Archive/File: people/e/eichmann.adolf/transcripts/Sessions/Session-043-01
Last-Modified: 1999/06/01

Session No. 43
2 Sivan 5721 (17 May 1961)

Presiding Judge: I declare the forty-third Session of the
trial open.  I have to inform you that there will be no
Session this afternoon because of the funeral of Mr. David
Rosolio, a relative of Judge Halevi.  Please carry on, Mr.
Bar-Or.

State Attorney Bar-Or:  With the permission of the Court, we
shall continue with additional documentary proof concerning
the chapter of the German Jews during the War years.  The
first of our documents is No. 1602, a letter dated 17 April
1941, addressed by the representative of the Minister of
Justice to Lammers of the Reich Chancellery.  In it we find
the first suggestion for the regulations I have already
adduced in evidence, according to which Jews and Poles are
being excluded from the ordinary rules of criminal
jurisdiction and transferred, in fact, to police
jurisdiction.

Presiding Judge: This will be marked T/711.

State Attorney Bar-Or:  I pass on to document No. 140, which
was shown to the Accused, T/37(35) - a letter from the
Accused to the Stapoleitstelle in Duesseldorf, attention Dr.
Venter.  The subject is: Art objects belonging to Jews.
Eichmann asks, in August 1941, to be informed what
especially valuable art objects are still owned by Jews in
the area of jurisdiction of the Leitstelle in order that it
may be possible to acquire them - so he says - through
public auction or purchase.  I direct the attention of the
Court to the handwritten marginal remark: Dr. Venter says
here that, after a telephone conversation with
Sturmbannfuehrer Eichmann at the Head Office for Reich
Security, the time limit for obtaining the information has
been extended to 15 September 1941.  The Accused discusses
this matter, as well as the circumstances under which the
letter was written, in his statement, beginning on page 726.

Presiding Judge: Do you not have a translation of this, so
that the marginal remark which is not clear may be
understood?

State Attorney Bar-Or:  A translation was prepared, Your
Honour.  I indicated this in the margin.  I have only one
copy.

Presiding Judge: You will submit it later.

State Attorney Bar-Or:  I shall submit it after the
intermission.

He ascribes this whole matter to Reich Marshall Goering's
appetite for art objects of this kind.  He was apparently
acting on his behalf.

Judge Halevi:  Is this something out of the ordinary?  Was
this not the usual job of the Accused?

State Attorney Bar-Or:  This is actually not unusual.  We
shall submit another document in connection with Jewish
property of a different kind which was to be handed over to
"Lebensborn" ('Source of Life') - this was an SS institution
where children, generally those born out of wedlock, were
brought up.  When such Jewish property has to be located and
transferred to the SS, one turns to Eichmann, although this
has nothing to do with his operations.  Why?  Just as here -
when there is something connected with Jews, Jewish property
in Duesseldorf, finding something belonging to Jews -
Eichmann is approached, he is the address.

Presiding Judge: This will be marked T/712.

State Attorney Bar-Or:  Again I pass on to a document from
the Gestapo file in Wuerzburg, No. 1275.  In this document
technical instructions were given to the three districts in
Franconia, through the intermediary of the
"Staatspolizeistelle Nuernberg-Fuerth" (State Police Office
Nuremberg-Fuerth) concerning the evacuation of the Jews to
the East.  The nature of these instructions is similar to
that of earlier instructions which we have already seen and
to that of instructions still to be submitted.

Presiding Judge: This will be marked T/713.

State Attorney Bar-Or:  Now for Prosecution document No.
504.  We have seen, Your Honours, that the transports of
German Jews to the East were usually accompanied by the
"Ordnungspolizei" (Order Police).  The man in charge of this
part of the Police was Daluege.  And here we have
instructions from the Commander of the Order Police dated 24
October 1941, addressed to all offices in the Old Reich, the
Ostmark (Austria), and the Protectorate of Bohemia and
Moravia.  This was in October 1941, immediately before the
first great deportation to the East, the deportation of
50,000 Jews to the East, to the vicinity of Riga and Minsk.
It says that the evacuations will be carried out in
transport trains, one thousand persons to each train.

In paragraph (b) he refers expressly to what has been agreed
with the Head of the Security Police and the SD, according
to which he, the Head of the Order Police is given charge of
guarding and keeping order on the deportation trains.

Judge Halevi:  In what office did Daluege work?

State Attorney Bar-Or:  He, too, of course, was in the Head
Office for Reich Security.

Judge Halevi:  In which department of it?

State Attorney Bar-Or:  In the Hauptamt der Ordnungspolizei
(Head Office of the Order Police).

Judge Halevi:  That is not exactly the Department for Jewish
affairs, is it?

