dtufail/nuremberg-trials-corpus huggingface dataset:
MAJOR FARR: The poisoned persons swallowed frequently; later the flow of saliva is so strong that it can no longer be controlled by swallowing. Foamy saliva flows from the mouth. Then a sensation of choking and vomiting starts." The next three paragraphs describe in coldly scientific fashion the reactions of the dying persons. The description then continues, and I want to quote the two paragraphs before the conclusion. It is the last paragraph on Page 1 of the translation, the sixth paragraph of the report: "At the same time there was pronounced nausea. One of the poisoned persons tried in vain to vomit. In order to succeed he put four fingers of his hand, up to the main joint, right into his mouth. In spite of this, no vomiting occurred. His face became quite red. "The faces of the other two subjects were already pale at an early stage. Other symptoms were the same. Later on the disturbances of the motor nerves increased so much that the persons threw themselves up and down, rolled their eyes, and made aimless movements with their hands and arms. At last the disturbance subsided, the pupils were enlarged to the maximum, the condemned lay still. Rectal cramps and loss of urine was observed in one of them. Death occurred 121, 123, and 129 minutes after they were shot." The fact that SS doctors engaged in such experiments was no accident. It was consistent with an ideology and racial philosophy which, to use Himmler's words, regarded human beings as lice and offal. But the most important factor was that the SS alone was in a position to supply necessary human material. And it did supply such material through WVHA.I refer to our Document 1751-PS, which is a letter from the Chief of Office Group D of WVHA, dated 12 May 1944. I offer it as Exhibit Number USA-468. I quote that letter. It appears in the original file on the last page. I quote: "There is cause to call attention to the fact that in every case permission for assignment has to be requested here before assignment of prisoners is made for experimental purposes.
MAJOR FARR: "To be included in this request are number, kind of custody, and in case of Aryan prisoners, exact personal data, file number in the Reich Security Main Office, and the reason for detainment in the concentration camp. "Herewith, I explicitly forbid assignment of prisoners for experimental purposes without permission." The translation says that the signature is illegible, but I think it appears from the original that it is the signature of Glucks, since he was the department chief of Department D of VVVHA. It was on the basis of being able to supply such material that the Reich Ministry of Finance was prepared to subsidize the SS experimental program. I offer in evidence a series of letters between the Reich Ministry of Finance, the Reich Research Council, and the Reich Surgeon of the SS and Police. They are our Document 002-PS, which I offer in evidence as Exhibit Number USA-469. The first letter from which I shall quote appears on Page 4 of our Document 002-PS and is from the head of the Executive Council of the Reich Research Council, addressed to the Reich Surgeon of SS and Police. It is dated 19 February 1943. I quote the first three paragraphs of the letter: "The Reich Minister of Finance told me that you requested 53 leading positions . . . for your office, partly for new research institutes. "After the Reich Marshal of the Greater German Reich has as President of the Reich Research Council entrusted himself with all German research, he issued directives, among other things, that in the execution of scientific tasks important for war, the available institutions including equipment and personnel should be utilized to the utmost for reasons of necessary economy of effort. "The foundation of new institutes comes therefore in question only insofar as there are no outstanding institutes for the furtherance of important war research tasks." I omit the rest of the letter To this letter the Reich Surgeon of the SS and Police replied on the 26 February 1943. The reply will be found on Page 2 of the English translation.
