dtufail/nuremberg-trials-corpus huggingface dataset:
MAJOR JONES: That is enough. I can assist you in that case. I want you to look at a report of your colleague, Globocznik, on the "Action Reinhard" against the Jewish people of Poland. It is Document 4024-PS, which will be Exhibit GBA50. It is a lengthy report. My Lord, with respect, it does merit the attention of the Tribunal. Witness, you see that it is a report from Globocznik to Himmler, dated 5 January 1943. The letter starts: "Reichsfuehrer, I am taking the liberty of submitting to you the enclosed report on the economic winding-up of the Action Reinhard." In the next paragraph: "A proper winding-up and my release are necessary because I carried out this activity within the framework of the SS"-I would like to underline these words "within the framework of the SS"-"and it must, therefore be wound up in a proper manner with regard to the competent Reich authorities." Then in a later paragraph it goes- on: "The summary accounting contains two parts: "I) The economic part of the Action Reinhard with the items: a) accounting and delivery of the assets seized, -and b) ac-counting of the assets obtained by the work. "2) The Settlers' Economic Association whose economic activity also depended on my mark, and which is now being transferred to civilian hands." Witness, that so-called resettlement was one of the functions of the SS organization? [There was no response.] Then there follows on Page 2 of the German text of this report: "There is one additional factor to be borne in mind, when rendering the summary accounts for 'Reinhard,' which is that the vouchers dealing with it must be destroyed as soon as possible." Now, the next document, Page 3 of the German text and Page 2 of the English ...
THE PRESIDENT: Where is this part about the vouchers being destroyed?
MAJOR JONES: Paragraph 3, My Lord. Globocznik marked it "2-The Settlers' Economic Association"-in the next sentence to that. [Turning to the witness.] Page 2 of the English text is a report -on the economic aspect of the Action Reinhard. There are four copies only of that report. It was gathered together in the SS Economic and Administrative Main Office. It says: "The entire Action Reinhard is divided into four parts: A) The evacuation itself; B) the employment of labor; C) the exploi-tation of property; D) seizure of hidden goods and landed property. "A) The evacuation. "This is settled and completed. "In this case the prerequisite was to get hold of the people with the small forces available and to cause as little economic damage as possible to war production by methodically appro-priate measures. "On the whole this has been achieved. Considerable damage occurred only in Warsaw, where, owing to ignorance of the position, the methods applied in the final action were entirely wrong." Then I go to Paragraph B, employment *f manpower. "The entire manpower was put into closed camps, to which essential war production was transferred. "For this purpose the following conditions had to be created: 1) Establishment of all camps; 2) establishment of work shops with all the technical equipment, the purchase of machinery, the power supply, et cetera; 3) the organization of the supply ... ; 4) sanitation and hygiene..." Then I want you particularly to notice: "5) Security measures: a) Achieved by adequate security pre-cautions; b) by a protective organization within the camp; c) by adequate guarding. For this purpose the SS guards were created, the overwhelming majority of whom, led by Ger-mans, carried out their duties satisfactorily. Their reliability was increased by mixing these guards with Reich German guards from concentration camps. d) The prerequisites for a satisfactory security system were created by these camps being taken over by the concentration camp department of the WVHA.
