Chapter IX: Part 9

A large hematosis (blood clot) appeared on both his buttocks. A doctor had to operate. His comrades in custody would not go near him because of the foul smell from the abscesses covering his body as a result of the ill-treatment. On 24 November, the date on which he was interrogated, he had not yet recovered from his wounds.

His testimony concludes with a general statement of the methods of torture which were used:

“1) The lash.

“2) The bath: The victim was plunged headfirst into a tub full
of cold water until he was asphyxiated. Then they applied
artificial respiration. If he would not talk they repeated the
process several times consecutively. With his clothes soaking,
he spent the night in a cold cell.

“3) Electric current: The terminals were placed on the hands,
then on the feet, in the ears, and then one in the anus and
another on the end of the penis.

“4) Crushing the testicles in a press specially made for the
purpose. Twisting the testicles was frequent.

“5) Hanging: The patient’s hands were handcuffed together behind
his back. A hook was slipped through his handcuffs and the
victim was lifted by a pulley. At first they jerked him up and
down. Later, they left him suspended for varying, fairly long,
periods. The arms were often dislocated. In the camp I saw
Lieutenant Lefevre, who, having been suspended like that for
more than 4 hours, had lost the use of both arms.

“6) Burning with a soldering lamp or with matches:

“On 2 July my comrade Laloue, a teacher from Cher, came to the
camp. He had been subjected to most of these tortures at
Bourges. One arm had been put out of joint and he was unable to
move the fingers of his right hand as a result of the hanging.
He had been subjected to flogging and electricity. Sharp-pointed
matches had been driven under the nails of his hands and feet.
His wrists and ankles had been wrapped with rolls of wadding and
the matches had been set on fire. While they were burning, a
German plunged a pointed knife into the soles of his feet
several times and another lashed him with a whip. Phosphorous
burns had eaten away several fingers as far as the second joint.
Abscesses which had developed had burst and this saved him from
blood poisoning.”

Under the signature of one of the chiefs of the General Staff of the French Forces of the Interior, who freed the Department of Cher, M. Magnon—whose signature is authenticated by the French official authorities whom you know—we read that since the liberation of Bourges, 6 September 1944, an inspection of the Gestapo cellars disclosed an instrument of torture, a bracelet composed of several balls of hard wood with steel spikes. There was a device for tightening the bracelet round the victim’s wrist. This bracelet was seen by numerous soldiers and leaders of the Maquis of Manetou-Salon. It was in the hands of Adjutant Neuilly, now in the 1st Battalion of the 34th Demi-Brigade. A drawing is attached to this declaration. Commander Magnon certifies having seen the instrument described above.

We now submit Document F-565, from the military service of the department of Vaucluse, which becomes Exhibit Number RF-309. It is a repetition of the same methods. We do not consider it necessary to dwell upon them.

We will now turn to Document F-567, which we submit as Exhibit Number RF-310. It refers to the tortures practiced by the German police in Besançon. It is a deposition of M. Dommergues, a professor at Besançon. This deposition was received by the American War Crimes Commission—the mission of Captain Miller. We shall read about the statement of M. Dommergues, professor at Besançon:

“He was arrested on 11 February 1944; was violently struck with
a lash during the interrogation. When a woman who was being
tortured uttered screams, they made M. Dommergues believe that
it was his own wife. He saw a comrade hung up with a weight of
50 kilograms on each foot. Another had his eyes pierced with
pins. A child lost its voice completely.”

This is from the American War Crimes Commission, summing up M. Dommergues’ deposition. This document includes a second part under the same Number F-567(b). We shall read some excerpts from this document.

THE PRESIDENT: One of the members has not got his document marked, and I want to know whose statement it is you are referring to. Is it Dr. Gomet?

M. DUBOST: It is not a statement; it is rather a letter sent by Dr. Gomet, Secretary of the Council of the Departmental College of Doubs of the National Order of Physicians. This letter was sent by him to the chief medical officer of the Feldkommandantur in Besançon on 11 September 1943. Here is the text of this letter:

“Dear Doctor and Colleague,

“I have the Honor to deliver to you the note which I drafted at
your request and sent to our colleagues of the department in a
circular of 1 September.

“My conscience compels me on the other hand, to take up another
subject with you.

“Quite recently I had to treat a Frenchman who had wounds and
multiple ecchymosis on his face and body, as a result of the
torture apparatus employed by the German security service. He is
a man of good standing, holding an important appointment under
the French Government; and he was arrested because they thought
he could furnish certain information. They could make no
accusation against him, as is proved by the fact that he was
freed in a few days, when the interrogation to which they wanted
to subject him was finished.

“He was subjected to torture, not as a legal penalty or in
legitimate defense; but for the sole purpose of forcing him to
speak under stress of violence and pain.

“As for myself, representing the French medical body here, my
conscience and a strict conception of my duty compel me to
inform you of what I have observed in the exercise of my
profession. I appeal to your conscience as a doctor and ask you
whether by virtue of our mission of protecting the physical
health of our fellow-beings, which is the mission of every
doctor, it is not our duty to intervene.”

