1947-01-16, #1: Doctors' Trial (early morning)

Official transcript of the American Military Tribunal in the matter of the United States of America against Karl Brandt, et al, defendants, sitting at Nuernberg, Germany, on 16 January 1947, 0930, Justice Beals presiding.

THE MARSHAL: The Honorable Judges of Military Tribunal 1.

Military Tribunal 1 is now in session.

God save the United States of America, and this Honorable Tribunal.

There will be order in the courtroom.

THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Marshal, you will ascertain if the defendants are all present in the courtroom.

THE MARSHAL: May it please Your Honor, all the defendants are present in the court.

THE PRESIDENT: The Secretary General will note for the record the presence of all the defendants in the courtroom.

This morning Tribunal 1 convenes at 9:40 o'clock, a delay which was due to mechanical difficulties in the recording appliances of the court. They having been promptly repaired by the efficient agents in charge of them, the court now convenes at 9:40 o'clock. The prosecution may proceed.

MR. HOCHWALD: May it please the Tribunal, the last document which was presented by Mr. McHaney last night was NO 1116 which was Prosecution Exhibit 415. I also offered into evidence a set of documents which were prosecution exhibits in the case against the defendants Wahlmann and so on; excerpts which were read into the record by Mr. McHaney. The first document is NO 748 which will be on page 66 of document book, Your Honor, which will be Prosecution Exhibit 416. It is a statement of Alfens Klein. I do not want to read this document into the record. The next document I offer is also an exhibit from the Hadamar case, prosecution exhibit from the case, NO 730, on page 69 of the document book and will be Prosecution Exhibit 417. I quote:

Before me, Capt. Luke P. Rogers, being authorized to administer oaths, personally appeared Philipp Blum, who, being duly sworn through the interpreter, made and subscribed the following statement.

My name is Philipp Blug, I live in Frickhofen, Germany; I am a cousin of Alfons Klein.

Since 1940 I had been in the Hadamar Mental Institution. There I had to take care of the switchboard until February 1943, when I took ever the burials. Klein ordered me to take over this job.

In November or 1942 Klein became administrative inspector of Hadamar and he still hold that position in august 1944 when I left. Klein was Chief of the Hadamar-Institution and issued all orders.

Bernotat was district counselor (Landesrat) and used to visit Hadamar frequently; there he had conferences with Klein and Wahlmann.

Wahlmann was the physician in charge of Hadamar and conducted all medical treatments in the Institution. Every morning a conference between Wahlmann, Chief-nurse Ruoff and the female chief-nurse Huber took place.

Two or three months before I left the Institution to join the Wehrmacht, Russians and Poles began to come to Hadamar. Klein told me that those Russians and Poles were afflicted with TB. All those Poles end Russians were brought to Ward lb on the ground floor. If there were too many for this ward they were brought to ward 11a on the first flour. The female nurses Hachbarth and Bellin worked in ward lb, Zackow, Weiland, and Borkowski in 11a.

Ruoff and Willing gave, as far as I knew, injections to all these Poles and Russians. All these Russians and Poles were dead about two hours after their arrival. Both the male and female nurses informed me usually when they were ready to be buried.

The female nurses informed me of the death of these people so that they could clean up the rooms and make the beds. I then carried the bodies down to the cellar.

I entered the names of the dead into a burial-book in Merkle's office. Merkle kept a register of the dead, based on the documents carried by the Russians and Poles. When the Russians and Poles arrived, their documents were handed ever to Klein, who in turn gave then to Merkle. Every morning Merkle gave me a slip of paper with the names of these who were to be buried the same day.

With the all of a few insane people, I used to carry the bodies to the cemetery and to bury them there. I used to bury 8 to 20 in one grave and I used to enter in the burial-book where they were buried. I estimate that I buried perhaps one hundred Russians and Poles while I was there.

Once came a large transport of Russians and Poles to Hadamar. There must have been forty or fifty in this transport. They were brought from Limburg in trucks. Everybody in the institution knew, that a large transport of Russians and Poles was to arrive from Limburg. I was present when these Russians and Poles arrived, and they were brought to ward 11a and 11b. Ruoff gave injections to these Russians and poles. The nurses undressed the women and brought them to bed. I remember for certain, that nurses Hackbarth, Beellim and Zachow were present. I am not quite sure, if the chief-nurse Huber or the others were there. I took all clothing down to the cellar with the aid of some of the insane, I was present until all these people died, which lasted about two hours. I carried them down to the collar with the assistance of a couple of insane; they were to be buried the next day.