MAJOR FARR: It is a letter from the Reich Surgeon SS and Police to the head of the Executive Council of the Reich Research Department, dated 26 February 1943. I quote the first three paragraphs of that letter. It begins: "My Dear Ministerial Director: "In acknowledgment of your correspondence of 19 February 1943, I am able to reply the following to it today: "The statement of the budget for the 53 key positions of my office which you made the basis of your memorandum was a veritable peace plan. "The special institutes of the SS which are to be filled, in part, with these positions should serve the purpose to establish and make accessible for the entire realm of scientific research the particular possibilities of research only possessed by the SS." Omitting the next two paragraphs, I continue: "I will gladly be at your disposal at any time to discuss the particular research aims, in connection with the SS, which I would like to bring up after the war upon the direction of the Reichsfuehrer SS." An interview between the Reich Surgeon and Mentzel, the author of the original letter, took place; and on the 25th of March 1943 Mentzel wrote a letter to the Reich Minister of Finance, which will be found on Page 1 of the translation. It is a letter from the President of the Reich Research Department, Head of the Executive Council, to the Reich Minister of Finance, dated 25 March 1943. The letter begins: "In regard to your correspondence of 19 December"-and then follows the serial number of the letter-"to which I gave you a preliminary communication on 19 February, I finally take the following position: "The Reich Surgeon SS and Police, in a personal discussion, told me that the budget claim which he looked after is used primarily in the pure military sector of the Waffen-SS.
MAJOR FARR: Since it is established on a smaller scale for the enlarging of scientific research possibilities, they pertain exclusively to such affairs, which are carried out with the material (prisoners) which is only accessible to the Waffen-SS and are therefore not to be undertaken by any other experimental office. I cannot object therefore on behalf of the Reich Research Council against the budget claim of the Reich Surgeon SS and Police." The letter is signed, "Mentzel, Ministerial Director." Thus it was because the SS was in a position to supply material for the program of experiments that it took the lead in that field of endeavor.
THE PRESIDENT: Does the letter on Page 4 mean that the Defendant Goering was President of the Reich Research Department?
MAJOR FARR: Page 4 of the translation? That I understand to be the case. The point of the letter being that Goering had laid down the rule that during the war there was to be no duplication of experiment 1 facilities. Therefore, the Reich Research Department to whom the Minister of Finance had turned for an opinion, asked the Reich Surgeon, "Why do you want to carry out this program of experiments?"
THE PRESIDENT: I was only asking whether the President of the Reich Research Department was the Defendant Goering.
MAJOR FARR: That is what is stated in the letter. I understand that to be the case.
THE PRESIDENT: Then what do the words, "President of the Reich Research Department" on Page 1 mean? Does that mean that the letter went to the Defendant Goering?
MAJOR FARR: No. The letterhead bears the notation "President of the Reich Research Department," and the letter proceeds from an office of that department, Head of the Executive Council. The letter was addressed to the Reich Minister of Finance. Am; PRESIDENT: I see.
MAJOR FARR: I have concluded the concentration camp phase.
THE PRESIDENT: We will recess now for 10 minutes.
THE PRESIDENT: It will perhaps be convenient that I should announce that the Tribunal will adjourn today at 4 o'clock.
MAJOR FARR: Through its activities with respect to concentration camps, the SS performed part of its mission to safeguard the security of the Nazi regime. But another specialized aspect of that mission must not be forgotten. The Tribunal will recall Himmler's definition of that task-a definition I referred to earlier-the prevention of a Jewish-Bolshevist revolution of subhumans; in plain words, participation in the Nazi program of Jewish persecution and extermination. It would be idle for me to refer again at any length to the evidence relating to that program which the Tribunal heard a day or so ago from Major Walsh. I want to call attention to just a few documents showing how the program involved every branch and component of the SS. The racial philosophy of the SS, which I dealt with at the very outset, made that organization a natural agency for the execution of all types of anti-Semitic measures. The SS position on the Jewish question was publicly stated in the SS newspaper Das Schwarze Corps , the issue of August 8, 1940, by its editor, Gunter d'Alquen, a statement which has already been read into evidence as Exhibit Number USA-269. It is our Document 2668-PS. I shall not repeat that quotation in which D'Alquen says that the Jewish question will not be solved until the last Jew has been deported, and that the German peace which awaits Europe must be a peace without Jews. The attempted solution of the Jewish question through the "spontaneous" demonstrations in Germany, following the murder of Vom Rath in November of 1938, has been presented to the Tribunal. In those demonstrations all branches of the SS were called on to play a part. I refer to the teletype message from SS Gruppenfuehrer Heydrich, Chief of the Security Police and SD, issued on the 10th of November 1938. It is our Document 3051-PS. Portions of that teletype have already been read into evidence as Exhibit Number USA-240. I wish to read one further paragraph, which has not been read. It appears on Page 2 of the translation, the fourth paragraph.
