Chapter XVI: Part I: , Page 713 (8)

“Category Ia—for all old prisoners conditionally qualified for
work who could still be used in the medicinal herb gardens—Camp
Dachau.

“Category II—for prisoners charged with major offenses but
still qualified for re-education and correction—Camps
Buchenwald, Flossenbürg, Neuengamme, Auschwitz II.

“Category III—for prisoners under most serious charges, also
for those who have been convicted previously for criminal
offenses; at the same time for asocial prisoners, that is to
say, those who can hardly be corrected—Camp Mauthausen.”

I call Your Honor’s attention to the fact that we have been talking about Mauthausen, where the “K” action took place.

The Chief of the Security Police and SD had the authority to fix the length of the period of custody. During the war it was the policy not to permit the prisoners to know the period of custody and merely to announce the term as “until further notice.” That was established by Document 1531-PS, which has previously been introduced as Exhibit Number USA-248; and the only reason for referring to it is to show that they had the right to fix the length of period of custody.

The local Gestapo offices, which made the arrests, maintained a register called the “Haftbuch,” and I understand Haftbuch simply means a block or police register. In this register the names of all persons arrested were listed, together with personal data, grounds of arrest, and disposition. When orders were received from the Gestapo Headquarters in Berlin to commit persons who had been arrested to concentration camps, an entry was made in the Haftbuch to that effect.

I now offer in evidence the original of one of these books, and it is Document Number L-358, Exhibit Number USA-495. This book was captured by the 3rd Army when it overran an area; and it was captured by the T-Force on April 22, 1945, near Bad Sulza, Germany. This book is the original register used by the Gestapo at Tomaszow, Poland, to record the names of the persons arrested, the grounds for arrest, and the disposition made of cases during the period from 1 June 1943 to 20 December 1944.

In the register are approximately 3,500 names of persons. Approximately 2,200 were arrested for membership in the resistance movements and partisan units. This is a very large book; and I am going to ask the clerk to pass it to Your Honors so that you might get a look at it. It is too big to photograph. And if Your Honors will just turn to one of the pages, I will read what the different columns provide—just any one of the pages. There is a double column. It starts on the left and goes over to the other side. In the first column that heading is simply a number of the man when he comes in. The next column is his name. The third column is the family—a brief family history and his religion. The fourth is the domicile. The next shows the date he was arrested and by whom—that is the fifth column. The next column, the place of arrest. And then the next column, the reason for arrest. And then the next is another number which is apparently a serial number for delivery. And next to the last column is the disposition. And the final column, remarks.

Now, out of the 3,500 names that are shown in that book, Your Honors will notice a number of red marks. Those apparently meant the ones that were shot. Of these, 325 were shot. Only 35 of that 325 had first been tried. Nine hundred and fifty out of this list were sent to concentration camps; and 155 were sent to the Reich for forced labor. According to this register, similar treatment was accorded persons who were arrested on other grounds, for instance, Communists, Jews, hostages, and persons taken in reprisal. A large number are shown to have been arrested during raids, no further grounds being stated.

I particularly refer Your Honors to entries 286, 287, and 288, that is, the numbers in the first column of the register, where the crime charged to the person arrested was “als Juden”; in other words, he was a Jew. And by that you will find a red cross mark; and the punishment given was death.

I now pass from this document and simply call attention to Document L-215, which was heretofore introduced as Exhibit Number USA-243. I don’t intend to read from it unless Your Honors want to turn to L-215. This is a file of original dossiers on 25 Luxembourgers taken into protective custody for commitment to concentration camps. I will just refer to a sentence of the language in the document. Quoting:

“According to the finding of the State Police, he endangers by
his attitude the existence and security of the people and the
State.”

And in each case, with reference to those dossiers, that appears as being the reason for the execution of these 25 Luxembourgers. And in connection . . .

THE PRESIDENT: Colonel Storey, you said execution, did you not?

COL. STOREY: I beg your pardon—sending to concentration camps.

THE PRESIDENT: Yes. There is no evidence they were executed?

COL. STOREY: No, Sir; they were committed to concentration camps. And also in connection with that same document there is a form provided by which the Gestapo headquarters in Berlin were notified when the persons were received by the concentration camps.

Another document—which has heretofore been received as Exhibit Number USA-279, Document 1472-PS, in the second volume—I am simply going to refer to as a predicate for another. That was a telegram of 16 December 1942 in which Müller reported that the Gestapo could round up some 45,000 Jews in connection with the program of obtaining additional labor in concentration camps. And with reference to the same subject there is Document 1063(d)-PS, which has heretofore been offered as Exhibit Number USA-219. Müller sent a directive to the commanders and inspectors of the Security Police and SD and to the directors of the Gestapo regional offices in which he stated that Himmler had ordered, on 14 December 1942, that at least 35,000 persons who were fit for work had to be put into concentration camps not later than the end of January.

Now, in that same connection I offer Document L-41, Volume 1, as Exhibit Number USA-496. This document contains a further directive from Müller dated the 23rd of March 1943 and supplements the directive of 17 December 1942, to which I referred and in which he states that the measures are to be carried out until 30 April 1943. And I would like to quote from the second paragraph on Page 3 of the exhibit:

“Care must be taken, however, that only prisoners who are fit
for work are transferred to concentration camps, and adolescents
only in accordance with the given directives; otherwise, the
concentration camps would become overcrowded, and this would
defeat the intended aim.”