MAJOR JONES: "6) The proper administration and methodical treatment were made possible thanks to the extensive training of the Germa4 personnel. It became apparent that the working capacity of the Jews in the camps was constantly increasing." And then there is described the creation of a works management tinder the name of "Osti" and the German Equipment Works: "A total of 18 plants was established; it was intended to add more. About 52,000 workers were available. These conditions of work made it possible to accept urgent orders both from the armament inspectorate and from Speer's Reich Ministry, and thus replace bombed-out plants. The demand from these offices was considerable. Osti and the German Equipment Works were run by me, whereas other plants, such as the Heinkel Aircraft Works, were only looked after by me." And then Paragraph C is on Page 5 of your German text: "Exploitation of property." This has been completed, as shown in Enclosure 2 which I shall come to in a moment. Paragraph D: "Seizure of hidden goods. The seizure of hidden goods and exploitation of property is divided into: "I) Property such as machinery, raw materials, et cetera, handed over by the Osti to Aryans. To date the result is 6.3 million Reichsmark; a further 7 to 8 million Reichsmark are yet to be brought in." Paragraph 2: "Seizure of Jewish claims at home and abroad by forcing the camp inmates to cede these claims to the Osti, which then carried out the recovery. The first attempt resulted in a cession of an amount of 11 million zlotys, of which at least half appeared obtainable. However, since it was also possible to discover that money had been smuggled abroad, this action could have brought valuable foreign currency to the Reich." Paragraph 3: "Real estate was transferred to the Real Estate Administration of the Government General for exploitation..." Then the measures taken were as follows: "l) On 13 August 1943 the SS training camp of Trawniki was handed over by SS Obergruppenfuehrer Pohl.
MAJOR JONES: "2) On 7 September .1943, in a conference with SS Ober-gruppenfuehrer Pohl, the taking over of 10 SS work camps in the Lublin District as subsidiaries of Lublin Concentration Camp was decided on and, in addition, the handing over of further work camps in the Government General. The head of the Lublin Concentration Camp was provided with adequate contracts. The conference was the result of a visit by SS Obergruppenfuehrer Krueger and SS Standartenfuehrer Schellin." Then Paragraph 3: "In pursuance thereof, a letter from the Commander of the Lublin Concentration Camp, dated 14 September 1943, to the SS work camps announced that they had become subsidiaries of the Lublin Concentration Camp." And then there follows the sentence-"The mixing of guards of foreign race with the German concentration camp guards from the Reich has also been started." And I need not trouble you with the rest of that document. If you will turn to Page 8 of the German text you will see the "Report on the administrative winding-up of Action Reinhard," just two pages, in the English text, from the one that I have just read. The first paragraph described the assets of this Action Reinhard. Paragraph 3 of the text says: "The assets which I collected were regularly delivered to the SS Economic and Administrative Main Office against receipts, and they in turn passed on the assets to the Reichsbank, the Reich Ministry of Finance, textile concerns, et cetera." And then the next paragraph but one-perhaps it is only fair that I should read the next paragraph: "On the orders of the Reichsfuehrer SS, articles needed for the supply of persons of the German race could be removed.
MAJOR JONES: The Reichsfuehrer SS forbade any appropriation for the purposes of the SS."-But you will see later how this was qualified -"What is remarkable about the accounting is that no hard and fast basis for the amount collected existed, as the collection of the assets was carried out under orders and only the decency and honesty, as well as the surveillance of the SS men who were used for this purpose, could guarantee a complete delivery." Page 9 of the German text-I trust you are following this, Witness, because it is not without interest, you know. Page 9 of the German text sets out the assets, first sums of Reichsmark and zlotys. "By far the greater portion was placed at the disposal of the SS economist in the Government General and the amounts were credited to the Action Reinhard in Reichsmark by the SS Economic and Administrative Main Office by an account-ing transaction and handed over to the Reichsbank." Next page, Paragraph 2: "Foreign currency in bank notes or coined gold was collected, sorted, and also handed over to the Reichsbank via the SS Economic and Administrative Main Office." Then Page 10 of your German text: "Jewels, gems, watches, and such like were sorted according to their value and delivered to the SS Economic and Admin-istrative Main Office. On orders from this office, watches of nonprecious metals were handed over to the troops, spectacles were repaired and placed at the disposal of wounded persons, and articles of no money value were handed over principally to Armed Forces authorities to cover urgent needs." Paragraph 4: "Textiles, garments, underclothing, bed feathers,. and rags were collected and sorted according to quality. The sorted articles had to be searched for hidden valuables and finally disinfected. More than 1,900 wagons were then placed at the disposal of the authorities named by the Reich Ministry of Economics by order of the SS Economic and Administrative Main Office. Out of these stocks not only foreign workers were clothed but a large portion was used for remanufacture.
