dtufail/nuremberg-trials-corpus huggingface dataset:
HERR PELCKMANN: The Prosecution has confronted you with quotations from Document 1919-PS, Exhibit USA-170. [Turning to the Tribunal.] I should be very grateful if this docu-ment could be put at my disposal so that I could show it to the witness. I think that without seeing the whole of the document, the witness cannot give a comprehensive reply. [A document was handed to Herr Pelckmann.] [Turning to the witness.] This is the order given by Himmler or by Hitler about the future tasks of the SS. I cannot show it to you, because it is in English. But I shall quote the following from this document: "The Greater German Reich in its final form will not within its boundaries contain only racial units which are from the beginning well-disposed to the Reich. But in our Reich of the future, police troops will be in possession of the necessary authority only if..." Please describe this order, on the basis of what you know of it, and tell us to what, and to what period of time these statements actually refer.
HAUSER: I know this order only through oral information. It was transmitted to the military commands apparently in order to assuage their misgivings about the growth of the Waffen-SS. The order refers only to the future. It speaks of the Greater German Reich as the Reich of the future. But naturally what in particular Hitler meant by this is beyond my knowledge.
HERR PELCKMANN: This directive seems to indicate that the Waffen-SS was to receive police tasks in the future. Was that the basic principle of the Waffen-SS during the war?
HAUSER: No. I must deny that. Perhaps Hitler at the time thought of something like the military boundary which used to exist in Austria; the men worked there, and in emergencies formed the border defense unit.
HERR PELCKMANN: In your questioning by the Russian pros-ecutor, one particular unit was mentioned from a list of alleged crimes committed by Waffen-SS units, and you were asked whether you knew the commander, General Steiner. You answered "yes" to that question?
HAUSER: Yes.
HERR PELCKMANN: I want to read an affidavit, one of the affidavits which I shall submit later on. This is Affidavit Number SS-1, which shows what strict views this Lieutenant General Steiner had on the discipline of his troops. I quote from the middle of this affidavit: "Our attention had been called to an alleged spy."-says Walter Kalweit, who signed the affidavit-"We tried to open the door of the neighboring house, but were unsuccessful. Thereupon we broke a window, entered the house, and searched it thoroughly, without, however, finding a Soviet spy. Since we were forced to realize that we had made a mistake, we left the house by the way in which we had entered it, and regretted very much having broken a window pane. "Two hours later, two Oberscharf-Uhrer of the field police force of the divisional staff 'Wiking' arrested us. On the way to the divisional court, we asked the policemen the reason for our arrest. They replied that the Ukrainian woman, owner of the house which we had searched, had complained to the divisional staff on account of the broken window pane, and that the commander of the division, General Steiner, had decreed an immediate strict investigation of this case before the divisional court, and Ernst Gugl and I were interrogated singly by a judge holding the rank of Hauptsturmfuehrer. "The judge said to me that an order of the day of General Steiner had instructed members of the SS Division Wiking that it was their duty to behave decently toward the Ukrainian civilian population. My comrade Gugl and I had violated this order, since without permission or instruction we had forced our way into a Ukrainian home by destroying a window pane." I omit a few sentences. "After the case had thus been cleared up, the judicial officer drew up a record of the interrogation and charged me with taking it to General Steiner's orderly officer, Hauptsturm-fuehrer Von Schalburg, who commented on the report as follows-these were his words: "'It is a good thing that your behavior was clean; otherwise you could have counted on severe punishment.
HERR PELCKMANN: General Steiner charged me with reporting to him personally the result of the investigation, and I am happy that I do not have to give him bad reports about his Wiking men ... Tell al.1 your comrades that the Wiking Division is fighting chivalrously and clean.' " After hearing this example, Witness, can you confirm, first, that this was the basic attitude of General Steiner and of his troops, and second, that it was the basic attitude of the Waffen-SS, both at the front and in the rear zones.
HAUSER: Steiner was one of the first commanders who under my orders helped to build up the Verfuegungstruppe. I know he maintained strict discipline. Whether it was necessary to have judicial proceedings on account of a window pane may be doubtful. However this is the conception adopted by the old leaders of Ver-fuegungstruppe right from the beginning of the Waffen-SS.
