1947-06-25, #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 25 June 1947, 0930, Justice Beals presiding.

THE MARSHAL: Persons in the courtroom will please find their seats. The Honorable, the Judges of Military Tribunal I. Military Tribunal I 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 ascertain that the defendants are all present in court.

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

THE PRESIDENT: The Secretary will note for the record the presence of all the defendants in court. Counsel for the prosecution.

MR. HARDY: May it please Your Honor, unless I haven't carefully perused the papers in my desk, as yet I haven't received the notice of the call of the witnesses for the defendant Pokorny, and I should like to receive those notices as to name, and so forth, the regular form. In addition to that, Your Honor, it may be possible that the prosecution will have some of their rebuttal witnesses here by the end of the week and we may be able to put some of them on the stand Friday or Saturday, as the case may be. In the event that we do have rebuttal witnesses ready and available, the prosecution requests permission at that time, or will request permission at that time, to call the rebuttal witnesses and interrupt the presentation of the supplementary documents on behalf of the defendants, if that is permissible by the Tribunal.

THE PRESIDENT: That will be permitted by the Tribunal. We will hear the witnesses when they are ready.

The Tribunal has on its desk this morning the list of witnesses, at least two witnesses for the defendant Pokorny — just a list of names. We have not received the statement as to each individual witness. The witnesses are Rudolf Trux and Dr. Ernst Koch.

MR. HARDY: May I ask, does defendant Pokorny's attorney intend to call his witnesses after he has called the defendant?

DR. HOFFMAN (Counsel for the defendant Pokorny): Mr. President, I believe that I submitted my witness list in time. First, I wanted to call the defendant Pokorny to the witness stand, then the witness Trux as the next one, to prove the assertions of the defendant Pokorny about the motive behind his letter. Then, in the matter of the experiments with palladium, the witness Dr. Koch will be called from Madaus and Dresden-Radebeul; and, finally, the lecturer in pharmacology at the University of Wuerzburg, Dr. Jung, as general experts on the sterilization questions on a pharmacological basis.

THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal now calls the case against the defendant Pokorny. At the request of defendant's counsel, the defendant Pokorny will take the witness stand.

ADOLF POKORNY, a defendant, took the stand and testified as follows:

BY JUDGE SEBRING:

Q: Please hold up your right hand and be sworn:

I swear by God, the Almighty and Omniscient, that I will speak the pure truth and will withhold and add nothing.

(The witness repeated the oath.)

You may be seated.

DIRECT EXAMINATION

BY DR. HOFFMAN (Counsel for the defendant Pokorny):

Q: Witness, when and where were you born?

A: I was born in Vienna on 26 July 1895.

Q: Witness, please tell the Court something about your parents and the external circumstances under which you grew up in your parents' home.

A: My father was a farmer's son. He studied technics and then he graduated from the Farmers' Agricultural College. Upon request of the Ministry of War in Vienna he accepted a position as a military official in Austria. When Czechoslovakia was created, he was taken over and the Republic continued to pay his pension.

My father thus was not only an officer but, having studied at college, he was especially educated in general subjects. My mother was a daughter of a physician. Her father had been as assistant of the famous Czech oculist des Purkiny. Her essential characteristics were an extraordinary knowledge of languages — she spoke seven languages — and her understanding of music and literature. My parents, because of the position of my father as a military official, lived in Austria, Herzegovina, Bosnia, Dalmatia, Poland and, finally, in Bohemia. I, myself, in addition also lived two years in Hungary — that was conditioned by the World War. The consequence of this soldiering, I would like to say, in all of Europe was an exact knowledge of European conditions, furthermore, an understanding and a love of the different peoples and, therefore, a tolerant attitude politically.

Q: Witness, what was your formal education?

A: I went to public school partly in Galicia, that was a military school which taught in the German language. My further education I got in Bohemia in the Gymnasium in Prague.

Q: At what universities did you study?

A: I studied at the German University in Prague—I studied medicine there. I began approximately at the beginning of the World War. Since I was drafted into the Austrian Army, I lost four years which I could make up for only in part, namely, only one year. Due to the loss of these semesters, I was forced to work day and night since my parents too had lost all their property due to the war. Therefore, I worked simultaneously, in addition to my study, at the Institute for Experimental Pathology, the chief of which was the famous Professor Biedl, who was not only my chief but also a fatherly friend to me. Then I worked at the Institute for Physiology with Professor Tcermak-Zeiseneck, and for an especially long time in the Institute for Anatomical Pathology under Professor Ghon, a well-known tuberculosis and cholera research man. At this Institute, I studied especially pathological histology and this resulted in the fact that Professor Kreibich, who needed a histologist, called me to the skin clinic.