State Attorney Bar-Or:  No, no, he was in charge of police
which operated mainly in the streets, and which was not
concerned with criminal affairs or with special affairs such
as Jews or espionage, etc.; it was the police for keeping
order, the "uniformierte Polizei" (uniformed police), as it
is called.  They provided each train with the kind of escort
we know - twenty men under an officer, and so on.  The same
procedure was in force for each transport.  The same
procedure was also followed in the countries of the West, as
the Court will certainly remember.

Presiding Judge: What did you say here about some
agreement...?

State Attorney Bar-Or:  I mentioned the agreement with the
Head of the Security Police and Security Service.  It comes
into operation only after instructions for deportation have
been given, the very same instructions, as the Court can see
from the Wuerzburg documents I have submitted, which rely on
the Order Police for supervising and preserving order during
the transport.

Judge Halevi:  Is this the regular police of Germany?

State Attorney Bar-Or:  Yes, this is the regular police, the
Schupo (protective police), which one sees in the streets.

Judge Halevi:  Everyday (police)?

State Attorney Bar-Or:  Yes.

Judge Halevi:  That is not SS?

State Attorney Bar-Or:  That is not SS.  However, in the
end, through the fusion of the Reichsfuehrung-SS with the
German police, all this came under one roof.

Presiding Judge: This will be marked T/714.

State Attorney Bar-Or:  I pass on to document No. 92, which
is actually a group of three documents, as the Court will
see.  First, there is a note here, of 28 October 1941,
signed by Rademacher, for the attention of State Secretary
von Weizsaecker, through Luther.  Now we can see the exact
hierarchical order: The specialist on the Jews in this
department in the Foreign Ministry is Rademacher, his
immediate superior is Luther, whom we have already met and
shall meet again, and finally the permanent Director
General, Staatssekretaer von Weizsaecker.  The subject here
is deportation from Germany of Jews of German nationality,
or nationals of another European state.  And this is the
text of the letter which is finally sent to Eichmann on 10
November 1941: "In accordance with your telephonic enquiry,
instructions have been given to the German ministries in
Bucharest and Agram [Zagreb], for reasons of courtesy, to
leave it to the governments of Slovakia and Croatia,
respectively, to recall the Jews of their nationalities from
Germany within a suitable time limit, or to have them
deported by Germany to the ghettos in the East.  Further
information will be given after receipt of the opinions of
these governments."  This is the beginning of negotiations
which twice led to the extension of time limits given to
foreign governments for recalling their Jews from the Reich,
lest they join, or rather be joined to, transports of German
Jews to the East.

Presiding Judge: This will be marked T/715.

State Attorney Bar-Or:  I go on to document No. 404, a
letter from the Minister, or Representative, of Germany in
Bucharest, von Killinger, to the Foreign Ministry, dated 13
November 1941.  This is already a reaction to what we have
just seen.  It says here that the embassy, or Killinger
himself, has been in touch with Antonescu in Romania.  The
Romanian Government informs the Reich Government that,
insofar as Jews of Romanian nationality residing within the
Reich area are concerned, the Romanian Government has no
objection to their being attached to transports of German
Jews to the ghettos in the East.

Presiding Judge: This will be marked T/716.

State Attorney Bar-Or:  Now I come to document No. 1276 -
instructions from the Regional Headquarters of the State
Police Nuremberg-Fuerth to the four Aussenstellen (field
offices) in Wuerzburg, Bamberg, Bayreuth and Coburg,
concerning the evacuation of the Jews from the Old Reich.

This was also a continuation of the first great evacuations
of the end of that year.  Here reference is made to earlier
consultations at the Head Office for Reich Security on 31
October 1941.  The subject is the need to collect a special
payment from the Jews marked for evacuation, in addition to
the other dues.  I shall explain presently what this special
payment was for.  The procedure in connection with the
property rights of the Jews is discussed, how this is to be
handled, and exact schedules are fixed for the departure of
the railway carriages from each of the branches belonging to
the Regional Headquarters of the Gestapo, Nuremberg.  We
shall see that in the case of these transports the Section
of the Accused himself was responsible vis-a-vis the German
Railway Administration for the payment of the transport
costs, but these could not be defrayed from the confiscated
property, because this went to the Finance President in each
district.  In order to cover the transport costs, the Jews
had to be told: Give more.  We shall see later what the Jews
were told, why they had to contribute.  And in the end, this
is also the secret of the special account called
"Sonderkonto W" (Special Account W).

Judge Halevi:  And why was this also sent to the mayors of
the cities of Bamberg, Bayreuth and Coburg, in each case to
the criminal department of the municipality?

State Attorney Bar-Or:  I assume that they operated there,
in those Bavarian cities, under the municipal authorities.

Presiding Judge: This will be T/717.

State Attorney Bar-Or:  Another document from the Gestapo
file in Wuerzburg is our No. 1285.  The Court will see here
with what precision exact lists are prepared regarding every
single Jew.  We could have added much more to that, but we
preferred to take only one example from all these files, so
that the Court should have a picture of how the instructions
of the Accused were carried out in each place.