In that same connection I offer Document 701-PS, Exhibit Number USA-497. This is a letter dated 21 April 1943 from the Minister of Justice to the public prosecutors and also addressed to the Commissioner of the Reich Minister of Justice for the penal camps in Emsland. Quoting:

“Subject: Poles and Jews who are released from the penal
institutions of the Department of Justice. Copies for the
independent penal institutions.

“1. With reference to the new guiding principles for the
application of Article 1, Section 2, of the decree of 11 June
1940, _Reichsgesetzblatt_ I, Page 877—Attachment I of the
decree (RV) of 27 January 1943—9133/2 Enclosure I-III a
2/2629—the Reich Security Main Office has directed by the
decree of 11 March 1943—II A 2 Number 100/43—176:

“(a) Jews, who in accordance with Number VI of the directives
are released from prison, are to be committed for life in the
concentration camps Auschwitz or Lublin by the head office of
the State Police competent for the district in which the prison
is located, in compliance with directions issued about
protective custody.

“The same applies to Jews who in the future are released from
prison after serving a sentence of confinement.

“(b) Poles, who in accordance with Number VI of the directives
are released from prison, are to be taken, by the head office of
the State Police competent for the district in which the prison
is located, for the duration of the war to a concentration camp
in compliance with directions issued concerning protective
custody.

“The same applies in the future to Poles being released from
prison after serving a term of imprisonment of more than 6
months.

“In answer to the request of the Reich Security Main Office I
ask that in the future: (a) All Jews about to be released and
(b) all Poles awaiting release who have served a sentence of
more than 6 months, are to be listed to the directorate of the
State Police competent for the district for further confinement
and, in due time before the end of sentence, are to be placed at
its disposal for transfer.”

And the last paragraph states that this ruling replaces the hitherto ordered return of all Polish prisoners undergoing imprisonment in the Old Reich condemned in the annexed Eastern territory.

The next subject: The Gestapo and the SD participated in deportation of citizens of occupied countries for forced labor and handled the disciplining of forced labor.

With reference to the presentation heretofore made concerning forced labor, I do not intend to repeat. However, there were several references to important positions played by the Gestapo and the SD in rounding up persons to be brought into the Reich for forced labor and references in two or three documents that were introduced, I simply want to cite those documents as showing the part that the Gestapo and SD played. Document L-61, Exhibit Number USA-177. It is set out in this document book—I am simply citing it—it is a letter of the 26th of November 1942 from Fritz Sauckel, in which he stated that he had been advised by the Chief of the Security Police and SD under date of 26 October 1942 that during the month of November the evacuation of Poles in the Lublin district would begin in order to make room for the settlement of persons of the German race. The Poles who were evacuated as a result of this measure were to be put into concentration camps for labor as far as they were criminal or antisocial.

The Tribunal will also recall the Christensen letter, which is our Document 3012-PS, Exhibit Number USA-190. In that letter it is stated that during the year 1943 the program of mass murders carried out by the Einsatz groups in the East should be modified in order to round up hundreds of thousands of persons for labor in the armament industry. That was in Document 3012-PS, which has heretofore been introduced as Exhibit Number USA-190. And that force was to be used when necessary. Prisoners were to be released so that they could be used for forced labor. When villages were burned down the whole population was to be placed at the disposal of the labor commissioners.

Now in that connection the direct responsibility of the Gestapo for disciplining forced workers is shown in our exhibit, Document 1573-PS, Exhibit Number USA-498. This is a secret order signed by Müller himself to the regional Gestapo offices on the 18th of June 1941; and I quote from the document from the beginning. It is addressed:

“To all offices of the State Police—to the State Police,
attention SS Sturmbannführer R. R. Nosske or deputy at Aachen.

“Subject: Measures to be taken against emigrants and civilian
workers who come from the Greater Russian areas and against
foreign workers.

“Reference: None.

“To prevent the return of Russian, Ukrainian, White Ruthenian,
Cossack, and Caucasian emigrants and civilian workers from the
territory of the Reich to the East without authorization and on
their own initiative and to prevent attempts of sabotage by
foreign workers in German production, I decide as follows:

“(1) The managers of the branch offices of the Russian,
Ukrainian, White Ruthenian, and Caucasian trustees office, as
well as of the relief committees and the leading members of the
Russian, Ukrainian, White Ruthenian, Cossack, and Caucasian
emigrants’ organizations, are to be notified immediately that
they are not allowed to leave their domicile without permission
of the Security Police until further notice. They are, at the
same time, to be told to apply the same measures to the members
who are under their care. Their attention is to be called to the
fact that they will be arrested upon giving up their job or
domicile without permission. I request a check on the presence
of branch office leaders, if possible, by daily inquiries, on
pretexts.

“(2) Emigrants and foreign workers who are specifically charged
and who are suspected of intelligence work for the U.S.S.R. are
to be arrested if the situation demands it. This step must be
prepared; it is, however, not to be executed before the pass
word ‘Fremdvölker’ has been transmitted by means of ‘urgent’
telegram.”

THE PRESIDENT: Do you think you should read the rest of that?

COL. STOREY: I don’t think so, Your Honor.

THE PRESIDENT: We will adjourn now for 10 minutes.

[_A recess was taken._]

COL. STOREY: If the Tribunal please, I next offer in evidence Document 3360-PS, Exhibit Number USA-499, the second volume. Before I hand this document to the translator, I should like to exhibit it to Your Honors. It is an original telegram that was sent to the Gestapo office at Nuremberg. It was discovered by the C.I.C., by Lieutenant Stevens, near Hersbruck, Germany; and Your Honors will notice that parts of it have been burned. It was in connection with some documents that had been buried and they were partially burned when they were buried. This is one of the telegrams. It is from the Secret State Police, the State Police station at Nuremberg and Fürth, and it is dated the 12th of February 1944. I quote from the telegram:

“RSHA IV F 1-45/44; the Border Inspector General; urgent, submit
immediately.