MAJOR JONES: The best garments were separated and, by order of the Reichsfuehrer SS, were used for supplying persons of the Ger-man race. Shoes were also sorted according to the grade of usefulness and then either given to persons of the German race or to concentration camps for supplying inmates, or else taken to pieces and made into clogs for the prisoners." Paragraph 5: 	1 "Individual valuables of a special kind, such as stamps, coins, and the like, were sorted and delivered to the SS Economic and Administrative Main Office." Paragraph 8 on Page 11 of your German text: "Valuable furniture and household utensils were recondi-tioned and mainly put at the disposal of settlers of the Ger-man race. But furniture was also loaned to German and Armed Forces authorities against fictitious bills. Inferior goods were either destroyed or given to the population as a reward for good work at the harvest, et cetera." The last paragraph: ' "The total value of the articles received is, according to the attached list, approximately 180 million Reichsmark. However, minimum values have been set up, so that the total value is most likely twice as much, quite apart from the value of the articles obtained which are in short supply, such as textiles, of which alone more than 1,900 wagons have been made available to German industry." And then there follows a detail of these assets, on Page 12 of the report: "Assets delivered from Action Reinhard. The following assets from the Action Reinhard were delivered to the SS Economic and Administrative Main Office, Berlin, for further transmis-sion to the Reichsbank or to the Reich Ministry of Economics: a) Reichsmark sums totalling 53,013,133.51 marks; b) currency in bank notes from all the principal countries in the world (half a million dollars being particularly worthy of note) to a total value of 1,452,904.65 Reichsmark; c) foreign currency in gold coins to a total value of 843,802.75 Reichsmark; d) pre-cious metals ...
MAJOR JONES: to a total value of 5,353,943 Reichsmark; e) other valuables such as jewelry, watches, spectacles, et cetera (the number of watches being particularly worthy of note, about 16,000 in working order and about 51,000 requiring repair, which have been placed at the disposal of the troops) value 26,089,800 Reichsmark; f) about 1,000 wagons of textiles to a total value of 13,294,400 Reichsmark. Grand total 100,047,983.91 Reichsmark. "1,000 wagons of textiles and other assets, amounting to about 50 percent of the above-mentioned assets, which still have to be counted and valued, are warehoused here. It should be noted that the estimated values were based on the officially established rates of exchange or prices, which, however, would be much higher on the open market, for instance if the precious stones or precious metals were sold abroad, for the movement toward stable values is more pronounced there than with us. Besides, these sales abroad bring us foreign currency. If these prices were taken as a basis of evaluation here, this was done in order to be able to give a picture of the assets delivered; in general this evaluation is not authoritative. The value of the acquisition lies principally in the fact that such large quantities of urgently needed raw materials could thereby be gained and that, on the basis of the assets obtained, foreign currency can be brought in with which new materials can in turn be bought by Reich authorities." Then there follows a list of Jewish property received for delivery up to the 3d of February 1943. This is ~t sort of interim report: Cash in hand, 53 millions; foreign currency in notes, 14 million-odd. Then on Page 1-5 of the report: Currency in gold coins of various countries of the world, 843,000-odd Reichsmark; 5 million-odd in precious metals.
MAJOR JONES: Then I want you to look at Page 16 of this report, Witness: Other valuables: 5 gold revolving pencils; 578 gentlemen's wrist watches; 13,455 gentlemen's pocket watches and miscellaneous ladies' jewelry; then the item 22,324 spectacles; and then next but one to that, 11,675 rings; then all the precious little possessions of these people, necklaces, a pair of mother-of-pearl opera glasses, each one itemized down to the very last sordid Reichsmark. Then on the next page, Page 17, there are other little items of private possessions, making a total of 26 million Reichsmark.
HERR PELCKMANN: Mr. President, I ask for permission to interrupt the reading of this document for a moment. I object to the use of these documents in the examination of this witness. The witness is to be examined as to his credibility by the Prosecution. The submission of these documents does not serve this purpose. In his testimony the witness has said that he had no authority over concentration camp administration. Nevertheless, a document is shown to him concerning penal regul4tions in a concentration camp. He said he did not know it. Continuing on the same lines, the Prosecution attempts to submit a document...
THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal is perfectly well aware that this is a new document and they will take into account everything that this witness says.
HERR PELCKMANN: I beg your pardon, Mr. President.
THE PRESIDENT: I say, the Tribunal is perfectly well aware that this is a new document, and that the Tribunal will take into consideration everything that the witness says and how far it appears that he has had anything to do with the document in con-sidering the question of his credibility. Your objection is therefore rejected. We had better adjourn now. [A recess was taken.]
MAJOR JONES: Reading a number of extracts, the total posses-sions of Jewish Poles was 26 millions. For textiles, there were 462 wagons of rags, 251 wagons of bed feathers, 317 wagons of clothing and underclothing, and then follows a total of over 100 million Reichsmark. Pages 18 and 19-you need not trouble with that. Then you turn to Page 20 of the German text and, My Lord, Page 16a of the English text. You see a report on the exports of the slave labor from one of these camps which was set up for the benefit of the German armament industry. There are listed the various details of the work on various manufactured articles: 41 Aryan leading personnel ran 5,445 Jewish workers who worked 1,115,000 working days in the first 10 months of the year 1943, with 31 mil-lion zlotys in the bank and till. Then o n the next page, Page 21 of the German text, dealing with the orders given to the slave camps: 83 percent of the orders were for the Armed Forces and 17 percent for civilian concerns. Next, turn to Page 23 of the German text, Page 19 of the English text. It is the provisional balance sheet of the Action Reinhard till, Lublin, dated 15 December 1043: "The following monies and values in kind were brought to the German Reich during the course of the Action Reinhard, Lublin during the period I April 1942 to 15 December 1943 inclusive." The Tribunal will see from these figures that in the meantime additional loot had been obtained: Cash in hand, 17,470,796.66 Reichsmark; Reichsmark notes and coins, 3,979,523.50 Reichsmark to the Reichsbank Berlin, zloty notes and coins, 5,000,461 Reichs-mark; to the SS economist, Krak6w, 50,416,181.37 Reichsmark; loans for SS industrial concerns, 8,218,878.35 Reichsmark.
MAJOR JONES: Then on the next page there is a table of the foreign currency that was looted currency, and then notes, and then there comes, once more, a list of the private possessions of the Poles and Jews that were taken away: Rings, ladies' gold wrist watches, gentlemen's gold pocket watches, ladies' watches with brilliants, ladies' watches of platinum, 29,391 spectacles, shaving equipment, pocket knives, alarm clocks, sunglasses, silver cigarette cases, clinical thermom-eters, all detailed to the last mark with a total of 43,662,000 Reichs-mark. Then the industry increased by 9 million more workers. There were 1,901 wagons of clothing, underclothing, bed feathers, and rags to an average value of 26 million Reichsmark. Total com-pilation of the total loot up to the end of December 1943: 178,745,000 Reichsmark. Then there follows, on Page 28 of the German text, Page 23 of the English text, an account from the personal staff of the Reichsfuehrer SS, and which is an account of the national resettlement carried out by uprooting of farms to make room for German citizens and the clearing of some villages. Paragraph 3: "All Poles, including those who are sent to, the Reich to work there, are to be given certifi6ates confirming what property they have left behind. They are to be informed that they will receive a suitable compensation sometime in the form of goods or cash." Page 29 of the German text, 24 of the English text, Paragraph 6: "The communications from persons previously sent to the Reich, which report that they are getting on well there, and the people7s realization of the fact that up to now nobody has been treated like the Jews, have already dispelled the feeling of dread which surrounded this system of classification." Then I want you to turn to Page 31 of the German text, and the Tribunal will find it on Page 26 of the English text.