I direct the attention of the Court in particular to the
last page.  Here there were, of course, special problems; it
was evidently necessary to expropriate the property of
minors, and these minors could, in fact, not receive orders
from the execution offices, and were therefore represented
by legal representatives who were appointed for this purpose
and who are mentioned on the last page under gesetzlicher
Vertreter (legal representative).

Presiding Judge: This will be T/718.

State Attorney Bar-Or:  I now come to document No. 739,
which was shown to the Accused and marked T/37(229).  The
document carries the marking IVB4a and is dated 17 November
1941.  It is addressed to all the Regional Headquarters of
the Gestapo except Prague and Bruenn, to the Central Office
for Jewish Emigration, attention SS Obersturmfuehrer
Brunner, or his acting deputy in Vienna, and for information
to the senior SS and police leaders - except Oslo, The
Hague, Cracow and Prague - and finally to the various
offices and units of the Head Office for Reich Security.
According to what is said here, these are instructions given
by the Section of the Accused, over the signature of
Mueller, concerning restriction of control over movable
property by Jews.  Almost total restriction, complete
sequestration of their own possessions in the banks and of
movable property of all kinds.  Mueller attaches Heydrich's
instructions of 11 December 1941, also marked IVB4a.

Perhaps it is sufficient for the purpose of illustration if
I direct the attention of the Court to the last passage in
Mueller's own letter, to which he attaches the general
instructions given in this matter, and he says: "For Austria
the instructions given have to be implemented by the
Staatspolizeileitstelle Vienna, in cooperation with the
Central Office for Jewish Emigration, the Juedische
Kultusgemeinde Wien, being instructed accordingly."  We see
here, and we shall see it in other documents, that from the
moment when Jews were concerned in any context whatever, the
Gestapo in Vienna dealt with it to the very end through the
Central Office for Jewish Emigration.

Presiding Judge: I see that this is signed by Heydrich,
whereas Mueller signed the covering letter.

State Attorney Bar-Or:  That is correct, Your Honour.

Presiding Judge: This will be T/719.

State Attorney Bar-Or:  The Accused, to whom this document
was shown, refers to it on page 1018 and the following
pages.

Judge Raveh:   In this document it says IVB4a.  Earlier, in
your document 140 of 14 August 1941, which deals with art
objects, it is in fact IVB4b.  Is there any explanation when
it is (a) and when (b)?  Here it is not a matter of churches
and Jews, but apparently some different kind of division.

State Attorney Bar-Or:  We shall show the Court that even
from the "incoming" stamps on the mail in the office of the
Accused one can discern that there is nothing accidental
here.  Here, in this Section of the Accused, there were
Subsections (a), (b), and perhaps even more.  It is very
hard to establish who had the right to sign under
designation (a) and under designation (b) at any given time.
We know from the statements of the Accused that when he
himself dictated something, he signed IVB4 and nothing more;
the same goes for letters prepared or signed by Guenther.
As for the (a) and the (b) added at the end - there were
changes of personnel from time to time, but these were in
fact Subsections belonging to the Section and the competence
of the Accused himself.

I move on to Wuerzburg document No. 1277.  These are
organizational instructions for the evacuation of Jews which
is to take place on 29 November 1941.  It already refers
expressly to the orders of the Reichsfuehrer-SS of October
31st, 1941, IVB4 (plus additional mark of identification).
He says that "on 29 November 1941, 1,000 Jews have to be
seized by the State Police Office Nuremberg-Fuerth from its
own district for evacuation, and sent on their way by
train."  On page 6 we find the following: "The Jews arrested
in their homes for evacuation are to be assembled in
accordance with instructions and, after having been
expediently loaded onto the lorries, they are to be taken
straight to the transit camp."  This is the Sammellager
(assembly camp) described by the witness Ansbacher earlier.
There follow instructions about what may be taken along,
what has to be examined.  Inter alia, it says on page 8:
"They" - that is the Jews - "will be left only their
identification card, a watch for daily use, and their
wedding ring."  We shall show the Court that even this was
not observed: We shall find lists in which these articles
also appear, taken from the Jews at the last moment.

Finally, I should like to direct the attention of the Court
to one sentence here: "After getting dressed again" -
following the body search - "each Jew or Jewess will be
informed in Hall 4 about the seizure of his/her property by
means of a certificate of service by the execution officer."
This directive is important, in view of Regulation 11.  It
is important because, in accordance with the sham observance
of the exact legal form of Regulation 11 under the Reich
Citizenship Law, which we have discussed previously, these
Jews would actually have to be told that when leaving the
Reich they would cease to be subjects of the Reich, and ipso
facto their property would now have to be confiscated as
enemy property.  This was done when they were still on
German soil, before they entered the deportation trains, but
it was done through the execution officer of the local
courts, who served these Jews with the notice of
confiscation on behalf of the competent local court.

Presiding Judge: This will be T/720.

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