He must have had a reply from the German doctor, for Dr. Gomet writes him a second letter, and here is the text:

“Dear Doctor and Colleague,

“You were good enough to note the facts which I put before you
in my letter of 11 September 1943 regarding the torture
apparatus utilized by the German Security Service during the
interrogation of a French official for whom I had subsequently
to prescribe treatment. You asked me, as was quite natural, if
you could visit the person in question yourself. I replied at
our recent meeting that the person concerned did not know of the
step which I had taken; and I did not know whether he would
authorize me to give his name. I wish to emphasize, in fact,
that I myself am solely responsible for this initiative. The
person through whom I learned, by virtue of my profession, the
facts which I have just related to you, had nothing to do with
this report. The question is strictly professional. My
conscience as a doctor has forced me to bring this matter to
your attention. I advance only what I know from absolutely
certain observation, and I guarantee the truth of my statement
on my honor as a man, a physician, and a Frenchman.

“My patient was interrogated twice by the German Security
Service about the end of August 1943. I had to examine him on 8
September 1943, that is to say, about 10 days after he left
prison, where he had in vain asked for medical attention. He had
a palpebral ecchymosis on the left side and abrasions in the
region of his right temple, which he said were made with a sort
of circle which they had placed upon his head and which they
struck with small clubs. He had ecchymosis on the backs of his
hands, these having been placed, according to what he told me,
in a squeezing apparatus. On the front of his legs there were
still scars with scabs and small surface wounds—the result, he
told me, of blows administered with flexible rods studded with
short spikes.

“Obviously, I cannot swear to the means by which the ecchymosis
and wounds were produced, but I note that their appearance is in
complete agreement with the explanations given me.

“It will be easy for you, Sir, to learn if apparatus of the kind
to which I allude is really in use in the German Security
Service.”

I pass over the rest.

THE PRESIDENT: It may be convenient for counsel and others to know that the Tribunal will not sit in open session tomorrow, as it has many administrative matters to consider. We will adjourn now until 2 o’clock.

[_The Tribunal recessed until 1400 hours._]

_Afternoon Session_

MARSHAL: If Your Honors please, the Defendants Kaltenbrunner and Streicher will continue to be absent this afternoon.

M. DUBOST: We left off this morning at the enumeration of the tortures that had been practiced habitually by the Gestapo in the various cities in France where inquiries had been conducted; and I was proving to you, by reading numerous documents, that everywhere accused persons and frequently witnesses themselves—as seen in the last letter—were questioned with brutality and subjected to tortures that were usually identical. This systematic repetition of the same methods of torture proves, we believe, that a common plan existed, conceived by the German Government itself.

We still have a great many testimonies, all extracts from the report of the American services, concerning the prisons at Dreux, at Morlaix, and at Metz. These testimonies are given in Documents F-689, 690, and 691, which we now submit as Exhibits RF-311, 312, and 313.

With your permission, Your Honor, I will now refrain from further citing these documents. The same acts were systematically repeated. This is also true of the tortures inflicted in Metz, Cahors, Marseilles, and Quimperlé, dealt with in Documents F-692, 693, 565, and 694, which we are presenting to you as Exhibits RF-314, 314 (bis), 309, and 315.

We now come to one of the most odious crimes committed by the Gestapo, and it is not possible for us to keep silent about it in spite of our desire to shorten this statement. This is the murder of a French officer by the Gestapo at Clermont-Ferrand, a murder which was committed under extremely shameful conditions, in contempt of all the rules of international law; for it was perpetrated in a region where, according to the terms of the Armistice, the Gestapo had nothing to do and had no right to be.

The name of this French officer was Major Henri Madeline. His case is given in Document F-575, which we submit as Exhibit Number RF-316. He was arrested on 1 October 1943 at Vichy. His interrogation began in January 1944; and he was struck in such a savage manner, in the course of the first interrogation, that when he was brought back to his cell his hand was already broken.

On 27 January this officer was questioned again on two occasions, during which he was struck so violently that when he returned to his cell his hands were so swollen that it was impossible to see the handcuffs he had on. The following day the German police came back to fetch him from his cell, where he had passed the whole night in agony. He was still alive; they threw him down on a road a kilometer away from a small village in the Massif Central, Perignant-Les-Sarlièves, to make it look as if he had been the victim of a road accident. His body was found later. A post mortem showed that the thorax was completely crushed, with multiple fractures of the ribs and perforation of the lungs. There was also dislocation of the spine, fracture of the lower jaw, and most of the tissues of the head were loose.

Alas, we all know that a few French traitors did assist in the arrests and in the misdeeds of the Gestapo in France under the orders of German officers. One of these traitors, who was arrested when our country was liberated, has described the ill-treatment that had been inflicted on Major Madeline. The name of this traitor is Verière and we are going to read a passage from his statement:

“He was beaten with a whip and a bludgeon; blows on his
fingernails crushed his fingers. He was forced to walk
barefooted on tacks. He was burned with cigarettes. Finally, he
was beaten unmercifully and taken back to his cell in a dying
condition.”

Major Madeline was not the only victim of such evil treatment which several German officers of the Gestapo helped to inflict. This inquiry has shown:

“. . . that 12 known persons succumbed to the tortures inflicted
by the Gestapo of Clermont-Ferrand, that some women were
stripped naked and beaten before they were raped.”