I was a member of the National socialistic party since 1933.

/s/ Phillipp Blum.

The next Document No.751 of the Document book will be Prosecution Exhibit 418; it is also a Prosecution Exhibit of the Hadamar case; a statement of Karl Willig, which I offer into evidence without reading it into the record.

So is the next Document No.730 on page 73, which will be prosecution Exhibit 419.

The next Document - Document No.728, which I offer into evidence as prosecution Exhibit 420. This is also a Prosecution Exhibit of the Hadamar case. This is a summary of the people killed, the foreigners killed at Hadamar and shows the following: Poles - 80; Russians - 380; Russians or Poles - 16; Grand Total 476, of which are men - 263; women - 197; and children - 16.

The next document is a list of the names of the foreigners killed in the Hadamar Euthanasia station, Document No.727, which will be prosecution Exhibit 421 on pages 18 to 95 of the Document Book. The list is Document No.731.

THE PRESIDENT: The counsel will proceed a little more slowly with the totals of these Exhibits.

MR. HOCHWALD: I beg your pardon, sir.

THE PRESIDENT: Just read the title, number and page of the Exhibit to which you are referring.

MR. HOCHWALD: Yes sir. The Document727 starts on page 80 of the Document book and will be Prosecution Exhibit 421. It is a list of names of foreign nationals, who were killed in the Hadamar Euthanasia Station. It is one of the prosecution Exhibits in the Hadamar case. This Document is on Pages 80 to 95 of the English Document Book.

The next Document No.731 on page 96 of the Document Book will be Prosecution Exhibit No.422, also one of the Prosecution Exhibits from the Hadamar case. It is a statement of Heinrich Ruoff.

The next Document, Your Honors, is No.729 on Page 99; also one of the Prosecution Exhibits, which is an interrogation of the witness Frederick Dickmann.

THE PRESIDENT: What will be the number of that Exhibit?

MR. HOCHWALD: This is Prosecution Exhibit 423, sir.

The next Document on Page 105 of the Document Book is No.752. which will be Prosecution Exhibit from the Hadamar case, a statement of Heinrich Ruoff. It is another statement of Heinrich Ruoff.

The next Document, which I offer into evidence, is on page 110, Document No.808, which will be prosecution Exhibit 425. It is a sworn statement of Otto Beringer and I quote:

Before me, Matthias Schumacher, acting in accordance with article 1 and 3 of the Decree of the Grand Duchy of 3 July 1945 concerning War Crimes, appeared today, 18 October 1946, Herr Otto Beringer, physician, born 29 November 1908 at Kolmar-Berg, domiciled in Walferdingen, who being duly sworn as a witness, stated:

As a physician, I was assigned for duty to the mental Hospital Eichberg near Eltville-Wiesbaden-Rheingau. In this capacity, I remained in the institution from 2 march 1942 to 26 July 1943- Director of this mental Institution was the Chief Physician SS-Obersturmbannfuehrer Fritz Mennecke.

The First Physician's name was Walter Schmidt. He also held the title of SS-Obersturmbannfuehrer. The institution was built for 600 inmates, but temporarily accommodated 1400. It was an open secret in the Gau that the chief physician Mennecke was directed by Himmler to comb the mental institutions all over Germany for mentally sick people whom he brought, among other places, to Hadamar where they were gassed. Indeed, I could make the observation that during my stay at Eichberg the named physician Fritz Mennecke was continuously away on travels. At the time when Mennecke was chief physician and SS Walter Schmidt was first physician of the institution the following incident occurred, late in the fall of 1942, which I witnessed with my own eyes. One day, in this late fall of 1942. Mennecke said to me: The first physician Schmidt will come to your station tomorrow and then he will give a treatment to the patient Kessler. Order came from Berlin to let the man disappear.'

Next Morning, at 10 o'clock Schmidt gave Kessler an injection of 5 ccm luminal. The luminal was injected intramuscularly. The victim passed out, then he was completely undressed and brought into a sort of bath room, a room that was la??? with glazed tiles and there he was laid on the floor. The window was opened. At 5 o'clock Kessler received a second injection; this was the same evening that he got that second injection. When I was at the station next morning, I asked a male nurse, whose name was Schaaf, how Kessler was getting on: the named Schaaf showed me the victim Kessler, who still lay naked on the floor of the tiled room. The temperature in the room was ice-cold. Schaaf told me that Kessler had received another injection of 5 ccm luminal that morning. The third day Kessler passed away. In the death certificate, pneumonia was quoted as the cause of death. If an autopsy had been made pneumonia would have been found to be the cause of death, indeed. By the injections of luminal a paralysis of the breathing centers of the victim was caused. The prevailing cold was unavoidably bound to cause pneumonia.