“Treatment of recaptured escaped Eastern
laborers.”—Ostarbeiter.

“On the basis of an order of the RFSS, all recaptured escaped
Eastern laborers without exception are, from now on, to be sent
to concentration camps. For the purpose of reporting to RFSS, I
ask for one single report by teletype to Section IV D (foreign
laborers) on 10 March 1944 as to how many of such male or female
Eastern laborers were turned over to a concentration camp
between today and 10 March 1944.”

By these methods the Gestapo and SD maintained control over forced labor brought into the Reich.

The next subject I go into is that the Gestapo and SD executed captured commandos and paratroopers and protected civilians who lynched Allied fliers.

On 4 August 1942 Keitel issued an order which provided that the Gestapo and SD were responsible for taking counter measures against single parachutists or small groups of them with special missions. In substantiation I offer Document Number 553-PS as the exhibit next in order, Exhibit Number USA-500. I quote from the first page of the translation, the first part of Paragraph 3:

“Insofar as single parachutists are captured by members of the
Armed Forces, they are to be delivered, after report to the
competent Abwehr office, to the nearest agency of the Chief of
the Security Police and SD without delay.”

Now, if the Tribunal please, to divert from the text: Colonel Taylor will present the Nazi High Command and a few of their orders. This is one and there is another one with which he is going to deal extensively. My purpose in introducing these orders now is to show the part that the Gestapo and SD played in connection with those orders.

The next order that I introduce is Document 498-PS, in the first volume, Exhibit Number USA-501. That is the celebrated Commando order signed by the Führer himself on the 18th of October 1942. There were only 12 copies of this made and it bears the personal, original signature of Adolf Hitler. One copy was sent to the Reichsführer SS and Chief of the German Police. That order, without reading it and getting down to the part from which I want to quote, simply provides that all commandos, whether or not in uniform or unarmed, are to be slaughtered to the last man. I want to read down toward the bottom, the beginning of Paragraph 4, to show the part of the SD:

“If individual members of such commandos, such as agents,
saboteurs, _et cetera_, fall into the hands of the military
forces in some other way, through the police in occupied
territories for instance, they are to be handed over immediately
to the SD.”

Another one of those orders is Number 526-PS, Exhibit Number USA-502, to which I would like to refer. That document has to do with some alleged saboteurs landing in Norway. It is dated the 10th of May 1943 and is top-secret. I quote the first paragraph as identifying a crew:

“On 30 March 1943 on Toftefjord (70° latitude) an enemy cutter
was sighted. Cutter was blown up by the enemy. Crew: two dead
men, 10 prisoners.”

That is the crew. Near the bottom of that order, the third sentence from the bottom, is this statement: “Führer order executed by SD”—Security Service.

We have heretofore introduced Document R-110, Exhibit Number USA-333; and that was the Himmler order of 10 August 1943 which was sent to Security Police. That order provided that it was not the task of the police to interfere in clashes between Germans and English and American terror fliers who had bailed out. It was personally signed by Himmler and here is the signature. It has been introduced in evidence, but I wanted to call the attention of the Court to it again.

May I next go to the subject, where the Gestapo and the SD took civilians of occupied countries to Germany for secret trial and punishment? That is the so-called “Night and Fog” decree, issued on 7 December 1941 by Hitler. That decree has not been introduced in evidence.

I now refer to Document L-90, in the first volume, Exhibit Number USA-503. That decree under which persons who committed offenses against the Reich or occupation forces in occupied territory, except where death sentence was certain, were to be taken secretly to Germany and surrendered to the Security Police and SD for trial or punishment in Germany itself. And this is the original from which we quote, beginning on the first page of the translation. It is on the stationery of the Reichsführer SS and Chief of German Police, Munich, 4 February 1942. Subject: “Prosecution of offenses against the Reich or the occupation forces.”

“I. The following regulations published by the Chief of the High
Command of the Armed Forces, dated 12 December 1941, are being
made known herewith:

“1). The Chief of the High Command of the Armed Forces. After
lengthy consideration, it is the will of the Führer that the
measures taken against those who are guilty of offenses against
the Reich or against the occupation forces in occupied areas
should be altered. The Führer is of the opinion that in such
cases penal servitude or even a hard labor sentence for life
will be regarded as a sign of weakness. An effective and lasting
deterrent can be achieved only by the death penalty or by taking
measures which will leave the family and the population
uncertain as to the fate of the offender. The deportation to
Germany serves this purpose.

“The attached directives for the prosecution of offenses
correspond with the Führer’s conception. They have been examined
and approved by him.”—signed—“Keitel.”

And then follow some of the directives and descriptions. This is a very long document, with enclosures, and we next turn to Page 4 of the English translation, near the bottom:

“Insofar as the SS and the Police courts are competent to deal
with offenses committed under I, proceedings follow on the same
lines.”

Next, in connection with the same document, on Page 20, Part 2 of the English translation, which is the secret letter addressed to the Abwehr, I quote from Page 2. It is the letter dated 2 February 1942—passing down to the words “Enclosed please find”:

“1. Decree of the Führer and Supreme Commander of the Armed
Forces of 7 December 1941.

“2. Executive order of the same date.