I am anxious not to lengthen these proceedings by useless citations. I believe the Tribunal will consider as confirmed the facts that I have presented. They are contained in the document that we are placing before you, and in it the Tribunal will find, in extenso, the written testimonies taken on the day which followed the liberation. This systematic repetition of the same criminal proceedings in order to achieve the same purpose—to bring about a reign of terror—was not the isolated act of a subordinate having authority in our country only and remaining outside the control of his government or of the Army General Staff. An examination of the methods of the German police in all countries of the West shows that the same horrors, the same atrocities, were repeated systematically everywhere. Whether in Denmark, Belgium, Holland, or Norway, the interrogations were everywhere and at all times conducted by the Gestapo with the same savagery, the same contempt of the rights of self defense, the same contempt of human dignity.

In the case of Denmark, we cite a few lines from a document already submitted to the Tribunal. It is Document F-666 (Exhibit Number RF-317), which should be the sixth in your document book. It contains an official Danish report of October 1945, concerning the German major war criminals appearing before the International Military Tribunal. On Page 5, under the title, “Torture”, we read in a brief résumé everything that concerns the question with regard to Denmark:

“In numerous cases the German police and their assistants used
torture in order to force the prisoners to confess or to give
information. This fact is supported by irrefutable evidence. In
most cases the torture consisted of beating with a rod or with a
rubber bludgeon. But also far more flagrant forms of torture
were used including some which will leave lasting injuries.
Bovensiepen has stated that the order to use torture in certain
cases emanated from higher authorities, possibly even from
Göring as Chief of the Geheime Staatspolizei but, at any rate,
from Heydrich. The instructions were to the effect that torture
might be used to compel persons to give information that might
serve to disclose subversive organizations directed against the
German Reich, but not for the purpose of making the delinquent
admit his own deeds.”

A little further on:

“The means were prescribed, namely, a limited number of strokes
with a rod. Bovensiepen does not remember whether the maximum
limit was 10 or 20 strokes. An officer from the criminal police
(Kriminal Kommissar, Kriminalrat) was there and also, when
circumstances so required, there was a medical officer present.”

The above-mentioned instructions were modified several times for minor details, and all members of the criminal police were notified.

The Danish Government points out, in conclusion, two particularly repugnant cases of torture inflicted on Danish patriots. They are the cases of Professor Mogens Fog and the ill-treatment inflicted on Colonel Ejnar Thiemroth. Finally, the Tribunal can read that Doctor Hoffmann-Best states that his official prerogatives did not authorize him to prevent the use of torture.

In the case of Belgium we should recall first of all the tortures that were inflicted in the tragically famous camp of Breendonck, where hundreds, even thousands of Belgian patriots, were shut up. We shall revert to Breendonck when we deal with the question of concentration camps. We shall merely quote from the report of the Belgian War Crimes Commission a few definite facts in support of our original affirmation, that all acts of ill-treatment imputed to the Gestapo in France were reproduced in identical manner in all the occupied western countries. The documents which we shall submit to you are to be found in the small document book under Numbers F-942(a), 942(b), Exhibits RF-318, 319.

This report comprises minutes which I will not read, inasmuch as it contains testimonies which are analogous to, if not identical with, those that were read concerning France. However, on Pages 1 and 2 you will find the statement made by M. Auguste Ramasl and a statement made by M. Paul Desomer, which show that the most extreme cruelties were inflicted on these men and that, when they emerged from the offices of the Gestapo, they were completely disfigured and unable to stand.

And now I submit to you with regard to Belgium, Documents F-641(a) and F-641(b), which now become Exhibits RF-320 and 321. I shall not read them. They, too, contain reports describing tortures similar to those I have already mentioned. If the Court will accept the cruelty of the methods of torture employed by the Gestapo as having been established, I will abstain from reading all the testimonies which have been collected.

In the case of Norway our information is taken from a document submitted by the Norwegian Government for the punishment of the major war criminals. In the French translation of this document—Number UK-79, which we present as Exhibit Number RF-323—on Page 2, the Tribunal will find the statement of the Norwegian Government according to which numerous Norwegian citizens died from the cruel treatment inflicted on them during their interrogations. The number of known cases for the district of Oslo, only, is 52; but the number in the various regions of Norway is undoubtedly much higher. The total number of Norwegian citizens who died during the occupation in consequence of torture or ill-treatment, execution, or suicide in political prisons or concentration camps is approximately 2,100.

In Paragraph B, Page 2 of the document, there is a description of the methods employed in the services of the Gestapo in Norway which were identical with those I have already described.

In the case of Holland, we shall submit Document Number F-224, which becomes Exhibit Number RF-324 and which, is an extract from the statement of the Dutch Government for the prosecution and punishment of the major German war criminals. This document bears the date of 11 January 1946. It has been distributed and should now be in your hands. The Tribunal will find in this document a great number of testimonies which were collected by the Criminal Investigation Department, all of which describe the same ill-treatment and tortures as those already known to you and which were committed by the services of the Gestapo in Holland.

In Holland, as elsewhere, the accused were struck with sticks. When their backs were completely raw from beating they were sent back to their cells. Sometimes icy water was sprayed on them and sometimes they were exposed to electrical current. At Amersfoort a witness saw with his own eyes a prisoner, who was a priest, beaten to death with a rubber truncheon. The systematic character of such tortures seems to me definitely established.

