Chapter D: V. L., Berlin-Adlershof (19)

13. This committee, which was also a function of the Euthanasia Program, was an organization for the killing of children who were born mentally deficient or physically deformed. All physicians assisting at births, midwives, and maternity hospitals were ordered by the Ministry of Interior to report such cases to the office of Dr. Linden in the Ministry of Interior. Experts in the medical section of Dr. Brandt’s office were then ordered to give their opinion in each case. As a matter of fact, the complete file on each case was sent to the offices of Bouhler and Dr. Brandt in order to obtain their opinions and to decide the fate of each child involved. In many cases these children were to be operated upon in such a manner that the result was either complete recovery or death. Death resulted in a majority of these cases. The program was inaugurated in the summer of 1939. Bouhler told me that Dr. Linden had orders to obtain the consent of the parents of each child concerned. I do not know how long this program continued, since I joined the Waffen SS in 1942.

_The Connection between the Euthanasia Program and SS Brigadefuehrer
Globocnik_

14. In 1941 I received an oral order to discontinue the Euthanasia Program. I received this order either from Bouhler or from Dr. Brandt. In order to preserve the personnel relieved of these duties and to have the opportunity of starting a new Euthanasia Program after the war, Bouhler requested, I think after a conference with Himmler, that I send this personnel to Lublin and put it at the disposal of SS Brigadefuehrer Globocnik. I then had the impression that these people were to be used in the extensive Jewish labor camps run by Globocnik. Later, however, at the end of 1942 or the beginning of 1943, I found out that they were used to assist in the mass extermination of the Jews, which was then already common knowledge in higher Party circles.

15. Among the doctors who assisted in the Jewish extermination program were Eberle and Schumann; Schumann performed medical experiments on prisoners in Auschwitz. It would have been impossible for these men to participate in such things without the personal knowledge and consent of Karl Brandt. The order to send these men to the East could have been given only by Himmler to Brandt, possibly through Bouhler.

* * * * *

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 615-PS
PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 246

LETTER FROM DR. HILFRICH, BISHOP OF LIMBURG, TO THE REICH MINISTER OF JUSTICE, 13 AUGUST 1941, PROTESTING AGAINST THE KILLING OF MENTALLY ILL PEOPLE

The Bishop of Limburg
Limburg/Lahm, 13 August 1941
To the Reich Minister of Justice
Berlin

Regarding the report submitted on July 16 (_sub. IV, pp. 6-7_) by the Chairman of the Fulda Bishops’ Conference, Cardinal Dr. Bertram, I consider it my duty to present the following as a concrete illustration of destruction of so-called “useless life”.

About 8 kilometers from Limburg in the little town of Hadamar, on a hill overlooking the town, there is an institution which had formerly served various purposes and of late had been used as a nursing home. This institution was renovated and furnished as a place in which, by concensus of opinion, the above-mentioned euthanasia has been systematically practiced for months—approximately since February 1941. The fact is, of course, known beyond the administrative district of Wiesbaden because death certificates from the Hadamar-Moenchberg Registry are sent to the home communities. (Moenchberg is the name of this institution because it was a Franciscan monastery prior to its secularization in 1803.)

Several times a week busses arrive in Hadamar with a considerable number of such victims. School children of the vicinity know this vehicle and say: “There comes the murder-box again.” After the arrival of the vehicle, the citizens of Hadamar watch the smoke rise out of the chimney and are tortured with the ever-present thought of depending on the direction of the wind.

The effect of the principles at work here are that children call each other names and say, “You’re crazy; you’ll be sent to the baking oven in Hadamar.” Those who do not want to marry, or find no opportunity, say, “Marry, never! Bring children into the world so they can be put into the bottling machine!” You hear old folks say, “Don’t send me to a state hospital! When the feeble-minded have been finished off, the next useless eaters whose turn will come are the old people.”

All God-fearing men consider this destruction of helpless beings a crass injustice. And if anybody says that Germany cannot win the war, if there is yet a just God, these expressions are not the result of a lack of love for the Fatherland but of a deep concern for our people. The population cannot grasp the fact that systematic actions are carried out which in accordance with paragraph 211 of the German Penal Code are punishable with death. High authority as a moral concept has suffered a severe shock as a result of these happenings. The official notice that N. N. died of a contagious disease and, therefore, his body had to be burned, no longer finds credence, and official notices of this kind which are no longer believed have further undermined the ethical value of the concept of authority.

Officials of the Secret State Police, it is said, are trying to suppress discussion of the Hadamar occurrences by means of severe threats. In the interest of public peace, this may be well intended. But the knowledge, and the conviction, and the indignation of the population, cannot be changed by it; the conviction will be increased with the bitter realization that discussion is prohibited by threats, but that the actions themselves are not prosecuted under penal law.

_Facta loquuntur._

I beg you most humbly, Herr Reich Minister, in the sense of the report of the Episcopate of 16 July of this year, to prevent further transgressions of the Fifth Commandment of God.

[Signed] DR. HILFRICH

I am submitting copies of this letter to the Reich Minister of the Interior and to the Reich Minister for Church Affairs.

[Initialed by the above]

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT NO-429
PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 281

EXTRACT FROM THE AFFIDAVIT OF DEFENDANT HOVEN, 24 OCTOBER 1946,
CONCERNING THE TRANSFER OF CONCENTRATION CAMP INMATES TO EUTHANASIA
STATIONS FOR EXTERMINATION

AFFIDAVIT

I, Waldemar Hoven, being duly sworn, depose and state:

* * * * *

_Transfer of Inmates to the Bernburg Euthanasia Station for Extermination_

I became aware in 1941 that the so-called Euthanasia Program for the extermination of the mentally and physically deficient was being carried out in Germany. At that time, the camp commandant Koch called all the important SS officials of the camp together and informed them that he had received a secret order from Himmler to the effect that all mentally and physically deficient inmates of the camp should be killed. The camp commandant stated that higher authorities from Berlin had ordered that all the Jewish inmates of the Buchenwald concentration camp be included in this extermination program. In accordance with these orders 300 to 400 Jewish prisoners of different nationalities were sent to the euthanasia station at Bernburg for extermination. A few days later I received a list of the names of those Jews who were exterminated at Bernburg from the camp commandant and I was ordered to issue falsified death certificates. I obeyed this order. This particular action was executed under the code name “14 f 13”. I visited Bernburg on one occasion to arrange for the cremation of two inmates who died in the Wernigerode branch (Aussenkommando Wernigerode) of the Buchenwald concentration camp.