“3. Communication of the Chief of the High Command of the Armed
Forces of 12 December 1941.

“The decree introduces a fundamental innovation. The Führer and
Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces orders that offenses
committed by civilians in the occupied territories and of the
kind mentioned above, are to be dealt with by the competent
military courts in the occupied territories only if (a) the
death penalty is pronounced and (b) sentence is pronounced
within 8 days of the prisoner’s arrest.

“Unless both these conditions are fulfilled, the Führer and
Supreme Commander does not anticipate that criminal proceedings
within the occupied territories will have the necessary
deterrent effect.

“In all other cases the prisoners are, in the future, to be
transported to Germany secretly, and further dealings with the
offenses will take place here; these measures will have a
deterrent effect because (a) the prisoners will vanish without
leaving a trace, (b) no information may be given as to their
whereabouts or their fate.”

Now, skipping the next paragraph, to the second paragraph below:

“In case the competent military court and the military
commander, respectively, are of the opinion that an immediate
decision on the spot is impossible, and the prisoners are
therefore to be transported to Germany, the counter-intelligence
offices have to report this fact directly to the RSHA in Berlin
(SW 11), Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse 7, in care of Dr. Fischer,
Director of Criminal Police, stating the exact number of
prisoners and of the groups which belong together as the case
may be. Isolated cases, where the superior commander has an
urgent interest in the case being dealt with by a military
court, are to be reported to the RSHA. A copy of the entire
report to the Reich Security Main Office is to be sent to Amt
Ausland Abwehr, Section Abwehr III.

“The RSHA on the basis of available accommodation will determine
which office of the state police has to accept the prisoners.
The latter office will communicate with the competent Abwehr
office and determine with it the particulars of the removal,
particularly whether this will be carried out by the Secret
Field Police, the Field Gendarmerie, or the Gestapo itself, as
well as the place and manner of the handing over of the
material.”

After the civilians arrived in Germany no word of the disposition of their cases was permitted to reach the country from which they came or their relatives.

I now offer Document 668-PS, Exhibit Number USA-504. This is a letter of the Chief of the Security Police and the SD, dated the 24th of June 1942; and I quote from the first page of the English translation:

“It is the intent of the directive of the Führer and Supreme
Commander of the Wehrmacht concerning prosecution of criminal
acts against the Reich or the occupation forces in Occupied
Territories, dated 7 December 1941,”—that is the order that I
first referred to—“to create, for deterrent purposes, through
the transportation into Reich territory of persons arrested in
occupied areas on account of activity inimical to Germany,
uncertainty about the fate of prisoners among their relatives
and acquaintances. This goal would be jeopardized if the
relatives were to be notified in cases of death. Release of the
body for burial at home is inadvisable for the same reason, and
beyond that also because the place of burial could be misused
for demonstrations.

“I therefore propose that the following rules be observed in the
handling of cases of death:

“a. Notification of relatives is not to take place.

“b. The body will be buried at the place of decease in the
Reich.

“c. The place of burial will, for the time being, not be made
known.”

Now passing to the next activity of the SD and Gestapo, which was that they arrested, tried, and punished citizens of occupied countries under special criminal procedure and by summary methods. And I next offer in evidence Document 674-PS, Exhibit Number USA-505.

The Gestapo arrested, placed in protective custody, and executed civilians of occupied countries under certain circumstances. Even where there were courts capable of handling emergency cases the Gestapo conducted its own proceedings without regard to normal judicial processes.

This document, 674-PS, Exhibit Number USA-505, is a letter from the Chief Public Prosecutor at Katowice, dated the 3rd of December 1941; and it is addressed to the Reich Minister of Justice, attention Chief Councillor to the Government Stadermann or representative in office, Berlin. The subject is “Executions by the Police and Expediting of Penal Procedure; without order; enclosure: 1 copy of report.” I quote from the beginning:

“About 3 weeks ago, six ringleaders (some of them German) were
hanged by the police in connection with the destruction of a
treasonable organization of 350 members in Tarnowskie Góry
without notification of the competent court. Such executions of
criminals have previously taken place in the Bielsko district,
too, without the Public Prosecutor having knowledge of them. On
2 December 1941 the head of the State Police at Katowice,
Oberregierungsrat Mildner, reported orally to the undersigned
that he had ordered, with authority from the Reichsführer of the
SS as necessary immediate action, these executions by public
hanging at the place of the crime and that deterrents would also
have to be continued in the future until the criminal and
actively anti-German elements in the Occupied Eastern
Territories have been destroyed or until other immediate
actions, perhaps by the courts, would guarantee equally
deterrent effect. Accordingly, six leaders of another Polish
organization guilty of high treason in the district in and
around Sosnowiec were to be hanged publicly today as an example.

“About this procedure the undersigned expressed considerable
scruples.

“Besides the fact that such measures have been withdrawn from
the jurisdiction of the ordinary courts and are contradictory to
laws still in force, a justified emergency for the exceptional
proceedings by the police alone cannot, in our opinion, be
lawfully recognized.

“The penal justice in our district within the limits of its
competence is quite capable of fulfilling its duty of immediate
penal retribution by means of a special form of special judicial
activity (establishment of a so-called Rapid Special Court).
Indictment and trial could be speeded up in such a way that
between turning the case over to the public prosecutor and the
execution no more than 3 days would elapse, if the practice of
reprieve is simplified and if the decision, where necessary, can
be obtained by telephone. This was expressed yesterday to the
head of the State Police at Katowice by the undersigned.

