Archive/File: 
people/e/eichmann.adolf/transcripts/Testimony-Abroad/Hans_Juettner-01
Last-Modified: 1999/06/14

HANS JUETTNER
31 May 1961

The Competent Court of Justice, Bad Toelz/Upper Bavaria,
Germany

Re: Request for Legal Assistance

The main hearing in the criminal proceedings against the
Accused Adolf Eichmann is at present taking place in this
Court.

In the context of this main hearing, I request you to extend
reciprocal legal assistance to this Court by interrogation
on oath of the following witness:

Hans Juettner, Herdestr. 1, Bad Toelz/Upper Bavaria.

The witness is to be examined as to the following
allegations of the Accused:

     (1) that his (the witness') statement that the Accused
     is responsible for the foot march is based only on the
     information given by the Higher SS and Police Leader
     Winkelmann;
     
     (2) that the officer acting for the Accused, on being
     asked by the witness, did not rely on an order of the
     Accused but on an order given by a higher echelon.

To complete the deposition of the witness, I request that
the witness also be asked the following questions which were
drawn up by Counsel for the Accused:

     (1) When did you meet columns of Jews, on the highway
     between the Austrian frontier and Budapest, who were
     being led on foot to the frontier?
     
     (2) Is it true that you remonstrated with Winkelmann
     because of this foot march?
     
     (3) How did Winkelmann express himself on the subject
     of this foot march?
     
     (4) When answering your question as to who was
     responsible, did he distinguish between the technical
     execution, the initiative, and the order to act?
     
     (5) Did Eichmann's representative rely on an order of
     the Accused himself or on an order of the authority
     superior to the Accused?

In conclusion I request to ask the witness the following
questions that were drawn up by the Attorney General:

     (1) Is your declaration of 3 May 1948 (NG5216) true to
     the facts?
     
     (2) Was your official journey to Budapest at that time
     in connection with the taking over of the Weiss_Manfred
     Works?

I request you to summon to the examination of the witness
the representative of the Attorney General of the State of
Israel, c/o H.E. Ambassador, Dr. F.E. Shinnar, Israel
Mission, Cologne, as well as Dr. R. Servatius, Counsel for
the Accused, Hohenzollernring 14, Cologne, and to afford
them on their part the opportunity to ask the witness any
questions which might result from his answers.

There is no objection to the aforementioned representatives
of the parties obtaining copies of the record of the
examination.

Please forward the original of the record of the examination
to this Court.
(-) Moshe Landau, President of the Trial Court
- 1AR 121/61 -

The Court of First Instance, Bad Toelz

15 June 1961

Record of Compliance with the Request for Legal Assistance
by Israel in the Criminal Proceedings against Eichmann by
way of Examination of the Witness Hans Juettner, Herdestr.
1, Bad Toelz by the Court of First Instance, Bad Toelz, 15
June 1961.

Present:

Judge of Court of First Instance (Amtsgerichtsrat) Goldmund,
of the Court of First Instance, as Judge

Official of the Court Gebhardt, as Recording Clerk.

Before this court appeared Mr. Erwin S. Shimron as the
representative of the Attorney General of the State of
Israel.  He submitted a certified photocopy of his
appointment as representative of the Attorney General of the
State of Israel for all proceedings and hearings of
witnesses outside the State of Israel in the criminal trial
against Adolf Eichmann;

Mr. Dieter Wechtenbruch, Counsel for the Defence;

also the witness, Hans Juettner.

The witness was examined, after he had first been informed
of the subject of the hearing, had been admonished to tell
the truth, and had been advised of the penalties for
perjury, for negligently giving false evidence on oath, and
for giving unsworn false evidence.

In his evidence he stated:
------
My name is Hans Juettner, I am 67 years old and married.  I
am the proprietor of a sanatorium in Bad Toelz, Herdestrasse
1.  I am neither related nor connected by marriage to the
Accused, Adolf Eichmann.
As to the matter in question, I can state, after the
representative of the Attorney General showed me Prosecution
document No. 1297 concerning an affidavit by the witness
Juettner made on 3 May 1948:
I As to the allegations by the Accused:

(1) In November 1944, I travelled, accompanied by
Obersturmbannfuehrer Becher, from Vienna to Budapest.  On
the way, on Hungarian territory, we found columns of Jews
guarded by Hungarian Honved soldiers, moving in the
direction of Vienna.  He [Becher] said to me, more or less:
"We shall meet the `Eichmann Regiment' (Standarte
Eichmann)."  I asked him what this was, because I imagined
that this was a military unit.  Then Becher enlightened me
that it meant the deportation of Jews from Budapest to the
Austrian frontier.  After I had seen the columns, I went to
Higher SS and Police Leader Winkelmann in Budapest, in order
to enquire who was responsible for these transports and to
protest against them.  Winkelmann knew of these transports.
He maintained that he had nothing to do with them, that this
was Eichmann's concern.  Then I asked him who Eichmann was.
Winkelmann explained to me that he (Eichmann) was the Head
of a Section of the Head Office for Reich Security over
which he, Winkelmann, had no authority.  In this Section,
Eichmann was dealing with the Jewish Question.  My
understanding that the Accused Eichmann was responsible for
the foot march was based mainly on Winkelmann's information.

(2) The junior officer at the time who came to me from
Eichmann's Section told me, after I remonstrated with him on
these deportations, that his unit belonged to the Secret
State Police in the Head Office for Reich Security, that
they had their own orders, and that I had no business to
tell him what to do.  He spoke to me in a very insolent
manner.  I was told that Eichmann was not present, and that
this junior officer had come in his stead.
------
Counsel for the Defence declared that with the above part of
the hearing, questions Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 5 of Counsel for the
Accused had already been answered.

II As to question 4 of Counsel for the Accused:
------
I did not talk with Winkelmann about the question who was
responsible for the initiative for the transports and their
technical execution.  A discussion about that was
superfluous, after Winkelmann had declared that he was out
of contact, that he had nothing to do with this matter.

III
(1) My statement of 3 May 1948, is true to the facts.  I
stand by it entirely  to this very day.
------
When questioned by Counsel for the Accused:

I did not mention Becher's expression, "Eichmann Regiment"
in my declaration, because I did not recall it at the time.

On 19 May 1960, I was interrogated in Munich by a Senior
State Attorney of the State Attorney's office at the
District Court of Frankfurt on Main.  At this hearing I
suddenly recalled Becher's expression, "Eichmann Regiment"
in connection with the transports of Jews, and I mentioned
it to the examining attorney.
------
On questions by the representative of the Attorney General:

(1): When I gave my statement on 3 May 1948, in the presence
of Dr. Kasztner, whom I did not know at the time, Dr.
Kasztner interrupted me and confirmed that my statement was
correct.  I then asked him who he was and in what capacity
he was present.  Dr. Kasztner told me that, on the same day
on which I had called on Winkelmann because of the
transports of the Jews, he, Kasztner, had been present when
Eichmann had been asked to come and see me.  Eichmann had
refused to speak to me.  He had ordered a junior officer to
go to see me.

(052): My official journey to Budapest at that time was also
in connection with the taking over of the Weiss_Manfred
Works.
------
The statement was read out to the witness; he approved it
and signed it.

(-) Hans Juettner
The witness was sworn according to law.
(-) Kurt Goldmund, Judge of the First Instance
(-) Klotilde Gebhardt, Official of the Court

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