The document of the Danish Government is a first proof in support of my contention that these systematic tortures were deliberately willed by the higher authorities of the Reich and that the members of the German Government are responsible for them. In any case these systematic tortures were certainly known, because there were protests from all European countries against such methods, which plunged us again into the darkness of the Middle Ages; and at no time was an order given to forbid such methods, at no time were those who executed them repudiated by their superiors. The methods followed were devised to reinforce the policy of terrorism pursued by Germany in the western occupied countries—a policy of terrorism which I already described to you when I dealt with the question of hostages.

It is now incumbent on me to designate to you by name those among the accused whom France, as well as other countries in the West, considers to be especially guilty in having prepared and developed this criminal policy carried out by the Gestapo. We maintain that they are Bormann and Kaltenbrunner who, because of their functions, must have known more than any others, about those deeds. Although we are not in possession of any document signed by them in respect to the western countries, the uniformity of the acts we have described to you and the fact that they were analogous and even identical, in spite of the diversity of places, enables us to assert that all these orders were dictated by a single will; and among the accused, Bormann and Kaltenbrunner were the direct instruments of that single will.

Everything I described to you here concerned the procedure prior to judgment. We know with what ferocity this procedure was applied. We know that this ferocity was intentional. It was known to the populations of the invaded countries, and its purpose was to create an atmosphere of real terror around the Gestapo and all the German police services.

After the examination came the judicial proceedings. These proceedings were, as we see them, only a parody of justice. The prosecution was based on a legal concept which we dismiss as being absolutely inhuman. That part will be dealt with by my colleague, M. Edgar Faure, in the second part of the statement on the German atrocities in the western countries: crimes against the spirit.

It is sufficient for us to know that the German courts which dealt with crimes committed by the citizens of the occupied western countries, which did not accept defeat, never applied but one penalty, the death penalty, and that in execution of an inhuman order by one of these men, Keitel; an order which appears in Document Number L-90, already submitted to you by my United States colleagues, under Document Number USA-503. It is the penultimate in your large document book, Line 5:

“If these offenses are punished with imprisonment or even with
hard labor for life, it will be interpreted as a sign of
weakness. Effective and lasting intimidation can only be
achieved either by capital punishment or by measures which leave
the relatives and the population in the dark about the fate of
the culprit. Deportation to Germany serves this purpose.”

Is it necessary to make any comment? Can we be surprised at this war leader giving orders to justice? What we heard about him yesterday makes us doubt that he is merely a military leader. We have quoted you his own words, “Effective and lasting intimidation can only be achieved by capital punishment.” Are such orders, given to courts of justice, compatible with military honor? “If in effect”—Keitel goes on to say in this Document—“the courts are unable to pronounce the death penalty, then the man must be deported.” I think you will share my opinion that, when such orders are given to courts, one can no longer speak of justice. In execution of this order, those of our compatriots who were not condemned to death and immediately executed were deported to Germany.

We now come to the third part of my statement: the question of deportation.

It remains for me to explain to you in what circumstances the deportations were carried out. If prior to that the Tribunal could suspend the sitting for a few minutes, I should be very grateful.

THE PRESIDENT: How long would you like us to suspend, M. Dubost?

M. DUBOST: Perhaps ten minutes, Your Honor.

[_A recess was taken._]

DR. OTTO NELTE (Counsel for the Defendant Keitel): The French Prosecutor just now read from Document L-90, the so-called “Nacht und Nebel” decree. He referred to this decree and cited the words:

“Effective and lasting intimidation can only be achieved by
capital punishment, or by measures which leave the relatives and
the population in the dark about the fate of the culprit.”

The French Prosecutor mentioned that these were the very words of Keitel.

In connection with a previous case the President and the Tribunal have pointed out that it is not permissible to quote only a part of a document when by so doing a wrong impression might be created. The French Prosecutor will agree with me when I say that Decree L-90 makes it quite clear that these are not the words of the Chief of the OKW, but of Hitler. In this short extract it says:

“It is the carefully considered will of the Führer that, when
attacks are made in occupied countries against the Reich or
against the occupying power, the culprits must be dealt with by
other measures than those decreed heretofore. The Führer is of
the opinion that if these offenses are punished with
imprisonment, or even with hard labor for life, this will be
looked upon as a sign of weakness. Effective and lasting
intimidation can only be achieved by capital punishment, _et
cetera_.”

The decree then goes on to say:

“The enclosed directives on how to deal with the offences comply
with the Führer’s point of view. They have been examined and
approved by him.”

I take the liberty to point out this fact, because it was just this decree, which is known as the notorious “Nacht und Nebel” decree, which in its formulation and execution was opposed by Keitel. That is why I am protesting.

M. DUBOST: I owe you an explanation. I did not read the decree in full because the Tribunal knows it. In accordance with the customary procedure of this Tribunal, it has been read. It is not necessary to read it again. Moreover, I knew that the accused Keitel had signed it, but that Hitler had conceived it. Therefore, I made allusion to the military honor of this general, who was not afraid to become the lackey of Hitler.

THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal understood from your mentioning of the fact that the document had already been submitted to the Tribunal and does not think that there was anything misleading in what you did.

M. DUBOST: If the Tribunal accepts this, we shall proceed to the hearing of a witness, a Frenchman.

[_The witness, Lampe, took the stand._]

THE PRESIDENT: This is your witness, is it not? Is this the witness you wish to call?