“We cannot believe that execution by the police of criminals,
especially German criminals, can be considered more effective in
view of the shaken sense of justice of many Germans. In the long
run they might, in spite of public deterrent, lead to even
further brutality of minds, which is contrary to the intended
purpose of pacifying. These deliberations, however, do not apply
to future legal competence of a court-martial for Poles and
Jews.”

I next refer to Document 654-PS, Exhibit Number USA-218, which has previously been introduced in evidence but bears on this subject; and I will simply summarize, in a word, what it provided.

It states that on the 18th of September 1942 Thierack, the Reich Minister of Justice, and Himmler came to an understanding by which antisocial elements were to be turned over to Himmler to be worked to death. That is in Document 654-PS, and a special criminal procedure was to be applied by the police to the Jews, Poles, Gypsies, Russians, and Ukrainians, who were not to be tried in ordinary criminal courts. I simply refer to that document as bearing on the same subject.

Another document, which I will not quote from but cite to Your Honors, is the order of November 5, 1942 issued by the RSHA; and that is Document L-316, Exhibit Number USA-346. I don’t think it is necessary to quote from that except to state that that letter provides that the administration—in fact, the last statement in it just before the signature provides:

“The administration of penal law for persons of alien race must
be transferred from the hands of the administrators of justice
into the hands of the police.”

That is the part that connects the police with it, and I will not quote from the document otherwise.

Now I next come to the subject where the Gestapo and the SD executed or confined persons in concentration camps for crimes allegedly committed by their relatives; and in that connection I offer Document L-37 in the first volume, Exhibit Number USA-506.

That is a letter dated the 19th of July 1944—I call Your Honor’s attention to the fact that it is dated in 1944—sent by the commander of the Sipo and SD for the district of Radom to the foreign service office in Tomaszow.

Parenthetically, that big Haftbuch that we introduced in evidence has a number of cases in connection with the district of Radom, and Your Honors will remember that it is a list of the people in the district of Tomaszow.

The subject of this letter is “Collective Responsibility of Members of Families of Assassins and Saboteurs.” I will read after the word “precedents”:

“The Higher SS and Police Leader East has issued on 28 June 1944
the following order:

“The security situation in the Government General has in the
last 9 months grown worse to such an extent that from now on the
most radical means and the harshest measures must be applied to
the alien assassins and saboteurs. The Reichsführer SS, in
agreement with the Governor General, has ordered that in all
cases where assassinations of Germans, or such attempts, have
occurred or where saboteurs have destroyed vital installations,
not only the culprits be shot but that also all of the kinsmen
are to be executed and their female relatives who are above 16
years old are to be put into concentration camps. It is strictly
presupposed, of course, that if the culprit or culprits are not
apprehended, their names and addresses be correctly ascertained.
Male members of kin include, for example: the father, sons
(insofar as they are above 16 years of age), brothers,
brothers-in-law, cousins, and uncles of the culprit. The same
ruling applies to the women. The aim of this procedure is to
secure joint responsibility of all men and women of the kin of
the culprit. It furthermore hits most severely the family circle
of the political criminal. For example, this practice has
already shown, at the end of 1939, the best results in the new
Eastern territories, especially in the Warta district.
Experience shows that as soon as this new method for combatting
assassins and saboteurs becomes known to these foreign
people—this may be achieved by oral propaganda—the female
members of a kin to which members of the resistance movement or
bands belong will exert a curbing influence.”

Now the SD and Gestapo also conducted third-degree interrogations of prisoners of war; and I refer to Document 1531-PS, Exhibit Number USA-248. This document contains an order of 12 June 1942, signed by Müller, which authorized the use of third-degree methods in interrogations where preliminary investigation indicated that the prisoners could give information on important facts such as subversive activities but not to extort confessions of prisoners’ own crimes.

Now I quote from Page 2 of the English translation, Paragraph 2:

“Third degree may, under this supposition, only be employed
against Communists, Marxists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, saboteurs,
terrorists, members of resistance movements, parachute agents,
asocial elements, Polish or Soviet Russian loafers, or tramps.
In all other cases, my permission must first be obtained.”

Then I pass to Paragraph 4 at the end:

“Third degree can, according to the circumstances, consist
amongst other methods, of:

“Very simple diet (bread and water); hard bunk; dark cell;
deprivation of sleep; exhaustive drilling; also in flogging (for
more than 20 strokes a doctor must be consulted).”

On the 24th of February 1944 the commander of the Sipo and the SD for the district of Radom published an order issued by the Befehlshaber of the Sipo and the SD at Kraków, which is Document L-89, Exhibit Number USA-507, in the first volume. This followed closely the provisions of the previous decree that I have just quoted from; and I quote the first paragraph after the list of offices on the first page:

“In view of the variety of methods used to date in intensified
interrogations and in order to avoid excesses, also to protect
officials against eventual criminal proceedings, the
Befehlshaber of the Security Police and of the SD in Kraków has
issued the following order for the Security Police in the
Government General, which is based on the regulations in force
for the Reich.”

And then the regulations are quoted. The significance of this document is that it proves that as late as 1944 third-degree interrogations were still being conducted by the Gestapo.

I next pass to the activity of the Gestapo and the SD as being primary agencies for the persecution of the Jews; and I do not intend to go into any of the evidence previously introduced, except to refer to the participation of these organizations.