MAJOR FARR: I quote: "The direction of the measures of the Security Police concerning the demonstrations against Jews is vested with the organs of the State Police"-by which he means the Gestapo- "inasmuch as the inspectors of the Security Police are not issuing their own orders. In order to carry out the measures of the Security Police, officials of the Criminal Police as well as members of the SD, of the Verfugungstruppe, and the Allgemeine SS may be used." With the outbreak of the war and the march of Nazi armies over Europe, the SS participated in solving the Jewish question in other countries in Europe. The solution was nothing short of extermination. To a large degree these wholesale murders were disguised under the name of "anti-partisan" or "anti-guerilla" actions and as such they included as victims not merely Jews but Soviets, Poles, and other Eastern peoples. With this anti-partisan activity I shall deal in a few moments. I want to refer now to a few actions confined essentially to Jews. To take one example-the mass annihilation of Jews in gas vans- described in our document 501-PS, which was read into the record by Major Walsh as Exhibit Number USA-288. I do not think that that document appears in the document book, because I am not going to read from it. I simply want to point out that these gas vans, as appears from the letters, were operated by the Security Police and SD under the direction of RSHA. Or to take another example-the report entitled, "Solution of the Jewish Question in Galicia," our Document L-18, prepared by SS Gruppenfuehrer and Lieutenant General of the Police Katzmann and rendered to SS Obergruppenfuehrer and General of the Police Kruger-that report has already been received in evidence as Exhibit Number USA-277. The Tribunal will recall that the solution, which consisted in the evacuation and extermination of all the Jews in Galicia and the confiscation of their property, was carried out under the energetic direction of the SS and Police Leaders with the assistance of SS Police units.
MAJOR FARR: I wish to read three short items in the report which have not already been read. The first is a text under a photograph which appears on Page 3 of the translation and on Page 3(a) of the original report. It is the first item on Page 3 of the translation. I quote: "Great was the joy of the SS men when the Reichsfuehrer SS in person in 1942 visited some camps along the Rollbahn." The second is a balance sheet, which appears on Page 11 of the translation and Page 17 of the report. I read Item 3 on the balance sheet: "3. Amount paid over to the SS cashier: a. Camps, 6,867,251.00 zlotys; b. industrial and armament factories, 6,556,513.69 zlotys; total, 13,423,764.69 zlotys. "Further payments to the SS cashier are effected every month." The third item I desire to read is the last two paragraphs of the report found on Page 20 of the translation and on Page 64 of the original document. I read the last two paragraphs of the report: "Despite the extraordinary burden heaped upon every single SS Police Officer during these actions, mood and spirit of the men were extraordinarily good and praiseworthy from the first to the last day. "Due to the high personal sense of duty of every single leader and man we have succeeded in getting rid of this plague in so short a time." The final example of SS participation in Jewish extermination to which I shall call the Tribunal's attention is the infamous report by SS Brigadefuehrer and Major General of the Police Stroop, on the destruction of the Warsaw ghetto, our Document 1061-PS . That report was introduced in evidence by Major Walsh as Exhibit Number USA-275, and the Tribunal indicated that it would take the whole report in evidence without the necessity of reading it in full. I shall not, therefore, read any further passages; but I do want to point out specifically two sections dealing with the constitution of the forces which participated in that fearful action. On Page 1 of the translation is a table of the units used.
THE PRESIDENT: It is here?