M. DUBOST: Yes.

THE PRESIDENT: [_To the witness_] Will you stand up. What is your name?

M. MAURICE LAMPE (Witness): Lampe, Maurice.

THE PRESIDENT: Will you repeat this oath after me: Do you swear to speak without hate or fear, to say the truth, all the truth, only the truth?

[_The witness repeated the oath in French._]

THE PRESIDENT: Raise the right hand and say, I swear.

LAMPE: I swear.

THE PRESIDENT: Spell your name.

LAMPE: L-A-M-P-E.

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you.

M. DUBOST: You were born in Roubaix on the 23rd of August 1900. Were you deported by the Germans?

LAMPE: Yes.

THE PRESIDENT: You may sit down.

LAMPE: Thank you, Mr. President.

M. DUBOST: You were interned in Mauthausen?

LAMPE: That is correct.

M. DUBOST: Will you testify as to what you know concerning this internment camp?

LAMPE: Willingly.

M. DUBOST: Say what you know.

LAMPE: I was arrested on 8 November 1941. After two years and a half of internment in France, I was deported on 22 March 1944 to Mauthausen in Austria. The journey lasted three days and three nights under particularly vile conditions—104 deportees in a cattle truck without air. I do not believe that it is necessary to give all the details of this journey, but one can well imagine the state in which we arrived at Mauthausen on the morning of the 25th of March 1944, in weather 12 degrees below zero. I mention, however, that from the French border we traveled in the trucks, naked.

When we arrived at Mauthausen, the SS officer who received this convoy of about 1,200 Frenchmen informed us in the following words, which I shall quote from memory almost word for word:

“Germany needs your arms. You are, therefore, going to work; but
I want to tell you that you will never see your families again.
When one enters this camp, one leaves it by the chimney of the
crematorium.”

I remained about three weeks in quarantine in an isolated block, and I was then detailed to work with a squad in a stone quarry. The quarry at Mauthausen was in a hollow about 800 metres from the camp proper. There were 186 steps down to it. It was particularly painful torture, because the steps were so rough-hewn that to climb them even without a load was extremely tiring.

One day, 15 April 1944, I was detailed to a team of 12 men—all of them French—under the orders of a German “Kapo,” a common criminal, and of an SS man.

We started work at seven o’clock in the morning. By eight o’clock, one hour later, two of my comrades had already been murdered. They were an elderly man, M. Gregoire from Lyons, and a quite young man, Lefevre from Tours. They were murdered because they had not understood the order, given in German, detailing them for a task. We were very frequently beaten because of our inability to understand the German language.

On the evening of that first day, 15 April 1944, we were told to carry the two corpses to the top, and the one that I, with three of my comrades, carried was that of old Gregoire, a very heavy man; we had to go up 186 steps with a corpse and we all received blows before we reached the top.

Life in Mauthausen—and I shall declare before this Tribunal only what I myself saw and experienced—was a long cycle of torture and of suffering. However, I would like to recall a few scenes which were particularly horrible and have remained more firmly fixed in my memory.

During September, I think it was on the 6th of September 1944, there came to Mauthausen a small convoy of 47 British, American, and Dutch officers. They were airmen who had come down by parachute. They had been arrested after having tried to make their way back to their own lines. Because of this they were condemned to death by a German tribunal. They had been in prison about a year and a half and were brought to Mauthausen for execution.

On their arrival they were transferred to the bunker, the camp prison. They were made to undress and had only their pants and a shirt. They were barefooted. The following morning they were at the roll call at seven o’clock. The work gangs went to their tasks. The 47 officers were assembled in front of the office and were told by the commanding officer of the camp that they were all under sentence of death.

I must mention that one of the American officers asked the commander that he should be allowed to meet his death as a soldier. In reply, he was bashed with a whip. The 47 were led barefoot to the quarry.

For all the prisoners at Mauthausen the murder of these men has remained in their minds like a scene from Dante’s Inferno. This is how it was done: At the bottom of the steps they loaded stone on the backs of these poor men and they had to carry them to the top. The first journey was made with stones weighing 25 to 30 kilos and was accompanied by blows. Then they were made to run down. For the second journey the stones were still heavier; and whenever the poor wretches sank under their burden, they were kicked and hit with a bludgeon, even stones were hurled at them.

This went on for several days. In the evening when I returned from the gang with which I was then working, the road which led to the camp was a bath of blood. I almost stepped on the lower jaw of a man. Twenty-one bodies were strewn along the road. Twenty-one had died on the first day. The twenty-six others died the following morning. I have tried to make my account of this horrible episode as short as possible. We were not able, at least when we were in camp, to find out the names of these officers; but I think that by now their names must have been established.

In September 1944 Himmler visited us. Nothing was changed in the camp routine. The work gangs went to their tasks as usual, and I had—we had—the unhappy opportunity of seeing Himmler close. If I mention Himmler’s visit to the camp—after all it was not a great event—it is because that day they presented to Himmler the execution of fifty Soviet officers.

I must tell you that I was then working in a Messerschmidt gang, and that day I was on night shift. The block where I was billeted was just opposite the crematorium; and in the execution room, we saw—I saw—these Soviet officers lined up in rows of five in front of my block. They were called one by one. The way to the execution room was relatively short. It was reached by a stairway. The execution room was under the crematorium.