The responsibility of the Gestapo and SD for the mass extermination program carried out by the Einsatz groups of the Sipo and SD, in the annihilation camps to which Jews were sent by the Sipo and SD, has already been considered; and I simply cite to the Tribunal the Document 2615-PS, which has previously been introduced and in which the number of Jews executed was referred to by Eichmann. I simply call attention that Eichmann was head of Section B IV of the Gestapo. That section of the Gestapo dealt with Jewish affairs, including matters of evacuation, means of suppressing enemies of the people and the State, and the dispossession of rights of German citizenship. The Gestapo was also charged with the enforcement of discriminatory laws, which heretofore have been introduced.

I now invite Your Honors’ attention to Document 3058-PS, Exhibit Number USA-508. I would like to exhibit to Your Honors that it is a red-bordered document signed by Heydrich himself and addressed to the Defendant Göring. It is dated the 11th of November 1938. I pass this to the reporter—and before it is passed to the reporter—there is an appendix attached to it to the effect that the matter had been called to the attention of the Defendant Göring.

Now this concerns a report of activities of the Gestapo in connection with the anti-Jewish demonstrations, you will recall, in the fall of 1938. This is a report from Heydrich personally to the Defendant Göring. It is addressed to the Prime Minister, General Field Marshal Göring and is dated the 11th of November 1938. The previous documents showed that that activity occurred just before—and the order for it in connection with the Jewish uprooting or extermination:

“The extent of the destruction of Jewish shops and houses cannot
yet be verified by figures. The figures given in the
reports—815 shops destroyed, 29 department stores set on fire
or destroyed, 171 dwelling houses set on fire or
destroyed—indicate only a fraction of the actual damage caused,
as far as arson is concerned. Due to the urgency of the
reporting, the reports received to date are entirely limited to
general statements such as ‘numerous’ or ‘most shops destroyed.’
Therefore the figures given will be considerably augmented.

“One hundred and ninety-one synagogues were set on fire and
another 76 completely destroyed. In addition, 11 parish halls,
cemetery chapels, and similar buildings were set on fire and
three more completely destroyed.

“Twenty thousand Jews were arrested, also seven Aryans and three
foreigners. The latter were arrested for their own safety.

“Thirty-six deaths were reported and those seriously injured
were also numbered at 36. Those killed and injured are Jews. One
Jew is still missing. The Jews killed include one Polish
national, and those injured include two Poles.”

I want to call Your Honors’ special attention to the paper appended to that document:

“The General Field Marshal”—that is Göring—“has been informed.
No steps are to be taken. By order.”

It is dated the 15th of November 1938 and signed. The signature is illegible.

Now in that same connection Heydrich was charged by the Defendant Göring with this entire program; and we next offer in evidence the original of that order, 710-PS, Exhibit Number USA-509. That is an order dated the 31st of July 1941. It is written on the stationery of the Reich Marshal of the Greater German Reich, Commissioner for the Four Year Plan, Chairman of the Ministerial Council for National Defense; and it is dated at Berlin, the 31st of July 1941, and directed to the Chief of the Security Police and the Security Service, SS Gruppenführer Heydrich:

“Complementing the task that was assigned to you on 24 January
1939, which dealt with arriving at—through furtherance of
emigration and evacuation—a solution of the Jewish problem as
favorable as possible, I hereby charge you with making all
necessary preparations in regard to organizational and financial
matters for bringing about a complete solution of the Jewish
question in the German sphere of influence in Europe.

“Wherever other Government agencies are involved; these are to
co-operate with you.

“I charge you furthermore, to send me before long an overall
plan concerning the organizational, factual, and material
measures necessary for the accomplishment of the desired final
solution of the Jewish question.”—signed—“Göring.”

The Tribunal has already received the evidence as to what the final solution of the Jewish problem was as conceived by Heydrich and executed by the Security Police and SD under him and under the Defendant Kaltenbrunner, which was enslavement and mass murder.

Now, finally, in this presentation, the last activity of the Gestapo and SD to which I will refer is that these organizations were the primary agencies for the persecution of the churches. Already evidence has been received concerning the persecution of the churches. In this struggle the Gestapo and the SD played a secret but very highly significant part.

Section C2 of the SD dealt with education and religions life. Section B1 of the Gestapo dealt with political Catholicism, Section B2 with political Protestantism, and Section B3 with other churches and Freemasonry.

The Church was one of the enemies of the Nazi State, and it was a peculiar function of the Gestapo to combat it. It issued restrictions against church activities, dissolved church organizations, and placed clergymen in protective custody.

I now want to offer in evidence Document 1815-PS, Exhibit Number USA-510. This is a very large file—this original document—and I want to quote only portions of it. This was a file of the Gestapo regional office at Aachen. It discloses that the purpose of the Gestapo in combatting the churches was to destroy them, and I want to read the first page of the English translation from the beginning.

This is dated the “12th of May 1941, at Berlin, from the RSHA, Section IV B 1, to all Staatspolizeileitstellen. For information: The SD Leit-Abschnitte; the inspectors of the Sipo and SD.” I understand this word “Abschnitte” means sub-divisions. The subject is “Concerning the Study and Treatment of Political Churches”:

“The chief of the RSHA has ordered that the tasks assigned to
the SD and Sipo regarding control of the political churches,
which have hitherto been carried out jointly by the
SD-Abschnitte and Stapostellen, shall now be solely performed by
the Stapostellen”—which I understand means regional offices of
the Gestapo.

Then it refers to the plan for the division of work issued by the RSHA on March 1, 1941:

“In addition to combatting opposition, the Stapostellen thus
take over the entire Gegnernachrichtendienst”—I understand that
word means counter-intelligence—“in this sphere.