Politically, as a student, I was democratic and liberal in accordance with the atmosphere and conditions in Prague. I was also not a member of ay national fraternity.

Q: Witness, why did you study medicine?

A: The beginning of the World War in Serbia was a very shocking experience for me and, since I was leaning anyhow in a pacifistic direction, the World War convinced me that war is a condition that one should not strive for and, due to these spiritual experiences, of the World War, I felt the call to become a physician in order to help humanity.

Q: Witness, in the medical field did you also get a specialized training in a specialty?

A: After I went to the skin clinic I soon became an assistant of Professor Kreicick who, at that time, was probably one of the leading dermatologists of the world. He gained a particular confidence in me, and soon I became as assistant, one month after I graduated. He put me in charge of the infirmaries. I was in charge of two departments. He charged me with the responsibility for the lectures that everything was prepared, that the charts and exhibits would be ready and he charged me finally to lecture during the summer semester myself. He only reserved the winter semester to himself, and I lectured in the summer. I was, in other words, so to say, a scientific assistant and private assistant.

In addition, I studied X-ray, because my fiancee was an X-ray specialist, at the Second University Clinic for Internal Diseases under Professor Jabsch Wartenhorst, who was a leading man, at the beginning of X-ray and especially toxicology. His X-ray assistant was Professor Herrnhaeuser. I was especially interested in X-ray diagnosis as a borderline field of my field of specialization. I then went to Vienna, where my wife worked at the Central X-ray Laboratory of Professor Holzknecht. I was in the Urological Station of the Second Surgical Clinic where Professor Honig was in charge. In the Urological X-ray station, Professor Pallogey, and in the Dermatological, Richl and Arz. Later, there were short sojourns at other universities for certain specialized studies which are not very important.

Q: After finishing your medical study, did you want to remain at the University or did you want to establish your own practice of medicine?

A: There were certain factors which favored me at the University of Prague. In addition, I had worked scientifically. Therefore I wanted to become a University professor. Professor Kreicich had also promised me to help me and informed me that the preliminary question in regard to fifty-four professors had resulted in fifty-two positive answers, one vote against me, and one who had refrained from voting.

Due to the selection of a Jewish Rector, Professor Steinherz, there were student riots in Prague against this selection and we assistants in the skin clinic did not participate in this strike. Therefore, we were described as scabs and this put us in a rather bad light. The National, course at the University began, at that time, to take form rather intensively, supported by Professor Oeschneck, who was in charge of the Eye Clinic, and Professor Schloffer in Surgery, and others. My chief, who was otherwise liberal, could not also avoid this influence entirely and, since my wife was Jewish, I saw that I might not get my assignment as lecturer.

Q: How and where did you then create your own medical practice?

A: I then was called to Komotau and there I took over as first consulting physician at the Hospital, but, in 1927, I gave it up for external reasons. Simultaneously, I founded my own practice for dermatology and urology and my wife founded a practice for X-ray diagnosis and X-ray therapy.

Q: During the years when you were a practicing physician, did you also work scientifically?

A: Scientific work, especially in the pathological histological field, of course. Also in the dermatological field. I composed these papers at the clinic alone, as well as with the assistants, as well as with my wife. On the basis of my experience in practice, I also wrote some papers, mainly together with my wife. The subject was dermatology or X-ray diagnostics or concerned with X — ray therapy. Since 1923, due to a personal connection, I worked also in the pharmacological clinical field for the Prague pharmaceutical firm, Neugine. Altogether I wrote about twenty papers, of which I would like to mention only two. Namely I described, at the International Dermatological Congress in Munich, in 1922, a new disease, dermatitis rubra (pemphius vulgaris), which got my name.

In addition, I discovered the table salt retention in an otherwise fatal disease against which there was no drug, and through the discovery of this sodium chloride retention the first effective method against this terrible disease was created. In addition I also gave lectures at International Congresses, but that isn't so important.

Q: What organizations of physicians or otherwise did you belong to during your student time or later on?