The execution, which Himmler himself witnessed—at least the beginning of it, because it lasted throughout the afternoon—was another particularly horrible spectacle. I repeat, the Soviet Army officers were called one by one, and there was a sort of human chain between the group which was awaiting its turn and that which was in the stairway listening to the shots which killed their predecessors. They were all killed by a shot in the neck.

M. DUBOST: You witnessed this personally?

LAMPE: I repeat that on that afternoon I was in Block 11, which was situated opposite the crematorium; and although we did not see the execution itself, we heard every shot; and we saw the condemned men who were waiting on the stairway opposite us embrace each other before they parted.

M. DUBOST: Who were these men who were condemned?

LAMPE: The majority of them were Soviet officers, political commissars, or members of the Bolshevik Party. They came from Oflags.

M. DUBOST: I beg your pardon, but were there officers among them?

LAMPE: Yes.

M. DUBOST: Did you know where they came from?

LAMPE: It was very difficult to know from what camp they came because, as a general rule, they were isolated when they arrived in camp. They were taken either direct to the prison or else to Block 20, which was an annex of the prison, about which I shall have occasion . . .

M. DUBOST: How did you know they were officers?

LAMPE: Because we were able to communicate with them.

M. DUBOST: Did all of them come from prisoner-of-war camps?

LAMPE: Probably.

M. DUBOST: You did not really know?

LAMPE: No, we did not know. We were chiefly interested in finding out of what nationality they were and did not ask other details.

M. DUBOST: Do you know where the British, American, and Dutch officers came from, about whom you have just spoken and who were executed on the steps leading to the quarry?

LAMPE: I believe they came from the Netherlands, especially the Air Force officers. They had probably bailed out after having been shot down and had hidden themselves while trying to go back to their lines.

M. DUBOST: Did the Mauthausen prisoners know that prisoners of war, officers or noncommissioned officers, were executed?

LAMPE: That was a frequent occurrence.

M. DUBOST: A frequent occurrence?

LAMPE: Yes, very frequent.

M. DUBOST: Do you know about any mass executions of the men kept at Mauthausen?

LAMPE: I know of many instances.

M. DUBOST: Could you cite a few?

LAMPE: Besides those I have already described, I feel I ought to mention what happened to part of a convoy coming from Sachsenhausen which was executed by a special method. This was on 17 February 1945.

When the Allied armies were advancing, various camps were moved back toward Austria. Of a convoy of 2,500 internees which had left Sachsenhausen, only about 1,700 were left when they arrived at Mauthausen on the morning of the 17th of February. 800 had died or had been killed in the course of the journey.

The Mauthausen Camp was at that time, if I may use this expression, completely choked. So when the 1,700 survivors of this convoy arrived, Kommandant Dachmeier had selected 400 from among them. He encouraged the sick, the old, and the weak prisoners to come forward with the idea that they might be taken to the infirmary. These 400 men, who had either come forward of their own free will or had been arbitrarily selected, were stripped entirely naked and left for 18 hours in weather 18 degrees below zero, between the laundry building and the wall of the camp. The congestion . . .

M. DUBOST: You saw that yourself?

LAMPE: I saw it personally.

M. DUBOST: You are citing this as an actual witness, seen with your own eyes?

LAMPE: Exactly.

M. DUBOST: In what part of the camp were you at that time?

LAMPE: This scene lasted, as I said, 18 hours; and when we went in or came out of the camp we saw these unfortunate men.

M. DUBOST: Very well. Will you please continue? You have spoken of the visit of Himmler and of the execution of Soviet officers and commissars. Did you frequently see German personalities in the camp?

LAMPE: Yes, but I cannot give you the names.

M. DUBOST: You did not know them?

LAMPE: One could hardly mistake Himmler.

M. DUBOST: But you did know they were eminent personalities?

LAMPE: We did indeed. First of all, these personages were always surrounded by a complete staff, who went through the prison itself and particularly adjoining blocks.

If you will allow me, I would like to go on with my description of the murder of these 400 people from Sachsenhausen. I said that after selecting the sick, the feeble and the older prisoners, Dachmeier, the camp commander, gave orders that these men should be stripped entirely naked in weather 18 degrees below zero. Several of them rapidly got congestion of the lungs, but that did not seem fast enough for the SS. Three times during the night these men were sent down to the shower-baths; three times they were drenched for half an hour in freezing water and then made to come up without being dried. In the morning when the gangs went to work the corpses were strewn over the ground. I must add that the last of them were finished off with blows from an axe.

I now give the most positive testimony of an occurrence which can easily be verified. Among those 400 men was a captain in the French cavalry, Captain Dedionne, who today is a major in the Ministry of War. This captain was among the 400. He owes his life to the fact that he hid among the corpses and thus escaped the blows of the axe. When the corpses were taken to the crematorium he managed to get away across the camp, but not without having received a blow on the shoulder which has left a mark for life.

He was caught again by the SS. What saved him was probably the fact that the SS considered it very funny that a live man should emerge from a heap of corpses. We took care of him, we helped him, and we brought him back to France.

M. DUBOST: Do you know why this execution was carried out?

LAMPE: Because there were too many people in the camp; because the prisoners coming from all the camps that were falling back could not be drafted into working gangs at a quick enough pace. The blocks were overcrowded. That is the only explanation that was given.