All the mentally deficient children received by the Eichberg institution were murdered, none of them died a natural death. These mentally defective children were murdered by luminal injections. When saying none of these children died a natural death, I have to correct myself; by far the greatest number of them were murdered by luminal injections.

The First Physician Schmidt also performed medical or pseudo-scientific experiments on these mentally defective children. Systematically quantities of up to 60 ccm cerebro spinal fluid was withdrawn from the children by suboccipital puncture and in its place air was blown in. This caused terrible headaches to the children, so that for half a day they yelled loudly and vomited. After air was pressed into the children's cranium, the children were X-rayed. A person - half responsible for these experiments and for the murder of the mentally defective children - was the head nurse Helene Schuluerch from Swabin. This head nurse originated from Wuerttemberg and just have had her home near Stuttgart. Her guilt in regard to these crimes was just as great as the guilt of SS-Obersturmbannfuehrer Walter Schmidt.

In late July 1943 I left the institution Eichberg in order to settle down as a physician in Kirchen on der Sieg, because I had moved. I still came to Eichberg a few times. At the occasion of one of those visits, I heard in the institution that 5 to 8 Russian civilian internees had been received by the institution and had been murdered there in a mysterious way.

This my statement, which in all details corresponds to the truth, was read to me; then I have singed it with my own hand.

/s/ Dr. Beninger.

The next document, NO-893, is on page 113 of the document book and will be Prosecution Exhibit 426. It is a letter from The President (Administration of the District Union, Nassau), dated Wiesbaden 15 May 1943, to the District Mental Institution, Eichberg/Rhine, subject: Admission of partly Jewish minors to the Institution:

By order of the Reich Minister of Interior I set up in the District Mental Institution Hadamar, District Limburg/Lahn an educational institution, to which all Jewish or partly Jewish children and youths, who are now under institutional care, in reformatories or in other institutions, are to be brought.

For this purpose please send me at your earliest convenience, however not later than 20 May 1943, a list with the names of the partly Jewish minors; who are in the institution there. A report of missing inmates is likewise required.

Please inform me in the future immediately of admissions of partly Jewish minors to your institution.

By order:

/s/ Bernotat, Landesrat

The next document on page 114 is NO-896 and will be Prosecution Exhibit.

Kassel, 4 July 1946.

Present, Public Prosecutor Kessler and Justice employee Nerreter as court reporter.

Summoned, the retired provincial counselor Otto Schellmann, born 19 November 1880 in Kassel, resident in Kassel-Harlessbausen, Saengelsrain 5, appeared and stated the following, after having been informed about the subject of the examination:

For the following statement I have, by way of precaution, obtained the consent of my agency.

From 1912 on I was employed by the office of the governor (Landeshauptmann) in Hesse. On 1 September 1939 I entered the service with the Wehrmacht as a railroad station commander at the main station in Kassel. On 1 July 1941 I was dismissed from the Wehrmacht because of a serious accident, and I returned to my civilian agency, where without interruption until about June 1945, I acted as deputy of Landeshauptmann Traupel, who had in the meantime been drafted into the Wehrmacht.

1. When I took up my position, on 1 June 1941, the so-called planned economy measures concerning the destruction of the so-called life unworthy of being lived in the sphere of care for insane persons were in full swing. I had until that time heard no details of these measures. They induced me, however, to have a detailed discussion at once with the heads of the three provincial mental institutions, under our jurisdiction - Heina, Merkshausen, and Marburg/Lahn. I emphatically instructed the heads of the institutions to take the position in their reports to the ministries, etc., that insane person, even if they had only slight working ability, should absolutely be kept from 'transfer' to another institution. The consequence was that relatively few patients were included in the 'transfer'. At the end of August 1943 these planned economy measures were completely performed. They ceased there and as far as I know, were never resumed As for as I remember the insane persons are said to have been transported from our institutions first to the various institutions of the district agency of Nassau and from there to the district mortal institution at Hadaman and Nassau. The order for the 'transfer' of insane persons did not pass through my office either but to my recollection came directly from the Ministry of the Interior to the institutions in question. As far as I recall, this Ministerial agency was camouflaged under the designation of a transport company, the orders of which were all forwarded as being secret.

