Archive/File: imt/nca/supp-b/nca-sb-02-kaltenbrunner.03
Last-Modified: 1997/11/22

         Nazi Conspiracy & Aggression, Supplement B
           Responsibility for Concentration Camps

                                                 [Page 1298]

Excerpts from Testimony of Ernst Kaltenbrunner, taken at Nurnberg,
Germany, 21 September 1945, 1430-1645, by Col. Howard A. Brundage,
JAGD. Also present: Siegfried Ramler, Interpreters S/Sgt. William A.
Weigel, Reporter.

                                              
Q. Can you explain why the SS has gained its reputation as a
gang of criminals?

A. I should think that they have to thank Hitler for that
reputation, because of his order to Himmler. They were
ordered to conduct the concentration camps. Though the
concentration camps were instituted before Himmler by
Goering, they were not in that form.

Q. Do you know that to be a fact of your knowledge, the fact
that these concentration camps were being operated by
Himmler through Hitler?

A. I know that Hitler said to Himmler that "I take the full
responsibility of what takes place in concentration camps."
Whereupon Himmler said, "I will take that responsibility."

Q. Well, do you believe Hitler knew to what extent people
were being gassed and tortured and killed in concentration
camps?

A. Besides Himmler, nobody would have known that. Up to a
certain extent he must have known.

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