HERR PELCKMANN: I am sorry, Mr. President, there are so many documents. I am just searching for a last one which I wanted to make the subject of my re-examination. Of the numerous affidavits submitted by the British Prosecut ion, one was deposed by Dr. Stanislaw Piotrowski on 29 July 1946 here in Nuremberg. May I request that this witness be called for cross--examination before the Tribunal? It is obvious that the witness is present here and no reason therefore exists why we should be satis-fied with an affidavit.
THE PRESIDENT: What is the number of the document?
HERR PELCKMANN: The number is D-939, Your Lordship.
THE PRESIDENT: Dr. Pelckmann, hadn't you better finish with the witness first and then make your motion afterwards, if you want to make a motion about cross-examination?
HERR PELCKMANN: I have no further questions to put to this witness, Mr. President.
THE PRESIDENT: The witness can retire.
HERR PELCKMANN: I am sorry, Mr. President, I made a mistake. It is not Dr. Piotrowski; it is Izrael Eizenberg. That is the name of the witness.
THE PRE91DENT: D-939, it is?
HERR PELCKMANN: Yes.
M. SERGE FUSTER (Assistant Prosecutor for the French Re-public): Mr. President, might I ask a question to make one point clear?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, it is very inconvenient to do it at this, late stage. Why didn't you do it before?
M. FUSTER: It is not very important, My Lord. I will with-draw it.
THE PRESIDENT: Very well. The Tribunal will adjourn now. [A recess was taken.]
THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Elwyn Jones, the Tribunal understands that the witness, who is ...
MAJOR JONES: Izrael Eizenberg.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes. Is he present in Nuremberg?
MAJOR JONES: He is now in Stuttgart, My Lord, and is avail--able to be called if the Tribunal thinks it is necessary.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, the Tribunal thinks, unless there is some particular objection, in view of the nature of the evidence, that possibly he -ought to be called for cross-examination.
MAJOR JONES: The Prosecution has no objection to make at all, provided that we have additional time to get the witness here.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, then will you have him brought here as soon as possible?
MAJOR JONES: Yes, Your Lordship.
HERR PELCKMANN: I shall now call the witness Reinecke. [The witness Reinecke took the stand.]
THE PRESIDENT: Will you state your full name, please?
GUNTHER REINECKE (Witness): Guenther Reinecke.
THE PRESIDENT: Will you repeat this oath after tie-it is usual to hold your hand up when you are sworn. I swear by God-the Almighty and Omniscient-that I will speak the truth-and will withhold and add nothing. IThe witness repeated the oath.]
THE PRESIDENT: The witness may sit down.
HERR PELCKMANN: Witness, what positions did you hold in the SS?
REINECKE: I was an SS Oberfuehrer, chief of department in the Amt "SS Courts," and Chief Judge of the Supreme SS and Police Court.
HERR PELCKMANN: Did you have legal training?
REINECKE: I had my legal training at the universities of Inns-bruck and Munich. In 1931 1 passed my first state examination and in 1934 1 passed the second state examination which entitled me to occupy the position of a judge. In 1933 1 became Doctor of Law at Munich.
HERR PELCKMANN: Did you or the other SS judges have any special training at all in special schools?
REINECKE: Neither I nor the other SS judges had special training at special schools. The SS judges came from positions in the legal profession and were before the war high-ranking legal personalities, public prosecutors, or lawyers, or some of them were transferred during the war from courts of the Wehrmacht to courts of the SS.
HERR PELCKMANN: Did you, on the strength of your activities, gain insight into the organization and the work of the units and groups which were headed lay Himmler, and which one generally describes as the SS?
REINECKE: Yes. For nearly 10 years I worked in the legal field of the SS. In that sphere I had to deal extensively with the develop-ment, the -organization, and the activity of the entire SS, the chief of which was Himm1er.  From that angle I gained very considerable insight and from that angle I can give my testimony here.