* * * * *

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 630-PS
PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 330

LETTER FROM HITLER TO KARL BRANDT AND BOUHLER, 1 SEPTEMBER 1939,
CHARGING THEM WITH THE EXECUTION OF EUTHANASIA

[Letterhead: A. HITLER]

Berlin, 1 September 1939

Reichsleiter Bouhler and Dr. Brandt, M. D., are charged with the responsibility of enlarging the authority of certain physicians to be designated by name in such a manner that persons who, according to human judgment, are incurable can, upon a most careful diagnosis of their condition of sickness, be accorded a mercy death.

[Signed] A. HITLER
[Handwritten note]
Given to me by Bouhler on 27 August 1940
[Signed] DR. GUERTNER

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT NO-1135
PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 334

CONFIRMATION, 30 AUGUST 1940, OF THE TRANSFER OF MENTAL PATIENTS WITH
LIST OF TRANSFERRED PATIENTS ATTACHED

CONFIRMATION

In accordance with the decision of the State Ministry of the Interior (Public Health Division), dated 8 January 1940, on orders from the Reich Association of Mental Institutions [Reichsarbeitsgemeinschaft der Heil und Pflegeanstalten] and as responsible chief of the General Sick Transport Company G.m.b.H. [Gemeinnuetzige Krankentransport G.m.b.H.], I have taken charge of the transfer to a Reich institution of the patients enumerated in the list below.

Eglfing, 30 August 1940 [Signature illegible]
Commissioner of General Sick Transport Company G.m.b.H.[110]

* * * * *

TRANSFER MEMORANDUM FOR NIEDERNHART

Handed over were—

1. 149 patients with their own clothing, underwear, money, and belongings.

2. 149 files with personal records (case histories).

3. A list of the amount of money of each patient. A receipt was made out for this purpose.

4. A list of the names. Eglfing-Haar, 30-8-40

[Signed] Head Nurse LOTTE ZELL

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1696-PS
PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 357

LETTER FROM DR. CONTI TO THE MENTAL HOSPITAL IN KAUFBEUREN, 16 NOVEMBER 1939, REQUESTING THAT QUESTIONNAIRES (ATTACHED) BE FILLED OUT FOR INDIVIDUAL PATIENTS; LETTER FROM THE GENERAL SICK TRANSPORT COMPANY TO THE MENTAL HOSPITAL IN KAUFBEUREN, 12 MAY 1941, STATING THAT THE COMPANY WOULD REMOVE MENTAL PATIENTS; REPORT FROM THE PROVINCIAL ASSOCIATION FOR SOCIAL WELFARE IN SWABIA, 6 MAY 1941, THAT ALL TRANSFERRED PATIENTS HAD DIED; LETTER FROM GAUM, 24 NOVEMBER 1942, TO DR. LEINISCH STATING THAT EPILEPTICS WOULD BE MADE AVAILABLE FOR RESEARCH

The Reich Minister of the Interior

Berlin, NW 40, Koenigsplatz 6, 16 November 1939
IV g 4178 /39-5100

Telephone:
Dept. Z, I, II, V, VIII 11 00 27
Dept. II, IV, VI
(Unter den Linden 72); 12 00 34
Tel. Address: Reichsinnenminister.

To the Head of the Hospital for Mental Cases Kaufbeuren or his deputy in Kaufbeuren.

With regard to the necessity for a systemized economic plan for hospitals and nursing institutions, I request you to complete the attached registration forms immediately in accordance with the attached instruction leaflet and to return them to me. If you yourself are not a doctor, the registration forms for the individual patients are to be completed by the supervising doctor. The completion of the questionnaires is, if possible, to be _done on a typewriter_. In the column “Diagnosis” I request a statement as exact as possible, as well as a short description of the condition, if feasible.

In order to expedite the work, the registration forms for the individual patients can be dispatched here in several parts. The last consignment, however, must arrive in any case at this Ministry _at the latest_ by 1 January 1940. I reserve for myself the right, should occasion arise, to institute further official inquiries on the spot through my representative.

per proxi: DR. CONTI

Certified:
(Sd.) [Illegible]
Administrative Secretary.

Registration Form 1 To be typewritten Current No. Name of the Institution: At: Surname and Christian name of the patient: At birth Date of birth: Place: District: Last place of residence District: Unmarried, married, widow, widower, divorced: Religion: Race[111]: Previous profession: Nationality: Army service when? 1914-18 or from 1-9-39. War injury (even if no connection with mental disorder) Yes/No How does war injury show itself and of what does it consist?

Address of next of kin: Regular visits and by whom (address): Guardian or nurse (name, address): Responsible for payment: Since when in Institution Whence and when handed over: Since when ill: If has been in other institutions, where and how long: Twin? Yes/No Blood relations of unsound mind: Diagnosis: Clinical description (previous history, course, condition; in any case ample data regarding mental condition):

Very restless? Yes/No Bedridden? Yes/No Incurable physical illness: Yes/No (which) Schizophrenia: Fresh attack Final condition Good recovery Mental debility: Weak Imbecile Idiot Epilepsy: Psychological Average frequency of the attacks alteration Therapeutics (insulin, cardiazol, malaria, permanent result: Salvarsan, etc. when?) Yes/No Admitted by reason of par. 51, par. 42b German Penal Code, etc. through

Crime: Former punishable offenses: Manner of employment (detailed description of work): Permanent/Temporary employment, independent Worker? Yes/No Value of work (if possible compared with average performance of healthy person)

This space to be left blank.

Place, Date

Signature of the head doctor or his
representative (doctors who are not
psychiatrists or neurologists, please state
same).

General Sick Transport Company, G.m.b.H. Dept. II/d, H/K

Berlin, W. 9, 12 May 1941
Potsdamer Platz 1.

To the Director of the Hospital of the District Association of Swabia, Kaufbeuren/Bavaria.

Dear Director,

By order of the Reich Defense Commissioner, I must remove mental cases from your institution and from the branch at Irrsee to another institution. A total of 140 persons are to be transported, 70 on 4 June and 70 on 5 June. I forward you herewith Transport Lists Nos. 8, 9, 10, and 11 in triplicate. The additional names on the lists are intended for possible deficits (discharged meanwhile, died, etc.).

The marking of the patients is most suitably done by means of a strip of adhesive tape, on which the name is written in indelible pencil, to be pasted between the shoulder blades. At the same time the name is to be put on an article of clothing.

The hospital reports and personal histories are to be prepared for the transportation and to be handed to our director of transport, Herr Kuepper; in the same way, the personal possessions of the patients, as well as money and articles of value.

