dtufail/nuremberg-trials-corpus huggingface dataset:
SIR DAVID MAXWELL-FYFE: Injustices, insults, trickery, maltreatment, et cetera, must be discontinued. Punishment by beating is forbidden. Concerning the severe measures for insubordinate and seditious elements, the workers of foreign nationality are to be informed correspondingly." My Lord, the importance the Prosecution attaches to this is the word "discontinue" in that directive. My Lord, as Your Lordship sees the two documents together, the connection shows that there is a definite change. Now, My Lord, the third document is D-884, which will become Exhibit GB-539 and, My Lord, that is dated 28 March 1944. It is a Party order, issued in the Gau Baden-Alsace, issued from Strasbourg on 28 March 1944 and you will see it is headed "Gaustabsamtsleiter" and is "secret" and it deals with sexual intercourse between foreign workers and Germans. And, My Lord, it explains the course that is to be taken with the foreign worker and in the case of a child resulting from the intercourse and, Your Lordship, on the top of the second page of the document, it says: "The following principles exist with regard to sexual intercourse between German men and female foreign workers: "Should the foreign female worker have been induced to sexual intercourse by the German man (for instance by taking advantage of a condition of dependency) she will be taken temporarily into protective custody and then sent to another place of work. In other cases, the foreign female worker will be sent to a women's concentration camp. Women in the state of pregnancy will be sent to the concentration camp only after delivery of the child and the period of nursing. The treatment of-the German man concerned is also the subject of special directives. If he has seriously violated his supervisory or disciplinary duties, female foreign workers will be taken away from him and no more allotted to him ~n the future.
SIR DAVID MAXWELL-FYFE: Further measures, depending on the circumstances of the case, will be taken by the State Police." It applies to the Polish race, people from the Government General, Lithuania, former Soviet territory and Serbia. And then Paragraph 2 deals with the child, and first of all Your Lordship will see at the end of the first paragraph that the heading is: "Regarding the treatment of pregnant foreign female workers and children given birth to by the same in the Reich." The last sentence in the first paragraph says: "The procedure for an application for abortion is once more explained below..." And then there are various health and racial investigations. In Paragraph 5 it says: "If the investigations show that the progeny will be racially satisfactory and hereditarily healthy, they will, after birth, go to homes for foreign children to be looked after by the NSV (National Socialist Welfare Organization)"-That is the Party organization-"or will be looked after by families. "In negative cases the children will be lodged in foreign children's nurseries." And then the last paragraph: "I request the Kreisleiter to record immediately through the channels indicated above, in conjunction with the Kreisobmarm of the German Labor Front and the Kreis peasant leader, all cases of pregnancy which have hitherto occurred and all children hitherto born. An examination in accordance wit h the new directives of all children of foreign female workers who were taken under the care of the NSV already before the issue of the new instructions is also necessary." Your-Lordship will see the distribution. It is to Gauobmann of the German Labor Front, that is the representative of the DAF in the Gau, Gau propaganda chief, press chief, and then the Gauamtsleiter, the person in the office of the Gau dealing with racial policy, national health, the peasantry, national welfare, questions of race, the Gau women's leadership, and! the Gau Labor Office, and then Kreisleiter and the Kreis of the DAF and the Kreis peasant leaders.
SIR DAVID MAXWELL-FYFE: It goes, also, My Lord, to the Security Police and SD and the Office of the Commissioner for the Reichskommissar for the consolidation of German race. My Lord, I am very grateful to Your Lordship for that. It saves a considerable amount of time.
DR. SERVATIUS: Mr. President, I must raise a question with regard to the evidence. Document 205-PS, which has just been submitted, as a new document; the witness was not questioned on it at all. I assume that the evidence as such is completed and that no new documents can be introduced by the Prosecution. I request, therefore, that this document be struck out. It should have been brought before the Commission and shown to the witness; then I would have had an opportunity of producing further evidence. This is a fundamental question which will arise repeatedly. The document was not submitted to the witness; its authenticity was therefore not tested.
THE PRESIDENT: It was not submitted to the witness because of the order that the Tribunal has just made. In order to save time, the Tribunal suggested to Sir David Maxwell-Fyfe that he should put the document in in that way. I said I understood you to assent to it-that the document should be shown to you and that you should have an appropriate opportunity to comment upon it.