“In order that the Stapostellen should be in a position to take
over this work, the Chief of the Sipo and SD has ordered that
the church specialists, hitherto employed in the SD-Abschnitten,
shall be temporarily detailed in equal rank to the Stapo offices
and operate the ‘Nachrichtendienstliche Arbeit’”—which means
intelligence service in regard to the Church—“On the orders of
the Chief of the RSHA and in agreement with the heads of Amt
III, II, and I, those church specialists specified in the
attached list . . .”

THE PRESIDENT: Is it necessary to give us the details of this?

COL. STOREY: No, Sir, I don’t think so. At any rate, if Your Honors please, we quote from it; and it is simply a direction as to how they will proceed.

Now then, later, on the 22d and 23rd of September 1941, they called a conference of these so-called church specialists attached to the Gestapo regional offices that I have mentioned. That was held in the lecture hall of the RSHA in Berlin. Notes were taken, and this same document contains notes of that conference. The program is shown; the plan is worked out in connection with the churches. I will just read the closing statement to these so-called church specialists; it is very short:

“Each one of you must go to work with your whole heart and a
true fanaticism. Should a mistake or two be made in the
execution of this work, this should in no way discourage you,
since mistakes are made everywhere. The main thing is that the
adversary”—meaning the church—“should be constantly opposed
with determination, will, and effective initiative.”

And then, finally, the last thing I would like to refer to in this document is on the eighth page of the English translation, which sets out their immediate aim and their ultimate aim:

“The immediate aim: The Church must not regain 1 inch of the
ground it has lost.

“The ultimate aim: Destruction of the confessional churches to
be brought about by the collection of all material obtained
through Nachrichtendienst activities, which will, at a given
time, be produced as evidence against the church of its
treasonable activities during the German fight for existence.”

I understand that long German word means intelligence activities.

Now, if Your Honors please, this concludes the factual, documentary presentation which I shall make in connection with the SD and Gestapo. Closely allied with it is the case against Kaltenbrunner, as the representative of these organizations, which will be presented immediately after lunch by Lieutenant Whitney Harris. Also, there will be one or two witnesses who will be introduced in connection with these organizations and in connection with Kaltenbrunner.

With that I should like to conclude, with just these remarks:

The evidence shows that the Gestapo was created by the Defendant Göring in Prussia in April 1933 for the specific purpose of serving as a police agency to strike down the actual and ideological enemies of the Nazi regime and that henceforward the Gestapo in Prussia and in the other states of the Reich carried out a program of terror against all who were thought to be dangerous to the domination of the conspirators over the people of Germany. Its methods were utterly ruthless. It operated outside the law and sent its victims to the concentration camps. The term “Gestapo” became the symbol of the Nazi regime of force and terror.

Behind the scenes operating secretly, the SD, through its vast network of informants, spied upon the German people in their daily lives, on the streets, in the shops, and even within the sanctity of the churches.

The most casual remark of the German citizen might bring him before the Gestapo where his fate and freedom were decided without recourse to law. In this government, in which the rule of law was replaced by a tyrannical rule of men, the Gestapo was the primary instrumentality of oppression.

The Gestapo and the SD played an important part in almost every criminal act of the conspiracy. The category of these crimes, apart from the thousands of specific instances of torture and cruelty in policing Germany for the benefit of the conspirators, reads like a page from the devil’s notebook:

They fabricated the border incidents which Hitler used as an excuse for attacking Poland.

They murdered hundreds of thousands of defenseless men, women, and children by the infamous Einsatz groups.

They removed Jews, political leaders, and scientists from prisoner-of-war camps and murdered them.

They took recaptured prisoners of war to concentration camps and murdered them.

They established and classified the concentration camps and sent thousands of people into them for extermination and slave labor.

They cleared Europe of the Jews and were responsible for sending hundreds of thousands to their deaths in annihilation camps.

They rounded up hundreds of thousands of citizens of occupied countries and shipped them to Germany for forced labor and sent slave laborers to labor reformatory camps.

They executed captured commandos and paratroopers and protected civilians who lynched allied fliers.

They took civilians of occupied countries to Germany for secret trial and punishment.

They arrested, tried, and punished citizens of occupied countries under special criminal procedures, which did not accord fair trials, and by summary methods.

They murdered or sent to concentration camps the relatives of persons who had allegedly committed crimes.

They ordered the murder of prisoners in Sipo and SD prisons to prevent their release by Allied armies.

They participated in the seizure and spoliation of public and private property.

They were primary agencies for the persecution of the Jews and churches.

In carrying out these crimes the Gestapo operated as an organization closely centralized and controlled from Berlin headquarters. Reports were submitted to Berlin and all important decisions emanated from Berlin. The regional offices had only limited power to commit persons to concentration camps. All cases, other than short of duration, had to be submitted to Berlin for approval.

The Gestapo was organized on a functional basis. Its principal divisions dealt with groups and institutions against which it committed the worst crimes—which I have enumerated.

Thus, in perpetrating these crimes, the Gestapo acted as an entity, each section performing its parts in the general criminal enterprises ordered by Berlin. The Secret State Police should be held responsible as an organization for the vast crimes in which it participated.

The SD was at all times a department of the SS. Its criminality directly concerns and contributes to the criminality of the SS.

And as to the Gestapo, it is submitted that it was an organization in the sense in which that term is used in Article 9 of the Charter, that the Defendants Göring and Kaltenbrunner committed the crimes defined in Article 6 of the Charter in their capacity as members and leaders of the Gestapo, and that the Gestapo, as an organization, participated in and aided the conspiracy which contemplated and involved the commission of the crimes defined in Article 6 of the Charter.