MAJOR FARR: Our Document 1061-PS . I am just going to call your attention to the table of units which were employed in this action, indicating the average number of officers and men from each unit employed per day. It win be observed that among the units involved were the staff of the SS and Police Leader, two battalions of the Waffen-SS, two battalions of the 22d SS Police Regiment, and members of the Security Police. The part played by the Waffen-SS came in for high praise from the writer of the report. The Tribunal will recall the passage which was read by Major Walsh in which reference was made to the toughness of the men of the Waffen-SS, the Police, and the Wehrmacht and in which the writer said that "considering that the greater part of the men of the Waffen-SS had been trained for only 3 or 4 weeks before being assigned to this action, high credit should be given to them for the pluck, courage, and devotion which they showed." The Tribunal has already heard Himmler's proud boast of the part that the SS played in the extermination of the Jews. It occurs in his Posen speech, our Document 1919-PS, and was read into the record in the presentation of the case dealing with concentration camps. The passage to which I refer appears on about the middle of Page 4 of the translation and on Page 66 of the original. Since that passage has already been read, it is unnecessary for me to quote it again; but I do want the Tribunal to note that Himmler stated that only the SS could have carried out this extermination program of the Jews and that its participation in that program was a page of glory in its history which could never be fully appreciated. I now turn to the manner in which the SS fitted into the aggressive war program of the conspirators and, too, its responsibility for the Crimes against Peace which were alleged in the Indictment . From its very beginning, it made prime contributions to the conspirators' aggressive war aims.
MAJOR FARR: First, it served as one of the para-military organizations under which the conspirators disguised their building up of an army in violation of the Versailles Treaty . Second, through affiliated SS organizations in other countries and through some of the departments in its own Supreme Command, it fostered Fifth Column movements outside Germany and prepared the way for aggression. Third, through its militarized units, it participated in aggressive actions which eventually were carried out. The Tribunal has just heard the evidence against the SA, which demonstrated that from 1933 to 1938 the SA were militarized and were in fact nothing but a camouflaged army. Some of that evidence referred to the SS as well. The pare-military character of the Allgemeine SS is apparent. I have already described the military character of its structure, the military discipline required of its members, and the steps it took to enlist in its ranks young men of military age. In addition to this volunteer army, the SS created as early as 1933 fully armed professional units. These were the SS Verfugungstruppe and the Death's-Head Units with which I have dealt yesterday. While building up the SS as a military force within Germany, the conspirators also utilized it in other countries to lay the groundwork for aggression. The evidence, presented by Mr. Alderman, of the preparations for the seizure of Austria showed the part played by the SS Standarte 89 in the murder of Dollfuss and described the memorial plaque which was erected as a tribute to the SS men who participated in that murder. I refer to Exhibit Number USA-59 and USA-60, our Document Number L-273 and 2968-PS, which were introduced by Mr. Alderman. The Tribunal will recall the subsequent story of the events of the night of March 11, 1938, when the SS marched into Vienna and occupied all government buildings and important posts in the city-a story unfolded in Exhibit Number USA-61, our Document Number 812-PS, the report of Gauleiter Rainer which was read in evidence by Mr.
MAJOR FARR: Alderman, and in our Document Number 2949-PS, Exhibit Number USA-76, the record of the telephone conversation between the Defendant Goering and Dombrowski, which appears on Page 570 of the transcript of the record (Volume II, Page 417). The same pattern was repeated in Czechoslovakia. Henlein's Free Corps played in that country the part of Fifth Column which the Austrian SS had played in Austria, and it was rewarded by being placed under the jurisdiction of the Reichsfuehrer SS in September 1938. I refer to our Document 388-PS, which was read in evidence by Mr. Alderman as Exhibit Number USA-26. The items touched are Items 37 and 38 of the so-called Schmundt file. Moreover, as shown by Item 36 of that file, which Mr. Alderman read into the record, the SS had its own armed unit four battalions of the Totenkopf Verbande-actually operating in Czechoslovakia before the Munich Pact was signed. SS preparations for aggression in Czechoslovakia were not confined to military forces. One of the departments of the SS Supreme Command-the Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle-which is represented on the chart by the third box from the top at the extreme right-was a center for Fifth Column activity. The Tribunal may recall the secret meeting between Hitler and Henlein in March 1938, described in notes of the German Foreign Office, Exhibit Number USA-95, at which the line to be followed by the Sudeten German Party was determined. The Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle was represented at that meeting by Professor Haushofer and SS Obergruppenfuehrer Lorenz. And when the Foreign Office, in August 1938, awarded further subsidies to Henlein's Sudeten Party, the memorandum of that recommendation for further subsidies contained the significant footnote "Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle will be informed...." I refer to Exhibit Number USA-96, our Document 3059-PS, which was read into the record by Mr. Alderman, at Pages 789 and 790 (Volume III, Pages 75 and 76). When at last the time came to strike, the SS was ready.