I enclose property information cards and information cards as to the defrayer of the expenses, which must be completed accurately and handed in at the time of transportation. Money and articles of value, besides being noted on the property information cards, must also be noted on separate special lists (in duplicate).

Transportation takes place:

On 4 June, 8:46 a. m. from Kaufbeuren—70 patients

On 5 June, 8:46 a. m. from Kaufbeuren—70 patients

Our director of transport, Herr Kuepper, will visit you the previous day in order to discuss further details with you.

I further request you to provide the patients with food (2-3 slices of bread and butter each and some cans of coffee).

Heil Hitler!
(sd) [Illegible]
General Sick Transport Company, G.m.b.H.

PROVINCIAL ASSOCIATION FOR SOCIAL WELFARE
SWABIA

Address: Augsburg 1, P. O. Box Regierungspraesident

Tel. No. 5842
Cashier’s Office: Principal Govt.
Cashier’s Office Augsburg.
Post Office check account: Munich No. 1624

Director Dr. Faltlhauser, of the Hospital,
Kaufbeuren.

Your reference: 2080. Your letter of 13 November 1940.

Our reference:
(must always be
referred to).

II-B-7-2.

Augsburg, 6 May 1941

Concerning the transfer of patients.

I have the honor to inform you that the female patients transferred from your institution on 8 November 1940 to the institutions in Grafeneck, Bernburg, Sonnenstein, and Hartheim all died in November of last year.

[Signed] [Illegible]

Enclosures:

* * * * *

Copy

No. 5255 c 39 State Ministry of the Interior

Munich, 24 November 1942
to the Director of the
Hospital, Kaufbeuren,
Obermed. Rat
Dr. Faltlhauser.

To: Chief Physician, Dr. W. Leinisch
Guenzburg.

Re letter of 13-11-1942.

Dear Doctor,

In your letter of 13-11-1942 you requested me to send suitable epileptics for the carrying out of your research work. I had an opportunity to discuss this with the Obermedizinalraete Dr. Faltlhauser and Dr. Pfannmueller. Both will willingly deliver suitable patients to you. For various reasons patients from the Institution at Kaufbeuren are primarily to be chosen. If this institution has no suitable material, I agree to the transfer of patients from Eglfing-Haar to Guenzburg for your research work. I request that you get in touch with Dr. Faltlhauser.

Heil Hitler!
[Signed] GAUM

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 3896-PS
PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 372

EXTRACT FROM THE AFFIDAVIT OF DR. LUDWIG SPRAUER, 23 APRIL 1946,
CONCERNING THE ORGANIZATION OF THE EUTHANASIA PROGRAM

AFFIDAVIT

I, Dr. Ludwig Sprauer, born on 19 October 1884, now living at Konstanz, Baden, Salmannsweilergasse 2, make the following statement under oath:

I passed my state examination for medicine in Freiburg in 1907, and since 1919 was active in the civil service. During the following 14 years I was active as Bezirksarzt in Stockach, Oberkirch, Konstanz. I joined the NSDAP in 1933. From 1934 until 1944 I was the highest medical officer of Baden and held the title Ministerialrat. My highest superior was the Reich Minister of the Interior, Dr. Frick. As Frick’s subordinate I traveled several times, perhaps every 2 to 3 months to Berlin, to take part in discussions, conferences, etc., in the Reich Ministry of the Interior.

These took place in the Reich Ministry of the Interior, Berlin, Unter den Linden 72-74; later in the Reich Ministry of the Interior office on Voss-Strasse. On one such occasion in Berlin, Dr. Linden, Ministerialdirigent in the Reich Ministry of the Interior, stated that it was planned to introduce a euthanasia law. For military-political reasons to create more space, the incurably insane were to be done away with. The asylums thus vacated were in part asked for by the SS to be used for national political educational institutions.

A transportation company was founded for the execution of all these measures. This company worked hand in hand with the so-called Reich Committee for Research into Hereditary Ailments. This Reich concern was managed by Frick’s Ministerialdirigent Dr. Linden.

In the course of these measures from 1941 through 1944, thousands of persons were transferred from Baden’s asylums to places like Hadamar, Grafeneck, etc., and were killed there. The killings, however, were not solely confined to the mentally sick. In the course of the same campaign, steps were taken by order of the Reich Ministry of the Interior to eliminate particularly old but also young people who were ill.

The persons killed in the course of this program included not only those who were mentally sick, but also those who suffered from arteriosclerosis, tuberculosis, cancer, and other ailments. Most of those were older people who were inmates of public institutions at the state’s expense, and who in a respectable society would have been taken care of from public funds. These people were brought from public asylums in Baden to Hadamar, Grafeneck, and other asylums and killed there. In what manner they were killed, I do not know. In this way space was made available in the institutions for the armed forces and for the National Socialist educational institutions.

The whole program was camouflaged on the outside and falsified death certificates were made out.

* * * * *

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT NO-520
PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 374

LETTER FROM THE CHIEF OF THE INSTITUTION FOR FEEBLE-MINDED IN STETTEN TO DR. FRANK, 6 SEPTEMBER 1940, REQUESTING THAT EUTHANASIA BE CARRIED OUT ONLY AFTER LEGAL BASIS WAS CREATED

L. Schlaich, Stetten i. R. Chief of the Institution for Feeble-Minded and Epileptics. Stetten, i. R., 6 September 1940 To the Reich Minister of Justice, Dr. Frank Berlin

Dear Reich Minister,

The measures at present being taken with mental patients of all kinds have caused a complete lack of confidence in justice among large groups of the people. Without the consent of relatives or guardians, such patients are being transferred to different institutions. After a short time they are notified that the person concerned has died of some disease. In view of the abundance of death notices people are convinced that these sick people are being done away with.

Since from the institution under my direction altogether 150 of the patients entrusted to me are to be transferred to such an institution (75 on the 10th and 75 on the 13th of September) I take the privilege of asking: Is it possible for such a measure to be carried out without a pertinent law having been promulgated? Is it not the duty of every citizen to resist under all circumstances an act not justified by law, even forbidden by law, even if such acts are carried out by state agencies?

On account of the complete secrecy and camouflage under which the measures are carried out, not only are the wildest rumors circulating among the people (for example, that people unable to work on account of age or injuries received during the World War have also been done away with or are to be done away with), but it seems as if the selection of the persons concerned is performed in a wholly arbitrary manner.