A: I belonged, of course, to the Prague Association of Physicians. Then, to the Dermatological Society in the Czechoslovakian Republic, and of the Association of X-ray Radiology Specialists in the Czechoslovakian Republic I was also a member. I was especially active in the Society for the Fight against Venereal Disease for I worked for about fifteen years in a dispensary of this Society without being paid. I was only paid for my expenses. In addition, I was the expert for the state for dermatology in Czechoslovakia. Previously, I was active in a sport club. I was a member of Schlaraffia. Schlaraffia was a society which was organized somewhat like Free Masons on a philanthropic basis. In no way did it have a political orientation, but later on, under the Third Reich, it was fought against, especially with us at least, but soon that abated.

Q: Did you belong to a student fraternity?

A: (no response)

Q: Did you participate in the first World War, and what were your experiences?

A: On March 15, 1915 I was drafted, and I was with a munitions column. I took part in the campaigns at Serbia, Montenegro, Albania, and Italy. At the Russian Front I was for a short time in the Stochod area. I there got dengue fever and 5-day fever. Later I got typhus and when I could no longer serve at the front I was assigned to Infantry Regiment 94 in Ketchkemet, where I worked at the hospital for infectious diseases during the next two years and in the surgical division of the field hospital. At the end of the World War I was discharged as First Lieutenant of the Medical Corps.

Q: Witness, I asked you before whether you belonged to a student fraternity, and I don't know whether your answer was heard.

A: No, I was not a member.

Q: Witness, after the First World War Austria was divided and you became a Czechoslovakian subject, is that correct?

A: Yes.

Q: Did you also serve in the Czechoslovakian Army?

A: Yes, I served twice. In 1921 when the Emperor Karl landed in Hungary by surprise by airplane, Czechoslovakia at that time mobilized his Army against Hungary. I was drafted at that time and was Chief Brigade Physician at the front in Czechoslovakia. The conflict was then settled in 1926. I took part in the maneuvers with the 105th Heavy Artillery Regiment in Budweis. The result was that in the Czechoslovakian Army, I became a First Lieutenant in the Medical Corps for the second time because my promotion in Austria was not recognized by the Czechoslovakians.

Q: After the occupancy of Czechoslovakia were you also drafted into the German Army?

A: In 1939 all former officers of the reserve corps had to report, and I was first informed that as a politically unreliable person, and because I had served in the Czechoslovakian Army as an officer, and because of my former Jewish wife, I was regarded as being very unworthy.

I did not care about that very much, because I assumed that the Nazi Regime did not want to disregard political opponents. In 1941, I suppose about July, however, I was informed that as I was maintained on the records as First Lieutenant on the Reserve in retirement. In December 1941 I received a second report that I was "Z.V." — available — as First Lieutenant in the Reserve Corps; I was kept on the records and that I was already assigned, that I would be drafted. On the 28 of January 1942 I was drafted. Since the League of Physicians at that time was already so extensive, I assume, therefore, that physicians who were politically suspected were also drafted. I was ordered to Saxony to the Reserve Field Hospital, Oberschlehma, where I was working at a station for skin diseases for half a year, and then for a year and a half I was detailed to the Surgical Division, that was in Ave, and then I was put in charge of a division for venereal disease at the Reserve Field Hospital, Hohenstein-Ernstthal. I want to emphasize here that it was the division field hospital, and not my own hospital, because I discovered two mistakes in the affidavit I gave here. Shortly before the collapse I had to transfer my hospital to a British P.W. Division; these were British T.B. patients; and so at the last moment the field hospital was transferred to Lichtenstein-Vallenberg.

Q: Witness, during the war you were promoted from First Lieutenant to Captain; how did you behave as a physician in the German Army; did you endeavor to be especially strict in the exercise of your medical duties or in the exercising of your position as a military superior?

A: That would not have suited my character and my attitude at all. I believe that in accordance with my duty I observed the international laws of the Geneva convention. I did not recognize any difference between officers and enlisted men, between Germans and P.W.s in any way.

The regulations which had been issued in a somewhat exaggerated form, due to total war, ordered a hasty and rigorous classification of the soldiers at that time; as many as possible were to be classified fit for service. I did not obey this order, so far as I was able to avoid doing so, since the health of the person was more important to me than this order. In spite of the large amount of work I had to do I voluntarily conducted a dispensary for prisoners of War, in which about twice a week I treated about 50 prisoners of war, who were composed of about 20 English, 20 Frenchmen and 10 members of other armies. I treated them for two years. Every time I consulted with 5 British and one French physician. Since these physicians were not specialists for skin diseases and the treatment in this dispensary for P.W.s was about one kilometer away from the field hospital, I was in charge of the treatment which they had to carry out there. I still remember one day the English Lieutenant Colonel in the Medical Corps, Dr. Bell or Dr. Bull, I don't remember exactly, from New Zealand, who towards the end of the War asked me to come to New Zealand after the close of the War.