And finally, I have in my hand here a brochure published in honor of the famous Heydrich, the former Chief of the Security Police and SD; and I quote from a speech delivered by Heydrich on German Police Day, 1941, of which I ask the Tribunal to take judicial notice:

“Secret State Police, Criminal Police, and SD are still adorned
with the furtive and whispered secrecy of a political detective
story. In a mixture of fear and shuddering—and yet at home with
a certain feeling of security because of their
presence—brutality, inhumanity bordering on the sadistic, and
ruthlessness are attributed abroad to the men of this
profession.”

Those are the words of Heydrich, who was the former head of this organization.

Does Your Honor want to go ahead?

DR. KURT KAUFFMANN (Counsel for Defendant Kaltenbrunner): I have just heard that during the afternoon the evidence will concern the Defendant Kaltenbrunner. I therefore regard it as advisable to make a motion regarding Kaltenbrunner now, before the recess, and not in the afternoon.

My suggestion is the following:

I ask that the trial against Kaltenbrunner be postponed during his absence. Kaltenbrunner has only been able to be present at a few days of the proceedings so far. The reason for his absence is an illness which, in my opinion, is of a serious nature, for it is obvious that in so important a trial only a very serious illness can justify the absence of a defendant. I have no doctor’s report on his present condition. It appears to me dubious whether he will be capable of attending the hearing at all in the future. Be that as it may, my present suggestion that the trial of Kaltenbrunner be postponed is not in contradiction to Paragraph 12 of the Charter. If a defendant is alive and cannot be brought to trial in person, then the trial can proceed against him in his absence. This is particularly justified if the defendant is concealing himself and it is thus his own fault if he is tried in his absence.

But Kaltenbrunner is here in prison. He did not withdraw himself from the trial and he wishes nothing more than that he may be able to face the accusations. But if such a defendant is obliged to be absent through no fault of his own, then a trial that was nevertheless carried out would hardly be consistent with justice. Article 12 of the Charter mentions this point of justice specifically.

I should regret the procedure of the trial all the more since precisely now Kaltenbrunner must have an opportunity to give me information in my capacity as his Defense Counsel. The particular Indictment is not even known to him; it was only handed over just before the Christmas recess.

I do not need to emphasize how greatly the Defense’s task is made more difficult by a continuation of the trial—indeed it is made almost impossible.

THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal will consider the application which has been made on behalf of counsel for the Defendant Kaltenbrunner and will give its decision shortly.

The Tribunal will now adjourn until 2 o’clock.

COL. STOREY: If I may make just one statement in connection with that, if Your Honor pleases.

THE PRESIDENT: Yes, certainly.

COL. STOREY: The evidence against Kaltenbrunner will be in connection with the part he played in these organizations; and we thought, in the interest of time, the individual case against Kaltenbrunner could be presented at the same time. Now, if it were not presented in this connection, it would be within a few days, early next week, in connection with the other individual defendants. Counsel mentions that he probably will not be able to be here for some time, and I thought I would make that statement.

THE PRESIDENT: Yes.

[_A recess was taken until 1400 hours._]

_Afternoon Session_

THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal has considered the motion made by counsel on behalf of Kaltenbrunner, and it considers that any evidence which you were intending to produce, which is directed against Kaltenbrunner individually and not against the organizations, ought to be postponed until the Prosecution come to deal, as the Tribunal understands you do propose to deal, with each defendant individually; and the Tribunal thinks that Kaltenbrunner’s case might properly be kept to the end of the individual defendants, and that the evidence which is especially brought against Kaltenbrunner might then be adduced. If Kaltenbrunner is then still unable to be in Court, that evidence will have to be given in his absence.

COL. STOREY: If Your Honor pleases, I don’t believe that the case, as we have it prepared now, can be separated as between the organizations and the individuals.

THE PRESIDENT: No, but if it bears against the organizations it can be adduced now.

COL. STOREY: I understood that, but if Your Honor pleases, I say that the preparation that we have made is in connection both with the organizations and the individuals. In other words, it is a joint presentation, therefore, under Your Honor’s ruling, as taken, it would have to go over until next week with the individual defendants’ cases, because we prepared it so that it will affect the organizations as well as the defendant individually, because his acts are in connection with what he has done with the organizations included; in other words, we don’t have it separated.

THE PRESIDENT: How will that affect you for this afternoon?

COL. STOREY: We can introduce a witness next; but if Your Honor pleases, with reference to the witness, the witness, of course, would affect the organizations, and incidentally would affect Kaltenbrunner, too. I do not see how you could separate that, except that for the witnesses this afternoon the questions could be confined to the organizations.

THE PRESIDENT: Now, of course, all the evidence which has been given up to date, much of it in Kaltenbrunner’s absence, has in one sense been against Kaltenbrunner in being evidence against the organization of which he was the head.

COL. STOREY: Colonel Amen was going to examine the witness orally, and it is primarily against the organizations; and incidentally it would affect Kaltenbrunner’s individual liability.

THE PRESIDENT: I think the Tribunal would like you to go on with the evidence.

COL. STOREY: Yes. It has been suggested, if Your Honor pleases, that we might have a few minutes to confer about the situation, about the witnesses.

THE PRESIDENT: You wish to adjourn for a few minutes?

COL. STOREY: Just a few minutes so that we can confer because it changes our order of proof.

THE PRESIDENT: Very well.

COL. STOREY: Just 10 minutes will be sufficient.