MAJOR FARR: I quote from the National Socialist Yearbook for 1940, our Document 2164-PS, Exhibit Number USA-255, on Page 1, Paragraph 2, of the translation, Page 365 of the original, Paragraph 3: "When the march into the liberated provinces of the Sudetenland began, on that memorable 1st of October 1938, the emergency forces"-Verfugungstruppe-"as well as the Death's Head Units"-Totenkopf Verbande-"were along with those in the lead." I omit the balance of the paragraph and continue with the next paragraph: "The 15th of March 1939 brought a similar utilization of the SS when it served to establish order in the collapsed Czechoslovakia. This action ended with the founding of the Protectorate Bohemia-Moravia. "Only a week later, on the 22d of March 1939, Memel also returned to the Reich upon basis of an agreement with Lithuania. Again it was the SS, here above all the East Prussian SS, which played a prominent part in the liberation of this district." In the final act in setting off the war-the attack on Poland in September 1939-the SS acted as a sort of stage manager. The Tribunal will recall the oral testimony of Erwin Lahousen with relation to the simulated attack on the radio station at Gleiwitz, by Germans dressed in Polish uniform-what Lahousen referred to as one of the most mysterious actions which took place in the Abwehr. Describing his task of getting the Polish uniforms and equipment together, he said at Page 620 of the transcript (Volume II, Page 450): "These articles of equipment had to be prepared, and one day some man from the SS or the SD-the name is on the official diary of the War Department-fetched them." The war erupted and the Waffen-SS again took its place in the van of the attacking forces. During the war great use was made of the peculiar qualities possessed by the SS, qualities not only of its combat forces but of its other components as well.
MAJOR FARR: I turn now to a consideration of some of the tasks in which the SS was engaged during the war-tasks which embraced the commission of War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity described in the Indictment. The Tribunal has already received in evidence our Document 447-PS as Exhibit Number USA-135. It is a directive issued by the Defendant Keitel, on the 13th of March 1941, covering some of the preparations made 3 months in advance for the attack on Russia. Paragraph 2b of that directive, which was read into the record, provided that in the area of operations the Reichsfuehrer SS was entrusted with special tasks for the preparation of the political administration, tasks which would result from the struggle about to commence between two opposing political systems. One of the steps taken by the Reichsfuehrer SS to carry out those "special tasks" was the formation and use of so-called "anti-partisan" units. They were discussed by Himmler in his Posen speech, our Document 1919-PS, at Page 3 of the translation, Paragraph 5, Page 57 of the original, last paragraph. I read those two paragraphs in which he discusses the anti-partisan units: "In the meantime, I have also set up the office of the chief of the anti-partisan units. Our comrade SS Obergruppenfuehrer Von dem Bach is chief of the anti-partisan units. I considered it necessary for the Reichsfuehrer SS to be in authoritative command in all these battles, for I am convinced that we are best in position to take action against this enemy struggle, which is decidedly a political one. Except where units which had been supplied and which we had formed for this purpose were taken from us to fill in gaps at the front, we have been very successful.