HFJM PELCKMANN: According to the Prosecution, the SS infiltrated into the entire life of the State. In this connection, the Prosecution referred to the numerous offices and powerful positions which the so-called Reichsfuehrer SS Himmler occupied. Is it true that the actions of the Reichsfuehrer SS were, generally speaking, actions of the SS?
REINECKE: No. Heinrich Himmler united in himself a number of powerful positions in the Party and the State, and finally also in the Armed Forces. He was Reichsfuehrer SS, Chief of, the German Police, Reich Minister of the Interior...
HERR PELCKMANN: Please speak more slowly, Witness, these are difficult expressions.
REINECKE: ... he was Reich Commissioner for the Preservation of German Nationality, Chief of the Replacements of the Armed Forces, Chief of the Prisoner-of-War Organization, and finally, commander-in-chief of two army groups. All these powerful positions had nothing to do with his post as Reichsf0d=er SS. His nomination to these positions of power followed on orders from above, due to his personality, but not to the fact that he was Reichs-Mhrer SS. There is no connection between the SS and these positions of power which Himmler held. In particular, certain powerful positions which Himmler held are emphasized in the Indictment as indicating that the SS was acting through his person. These were his positions as Reichsfuehrer SS, Chief of the German Police, Reich Commissioner for the Preservation of German Nationality, and Chief of the Prisoner-of-War Organi-zation.
HERR PELCKMANN: Do the tasks involved in these four positions form part of the activities of the SS as an organization?
REINECKE: No. Activities of the SS as an organization are only those in which Himmler, in his capacity as Reichsfuehrer SS, is acting in connection with the SS. As Chief of the German Police he had been given a task which lay entirely in the sphere of the State. His position as Commissioner for the Preservation of German Na-tionality was entirely a matter of the Reich. And his position as Chief of the Prisoner-of-War Organization was entirely a duty of the Armed Forces.
HERR PELCKMANN: The wording of former German decrees which transferred these tasks to Himmler always referred to him as Reichsfuehrer SS. What was the reason for that?
REINECKE: That is correct. Reichsfuehrer SS was the first position held by Himmler at the beginning of his career. It is typical of the usage of language in the National Socialist Reich not to refer to a person by name but by title of his position. That usage can be found in numerous decrees, but it refers only to the person and not to the organizations with which the person's title may be connected. Many laws of economic-political content have references-to give an example-to Hermann Göring as Reich Marshal, but that did not mean that the German Air Force was active in an economic-political sphere.
HERR PELCKMANN: You have just mentioned organizations -plural of the SS. As you know, your testimony before the Com-mission is already in the hands of the Tribunal, and in that testimony you said that one had to distinguish between five different and independent spheres of activity which the Prosecution wrongly summarized under the heading of "SS"; they are: General SS, Mraffen-SS, SD, Police, and the concentration camp organization. What reasons do you offer for your statement that these were independent organizations? Will you start with the General SS?
REINECKE: The General SS was a formation of a political party and nothing else. It remained a formation of a political party until 1939, when it ceased to exist at the beginning of the war. At that time, 70 percent of the members of the General SS entered military service, mostly in the Wehrmacht, a smaller percentage in the Waffen-SS. But even the remaining 30 percent were nearly all drafted by the Wehrmacht in the course of the following war years, so that the General SS was practically disbanded during the war. At no time has the General SS been charged with duties of the State, and it was never active in the execution of such State duties. Its members were and remained civilians who only wore uniforms when on duty - namely, twice weekly, quite often on Sundays; their duty consisted of standing guard at Party meetings, of attending sports or training.
HERR PELCKMANN: It is alleged by the Prosecution that the General SS was the backbone of the entire SS, which latter consisted of the General SS, Waffen-SS, Police, and concentration camp service; is that correct?
REINECKE: No, that is not correct, and it is in contradiction to the historical development of the General SS. Nor was the General SS the reservoir from which the other organization which were mentioned drew their replacements. The General SS had either very loose or no connection at all to the other organizations named.
HERR PELCKMANN: Furthermore, the Prosecution stated that the General SS had not only infiltrated into the organizations of the State, but into the very machinery of the State; is that correct?