As the institution Hadamar belongs to the district of Nassau and therefor was not subordinate to the Landeshauptmann of Hessen, I cm also not in a position to make a statement about the procedures carried out there especially with regard to the treatment of the patients. I personally never visited the asylum Hadamar since 1930.

2. On 8 March 1943 a decree was issued from the Reich Minister of the Interior according to which mentally healthy partly Jewish minors (from approved schools) were to be assigned to the partly Jewish section of the Hadamar asylum. With regard to the scrupulous part that Hadamar had played during the treatment of insane persons I was of the opinion that I must be careful and asked on the occasion of my visit in the Landeshaus in Wiesbaden whether proper treatment of these minor was guaranteed.

To this question the lawyer of the institution Landesrat Bernotat answered affirmatively. I was especially assured that satisfactory and good schooling was guaranteed. After that I ordered our institutions at Homburg and Wabern to take care of the transfer of the children in question.

To these measures were subjected the siblings Klara, Alfred, Edeltraud and Amanda. Gotthelf from Grosskotzenburg, District Hanau, who were transferred on 1 October 1943 to Hadamar. Soon afterward we received the news that the children, who had up to then been healthy on the whole, died suddenly, Alfred on 20 October, Amanda on 22 October, Klara on 26 October and Edeltraud on 1 November 1943. One other pupil named Wurr (a partly Jewish child) who was also brought on 1 October 1943 from Homburg to Hadamar, died there 22 October 1943.

Of course this disconcerted me and I demanded the Hadamar institution in letter of 12 November 1943 to inform me immediately about the cause of death, by enclosing the death certificate. As a reply to this I received a letter of 18 November 1943 from the asylum Hadamar that the four Gotthelf siblings died of enteritis; with regard to the death certificates I was referred to the registry office in Hadamar.

To my recollection the latter then confirmed the death of the children by transmitting the death certificates.

I was not able to forward my inquiry of 12 November 1943 to Hadamar any earlier because in the meantime on 22 to 23 October 1943, the office buildings of the district administration in Kassel had been destroyed by an air raid and as a result all commercial traffic was held up. Also all the files of the administration, in particular those concerning the siblings Gotthelf were destroyed, so that I am only able to speak about the further management of these cases from my own recollection.

These strange casualties disconcerted me so that my scruples could not be put aside even by the official statement of the Hadamar Institution. On the other hand I had to consider the fact that the official statements of the Hadamar Institution were at hand and could not be dismissed as....

(Pause for adjustment of sound equipment)

If Your Honors please, I'll resume my quotation from Document NO-896:

On the other hand I had to consider the fact that the official statements of the Hadamar Institution were at hand and could not be dismissed as unworthy of belief. I would certainly have met with difficulties for I would never have succeeded, in case the official statements had not been right, in obtaining in answer to my inquiry a rectification or clarification of the procedures. Nothing else remained to me than to avoid a repetition of such events by means of preventive measures. Explaining the state of the case therefore I personally instructed the Heads of our institutions in Wabern and Hamburg by word of mouth to send no more children to Hadamar under any circumstances. After that it did not happen any more in any case. If someone had objected to these measures I would have refuse to transfer further minors to Hadamar, pointing out what happened to the Gotthelf siblings. I declared this emphatically to a deputy of the Nassau district administration, I do not remember his name at the moment.

I'll skip the rest of the document and read only the signature:

/s/ Otto Schellmann.

The next document on Page 118 -

DR. FROESCHMANN: Dr. Froeschmann, Counsel for the defendant, Viktor Brack. Mr. President, as I have just found out, the signature of Otto Schellmann which was just read into the record was not sworn to. The statement itself is an excerpt of some unknown German file, which originates from June, 1946, and contains the interrogation by a prosecutor Kessler unknown to me. I don't know that file. I do not believe that this document which is being submitted by the Prosecution can be admitted into evidence especially since the document which was not read in its entirety says on Page 126 of the German Document Book that the character of the interrogation by the Prosecutor was very confidential and that statements were made which were certainly not meant for the court.