DR. SERVATIUS: I know the document, but I would like to clarify the fundamental question of whether the evidence of the Prosecution is finally closed or whether new documents can still be introduced into the proceedings.
THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal considers that the Prosecution can certainly call evidence and use documents if they wish to rebut the evidence which has been called on behalf of the organization.
DR. SERVATIUS: Without showing them to the witness?
THE PRESIDENT: The only reason for not showing it to the witness was that the document was not a document which the witness made, and in View of that it appeared to the Tribunal to be a matter of comment upon the document, and if you have got an opportunity to put the document to the witness yourself or to comment upon the document, you have got a full opportunity to deal with it.
DR. SERVATIUS: Then I would also be permitted, if necessary, to submit a counterdocument?
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, certainly. You can ask this witness anything you like about the document.
DR. SERVATIUS: Mr. President, at the end the witness was asked less about facts; rather he was confronted with an argument, on which I think I can comment in my final speech.
THE PRESIDENT: I did not quite understand what you said then about an argument.
DR.SERVATIUS: The witness was asked about things which were unknown to him. Examples were put to him of events in individual Gaue, of which he knows nothing. He only had to draw conclusions as to what interpretation was to be given to the documents.
THE PRESIDENT: On general principles, you can ask him anything in re-examination which properly arises out of his cross examination. If he was cross-examined upon a document, or if the document was put in now, in the way it has been, you can ask him any question upon the document or upon his cross-examination upon the document.
DR. SERVATIUS: Yes; I have a few questions. Witness, the document, the order of the Deputy of the Fuehrer, Hess, of 13 March 1940 was shown to you. It is Page 43 in the German document book. The order contains instructions to the civilian population on their conduct in the event of landings of enemy planes or parachutists on German Reich territory. You were referred to Number 4, where it says, "Likewise enemy parachutists are immediately to be arrested and made harmless." You observe that the letter is dated 1940; what was the situation in the air at that time?
KAUFMANN: I no longer have the letter at the moment, but I remember that it was dated 1940. My first answer to this question was meant to express that the air situation and the whole war situation at that time permitted only a humane interpretation of this term, if it was looked upon as misleading.
DR. SERVATIUS: Was there not a danger that airmen would land for espionage purposes and do not the words "to make them harmless" refer to this type of parachutist?
KAUFMANN: In air war all sorts of people parachuted from planes-fliers in distress, sabotage units, agents in civilian clothes, and so on. To which of those groups these words refer, is not clearly indicated in the text.
DR. SERVATIUS: May I call your attention to Number 2 which says, "Fliers are to be arrested immediately and, before all, restarting or destruction of the plane is to be prevented," and Number 4 says, "Enemy parachutists are likewise to be arrested and made harmless.1 Does not the use of the term "likewise" show that the order is concerned primarily only with the arrest of the airmen?
KAUFMANN: I repeat that in the war situation of 1940 1 understood the term "unsch"dlich" to mean solely to disarm them, but in no case to maltreat or to kill them.
DR. SERVATIUS: I have no further 4uestions to put to the witness.
THE PRESIDENT: Witness, were these Political Leaders paid -- paid salaries by the Party?
KAUFMANN: No. A very small percentage, less than 1 percent, were, in my estimate, paid officials. The majority of them were honorary, unpaid officials.
THE PRESIDENT: That applies to all the ranks of the Party officials, does it?
KAUFMANN: No. The amount of work involved in the higher positions was too great to be discharged in one's spare time in an honorary capacity along with one's own professional duties.
THE PRESIDENT: Were all the Gauleiter paid?
KAUFMANN: After the seizure of power, yes; if they did not hold a State office.
THE PRESIDENT: And what were they paid-how much?
KAUFMANN: I myself never received a salary as a Gauleiter. Up to 1928 1 earned my own livelihood. From 1928 on, I was a parliamentary delegate, and from 1933 1 was a Reich Governor. The cases of most of my comrades were similar.
THE PRESIDENT: You mean from 1933 on most of them had State offices which carried salaries?
KAUFMANN: Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: And what about the Kreisleiter?