REINECKE: No, that again is not correct. It is correct-that is true-that high-ranking persons in the General SS -were promoted to positions in the State, for instance to the positions of presidents of police. It is also correct that such persons came to occupy eco-nomic positions, directors of industrial enterprises and so on. But all these appointments were connected with the individuals nominated, not with the organization. Might I draw attention to the fact that particularly the positions of the police presidents were, during the first years after 1933, mostly not at all occupied by members of the SS, but by members of the SA. On the contrary, in the course of time a development in the opposite direction is to be noted, insofar as the General SS was infiltrated by persons and organizations completely alien to the character of the SS. Himmler appointed people in positions in the State and economy to be honorary members of the SS without their being connected with the SS in any way. In 1936, for instance, the so-called Kyff--häuserbund, a union of veterans, was taken over into the SS by Himmler, but it had never before at any time had anything to do with the SS and it never became an organic entity of the General SS. The same applied in 1938. In that year Himmler suddenly awarded honorary ranks both to the Order Police and to the Security Police; both were given uniforms of the SS though they were entirely separate organizations with tasks quite different from those of the General SS.
HERR PELCKMANN: Were these persons to whom Himmler awarded ranks in the General SS the so-called honorary leaders?
REINECKE: Yes, these were the honorary leaders of the SS to whom I referred just now.
HERR PELCKMANN: Was it characteristic of the honorary leaders that they never did duty in the SS?
REINECKE: Yes, you are quite right. Due to the fact that they already occupied some position of importance, these honorary leaders were awarded ranks and with them the right to wear the uniform. But they themselves had never done a single day's duty in the General SS and even after their nomination they would have no contact at all with the members of the SS. That is what was generally understood by the title "honorary leader of the SS."
HERR PELCKMANN: Would it be correct to include-to mention a few names-the Defendants Hess, Ribbentrop, Neurath, Sauckel among such honorary leaders who had no official duty in connection with the General SS?
REINECKE: All the persons whom you have mentioned were typical honorary leaders in the SS, as I have described them.
HERR PELCKMANN: Did they have the power to issue orders?
REINECKE: When they were appointed to be honorary leaders they received only the right to wear the uniform as I have said. Their nomination did not bestow on them the power to issue orders. HERI~ PELCKMANN: Now I want to deal with the Waffen-SS. Can you give any information on the Waffen-SS?
REINECKE: The Waffen-SS, from the beginning, was a self-con-tained independent organization, which ' it remained until the end of the war. The Waffen-SS originated in the so-called Verfuegungs-truppe. They were still loosely connected with the General SS, for members of the General SS volunteering for service in the Ver-fuegungstruppe became recruits, of the Verfuegungstruppe. At the same time, the SS Verfuegungstruppe was joined by German citizens of other organizations of the Party and other German citizens who were not connected with the Party at all. During the later develop-ment the connection, which had always been very loose, disappeared entirely. The Waffen-SS is an independent organization, which is also shown by the fact that, for example, members of the General SS and members of the Party who were serving in the Waffen-SS lost their membership in the General SS and in the Party for the period of service. It is typical of this independence that even the highest leader in the General SS did not by any means join the Waffen-SS with the same rank which he held in the General SS, but that in the Waffen-SS he was treated exactly as any other citizen; in other words, he had to begin as a recruit. The difference and the proof for my assertion that the Waffen-SS was an independent organization are also evident from the fact that in the case of civil proceedings against members of the General SS, the NSDAP would appear on their behalf, whereas in civil proceedings against members of the Waffen-SS organization the German Reich would prosecute.
HERR PELCKMANN: Was there any connection between the General SS and the Waffen-SS on one side and the SD on the other?
REINECKE: No; no connection whatever existed. The Security Service developed into an intelligence organization which became an independent organization not later than 1934; as such it had nothing whatsoever to do with the General SS and the Waffen-SS except that Himmler was their joint chief.
HERR PELCKMANN: What was the relationship between the Waffen-SS or the General SS and the Police?