MR. HOCHWALD: As the document itself shows, this was a statement made in the presence of a German public prosecutor and in the presence of a court reporter. I suggest and Counsel for the Defense will be certainly informed about this fact, that before the witness gives such a statement, the witness is warned by the public prosecutor that in case he should not say the truth is punishable by law. This is a very similar procedure as the procedure which was adopted for the obtaining of affidavits for Defense Counsel in this trial. I do think that this document is perfectly admissible.

THE PRESIDENT: Will you pass the original document to the Tribunal?

DR. SERVATIUS: Dr. Servatius, Counsel for the defendant, Karl Brandt. Mr. President, the legal statements made by the prosecutor are not quite correct. It is not correct to say that when examined before a prosecutor there is a warning that one has to say the truth and that one is punishable if one does not say the truth. According to German law it is the case that whenever one is interrogated by a prosecutor, there is no legal coercion to say the truth. Such obligation only exists if you testify before an examining judge who is commissioned to do that; that is to say, if the witness does not say the truth testifying before the prosecutor, he is not subject to punishment. In this case we are not concerned with a court file but only a file coming from the prosecutor's office. This can be seen from the notes made on the file where the words "J.S., Number so-and-so" are contained.

I also, therefore, do not think that this document is admissible.

THE PRESIDENT: The original German document exhibited to the Tribunal consists of two and one-half typewritten pages in the German language. It bears no signature but two typewritten names.

MR. HOCHWALD: The original of the document is with the files of the Frankfurt court, German court in Frankfurt as it was submitted in a German trial. This copy, Sir, was certified to by the German authorities as a correct and true copy. I possibly can get a German certification of the document.

THE PRESIDENT: The certificate attached to the document is simply a certification by one Patricia A. Radcliff that "This document is the original of a document which was delivered to me in the usual course of my official business as a true copy of the document found in German archive." That does not amount to a certificate that the document is a true copy.

MR. HOCHWALD: But we have a further document. The document room of CCC has a certificate which is not attached to the document in German which says that we obtained it; we certified the true copy.

MR. McHANEY: If the Tribunal, please, we will withdraw the offer until such time as the certificate is attached. It certainly should be. We do have one and it is simply an oversight. It is not in there. It should be. We will obtain it in a very few minutes and then reoffer the document on that basis.

THE PRESIDENT: The exhibit is temporarily withdrawn.

MR. HOCHWALD: And the next document on page 118 is NO-205 which already was submitted into evidence under Exhibit No.163. With the permission of the Tribunal, I only want to read the first paragraph of this letter from Brack to Himmler.

THE PRESIDENT: What is the number of this exhibit which was formerly introduced into evidence.

MR. HOCHWALD: The exhibit number is 163, your Honor. The document number is NO-205. It is on page 118 of the document book. It is a letter from Brack to Himmler, dated Berlin, 23 June 1942:

On the instructions of Reich-Leader Bouhler I placed some of my men -- already sometime ago -- at the disposal of Brigadefuehrer Blobocnik to execute his special mission. On his renewed request I now transferred additional personnel. On this occasion Brigadefuehrer Blobocnik stated his opinion that the whole Jew Action should be completed as quickly as possible so that one would not get caught in the middle of it one day if some difficulties should make a stoppage of the action necessary. You yourself, Reichsfuehrer, have already expressed your view that work should progress quickly for reasons of camouflage alone. Both points which in principle arrive at the same result are more than justified as far as my own experience goes; nevertheless, would you kindly allow me to submit the following argument: --

The next document is on page 126 of the document book.

It is NO-155-- no. It is 1553-PS. I beg your pardon. It will be prosecution Exhibit 428. It is a statement -

THE PRESIDENT: You are not going to put in the document No.206 appearing at 120?

MR. HOCHWALD: 206 was already offered into evidence and I am not going to read it.

THE PRESIDENT: As what exhibit?

MR. HOCHWALD: Just a minute. As Prosecution Exhibit 164, sir, and I an not going to offer 501-PS which is the next document in your Honor's document book.

THE PRESIDENT: Has it been heretofore offered?

MR. HOCHWALD: 501 is not offered. It is not offered at all, so that the next is on page 126, 1553-PS, Exhibit 428. This is page 138-

MR. McHANEY: If the Tribunal please, the document we now offer is an unsworn - statement of one Kurt Gerstein. It was admitted before the IMT--

THE PRESIDENT: What document is that, Mr. McHaney?