KAUFMANN: Up to the seizure of power, all Kreisleiter were, on principle, honorary and unpaid officials.
THE PRESIDENT: And after?
KAUFMANN: And later also for a number of years. I estimate that the majority of them became officials and received salaries from 1937 or 1938 onwards. But even then there were exceptions.
THE PRESIDENT: Became State officials you mean?
KAUFMANN: No, not State officials-Party employees.
THE PRESIDENT: And received salaries; I see. And the lower ranks, the Ortsgruppenleiter and the Blockleiter?
KAUFMANN: No; from Kreisleiter down, all were honorary officials.
THE PRESIDENT: Even after 1933?
KAUFMANN: Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: And after 1937?
KAUFMANN: Also. Some of the most important members of the staff of the Kreisleiter were paid, but the majority of his staff were honorary officials. From Ortsgruppenleiter down, including Ortsgruppenleiter, all were honorary and unpaid officials.
THE PRESIDENT: From what source were they paid when they were paid?
KAUFMANN: By the Reich Treasurer of the Party.
THE PRESIDENT: And from what source did he get the money to pay them?
KAUFMANN: From the contributions of members of the Movement.
THE PRESIDENT: The funds of the Party were kept separate, were they?
KAUFMANN: The Reich Treasurer's financial administration was completely separate.
THE PRESIDENT: Were the accounts of the Party published?
KAUFMANN: No. I know only that occasionally at conferences with the Fuehrer the Reich Treasurer made a brief financial report, but that was not published.
THE PRESIDENT: Was there any reference to Party funds in the State budget or the State accounts?
KAUFMANN: No. On the contrary, I had the impression that the Reich Treasurer disposed of very extensive funds from the revenues of the Party insurance, and from the dues of members.
THE PRESIDENT: Will you call your next witness, Dr. Servatius?
DR. SERVATIUS: With the approval of the Tribunal, I shall call the witness Kreisleiter Willi Meyer-Wendeborn. [The witness Meyer-Wendeborn took the stand.]
THE PRESIDENT: Will you stdte your full name?
WILLI MEYER-WENDEBORN (Witness): Willi Meyer-Wendeborn.
THE PRESIDENT: Will you repeat this oath after me: I swear by God-the Almighty and Omniscient-that I will speak the pure truth-and will withhold and add nothing. [The witness repeated the oath.]
THE PRESIDENT: Sit down.
DR. SERVATIUS: Witness, when were you born?
MEYER-WENDEBORN: 24 June 1891.
DR. SERVATIUS: You were a Kreisleiter in Cloppenburg, Oldenburg, in Gau Weser-Ems for 12 years, from 1934-1945; on repeated occasions you acted temporarily as head of the neighboring Kreis Vechta; before that time you were an Ortsgruppenleiter for about a year and a half; is that correct?
MEYER-WENDEBORN: I was in Cloppenburg for 11 years.
DR. SERVATIUS: That was from 1934 until when?
MEYER-VVENDEBORN: From 1934 to 1945.
DR. SERVATIUS: Did you have knowledge of conditions in the administration of other districts beyond your own?
MEYER-WENDEBORN: Yes, as Ortsgruppenleiter, and later as Kreisleiter, I was in a position to gain information, sinice I repeatedly met the political leaders and the Kreisleiter.
DR. SERVATIUS: Were you, as Kreisleiter, paid a salary or were you an honorary official?
MEYER-WENDEBORN: During the first half of my term of office I was an honorary official; later I received a salary.
DR. SERVATIUS: What other political leaders in the Kreisleitung received a salary?
MEYER-WENDEBORN: The Kreis executive, the propaganda director, the training director, and the head of the financial department.
DR. SERVATIUS: Did the paid political leaders in the Kreis receive special secret instructions?
MEYER-WENDEBORN: No, never.
DR. SERVATIUS: Did they have better insight into conditions?
MEYER-WENDEBORN: They saw and heard more than the others.
DR. SERVAT1US: Of what persons did the Kreisleitung consist?
MEYER-WENDEBORN: Firstly, the main or leadership offices; these were organization, propaganda, training, and personnel. Secondly, the social and technical, offices, such as the Kreis peasant leader, the Obmann of the DAF (German Labor Front), the head of the NSV, the head of the office for -educators, and the head of the office for civil servants.