If the state really wants to carry out the extermination of these or at least of some mental patients, shouldn’t a law be promulgated, which can be justified before the people—a law which would give everyone the assurance of careful examination as to whether he is due to die or entitled to live and which would also give the relatives a chance to be heard, in a similar way, as provided by the law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Affected Progeny?

With regard to the patients entrusted to the care of our institutions in the future, I urgently pray that everything possible be done to suspend the execution of this measure until a clear legal situation has been established.

Heil Hitler!
[Signed] SCHLAICH

I have forwarded a copy of this letter by the same mail to the chief of the Reich Chancellery, Reichsminister Dr. Lammers.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT NO-660
PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 377

NOTE BY SELLMER, 6 DECEMBER 1940, DESCRIBING THE METHOD OF SELECTION FOR
EUTHANASIA

Subject: Mental Institutions

The following is for your personal information. Please destroy this sheet afterwards.

For some time the inmates of mental institutions have been visited by a commission which functions on orders from some very high office. The commission’s task is to find out which inmates should be selected for transport to certain other institutions. The commission bases its decision on the records of the institution. The patients who are then transferred are examined again in the institution designated by the commission and then the decision is made whether they should be released from their sufferings.

The body itself is cremated and the ashes are placed at the disposal of the relatives. Small mistakes in notifying are naturally always liable to occur, and in the future it will not be possible to avoid them. The commission itself is anxious to avoid all mistakes. I could give you further information but I would like to abstain from it and beg you to look me up when you visit the Gauleitung.

I believe that we National Socialists can welcome this action which is extraordinarily serious for the affected individual. I beg you, therefore, to oppose all rumors and grumblings with the necessary emphasis by representing our point of view in regard to these matters.

Nuernberg, 6 December 1940

Heil Hitler!
[Signed] SELLMER
Gaustabsamtsleiter
[Stamp]
National Socialist German Labor Party
Gau Franconia

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT NO-018
PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 404

LETTER FROM HIMMLER TO BRACK, 19 DECEMBER 1940, REQUESTING THAT
EUTHANASIA STATION GRAFENECK BE DISCONTINUED AND THAT MOTION PICTURES BE
SHOWN TO DISPEL RUMORS

Top Secret
19 December 1940

SS Standartenfuehrer Viktor Brack Staff Leader at Reichsleiter Bouhler’s Office Berlin W 8

Dear Brack,

I hear there is great excitement on the Alb because of the Grafeneck Institution.

The population recognizes the gray automobile of the SS and think they know what is going on at the constantly smoking crematory. What happens there is a secret and yet is no longer one. Thus the worst feeling has arisen there, and in my opinion there remains only one thing, to discontinue the use of the institution in this place and in any event disseminate information in a clever and sensible manner by showing motion pictures on the subject of inherited and mental diseases in just that locality.

May I ask for a report as to how the difficult problem is solved?

Heil Hitler!
[Initialled] H[EINRICH] H[IMMLER]

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT NO-842
PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 405

LETTER FROM BRACK TO DR. SCHLEGELBERGER[112], 18 APRIL 1941, FORWARDING FORMS FOR EUTHANASIA AND SUGGESTING THAT DEATH NOTIFICATIONS SHOULD NOT FOLLOW A STEREOTYPED FORM

Viktor Brack Oberdienstleiter
Berlin, 18 April 1941
[Stamp]
21 [Penciled]
26 April 1941
Dept: [Illegible]
[Handwritten] Gg.
Strictly Confidential
My dear Party comrade Dr. Schlegelberger,
[Handwritten] Top Secret

According to agreement I send you herewith a _folder with forms_ needed for your ascertainment and partial medical preparation; also another folder with forms for further clerical elaboration resulting from the death of the patient.[113] The records are secret, however, and I would appreciate if you would keep them _under lock and key_. Some more things are, of course, necessary for proper recording and administrative routine, but I do not believe that they are of any interest to you. Thereto belong, for instance, the death notifications to the relatives of the patient. These are to be kept somehow different according to the district and kind of relatives; they must be altered frequently to avoid stereotype texts and therefore a sample letter would only irritate. I would like to call your attention especially to the card files Nos. 13 and 14. On their reverse sides you will find a list of authorities to be informed.

When again reviewing the files which you put at my disposal, I found some details which ought to be clarified and settled; I would be grateful to you for doing so. Therefore, I shall forward them to you separately on Monday or Tuesday next week.

Heil Hitler!
Respectfully yours
[Signed] BRACK

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT NO-158
PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 410

LETTER FROM HIRCHE, ADMINISTRATOR OF THE MENTAL INSTITUTION BERNBURG, TO CAMP COMMANDANT OF THE GROSS-ROSEN CONCENTRATION CAMP, 19 MARCH 1942, WITH LIST OF INMATES TRANSFERRED FROM THE CONCENTRATION CAMP TO BERNBURG

Mental Institution, Bernburg Bernburg, 19 March 1942
Reference: B e. vH. Box 266
Consultation only by
appointment

To [Stamp] Camp Commandant Concentration Camp Gross-Rosen Concentration Camp Administration Gross-Rosen Received: 23 March 1942 Initials [Illegible]

Registered Subject: Transport of 19 March 1942

Enclosed you will find a list of the camp inmates who arrived here on 19 March 1942 from your concentration camp.

Heil Hitler!
[Signed] HIRCHE

1 Enclosure

* * * * *

List of the camp inmates transferred on 19 March 1942 from the Gross-Rosen
concentration camp to Bernburg

139/K1. 19-3-1942 Bernburg (Gross-Rosen)
[Signed]
[Signed]

[Signed]
[Signed]