MR. McHANEY: It is 1553 PS beginning on page 126. This document was admitted before the International Military Tribunal as an exhibit of the Republic of France, No.350. It constitutes a number of bills of lading, or shipment notices covering a certain gas known as Zyhlon B, Prussic Acid. That is a shipment notice from a firm by the name of Degesch, the manufacturer of the gas, the notice being sent to this man Kurt Gerstein. These were a number of bills which were attached to the statement which Gerstein gave on April 25, 1945, before a United States Army officer. However, it does not appear that the officer were Mr. Gerstein before the statement was given. Despite that fact, however, it was admitted before the IMT. I do not know whether ever objection or not. In any event, as such it constitutes a part of the record before the International Military Tribunal and consequently is entitled to at least judicial notice before this Tribunal. We have made a very sincere and earnest effort to find Kurt Gerstein and I have been unable to do so. If the defense counsel are interested in cross-examining Mr. Gerstein, we will continue our efforts to locate him after appropriate application and approval of this Tribunal. In any event, we are offering this document as a prosecution exhibit at this time. It is a matter of some importance to the case because it informs the Tribunal as to the activities of the man by the name of Globocnik, and the Tribunal has seen from the letter of Victor Brack to the Reichsfuehrer SS that Pouhler and Brack put people at the disposal of Brigadefuchrer Globocnik, so it becomes a matter of considerable importance to the Tribunal to be informed of what Globocnik was doing.

That is the reason we are offering this document and we ask that it be admitted at this time.

THE PRESIDENT: The copy of the English Document we are looking at shows no certificate that this is a copy of the record before the International Military Tribunal.

MR. McHANEY: The certificate on the original which goes into evidence reads: "I certify that Document No.1553 PS was introduced into evidence as Exhibit No. RS 350 in the trial by the International Military Tribunal of Hermann Goering, et al" etc., and signed "Fred Niebergall, Chief of Document Control Branch, Office of Chief of Counsel for War Crimes".

I think it would be helpful if I had are original document passed up. The statement, as I state, shows that it was taken before two United States Army officers and was sent through with a covering memorandum.

DR. SERVATIUS (Counsel for Karl Brandt): Dr. Servatius, for Karl Brandt, Mr. President, I attach importance to cross-examining this witness and I formally make the application that witness be called as seen as he is found.

THE PRESIDENT: Counsel will execute the formal application for calling the witness. The court will consider the application and doubtless will approve it and summons the witness and counsel may be entitled to summon this witness for cross-examination so that he will not be treated as a defense witness but will be called for cross-examination. I notice, Mr. McHaney, that this certificate -- purported certificate --- is a true copy of an exhibit introduced before the International Military Tribunal and that it has not signed except for the rubber stamp. The signature of Fred Niebergall is manifestly not a signature but a rubber stamp.

MR. McHANEY: We will rectify that. I suppose the explanation is that the Document Section feels that they process so many of these that they have a facsimile signature.

However, we can have that rectified. Would the prosecution be able to have a ruling on the admissibility of this document on the assurance that the certificate will be executed in handwriting. I am just informed that they keep close central over these matters. I can assure the Tribunal that Mr. Niebergall can certify to the facts stated and, if possible, we would like to have the question disposed of at this time and, if possible, read the exhibit.

THE PRESIDENT: The exhibit will be admitted in evidence when properly certified and the objection is overruled.

MR. HOCHWALD: I would like to read from page 139. This will be Prosecution Exhibit 428 and I want to read from the first part of page 139 of the Document Book, sir.

July 14 to August 23, 1938, second imprisonment, in the Welzhaim concentration camp. Hearing of the massacres of idiots and insane people at Grafeneck, Hadamar, etc., shocked and deeply wounded, having, such a case in my family, I had but one desire, to see, to gain an insight of this whole machine and then to shout about 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. March 10 to June 2, 1941, elementary instruction as a soldier at Hamburg-Langenhoorn, Arnhem and Oranienburg --

THE PRESIDENT: Will counsel read a little mere slowly?

