then: Third, the SS Economic and Administrative Main Office, WVHA that is, is it not-24,091 Waffen-SS men. Personal Staff of the Reichsführer SS, 673.
THE PRESIDENT: SS Personnel Main Office, 170; Main Office SS Courts, 599; Office of the SS Obergruppenführer Heissmeyer, 553; Reich Commissioner for the Strengthening of German Folkdom, 304; Reich Commissioner for the Strengthening of German Folkdom, Die Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle Office, 987. Making a total of 39,415. 4 That makes it clear, does it not, that Waffen-SS, men were engaged in all this hideous network of Himmler's machinery of terror, was it not? REINECKE: I do not believe that that is shown by this docu-ment. Yesterday I described in detail that the various head offices did not have a unified supreme command. If, for instance in this case, members of the Waffen-SS appear in the various head offices, then this is due to the fact that the employees were drafted into the Waffen-SS during the war because in that way it became unnecessary to claim them as indispensable, and they could thus be kept out of the clutches of the Armed Forces. MAJOR JONES: All those men were carried on the strength of the Waffen-SS; they were members of the Waffen-SS; they wore Waffen-SS uniforms, and they were paid by the, Waffen-SS. That is so, is it not? REINECKE'- That may well be, but that has a different sig-nificance, insofar as that did not make them members of the original organization but, as was often the case in wartime, they merely donned the uniform and were paid accordingly. If I pick out, for instance, on Page 28 of this document, the SS Economic and Administrative Main Office, with 24,091 alleged members of the Waffen-SS, I have to say that this can only refer to guards in con-centration camps, and it shows that these men, as so-called nominal members of the Waffen-SS, were merely detailed to the Economic and Administrative Main Office, but, had in reality nothing to do with the Waffen-SS. MAJOR JONES: If Your Lordship pleases, I submit that the document speaks for itself, and I have no further questions. THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal would like to have translations of the documents, of these two documents that you have referred to.
THE PRESIDENT: MAJOR JONES: If Your Lordship pleases, they will be put in. MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: My Lord, I do not wish to subject the witness to a detailed examination; I would like merely to be allowed to put one single question to him -upon a matter which he dealt with yesterday and in connection with a very short docu-ment which was mentioned yesterday. THE PRESIDENT: Yes. You may do so. MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Witness, did I understand you yesterday to say that there were honorary members of the SS? REINECKE: Yes. MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: You asserted that this quality was only conferred in order to allow them to wear a uniform? Did I understand you correctly? REINECKE: Yes. MR. COUNSELLOR ST~IIRNOV: I would7like to show you a let-ter to Himmler from one of those people whom you named yester-day as honorary members of the SS. I would like to read this very short document into the record. I quote: "22 July 1940. Berlin W-8, Wilhelmstrasse 73." THE PRESIDENT: Is it 1944 or 1940? MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: 1940, My Lord. It is a new docu-ment which bears the Number USSR-512. It was found by the Red Army in the Berlin archives. It will be submitted now to the Tribunal. I quote: "My dear Himmler: I was highly pleased to learn of my promotion by the Führer to the rank of Obdrgruppenführer of the SS. You know my attitude to your SS and how greatly I admire their development, which was the fruit of your own work. I shall always consider it a special honor to belong to this proud corps of the Führer, which is of decisive importance for the future of our Great German Reich. I remain your faithful friend, Joachim Ribbentrop." MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: Tell me, Witness, does not the first sentence of the document testify to the fact that the members of the SS whom you ' called honorary members were actually promoted by Himmler according to his estimation of their activity? REINECKE: This document, in my opinion, proves something which I tried to describe yesterday.
THE PRESIDENT: I said that it is typical for the honorary leaders that they did not actually come from the SS as such; that is to say, they had not performed any duty in the SS for many years like all the other men, but who at some stage and quite suddenly were awarded a high rank and given SS uniforms, without in ... MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: No, Witness, I am asking you something quite different. You are not answering my question. I asked you if it was not a fact that Himmler promoted the so-called honorary members according to his estimation of their activity? From the SS point of view, naturally. REINECKE: Yes, that is correct, insofar as it was typical of Himmler's policy that personalities who were holding certain posi-tions of power were granted the right to wear the SS uniform, and those are the honorary leaders. MR. COUNSELLOR SMIRNOV: I have no further questions to, put to the witness, Mr. President. DR. ALFRED SEIDL (Counsel for Defendant Frank): Mr. Pres-ident, this morning the, Prosecution submitted a Document D-926, also numbered GB-568. The subject of that document is files of the Bavarian Ministry of Justice which deal with the death of prisoners of war in the concentration camp at Dachau. I ask for permission to read into the record Figure 12 of that document now, which was not read out by the Prosecution. As reason for my application, I should like to explain that this is the same document which I applied for 6 months ago and which could not be found. The portions of this document read by the Prosecution may create the impression that the statement by the Defendant Frank in the witness box with reference to this question may not be correct. Figure 12, however shows ... THE PRESIDENT: Whom are you applying on behalf of-Frank? DR. SEIDL: I make the application on behalf of the Defendant Frank. THE PRESIDENT: I think on Page 10 of the English copy, and. with the Heading 12, the two top paragraphs were read this. morning. DR. SEIDL: Only the two first sentences of Paragraph 2 were read. The remaining sentences were not read. Paragraph 3 was not read either.