1942
26746 10423 BIER, Rudolf Koeln
2.11.1901 divorced 19.3.
26747 10424 BECKERS, Herm Hamburg
18.9.1923 single 19.3.
26748 10444 BAJGELMANN, Isaak Czenstochau
4.8.1909 single 19.3.
26749 10412 COHEN, Arthur Isr Dellwig-Westf.
15.8.1908 single 19.3.
26750 10468 ECKHAUS, Herm Berlin C 2,
1.12.1922 single 19.3.
26751 10395 EDEL, Gerh. Isr Nakel,
30.5.1914 single 19.3.
26752 10440 EISNER, Otto Bochtitz
26.4.1910. divorced 19.3.
26753 10439 FLEISCHNER, Rich Kolin/Elbe
20.12.1902 married 19.3.
26754 10438 FRIED, Hans, Isr Budweis
8.3.1919 single 19.3.
26755 10450 HAASE, Siegfried Schoenlanke
3.8.1920 single 19.3.
26756 10436 HAUSER, Max Kastel
15.12.1908 single 19.3.
26757 10394 HECHT, Jacob, Isr Hamburg-Altona
18.10.1896 single 19.3.
26758 10410 LUBNICKI, Jacob Wuppertal/Elberf.
28.6.1918 single 19.3.
26759 10409 MARKUSE, Esriel Warschau
14.3.1897 widower 19.3.
26760 10470 NACHMANN, Erich Ulm/D.
6.10.1907 married 19.3.
26761 10406 POLLAK, Heinr Lemberg
30.9.1904 married 19.3.
26762 10517 PUFE, Otto Osternburg
16.3.1917 single 19.3.
26763 10421 ROSENBAUM, Otto Isr Muehlheim/Ruhr
2.6.1894 married 19.3.
26764 10486 ROBALEWSKI, Leo Kl. Tarpen
15.12.1915 single 19.3.
26765 10595 ROSE, Reinhold Cochelna
4.5.1907 single 19.3.
26766 10579 REKEL, Josef Tarnow
10.1.1909 single 19.3.
26767 10405 ROUBICEK, Karl Horovice/Boehmen
16.6.1906 single 19.3.
26768 10577 RWASKI, Wladislaus Kszywystock
19.6.1919 single 19.3.
26769 10509 ROST, Hans Willi Apolda/Weimar
15.7.1920 single 19.3.
26770 10606 SCHUENSMANN, Wilh Wittenberge
23.8.1892 widower 19.3.
26771 10576 SKRATAK, Viktor Stazow
5.3.1909 married 19.3.
26772 10575 SMIGIELSKI, Stanislaus Coloneg
25.10.1918 single 19.3.
26773 10425 SOMMER, Arthur Isr. Frankfurt/M.
4.12.1900 single 19.3.
26774 10578 SIKORSKI, Stanislaw Lublin
27.1.192 single 19.3.
26775 10488 SOMMER, Wenzel Litzmannstadt
7.8.1907 married 19.3.
26776 10404 SEITMANN, Simon Warschau
17.12.1896 widower 19.3.
26777 10594 SARBACH, Heinz Erfurt
28.4.1921 single 19.3.
26778 10483 SCHROFF, Karl Reilingen/ Baden
11.6.1910 single 19.3.
26779 10484 SCHILLING, Aug Rake/Wohlau
9.3.1896 single 19.3.
26780 10516 SCHUELER, Manfred Sonneberg/ Thuer.
Richard 17.9.21 single 19.3.
26781 10487 SCHMIDT, Johann Nuernberg
8.4.1900 divorced 19.3.
26782 10426 SCHINDLER, Ernst Isr. Sandhofen/Mannh.
7.6.1906 single 19.3.
26783 10427 SPIRA, Alfred Wien,
20.11.1908 single 19.3.
26784 10454 STERN, Zudik Rozniatow
28.9.1908 married 19.3.
26785 10485 STUKA, Wladimir Maehr. Sternberg
8.2.1907 married 19.3.
26786 10453 WEINBERGER, Erich, Isr. Wien
16.6.1916 single 19.3.
26787 10452 WEISZ, Ignaz Munkatesh/Ungarn
30.6.1914 single 19.3.
26788 10503 WALLZAK, Theophil Hohensalza
19.4.1907 single 19.3.
26789 10512 WELSER, Karl Pilgram/Prot.
10.11.1918 single 19.3.
26790 10505 WALCZYK, Josef Bokow
24.2.1908 married 19.3.
26791 10461 WUTKOWSKI, Willi Max Graudenz
16.4.1902 divorced 19.3.
25792 10506 WOZNICZKA, Ignac Kadziak
8.7.1916 single 19.3.
26793 10504 WASOLOWSKI, Marian Markstaedt
29.11.1909 single 19.3.
26794 10507 WENDOLOWSKI, Josef Warschau
7.1.1912 single 19.3.
26795 10604 WOLF, Karl Ged
10.5.1903 single 19.3.
26796 10595 ZBYTNIEWSKI, Zymunt Czekarzowice
1.1.1905 single 19.3.
26797 10592 ZBYTNIEWSKI, Zdzislaw Czekarzowice
2.3.1910 married 19.3.
26798 10502 ZUCHOWSKI, Felike Lietzendorf/W.
2.8.18. married 19.3.
26799 10565 ZIMMERMANN, Willi Dortmund
10.2.1917 single 19.3.
26800 10521 ZDYBIK, Wladislaus Borownica
5.4.1915 single 19.3.
26801 10480 ZIELKE, Karl Butow
4.2.1904 married 19.3.
26802 10422 BIRNBERG, Markus Kolomea
5.10.03 divorced 19.3.

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT NO-907
PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 412

EXTRACT FROM LETTER FROM DR. FRITZ MENNECKE TO HIS WIFE, 25 NOVEMBER
1941, CONCERNING HIS ACTIVITIES AS PHYSICIAN SELECTING INMATES OF
CONCENTRATION CAMP BUCHENWALD FOR EUTHANASIA

Letter No. 8

Weimar, 25 November 1941,
Hotel Elephant
2058 hours

At 7 o’clock tomorrow morning we will be awakened. At about 8 o’clock we will have our coffee and then we will drive out in Schmalenbach’s car, but he himself will soon leave for Dresden again. On Thursday and Friday a meeting will be held in Pirna in connection with the action in which problems of the future will be discussed and in which Schmalenbach will take part as the medical adjutant of Herr Brack (Jennerwein). No experts will be present * * *. The first working day at Buchenwald is over. At 8:30 this morning we were out there. At first I introduced myself to the authoritative leaders. The deputy of the camp commandant is SS Hauptsturmfuehrer Florstaedt; camp physician is SS Obersturmfuehrer Dr. Hoven. At first another 40 reports of a first portion of Aryans had to be completed. The two other colleagues worked on these yesterday already. Out of these 40 I worked up about 15. After this whole portion had been worked up, Schmalenbach left for Dresden. He will not return until our work here is done. Following this, the “examination” of the patients was carried out, i. e., a presentation of the individuals and a comparison with the entries taken from the files. We did not finish this work until noon, because the other two colleagues worked only in theory yesterday, so that I had to “re-examine” those whom Schmalenbach (and I myself this morning) had prepared and Mueller did his people. At 12 o’clock we stopped for lunch * * *.