MR. HOCHWALD: I am sorry.

together with forty meters. Because of my twin studies, technology and medicine, I was ordered to enter the medical-technology branch of the SS Fuehrungshauptamt, Medical branch of the Waffen SS, Antsgruppe D, Hygiene Department. Within this branch, I chose so for myself the job of immediately constructing disinfecting apparati 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 tell of prisoners. On account of my successes, I very seen became a 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 in order to remove and 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 for strong poison gases for disinfection. On 8 June 1942 the SS Sturmbannfuenrer Guenther of the RSHA entered my office. He was in plain clothes and. I did not know him. He ordered me to pot 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. Once the truck was loaded, we left for Lublin. We took with us Professor Pfannenstiel, MS, Ordinary Professor for Hygiene at the University of Marburg on the Lahn. At Lublin we were received by SS Gruppenfuehrer Globecnik. He told us: This is one of the most secret matters there are on, even the most secret, Whoever talks of this shall be shot immediately. Yesterday two talkative ones died.' Then he explained to us: 'At the present moment (August 17, 1942) there are three installations.'

1. Beleec, on the Lublin-Lemberg read, in the sector of the Russian demarcation line. Maximum 15,000 persons a day. Seen.

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

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

4. Maidanek, near Lublin. Seen in the state of preparation. Globecnik then said, 'You will have to handle the sterilization of very huge quantities of clothes, 10 or 20 times the result of the clothes 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 best change the method of our gas chambers (which are run at the present time with the exhaust gases of an old Diesel engine), employing mere 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 accompany personally 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 for the Adriatic Riviera to Trieste, answered: "Quicker, quicker, carry out the whole program!", he said. And then Mr. Herbert Lindner, Ministerial director in the Ministry of the Interior said: "But would it not be better to burn the bodies instead of burying them?"

I want to point here, we respectfully submit, your Honors, that the name Herbert Lindner should read Herbert Linden who is the person to be seen in the same box as Conti on the left hand side of the chart.

"A coming generation might think differently of these matters!" And then Globicnik replied: "But, gentlemen, if ever, after us there should be such a cowardly and rotten generation should arise that they do not understand our so good and necessary work, then, gentlemen, all National Socialism will have been for nothing. On the contrary, bronze plates should be buried 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 Belcek. A small special station of two platforms leans against a hill of yellow sand, immediately to the north of the road and railway: LublinLemberg. To the South, near the road, some service horses with a sign board: "Belcek, service center of the Waffen-SS.' Globocnik introduced me to SS-Hauptsturmfuehrer Obermayer from Pirmasens, who with great restraint showed me the installations. That day no dead were to be seen, but the smell of the whole region, even from the large road, was pestilential. Next to the small station there was a large barrack marked "cloakroom" and a door marked "valuables". Next a chamber with a hundred "barber" chairs. Then came a corridor, 150 meters long, in the open air and with barbed wire on both sides. There was a sign board: "To the bath and inhalations"...Before us we saw a house like a bath house with concrete troughs to the right and left contained geraniums or other flowers.

After climbing a small staircase, 3 garage-like rooms on each side, 4 x 5 meters large and 1.90 meters high. At the back, invisible wooden doors. On the roof a Star of David made out of cooper. At the entrance to the building, the inscription: Foundation Heckenholt. That was all I noticed on that particular afternoon. Next morning, a few minutes before 7, I was informed: In 10 minutes the first train will arrive. And indeed, a few minutes later the first train came in from Lemberg. 45 cars, containing 8,700 persons; 1,450 of whom were already dead on their arrival. Behind the little barbed wire openings, children, yellow, scared half to death, women, men. The train arrives: 200 Ukrainians, forced to do this work, open the doors, and drive all the people out of the coaches with leather whips. Then, through a huge loud speaker instructions are given: To undress completely, also to give up false tooth and glasses - some in the barracks, others right in the open air. To tic one's shoes together with a little piece of string handed everyone by a small Jewish boy of 4 years of age, hand in all valuables and money at the window marked "Valuables", without bond, without receipt. Then the women and girls go to the hairdresser, who cuts 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-Unterscharguehrer on duty told me. Then, the march begins: Right and left, barbed wire, behind, two dozen Ukrainians with guns. Led by a young girl of striking beauty they approach. With police Captain Wirth, I stand right before the death chambers. Completely naked they march by, men, women, girls, children, babies, even one-legged persons, all of them naked. In one corner, a strong SS-man tells 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 the, 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 to, they can help in house or kitchen." Once more, a little bit of hope for some of those poor people, enough to make then march on without resistance to the death chambers.