Q: Witness, for me the question is still open, how your promotion from First Lieutenant to Captain came about?

A: I told you already that at the end of the World War I was First Lieutenant in the Medical Corps. That was not recognized, and at Czechoslovakia I was again promoted to First Lieutenant in the Medical Corps. Germany did not recognize that, and then I was given my rank back after all, and toward the end of the War I became a Stabsarzt [Staff Surgeon], that is equivalent to a captain in the American Army. I did not get any awards.

Q: Witness, you are married for the second time, is that correct?

A: Yes.

Q: When did you marry for the first time and how was this marriage dissolved?

A: In November 1922 I married for the first time. I married a fellow student, Dr. Lilly Weil, who then became an X-ray specialist. Later on differences in character, however, became apparent, so that after 13 years, in July 1935 we were divorced for non-political reasons. I was given the son and my wife was given custody of the daughter. In June 1938 my wife went to Czechoslovakia, first to Pilsen and then to Prague.

Q: When did you marry for the second time?

A: Eight years after my divorce from the first marriage in September 1943. I married the daughter of a citizen of Komotav. Her maiden name was Trux.

Q: From your first marriage, do you have any children?

A: Yes, I have a daughter who was born in 1926, her name is Lotte; and a son who was born in 1929; his name is Thomas.

Q: Did you have any children in your second marriage?

A: No.

Q: Witness, where are the children from your first marriage?

A: They are in England.

Q: When did these children go to England?

A: They went in June of 1939, when they were ten and thirteen years old, respectively, alone on a Czechoslovakian children’s transport to England.

Q: Why were these children sent to England; did you have any special reason for doing so?

A: I want to add in regard to my first question that I did not know anything as to what had become of my children for seven years. I did not know if they were still alive because every correspondence, even by the Red Cross, was forbidden to me by the competent authorities of the Gestapo and the N.S.D.A.P. in Komotau. I attempted to establish contact with the children in an illegal way and then failed. In other words, I could not establish any contact with them.

Q: Witness, I repeat my previous question; why were your children sent to England; did you have any reason for that?

A: The children were half-Jews of the first degree of mixed blood, they were endangered in Germany or Europe to the extent that they had to emigrate.

Q: You could not see that your children could advance in Germany at all; did you?

A: Due to the Nurnberg law, the children would not have any opportunity to go to school, to continue their education, to say nothing of the fact that they could not go to universities and they could not also have earned a living. Moreover, the danger became apparent at that time to which Jews and the people of first degree mixed blood were exposed.

Q: Witness, in the Czecho-Slovakia state did you belong to a political party?

A: No.

Q: After the occupation of the Sudetenland did you belong to a party?

A: Doctor, I only want to say I always voted democratic; in other words, I gave my vote for men who were democratic men I was a physician, I was busy and I had no time for politics, I had other duties.

Q: After the occupation of the Sudetenland, did you belong to a party?

A: No, there were no elections after that time. Due to my marriage, my children and my political opinion, I had no cause to join the Nazi party.

Q: Witness, after the occupation of the Sudetenland, did your economic status change?

A: My economic situation changed for some time and it changed considerably for about one half to about three-quarters of a year. In our city, the structure of the population was changed, because the Jews who composed part of my practice were no longer there. The Czechs had emigrated to the part that still remained to Czecho-Slovakia and they had composed a large part of my practice because I was the only physician that spoke Czech and had a positive attitude toward Czecho-Slovakia. The young people after the Anschluss were called into the new formations, the Army, the Luftwaffe and the Navy, as well as party offices and offices of the state, so that actually most of my patients actually disappeared. Moreover, the boycott against me started at that time, because I was known as a person who thought democratically and had been married to a Jew. After I foresaw a catastrophe, I did not keep any money, but invested everything I earned in agriculture. After about three-fourths of a year I was faced with extraordinary financial difficulties, but finally my reputation as a physician prevailed again and the lack of physicians was acute, also because many physicians were drafted into the new formations.

Due to these matters, my medical practice became so large that I could hardly take care of it. Thus, in about one year after the Anschluss, I was in a very favorable position financially.