Afterwards we continued our examination until about 4 o’clock. I myself examined 105 patients, Mueller 78 patients, so that finally a total of 183 reports were ready as a first group. As a second group a total of 1,200 Jews followed, all of whom do not need to be “examined”, but where it is sufficient to take the reasons for their arrest from the files (often very voluminous!) and to transfer them to the reports. Therefore, it is merely theoretical work which will certainly keep us busy until next Monday inclusive, perhaps even longer. Of this second group (Jews), we completed today. I myself did 17, and Mueller 15. At 5 o’clock sharp, “we threw away the trowel” and went for supper * * *.

Exactly as the day I described above, the following days will pass—with exactly the same program and the same work. After the Jews, another 300 Aryans follow as a third group who will again have to be “examined”. Therefore, we are busy here until the end of next week. Then on Saturday, 6 December, we shall go home.

* * * * *

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT NO-1007
PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 413

CIRCULAR FROM GLUECKS TO CONCENTRATION CAMP COMMANDANTS, 27 APRIL 1943,
STATING THAT IN THE FUTURE ONLY INSANE PRISONERS SHOULD BE USED FOR
ACTION “14 F 13” (EUTHANASIA)

SS Economic and Administrative Main Office Division Chief D Concentration Camps D I/1/File No.: 14 f 13/L/S.— Secret Journal No. 612/43

Oranienburg, 27 April 1943.
Subject: Action 14 f 13 in Concentration Camps.

Re: Our Order—D I/1/File No. 14 f 13/Ot/S.—Secret Diary No.

32/43 of 15 January ’43. Enclosures: None.

[Stamp]
Top Secret
——th copy

To the Camp Commanders of the Concentration Camps
Dachau, Sachsenhausen, Buchenwald, Mauthausen, Flossenbuerg,
Neuengamme, Auschwitz, Gross-Rosen, Natzweiler, Stutthof,
Ravensbrueck, Riga, Hertogenbosch, Lublin, and Bergen-Belsen.

Copy to: Chief of Amt DII, III in the building.

The Reich Leader SS and Chief of the German Police has decreed that in future only insane prisoners can be selected for the Action 14 f 13 by the medical commissions appointed for this purpose.

All other prisoners unfit for work (persons suffering from tuberculosis, bedridden invalids, etc.) are definitely to be excluded from this action. Bedridden prisoners are to be given suitable work which can be performed in bed.

The order of the Reich Leader SS must be strictly observed in the future.

Requests for gasoline for this purpose will therefore be discontinued.

[Signed] GLUECKS
SS Brigadefuehrer and Generalmajor of the Waffen SS

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT NO-891
PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 414

DIRECTIVE OF THE REICH MINISTER OF THE INTERIOR, 6 SEPTEMBER 1944,
ORDERING EUTHANASIA EXTENDED TO INSANE EASTERN WORKERS

Reich Minister of the Interior Berlin, 6 September 1944 _g 9255/44_ To: _a._ The Reich Governor [Reichsstatthalter] (State government) _b._ The Oberpraesidenten (administration of the provincial association) _c._ The County Presidents _d._ The Police President in Berlin _e._ The Lord Mayor [Oberbuergermeister] of the Reich capital Berlin.

Re: Mentally insane Eastern workers and Poles—Circular decrees of the
Reich Minister of the Interior of—_A g 9255/44-5100_—.

1. Due to the considerable number of Eastern workers and Poles brought into the German Reich for employment, the assignment of mental cases among them to German asylums is constantly increasing. The purpose of such assignments must be in any case the speediest possible recovery to working ability. Thus every means of modern therapy must also be applied to those mentally insane people. But due to lack of space in German institutions there can be no justification for patients who are considered incurable and, therefore, unable to work again in a reasonably short time to remain permanently or for a long time in German institutions. In order to avoid this, the following is ordered:

2. In the following list I have established for each district in the Reich a collective list for incurable mentally insane Eastern workers and Poles. They should be assigned to those institutions immediately if possible. If this is impossible due to urgency or to transportation difficulties, the institution in question should deliver their Eastern or Polish patients to the collecting institution in their respective district within one month at the most. It is not necessary to carry out the removal if the patient is considered able to leave the institution within 6 weeks at the latest.

3. It is the task of the collecting institution to decide whether the restoration of working ability might be considered within a reasonable period of time.

4. The expenses from the date of registration in the collecting institution are to be taken over by the head of the Central Financial Clearing Office of the sanatorium in Linz/Upper Danube, P. O. Box 324, which has to be informed immediately of such assignments. The fixed rate for patients of the general class will be paid to the institutions. The Eastern workers and Poles already assembled in collecting institutions are to be reported on a list immediately to the Central Financial Clearing Office. The expenses for those patient are transferred as from 1 October 1944 to the Central Accounts Office.

5. After 4 weeks, at the latest, of the registration in the collecting institution a short report on the prognosis of the case and on the question of working ability has to be sent to the head of the Central Financial Clearing Office. It is the task of that office to direct the transportation of patients from the collecting institutions to nearby special asylums in their home district.

6. Only those people are to be considered as Poles who were brought into the Reich for employment. This decree does not apply to the local Polish population.

7. The leaders of mental institutions in the districts, etc., are to be informed by their superior officials, and the leaders of welfare and private institutions by their competent higher administrative authorities. The required copies are enclosed herewith.

_List of the collecting institutions_

1. For East Prussia, Danzig, and West Prussia and Wartheland: Mental Institution Tiegenhof.

2. For Upper and Lower Silesia and the Sudetengau: Mental Institution Lueben.

3. For Pomerania, Mecklenburg, Kurmark, and Berlin: Mental Institution Landsberg-Warthe.

4. For Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg: Mental Institution Schleswig.

5. For Bremen, Weser-Ems, Hanover-East, Hanover-South, and Brunswick: Mental Institution Lueneburg.

6. For the Rhine province, Westphalia, and Lippe: Mental Institution Bonn.

7. For Baden, Westmark, Wuerttemberg, and Hohenzollern: Mental Institution Schussenried.

8. For Bavaria: Mental Institution Kaufbeuren.

9. For Kurhesse, Nassau, and Land Hesse: Mental Institution Hadamar.

10. For Thuringia-Land and Province Saxony, Anhalt: Mental Institution Pfaffenrode.

11. For the Alps [Alpen] and Danube districts: Mental Institution Mauer-Oehling.

BY ORDER:

Wiesbaden, 11 September 1944
Landeshaus

11_a_ One copy to the County Mental Institution, Eichberg.

With the request to acknowledge and to take further steps.