Most of them, though, know everything, the odor has given them a clear indication of their fate. And then they walk up the little staircase --- and see the truth! Mothers, nurse maids, with babies at their breasts, naked, lots of children, of all ages, naked too; they hesitate, but they enter the gas chambers, most of then, 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 into her face, dealt by the whip of Police Captain Wirth himself, chase 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." Faked men stand on the feet of others. 7-600 crushed together on 35 square motors, in 45 cubic meters! The doors are closed. Meanwhile the rest of the transport, all naked, wait. Somebody says to me: "Naked, in winter! But they can die that way!" The answer was: "Well, that's Just what they are here for!" And at that moment I understood why it was called "Foundation Heckenholt". Heckenholt was the man in charge of the diesel engine, the exhaust gases of which were to kill these poor devils. SS-Unterscharguehrer Heckenholt tries to set the Diesel engine moving. But it does not start! Captain Wirth cones along. It is plain that he is afraid because I am a witness to the breakdown, Yes, indeed, I see everything and wait, Everything is registered by my stop watch. 50 minutes. 70 minutes - the Diesel engine does not start! The people wait in their gas chambers. In vain. One can hear them cry. "Same as in a synagoaue" 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, deals the Ukrainian who is 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 starts. Up to that moment the people in the four already filled chambers were alive, 4 times 750 persons in 4 times 45 cubic meters. Another 25 minutes go by. Many of the people it is true are dead at that point. One can see this through the little window through which the electric lamp reveals for a moment, the inside of the chamber. After 28 minutes only a few are living. After 32 minutes, finally all are dead. From the other side, Jewish workers open the wooden doors. In return for their terrible job, they have been premised their freedom and a small percentage of the valuables and the money found. Like stone statues, the dead are still standing, there having been no room to fall or bond over. Though dead, the families can still be recognized; their hands still clasped. It is difficult to separate them in order to clear the chamber for the next load. The bodies are thrown out blue, wet with sweat and urine, the legs covered with excrement and menstrual bleed. Everywhere among the others, the bodies of babies and children. But there is not time! Two dozen workers are engaged in checking the mouths, opening them by means of iron hooks. "Geld to the left, without gold to the right." Others check anus and genitals - to look for money, diamonds, gold, etc. Dentists with chisels tear out the gold teeth, bridges or caps. In the center of everything, Captain Wirth. He is on familiar ground her. He hands me a large tin full of teeth and says: "Estimate for yourself the weight of gold. This is only from yesterday and the day before yesterday, 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 those valuables. After that they took me to one of the managers of the big Store of the best in. Berlin, and to a little man whom they made play the violin, both chiefs of the Jewish worker commands. "He is a captain of the royal and imperial (K.u.K) Austrian Army, who held the German Iron Cross 1st Class." I was told by Hauptsturmbannfuehrer Obermeyer. The bodies were then thrown into large ditches of about 100 x 20 x 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 that developed in 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 hear they constructed grills out of rails and burned the bodies on them with Diesel oil and gasoline in order to make them disappear. At Belcek and Treblinka nobody bothered to take anything approaching an exact count of the persons killed. The figures announced by the BBC are inaccurate. Actually about 25,000,000 persons were killed; not only Jews, however, but especially I Poles and Czechoslovakians, too, who were in the opinion of the Nazis, of bad stock. Most of them died anonymously. Commissions of so-called doctors, 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 to cause them to disappear, shortly afterwards, in the gas chambers. They were the Poles and Czechs of (category) III who did not deserve to live because they were unable to work. The Police Captain birth asked me not to propose any other kind of gas chamber in Berlin, to leave everything the way it was. I lied - as I did in each case all the time - that 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 differed scarcely from those at Belcek, but they were still larger. There were gas chambers and whole mountains of clothes and underwear about 35-40 meters high. Then, in our "nener" a banquet was given, attended by all of the employees of the institution. The Obersturmbannfuehrer, Professor Pfannenstiel MD., Professor Hygiene at the University of Marburg/Lahn, made a speech: "Your task is a great duty, a duty so useful and so necessary." To me alone he talked of this institution in terms of "beauty of the task, humane cause", and to all of them: "Looking at the bodies of those Jews one understands the greatness of your good work!" The dinner in itself was rather simple, but by order of Himmler the employees of this branch received as much as they wanted as far as butter, meat, alcohol, etc., were concerned. When we left we were offered, several kilograms of buttered and large number of bottles of liquor. I made the effort of lying; saying that I had enough of everything from our own farm, so Pfannenstiel took my portion, too. We left for Warsaw years.

(A recess was taken.)