Q: Witness, in your personal situation after the occupation of the Sudetenland were there any changes?

A: Matters which had been of much importance before, for example my political opinion, which I never expressed openly or my former marriage or my children, after the occupation suddenly came into the foreground and were part of judging my personality, for it is known that the racial concern became a main object.

Q: What was the attitude of the Party and the other officers in Komotau and the Sudentenland; what was their attitude toward you?

A: You have to imagine that quite a different stratum of the population now got to power and it was very sad for me to find out that particularly those people whom I had helped when they were helpless were now extraordinarily active against me. On the very day of the Anschluss of the Sudetenland was painted on my car by an unknown persons a Jewish Star, which was about 30 to 40 centimeters long, the word "Jew" was painted on my car with white paint and I could not remove it anymore.

Immediately after the occupation, I was subjected to severe investigations by the Party, the Gestapo, and the S.D. These lasted for several hours. I also received the confidential information from an agent, who was my patient, that I was in the files of those who had to be politically observed. During the interrogations I was also given certain prohibitions. For instance, the Party prohibited me from corresponding with my former wife and my children and above all from sending them money. A lady in the employ of the Post Office informed me that of course my mail and my telephone was being checked and this could also be noticed in the letters I received.

In the house, in which I had my practice, on the first floor there was a beautiful apartment, in which I had lived before with my wife. I wanted to move into this apartment, but this was made impossible because this apartment was confiscated. The other officers did not want to be left lagging behind and since I had a Czecho-Slovakina housekeeper, the D.A.F. questioned me about her. In my farm, which I had in Czecho-Slovakia, about five kilometers away from the city, I had a Social Democratic couple and a Democratic couple, who worked during the season when there was a lot of work. Both couples had repeatedly been in concentration camps and their political opinions had not prevented me from employing them at all.

Thus, not only the Party, but also the local farmers union interfered in my life. Later, during the war, a Pole was assigned to my farm and since I treated this very intelligent person very well, on the basis of the existing regulations, I was also called to account. It was important that in the first meeting of the Nazi Party I was pointed out publically as the example of a bad person and it was requested that I be told to leave the city. My constant worker, Julius Strauss, immediately informed me the next morning that I would be expelled from the city. The reasons for these persecutions, or these inconveniences, were of course my marriage and the children, a fact that I could not deny. Therefore, I was practically persecuted for racial reasons. My public, of course, did not find out anything about all these things, or at least very little, as I was not allowed to talk about them and a person who knows the conditions of the time knows that one did not speak of such things. One spoke only to people in whom one had absolute confidence.

Another very difficult point was the investigation to my house, because half of it belonged to my wife, who was a full Jew and half, belonged to me. The office which took over Jewish property in Pilsen or in Carlsbad sent an agent to me and it was very difficult at first to fight to free the half that belonged to my wife and then my one half, because I wanted to maintain the property of my wife and my children.

At that time, of course, we had to use all kinds of divers ways; thus I started a book, in which I registered the expenses of the half of the house, which belonged to my wife. There I listed amounts of money which my wife did not owe to me, but by means of this book I could show the agent that my wife had debts to me and in this way I proceeded slowly in my way to prevent this confiscation.

Q: Witness, a final question in regard to this chapter, was your admission to practice as a physician not attacked or did you have difficulty in that respect too?

A: First, I was forbidden to practice on insurance patients. This was started by the KVD Aussig, that is the Insurance Association for Germany, "Kassenaertzliche Vereinigung Deutschlands". It was very unpleasant to have my x-ray apparatus confiscated. First the KVD started some negotiations about the sale of the x-ray apparatus with me and since it was quite a new Siemens four-valve apparatus, I absolutely did not want to give it up, but one afternoon I came to my office and with surprise I saw my x-ray apparatus had been put on a truck. Some technicians took away the rest of the connections. They also took parts which did not belong to the x-ray apparatus, films, development lamps and transformers which didn't even belong to me but to my wife. In the place of the price at which I bought it, which was 17,000 reichsmarks, I was paid 7,500 riechsmarks. Later on work with the x-ray apparatus was forbidden to me. It was significant that the personnel chief of the Landrat office, a certain Braefner, denounced me to the Nazi party. The Kreis physicians' leader, sho led this affair against me, allowed me to look at the documents and I still remember today the formulation by which I was deprived of the doctor title, the prohibition to practice, and expulsion from Germany, it says as an unworthy human being who is equal to Jews and Czechs. The Kreis physicians' leader, however, was in favor of me, and I can thank his efforts that the whole matter during the course of time died down. The lack of physicians played a not unimportant role in this, to be sure.