M. DUBOST: Do you know who gave the order to exterminate the British, American, and Dutch officers whom you saw put to death in the quarry?

LAMPE: I believe I said these officers had been condemned to death by German tribunals.

M. DUBOST: Yes.

LAMPE: Probably a few of them had been condemned many months before and they were taken to Mauthausen for the sentence to be carried out. It is probable that the order came from Berlin.

M. DUBOST: Did you know under what conditions the “Revier” (infirmary) was built?

LAMPE: Here I have to state that the infirmary was built before my arrival at the camp.

M. DUBOST: So you are giving us indirect testimony?

LAMPE: Yes, indirect testimony. But I heard it from all the internees, also the SS themselves. The Revier was built by the first Soviet prisoners who arrived in Mauthausen. Four thousand Soviet soldiers died; they were murdered, massacred, during the construction of the 8 blocks of the Revier. These massacres made such a deep impression that the Revier was always referred to as the “Russen Lager” (Russian Camp). The SS themselves called the infirmary the Russian camp.

M. DUBOST: How many Frenchmen were you at Mauthausen?

LAMPE: There were in Mauthausen and its dependencies about 10,000 Frenchmen.

M. DUBOST: How many of you came back?

LAMPE: Three thousand of us came back.

M. DUBOST: There were some Spaniards with you also?

LAMPE: Eight thousand Spaniards arrived in Mauthausen in 1941, towards the end of the year. When we left, at the end of April 1945, there were still about 1,600. All the rest had been exterminated.

M. DUBOST: Where did these Spaniards come from?

LAMPE: These Spaniards came mostly from labor companies which had been formed in 1939 and 1940 in France, or else they had been delivered by the Vichy Government to the Germans direct.

M. DUBOST: Is this all you have to tell us?

LAMPE: With the permission of the Tribunal, I would like to cite another example of atrocity which remains clearly in my memory. This took place also during September 1944. I am sorry I cannot remember the exact date, but I do know it was a Saturday, because on Saturday at Mauthausen all the outside detachments had to answer evening roll call inside the camp. That took place only on Saturday nights and on Sunday mornings.

That evening the roll call took longer than usual. Someone was missing. After a long wait and searches carried out in the various blocks, they found a Russian, a Soviet prisoner, who perhaps had fallen asleep and had forgotten to answer roll call. What the reason was we never knew, but at any rate he was not present at roll call. Immediately the dogs and the SS went up to the poor wretch, and before the whole camp—I was in the front row, not because I wanted to be but because we were arranged like that—we witnessed the fury of the dogs let loose upon this unfortunate Russian. He was tom to pieces in the presence of the whole camp. I must add that this man, in spite of his sufferings, faced his death in a particularly noble manner.

M. DUBOST: What were the living conditions of the prisoners like? Were they all treated the same or were they treated differently according to their origin and nationality or, perhaps according to their ethnic type, their particular race, shall we say?

LAMPE: As a general rule the camp regime was the same for all nationalities, with the exception of the quarantine blocks and the annexes of the prison. The kind of work we did, the particular units to which we were attached, sometimes allowed us to get a little more than usual; for instance, those who worked in the kitchens and those who worked in the stores certainly did get a little more.

M. DUBOST: Were, for instance, Jews permitted to work in the kitchens or the store rooms?

LAMPE: At Mauthausen the Jews had the hardest tasks of all. I must point out that, until December 1943, the Jews did not live more than three months at Mauthausen. There were very few of them at the end.

M. DUBOST: What happened in that camp after the murder of Heydrich?

LAMPE: In that connection there was a particularly dramatic episode. At Mauthausen there were 3,000 Czechs, 600 of whom were intellectuals. After the murder of Heydrich, the Czech colony in the camp was exterminated with the exception of 300 out of the 3,000 and six intellectuals out of the 600 that were in the camp.

M. DUBOST: Did anyone speak to you of scientific experiments?

LAMPE: They were commonplace at Mauthausen, as they were in other camps. But we had evidence which I think has been found: the two skulls which were used as paper weights by the chief SS medical officer. These were the skulls of two young Dutch Jews who had been selected from a convoy of 800 because they had fine teeth.

To make this selection the SS doctor had led these two young Dutch Jews to believe that they would not suffer the fate of their comrades of the convoy. He had said to them “Jews do not live here. I need two strong, healthy, young men for surgical experiments. You have your choice; either you offer yourselves for these experiments, or else you will suffer the fate of the others.”

These two Jews were taken down to the Revier; one of them had his kidney removed, the other his stomach. Then they had benzine injected into the heart and were decapitated. As I said, these two skulls, with the fine sets of teeth, were on the desk of the chief SS doctor on the day of liberation.

M. DUBOST: At the time of Himmler’s visit—I would like to come back to that question—are you certain that you recognized Himmler and saw him presiding over the executions?

LAMPE: Yes.

M. DUBOST: Do you think that all members of the German Government were unaware of what was taking place in Mauthausen? The visits you received, were they visits by the SS simply, or were they visits of other personalities?

LAMPE: As regards your first question, we all knew Himmler; and even if we had not known him, everyone in the camp knew of his visit. Also the SS told us a few days before that his visit was expected. Himmler was present at the beginning of the executions of the Soviet officers; but as I said a little while ago, these executions lasted throughout the afternoon; and he did not remain until the end. With regard to . . .