REINECKE: I believe that this question must certainly exclude the Waffen-SS. TheWaffen-SS had a definitely military character and its activities were military; that is to say, it was at the front during the entire war. Therefore any connection to the Police could not possibly have been established. But even the General SS had no direct organizational contact with the Police. The Police was an instrument of the State and had state executive powers. The appointments, for example, of high-ranking officers of the General SS to the posts of Higher SS and Police Leader, again, do not point to any organic connection between the two organizations. The Higher SS and Police Leader had in that particular position no power to issue orders to the General SS unless he was at the same time the head of an Oberabschnitt of the General SS. On the other hand, he had no real power to issue orders to the Police either. Members of the Police have in fact, to stress the difference out-wardly also, never at any time worn SS uniform. Similar relations existed between the General SS and the Waffen-SS on one side and the Security Police on the other. As I have already stated, in 1938 the Security Police quite suddenly received ranks in the SS and the right to wear the SS uniform. That, however, does not indicate that there was any organizational connection to the General SS. The Security Police received state executive powers; the chief of the General SS, on the other hand, never had such executive powers. He could not order arrests or confiscations nor could he carry out any other executive function. It was noticeable that at the beginning of the war and during the war the Security Police, wearing SS uniform, moved outwardly more and more into the foreground. This was the time when the members ...
THE PRESIDENT: Dr. Pelckmann, is it possible that this evidence could have been given at greater length before the Commission? Did you hear what I said?
HERR PELCKMANN: Yes, Mr-President.
THE PRESIDENT: Don't you think you cou ld shorten it?
HERR PELCKMANN: Yes, Mr. President. The witness has already come to the end of that particular part of his testimony.
THE PRESIDENT: You have been asked over and over again to shorten the evidence and you seem to me to be making no effort to do it.
HERR PELCKMANN: I thought it necessary to clear up the question of the Higher SS and Police Leaders with particular care, because it is extremely intricate even for us Germans. [Turning to the witness.] What was the connection in the occupied territories between the Higher SS and Police Leaders and the General SS?
REINECKE: There was absolutely no connection at all, because in the occupied territories the General SS did not even exist. The General SS was an institution for German citizens and for that reason it did not exist in the occupied territories. The Higher SS and Police Leaders in the occupied territories fulfilled police func-tions only; they had no connections or ties with the General SS and could not have had such connections for the reasons which I have described.
HERR PELCKMANN: Why did the General SS not exist in the occupied territories?
REINECKE: As I have just said, the General SS was a formation of a political party, in which only German citizens were accepted. For that reason the General SS could not exist in the occupied territories.
HERR PELCKMANN: Is it correct, then, to say that acts or even crimes of the Higher SS and Police Leaders in the occupied terri-tories could not incriminate the General SS at all?
REINECKE: That is- absolutely correct.
HERR PELCKMANN: I should now like to take up the discussion of a document. I gave you the document during the recess, Witness, and perhaps you would be good enough to state the number of it to the High Tribunal. It is the document which was put to the witness Von Eberstein yesterday.
REINECKE: It is Document 4024-PS, and is the correspondence between the Higher SS and Police Leader in the operational zone of the Adriatic,Coast, Globocznik, and Heinrich Himmler and Oswald Pohl.
HERR PELCKMANN: Is it possible for you to ascertain from the document in which capacity the author of these letters, Globocznik, was acting? Was he acting in his capacity as Higher SS and Police Leader in Trieste or-as far as I can remember-as Higher SS and Police Leader in Lublin?
REINECKE: The document shows quite clearly that Globocznik, in this case, was acting as SS and Police Leader in Lublin and not as Higher SS and Police Leader, Adriatic Coast.  This is actually con-tained in the document itself. I myself know from my own activity that at the end of 1943 or at the beginning of 1944, Globocznik was relieved of his post as SS and Police Leader in Lublin and was given the post of Higher SS and Police Leader, Adriatic Coast. The date of the document therefore appears to be wrong. The date of the docu-ment is 5 January 1943, but that must be an error; it should read 1944, as the letterhead shows.