Q: Witness, how long did this persecution last?

A: Well, these events happened more or less simultaneously and some of them, of course, one after the other, but on the whole towards the end of 1940 approximately, I had no longer any of these unpleasant experiences. The cause was probably that other persons now again became the target of persecution of the party.

The offices more or less calmed down and above all the events of the war probably guided the people who were against me, as well as the party, the Gestapo, and the SD, and turned their attention away from me. In the meantime I had learned how one has to behave, how one has to camouflage oneself and when one can talk and when one has to be quiet. In this way I had a seeming rest finally.

Q: Witness, were you politically about in the same position as the expert for the Prosecution who appeared here, Professor Leibbrandt?

A: The statements of Professor Leibbrandt were very interesting for me because they showed an absolute parallel. He also is an Aryan and he was persecuted under the Nurnberg laws only because his wife was Jewish and in my case the children were Jewish. In addition, the confiscation of my x-ray apparatus I regarded formerly as a personal chicanery, but due to the statements of Professor Leibbrandt I realized that this was a measure which was taken against all pacifists, socialists, and liberals, all physicians who thought that way, and that this was a wide-spread action.

Q: Witness, what form did your life take in general now after the occupation of the Sudetenland?

A: I continued my practice in Kometau and due to all of these experiences I was happy, as after I had concluded my medical activities I could withdraw to my farm. Thus on the whole I lived and on this farm I planted about 2,000 fruit trees and devoted myself to the growing of plants. Since I turned my back on the city on the one hand I had my peace; on the other hand the connection with the farm, which was five kilometers away, was difficult because the other physicians were given gasoline but the NSDAP prevented me from getting gasoline. Thus during the night at 20 degrees below zero, centigrade, I had to go to my apartment on a bicycle. On about 24 January 1942 I received the news that on the 28th of January I had to be drafted into the army.

Approximately, on the 25th or 26th of January my former wife called me on the telephone from Prague and requested me to help her because she was supposed to be sent to a concentration camp. I did not know how I could help her, but, of course, I promised her to come to Prague the next morning and we made an appointment in the cafe Daliburka.

When I made the preparations on my car in the evening for the trip to Prague the next day, a man in a dark uniform was in front of my door and asked to speak to me. His collar was open so that I could not see what insignia he had. He told me that the telephone conversation with my wife had been overheard and that if I should help my wife or go to Prague the next day, I would be shot in my office.

Thereupon I had to send a telegram to my former wife with the words, "Our meeting tomorrow impossible", and I signed it with the name of her sister because I could no longer risk putting my name on the telegram.

On the 27th of January I then went to my new office. A very shocking experience happened to me then. I received the farewell letter of a living dead person. My divorced wife wrote to me, "In memory of better days I do not want to leave the world without" — and then she returned the first present I had ever given her. I answered her with a letter which was eighteen pages long because this sad experience meant for me a complete reconciliation. Whether she received the letter I do not know because I don't know for sure when she was sent to a concentration camp. So I assumed that on the same day that I was drafted into the Army my divorced wife was sent to a concentration camp; I don't know to which one.

Now, the following situation had resulted. I, without any freedom of movement, was with the Army. My wife in a concentration camp, I did not know where, and my children alone in England; I did not know where they were either. With what feelings under those circumstances I was in the Army, I do not have to describe here.

THE PRESIDENT: Counsel, it is almost time for the morning recess. I would assume that this biographical narration of the defendant Pokorny will be nearly concluded, will it not, outside of his military experiences?

DR. HOFFMANN: Mr. President, I have almost concluded my questions. I now, after the recess, want to submit a number of affidavits to support the statements of the witness Pokorny.

THE PRESIDENT: Very well. I would ask the interpreters a question. Referring to the document presented to the Tribunal yesterday, NO-2513 which was marked prosecution's identification 523, I would ask the interpreters if they have made any further study of the letters which are handwritten at the head of that document, and if so, what is the result of their study?

INTERPRETER WARTENBERG: Your Honor, the letters are V-r-s-t-b, Verstorben, the German word which means died.

THE PRESIDENT: Very well. Thank you. The Tribunal will now be in recess.

(Recess was taken)