DR. SERVATIUS: Did the members of the Kreisleitung when appointed become members of the Corps of Political Leaders?
MEYER-WENDEBORN: An appointment as a member of the Corps of Political Leaders did not exist. When a Party member was appointed to an office, he became a Political Leader.
DR. SERVATIUS: Do you know of an order of Hess forbidding the use of the designation "political organization" or "Corps of Political Leaders"?
MEYER-WENDEBORN: The designation "political organization" was forbidden by the then Deputy of the Fuehrer.
DR.SERVATIUS: As Kreisleiter, you held conferences in the Kreisleitung. Who took part in these conferences?
MEYER-WENDEBORN: There were two kinds of conferences: One, among a narrow circle, the Kreis staff, and the second, among a larger circle, in which State and community representatives and others who wished to bring up special matters took part.
DR. SERVATIUS: Were the subjects of the conferences purely economic, or were political questions also discussed?
MEYER-WENDEBORN: Primarily social questions affecting the inhabitants of the Kreis were discussed. At the end of the conferences I usually gave a brief account of events in the past few weeks.
DR. SERVATIUS: Were not critical political questions discussed and instructions issued which might have had a reference to the removal of obstacles in the way of waging a war of aggression, for example, instructions on the Jewish question, the Church question, the trade union question, and the arrest of political opponents?
MEYER-WENDEBORN: I did not have to give special instructions. We were strictly forbidden to carry on our own policies. We never heard anything about preparations for war. When any measures had to be taken against political opponents, it was the affair of the State.
DR. SERVATIUS: What instructions were given on the Jewish question and what was their aim?
MEYER-WENDEBORN: With regard to the Jewish question, which did not have great significance in our rural Kreis, we were concerned primarily with the basic objective, namely, the reduction of Jewish influence to a perc6ntage of Jews corresponding to their total strength in Germany.
DR. SERVATIUS: What directions on the Church question did you issue in your capacity as Kreisleiter, and what was their aim?
MEYER-WENDEBORN: The fight against the churches was forbidden on principle. There was no need to give any instructions on that subject, for my men were all Catholic and had remained members of the Church.
DR. SERVATIUS: What about the anti-Jewish actions on 9 and 10 November 1938? What instructions were given at that time?
MEYER-WENDEBORN: I received no instructions, and was faced with the accomplished fact. In agreement with the Landrat I immediately freed Jews who had been arrested, and subsequently I received strict instructions from my Gauleiter not to allow Political Leaders or Party members to take part in these things in any way. That is all that happened in our district.
DR. SERVATIUS: What instructions were given on the question of the trade unions, and what was their aim?
MEYER-WENDEBORN: The measures of Reichsleiter Dr. Robert Ley on 1 or 2 May were a complete surprise to us. We ourselves, as Political Leaders, had nothing to do with them and no instructions were issued.
DR. SERVATFUS: What instructions did you as Kreisleiter give with regard to political opponents?
MEYER-WENDEBORN: The treatment of political opponents was primarily the task of the State authorities. If I suspected anyone of being an opponent, I always took the opportunity of having a discussion with him, and as a result it was not necessary to take more than a few measures.
DR. SERVATIUS: Was there not, in fact, such a close relationship between the State Police and the Kreisleitung that, in practice, the Kreisleiter could at any time arbitrarily order the arrest of political opponents?
MEYER-WENDEBORN: That would have been a good thing. When I repeatedly suggested that to the Gauleiter, at the time Karl Roever, I was told that these were measures of the State which did not concern us as Political Leaders.
DR. SERVATIUS: Witness, you misunderstood me. My question was, did your close connections with the State Police enable you to order arrests?
MEYER-WENDEBORN: No, I could not order arrests. I had no close connections with the State Police, and I never had occasion or opportunity to have anybody arrested.
DR. SERVATIUS: Was not a card index of opponents kept on orders of the superior Party offices?
MEYER-WENDEBORN: We never kept such a card index, either in the Kreis or in Ortsgruppe.
DR. SERVATIUS: Did the Gestapo keep such a card index, and did you assist in keeping it?