BY ORDER:
LANDESRAT

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1553-PS
PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 428

EXTRACT FROM THE FIELD INTERROGATION OF KURT GERSTEIN, 26 APRIL 1945,
DESCRIBING THE MASS GASSING OF JEWS AND OTHER “UNDESIRABLES”

_Deposition of Kurt Gerstein_

* * * * *

Hearing of the massacres of idiots and insane people at Grafeneck, Hadamar, etc., shocked and greatly affected me, having such a case in my family. I had but one desire—to gain an insight into this whole machinery and then to shout it to the whole world! With the help of two references written by the two Gestapo employees who had dealt with my case, it was not difficult for me to enter the Waffen SS.

From March 10 to June 2, 1941, I was given elementary instruction as a soldier at Hamburg-Langehorn, Arnhem, and Oranienburg, together with 40 doctors. Because of my twin studies—technology and medicine—I was ordered to enter the medical-technology branch of the SS Fuehrungshauptamt (SS Operational Main Office)—Medical Branch of the Waffen SS—Amtsgruppe D (Division D), Hygiene Department. Within this branch, I chose for myself the job of immediately constructing disinfecting apparatus and filters for drinking water for the troops, the prison camps, and the concentration camps. My close knowledge of the industry caused me to succeed quickly where my predecessors had failed. Thus, it was possible to decrease considerably the death toll of prisoners. On account of my successes, I very soon became lieutenant. In December 1941 the tribunal which had decreed my exclusion from the NSDAP obtained knowledge of my having entered the Waffen SS. Considerable efforts were made to remove and to persecute me but, due to my successes, I was declared sincere and indispensable.

In January 1942 I was appointed chief of the technical branch of disinfection, which also included the branch dealing with strong poison gases for disinfection. On 8 June 1942 SS Sturmbannfuehrer Guenther of the RSHA entered my office. He was in plain clothes and I did not know him. He ordered me to get a hundred kilograms of prussic acid and to accompany him to a place which was only known to the driver of the truck. We left for the potassium factory near Collin (Prague). Once the truck was loaded, we left for Lublin (Poland). We took with us Professor Pfannenstiel, Professor for Hygiene at the University of Marburg on the Lahn. At Lublin, we were received by SS Gruppenfuehrer Globocnik. He told us, “This is one of the most secret matters there are, even the most secret. Whoever talks of this shall be shot immediately. Yesterday, two talkative men died.” Then he explained to us that at the present moment—17 August 1942—there were three installations:

1. Belcec, on the Lublin-Lvov road, in the sector of the Russian
demarcation line. Maximum 15,000 persons a day. Seen!

2. Sobiber, I do not know exactly where it is located. Not seen.
20,000 persons per day.

3. Treblinka, 120 kilometers NNE of Warsaw. 25,000 persons per
day. Seen!

4. Maidanek, near Lublin. Seen—in the state of preparation.

Globocnik then said: “You will have to handle the sterilization of very large quantities of clothes, 10 or 20 times the amount of the clothing and textile collection, which is only arranged in order to conceal the source of these Jewish, Polish, Czech, and other clothes. Your other duties will be to change the method of our gas chambers (which are run at the present time with the exhaust gases of an old Diesel engine), using more poisonous material, having a quicker effect: prussic acid. But the Fuehrer and Himmler, who were here on August 15, the day before yesterday, ordered that I personally should accompany all those who are to see the installations.”

Then Professor Pfannenstiel asked: “What does the Fuehrer say?” Then Globocnik, now Chief of Police and SS, from the Adriatic Riviera to Trieste, answered: “Quicker, quicker! Carry out the whole program!” And then Dr. Herbert Linden, Ministerialdirektor in the Ministry of the Interior said: “But would it not be better to burn the bodies instead of burying them? A future generation might think differently of these matters!” * * * Globocnik replied: “But, gentlemen, if after us such a cowardly and rotten generation should arise that it does not understand our work which is so good and so necessary, then, gentlemen, all National Socialism will have been for nothing. On the contrary, bronze plaques should be put up with the inscription that it was we, we who had the courage to achieve this gigantic task. And Hitler said: ‘Yes, my good Globocnik, that is the word, that is my opinion, too.’”

The next day we left for Belcec, a small special station of two platforms against a hill of yellow sand, immediately to the north of the Lublin-Lvov road and railway. To the south, near the road were some service houses with a signboard: “Belcec, Service Center of the Waffen SS.” Globocnik introduced me to SS Hauptsturmfuehrer Obermeyer from Pirmasens, who with great restraint showed me the installations. No dead were to be seen that day but the smell of the whole region, even from the main road, was pestilential. Next to the small station there was a large barrack marked “Cloakroom,” and a door marked “Valuables.” Next to that, a chamber with a hundred “barber’s” chairs. Then came a corridor, 150 meters long, in the open air and with barbed wire on both sides. There was a signboard: “To the baths and inhalations”! Before us we saw a house, like a bathhouse, with concrete troughs to the right and left containing geraniums or other flowers. After climbing a small staircase, we came to 3 garage-like rooms on each side, 4 × 5 meters in size and 1.90 meters high. At the back were invisible wooden doors. On the roof was a Star of David made out of copper. At the entrance to the building was the inscription, “Heckenholt Foundation.” That was all I noticed on that particular afternoon.

Next morning, a few minutes before 7, I was informed that in 10 minutes the first train would arrive. And indeed, a few minutes later the first train came in from Lemberg [Lvov]; 45 cars, containing 6,700 persons, 1,450 of whom were already dead on arrival. Behind the little barbed-wire openings were children, yellow, half scared to death, women, and men. The train stopped; 200 Ukrainians, forced to do this work, opened the doors and drove all the people out of the coaches with leather whips. Then, through a huge loud-speaker, instructions were given to them to undress completely and to hand over false teeth and glasses—some in the barracks, others right in the open air. Shoes were to be tied together with a little piece of string handed to everyone by a small Jewish boy of 4 years of age; all valuables and money were to be handed in at the window marked “Valuables”, without receipt. Then the women and girls were to go to the hairdresser who cut off their hair in one or two strokes, after which it vanished into huge potato bags “to be used for special submarine equipment, door mats, etc.”, as the SS Unterscharfuehrer on duty told me.