M. DUBOST: Is it possible that only the SS knew what happened in the camp? Was the camp visited by other personalities than the SS? Did you know the SS uniforms? The people you saw, the authorities you saw—did they all wear uniforms?

LAMPE: The personalities that we saw at the camp were, generally speaking, soldiers and officers. Some time afterward, a few weeks before the liberation, we had a visit from the Gauleiter of the Gau Oberdonau. We also had frequent visits from members of the Gestapo in plain clothes. The German population, that is, the Austrian population, were perfectly aware of what was going on at Mauthausen. The working squads were nearly all for work outside. I said just now that I was working at Messerschmidt’s. The foremen were mobilized German civilians who, in the evening, went home to their families. They knew quite well of our sufferings and privations. They frequently saw men fetched from the shop to be executed, and they could bear witness to most of the massacres I mentioned a little while ago.

I should add that once we received—I am sorry I put it like that—once there arrived in Mauthausen 30 firemen from Vienna. They were imprisoned, I think, for having taken part in some sort of workers’ activity. The firemen from Vienna told us that, when one wanted to frighten children in Vienna, one said to them, “If you are not good, I will send you to Mauthausen.”

Another detail, a more concrete one: Mauthausen Camp is built on a plateau and every night the chimneys of the crematorium would light up the whole district, and everyone knew what the crematorium was for.

Another detail: The town of Mauthausen was situated 5 kilometers from the camp. The convoys of deportees were brought to the station of the town. The whole population could see these convoys pass. The whole population knew in what state these convoys were brought into the camp.

M. DUBOST: Thank you very much.

THE PRESIDENT: Does the Soviet Prosecutor wish to ask any questions?

GENERAL R. A. RUDENKO (Chief Prosecutor for the U.S.S.R.): I should like to ask a few questions. Can you tell me, Witness, why was the execution of the 50 Soviet officers ordered? Why were they executed?

LAMPE: As regards the specific case of these 50 officers, I do not know the reasons why they were condemned and executed; but as a general rule, all Soviet officers, all Soviet commissars, or members of the Bolshevist Party were executed at Mauthausen. If a few among them succeeded in slipping through, it is because their records were not known to the SS.

GEN. RUDENKO: You affirm that Himmler was present at the execution of those 50 Soviet officers?

LAMPE: I testify to the fact because I saw him with my own eyes.

GEN. RUDENKO: Can you give us more precise details about the execution of the 4,000 Soviet prisoners of war which you have just mentioned?

LAMPE: I cannot add much to what I have said, except that these men were assassinated on the job probably because the work demanded of them was beyond their strength and they were too underfed to perform these tasks. They were murdered on the spot by blows with a cudgel or struck down by the SS; they were driven by the SS to the wire fence and shot down by the sentinels in the watch towers. I cannot give more details because, as I said, I was not a witness, an eyewitness.

GEN. RUDENKO: That is quite clear. And now one more question: Can you give me a more detailed statement concerning the destruction of the Czech colony?

LAMPE: I speak with the same reservation as before. I was not in the camp at the time of the extermination of the 3,000 Czechs; but the survivors with whom I spoke in 1944 were unanimous in confirming the accuracy of these facts, and probably, as far as their own country is concerned, have drawn up a list of the murdered men.

GEN. RUDENKO: This means, if I have understood you correctly, that in the camp where you were interned executions were carried out without trial or inquiry. Every member of the SS had the right to kill an internee. Have I understood your statement correctly?

LAMPE: Yes, that is so. The life of a man at Mauthausen counted for absolutely nothing.

GEN. RUDENKO: I thank you.

THE PRESIDENT: Does any member of the defendants’ counsel wish to ask any questions of this witness? . . . Then the witness can retire. Witness, a moment.

THE TRIBUNAL (Mr. Francis Biddle): Do you know how many guards there were at the camp?

LAMPE: The number of the guard varied, but as a general rule there were 1,200 SS and soldiers of the Volkssturm. However, it should be said that only 50 to 60 SS were authorized to come inside the camp.

THE TRIBUNAL (Mr. Biddle): Were they SS men that were authorized to go into the camp?

LAMPE: Yes, they were.

THE TRIBUNAL (Mr. Biddle): All SS men?

LAMPE: All of them were SS.

THE PRESIDENT: The witness can retire.

M. DUBOST: Thank you. With your permission, gentlemen, we shall proceed with the presentation of our case on German atrocities in the western countries of Europe from 1939 to 1945 by retaining from these testimonies the particular facts, which all equally constitute crimes against common law. The general idea, around which we have grouped all our work and our statement, is that of German terror intentionally conceived as an instrument for governing all the enslaved peoples.

We shall remember the testimony brought by this French witness who said that in Vienna, when one wished to frighten a child, one told it about Mauthausen.

The people who were arrested in the western countries were deported to Germany where they were put into camps or into prisons. The information that we have concerning the prisons has been taken from the official report of the Prisoners of War Ministry, which we have already read; it is the bound volume which was in your hands this morning. In it you will find, on Page 35, and Page 36 to Page 42, a detailed statement as to what the prisons were like in Germany. The prison at Cologne is situated between the freight station and the main station and the Chief Prosecutor in Cologne, in a report . . .