MEYER-WENDEBORN: I cannot tell you. I was never told about it; I do not know. In any case, I certainly did not assist in keeping it.
DR. SERVATIUS: Did you not, as Kreisleiter, ask for general reports on the feeling and political views of the inhabitants who were listed in a local card index for the individual households, and were these not reports of spies?
MEYER-WENDEBORN: There was no local card index for households in my Kreis. It was intended to set up one, but that was never done. I never asked for spy reports, and I would never have received them; but I did ask for reports on the feeling of the people with regard to measures taken by the State and the Party.
DR. SERVATIUS: And what was the purpose of these reports?
MEYER-WENDEBORN: We wanted to know what effect the new laws and directives would have on the mass of the people.
DR. SERVATIUS: How did you receive your instructions from the Gauleiter?
MEYER-WENDEBORN: I received my instructions -in writing, and also orally.
DR. SERVATIUS: Did the Kreisleiter take part in conferences with the Gauleiter? And who was present at such conferences?
MEYER-WENDEBORN: We did not always take part; we were there only when something of special interest to our own Kreis was being discussed. At the conferences of the Gauleitung, the members of the Gau offices and the consultants took part.
DR. SERVATIUS: What was discussed at these conferences? Were they similar to the Kreisleiter conferences which you mentioned earlier?
MEYER-WENDEBORN: They were roughly similar, but on a larger scale ranging over the whole of the Gau.
DR. SERVATIUS: How did you instruct the Ortsgruppenleiter? Was that done on the basis of the Gau and Kreis conferences, or was the information which was passed on to them somewhat changed, that is, false?
MEYER-WENDEBORN: After conferences with the Gauleiter, I regularly passed on to my men what I had heard there, and I passed it on in the form in which I had heard it from my Gauleiter.
DR. SERVATIUS: How did you co-operate with the SA? Was the SA represented in the Kreisleitung?
MEYER-WENDEBORN: I left it to the discretion of the SA to take part in our conferences. The local leader came occasionally and listened to what we were generally discussing.
DR. SERVATIUS: Could you give orders to the SA or request its aid?
MEYER-WENDEBORN: I could not give any orders to the SA. I could only, through its superior officers, ask for its aid in any propaganda measures, collections, employment assistance, and so on.
DR. SERVATIUS: What sort of co-operation existed between you and the General SS? Was it represented in the Kreisleitung?
MEYER-WENDEBORN: We had no local SS leader. The SS itself did not ask to be represented in the Kreisleitung.
DR. SERVATIUS: Did you have any insight into the measures which the SS took with regard to protective custody and concentration camps?
MEYER-WENDEBORN: No, I had no insight into that.
DR. SERVATIUS: Did you ever attempt to obtain such insight?
MEYER-VTENDEBORN: Yes. It was about 1935, but I did not succeed in obtaining it. I was refused a visit to a concentration camp, which I did not want to visit because of any suspected atrocities, but because it was new to me.
DR. SERVATIUS: And what reason were you given?
MEYER-WENDEBORN: I was told to get permission through the RSHA. I asked the Gauleitung to do that because I was not permitted to contact the RSHA personally. The Gauleitung then advised against it, because it would be very complicated.
DR. SERVATIUS: Do you know whether the RSHA was the competent authority?
MEYER-WENDEBORN: No, I do not know.
DR. SERVATIUS: Did you in your Kreis receive or issue instructions with regard to the lynching of fliers who had made forced landings?
MEYER-WENDEBORN: We had many forced landings. I never issued and was never told to issue any instructions on this subject.
DR. SERNTATIUS: But you surely know the Bormann letter and other documents which deal with this matter. Did you, as Kreisleiter, not learn of these?
MEYER-WENDEBORN: I did not receive the Bormann letter, but I heard the article of -the Reich Propaganda Minister on the radio.
DR. SERVATIUS: And then what happened in your Kreis? Was any action taken in the spirit of Goebbels' statements?
MEYER-WENDEBORN: We continued to act according to the ' general rules of warfare, and the men who landed were always treated very well. The population regarded that as natural.
DR. SERVATIUS: Did you receive or issue instructions ordering bad treatment of prisoners of war or foreign workers, or did you permit such treatment?