MAJOR JONES: "Measures for further resettlement." that carried the head-ing, of the personal staff, Reichsfuehrer SS-"As many quarters express themselves against the transfer of populations on the grounds that it causes too much unrest among the foreigners, thus disturbing production, the following measures have been decided upon: "L Verbal propaganda will spread news about the discon-tinuation of these transfers. "2. No office will make any announcements before the date fixed for the resettlement. Planning will be done secretly. "I The time for immigration will be fixed to take place after the spring tilling of the fields, so that the foreigners will carry out the cultivation of the land, and the new settlers will be able to profit by the harvest. This has the advantage that, due to the aforesaid circumstances, the foreigners will till their fields everywhere, while the German settlers will not run the danger of being possibly hindered in their spring work, in view of the short time available. "4. The transfer of Poles should be carried out in such a manner that the good elements are put, as far as possible voluntarily, in districts cleared by the Security Police, and the transfer should be run under the heading, 'The Establishment of Security in Partisan Districts! The bad elements, if they are not employed as auxiliary workers, will be taken away gradually. "5. The announcement of the time of resettlement will be made only on the day of the transfer of the population. "6. All the organizations formed by the settlers in all the villages will be occupied in advance by the 'Landwacht' (Country Guard) who, having received previous training, are to save the use of our own SS forces." Then on the next page there follows a memorandum by Glo-bocznik, setting out the details of the technique of resettlement. And I turn to the next document, Page 34 of the German text, 29 of the English text. That is Globocznik's final letter forwarding this report in dealing with the Reinhard Action.
MAJOR JONES: It is dated the 4th of November 1943, when, as the Tribunal sees, Globocznik was the Higher SS and Police chief in the operational zone of the Adriatic coastal area. It is addressed to Himmler: "Reichsfuehrer: I concluded Action Reinhard, which I have been directing in the Government General, on 19 October 1943, and have dissolved all camps." The last paragraph but three: "During a visit you, Reichsfuehrer, held out to me the prospect that a few Iron Crosses might be awarded for the special per-formances of this hard task after the work had been con-cluded. Please let me know, Reichsfuehrer, whether I may submit suggestions in this connection. "I beg to point out that such an award was also granted to the forces of the SS and Police Leader in Warsaw for the Warsaw action which formed a. comparatively small part of the total work." In the final document, Himmler sends a letter to Globocznik, saying: "I express to you my thanks and my acknowledgment for the great and unique services which you have performed for the entire German people by carrying out the Action Reinhard." Witness, do you still say that you had no knowledge of the use of the SS for the collection of loot, for the use of resettlement, for the driving of people from their homes and for the enslavement of Poles and Jews?
VON EBERSTEIN: No, I had no knowledge of these things.
MAJOR JONES: When did you first discover that Jewish and other people were being exterminated in concentration camps?
VON EBERSTEIN: I already testified to that a little while ago, that I learned of this extermination only after I was arrested.
MAJOR JONES: Your connection with the Rascher case in the spring of 1944 must have given you a very clear idea that exter-mination was going on. I repeat my question: Did, not your contact with the Rascher case in the spring of 1944 warn you clearly that extermination and killings were going on in concentration camps?
VON EBERSTEIN: I can refer to my personal experience and observation only, which in the case of Rascher proved to me for the first time that such things had occurred. I should like to repeat again that in the Reich territory we at home had no possibility of learning such things as are revealed by the documents before me.
MAJOR JONES: You arrested Rascher on the charge of fraud, did you not?
VON EBERSTEIN: Rascher, as I already testified on Saturday, was suspected first of all ...
MAJOR JONES: Just a moment. Are you going to answer my question directly? Did you arrest Rascher on a charge of fraud?
VON EBERSTEIN: I can only repeat that he was already under arrest, and after we learned of this crime, we kept him in custody until the end. It was a coincidence that we were holding him for the other crime-the two crimes for which he had been charged. Then, of course, he was closely guarded.
MAJOR JONES: You knew that Rascher had been carrying out experiments on humans and in the course of those experiments, that he had been killing them, did you not?
VON EBERSTEIN: That I learned from my conversation with the camp commander and the physician. .