Then the march began. To the right and left, barbed wire; behind, two dozen Ukrainians with guns. Led by a young girl of striking beauty they approached. With Police Captain Wirth, I stood right in front of the death chambers. Completely naked, they marched by, men, women, girls, children, babies, even one-legged persons, all of them naked. In one corner, a strong SS man told the poor devils in a strong deep voice: “Nothing whatever will happen to you. All you have to do is to breathe deeply; it strengthens the lungs. This inhalation is a necessary measure against contagious diseases; it is a very good disinfectant!” Asked what was to become of them, he answered: “Well, of course the men will have to work, building streets and houses. But the women do not have to. If they wish they can help in the house or the kitchen.” Once more, a little bit of hope for some of these poor people, enough to make them march on without resistance to the death chambers. Most of them, though, knew everything, the smell had given them a clear indication of their fate. And then they walked up the little staircase—and behold the picture: Mothers with babies at their breasts, naked, lots of children of all ages, naked too; they hesitate, but they enter the gas chambers, most of them, without a word, pushed by the others behind them, chased by the whips of the SS men. A Jewess of about 40 years of age, with eyes like torches, calls down the blood of her children on the heads of their murderers. Five lashes in her face, dealt by the whip of Police Captain Wirth himself, drive her into the gas chamber. Many of them say their prayers; others ask, “Who will give us the water for our death?” Within the chambers, the SS press the people closely together; Captain Wirth had ordered “Fill them up full.” Naked men stand on the feet of the others. 700-800 crushed together on 25 square meters, in 45 cubic meters! The doors are closed!

Meanwhile the rest of the transport, all naked, waited. Somebody said to me: “Naked, in winter! Enough to kill them!” The answer was: “Well, that’s just what they are here for!” And at that moment I understood why it was called the Heckenholt Foundation. Heckenholt was the man in charge of the Diesel engine, the exhaust gases of which were to kill these poor devils. SS Unterscharfuehrer Heckenholt tried to set the Diesel engine going, but it would not start! Captain Wirth came along. It was obvious that he was afraid because I was a witness of this breakdown. Yes, indeed, I saw everything and waited. Everything was registered by my stop watch. 50 minutes—70 minutes—the Diesel engine did not start! The people waited in their gas chambers—in vain. One could hear them cry. “Just as in a synagogue,” says SS Sturmbannfuehrer Professor Dr. Pfannenstiel, Professor for Public Health at the University of Marburg/Lahn, holding his ear close to the wooden door! Captain Wirth, furious, dealt the Ukrainian who was helping Heckenholt 11 or 12 lashes in the face with his whip. After 2 hours and 49 minutes—as registered by my stop watch—the Diesel engine started. Up to that moment the people in the four chambers already filled were still alive—4 times 750 persons in 4 times 45 cubic meters! Another 25 minutes went by. Many of the people, it is true, were dead by that time. One could see that through the little window as the electric lamp revealed for a moment the inside of the chamber. After 28 minutes only a few were alive. After 32 minutes all were dead! From the other side, Jewish workers opened the wooden doors. In return for their terrible job, they had been promised their freedom and a small percentage of the valuables and the money found. The dead were still standing like stone statues, there having been no room for them to fall or bend over. Though dead, the families could still be recognized, their hands still clasped. It was difficult to separate them in order to clear the chamber for the next load. The bodies were thrown out blue, wet with sweat and urine, the legs covered with excrement and menstrual blood. Everywhere among the others were the bodies of babies and children. But there is no time!—Two dozen workers were busy checking the mouths, opening them with iron hooks—“Gold on the left, no gold on the right!” Others checked anus and genitals to look for money, diamonds, gold, etc. Dentists with chisels tore out gold teeth, bridges, or caps. In the center of everything was Captain Wirth. He was on familiar ground here. He handed me a large tin full of teeth and said: “Estimate for yourself the weight of gold! This is only from yesterday and the day before! And you would not believe what we find here every day! Dollars, diamonds, gold! But look for yourself!” Then he led me to a jeweler who was in charge of all these valuables. After that they took me to one of the managers of the big store, Kaufhaus des Westens, in Berlin, and to a little man whom they made play the violin. Both were chiefs of the Jewish worker units. “He is a captain of the Royal and Imperial Austrian Army, and has the German Iron Cross 1st Class,” I was told by Hauptsturmbannfuehrer Obermeyer.

The bodies were then thrown into large ditches about 100 × 20 × 12 meters located near the gas chambers. After a few days the bodies would swell up and the whole contents of the ditch would rise 2-3 meters high because of the gases which developed inside the bodies. After a few more days the swelling would stop and the bodies would collapse. The next day the ditches were filled again, and covered with 10 centimeters of sand. A little later, I heard, they constructed grills out of rails and burned the bodies on them with Diesel oil and gasoline in order to make them disappear. At Belcec and Treblinka nobody bothered to take anything approaching an exact count of the persons killed. Actually, not only Jews, but many Poles and Czechs, who, in the opinion of the Nazis, were of bad stock, were killed. Most of them died anonymously. Commissions of so-called doctors, who were actually nothing but young SS men in white coats, rode in limousines through the towns and villages of Poland and Czechoslovakia to select the old, tubercular, and sick people and have them done away with shortly afterwards in the gas chambers. They were the Poles and Czechs of category No. III, who did not deserve to live because they were unable to work. Police Captain Wirth asked me not to propose any other kind of gas chamber in Berlin, but to leave everything the way it was. I lied—as I did in each case all the time—and said that the prussic acid had already deteriorated in shipping and had become very dangerous, that I was therefore obliged to bury it. This was done right away. The next day, Captain Wirth’s car took us to Treblinka, about 75 miles NNE of Warsaw. The installations of this death center scarcely differed from those at Belcec, but they were even larger. There were eight gas chambers and whole mountains of clothes and underwear about 35-40 meters high. Then a banquet was given in our “honor,” attended by all the employees of the institution. The Obersturmbannfuehrer, Professor Pfannenstiel, Hygiene Professor at the University of Marburg/Lahn, made a speech: “Your task is a great duty, a duty useful and necessary.” To me alone he talked of this institution in terms of “beauty of the task”; “humane cause”; and speaking to all of them he said: “Looking at the bodies of these Jews, one understands the greatness of your good work!”

* * * * *

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT NO-365
PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 507

UNSIGNED DRAFT LETTER FROM DR. WETZEL TO ROSENBERG, 25 OCTOBER 1941,
DEALING WITH BRACK’S COLLABORATION IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF GAS CHAMBERS
FOR THE EXTERMINATION OF JEWS

“Draft” [penciled notation]

Reich Ministry for the Occupied Territories Referent AGR. Dr. Wetzel Berlin, 25 October 1941 Secret Re: Solution of the Jewish Question. To the Reich Commissioner for the East.

Re: Your Report of 4 October 1941 Concerning Solution of the
Jewish Question.