The Nizkor Project: Remembering the Holocaust (Shoah)

Shofar FTP Archive File: people/e/eichmann.adolf/transcripts/Sessions/Session-046-03


Archive/File: people/e/eichmann.adolf/transcripts/Sessions/Session-046-03
Last-Modified: 1999/06/02

Q. And therefore?

A. And therefore I sat down at my typewriter in the office
of the prisoner-of-war hospital and wrote the following
confirmation:  There is a stamp at the top "Central Military
Hospital, Belgrade, Prisoner-of-War Hospital," a German
stamp - the paper said: "Confirmation, Dr. Hinko Salz was
employed as physician and German interpreter" - I wrote
German interpreter in order to leave a doubt whether I was
perhaps a German - "He fulfilled his duty diligently and
conscientiously at all times.  The above is now released
from service in this hospital in order to return home to
Laibach-Ljubljana."  With this paper I went to the general
and asked him to sign it.  Here is his signature: Chief
Physician, Dr. Jerko Terpkovic.

Q. Do you wish to hand over these two documents? Do you wish
to keep them?

Presiding Judge: Let him keep them.

Witness Salz: I only wanted to show my gratitude to Dr.
Sprungmann.  I shall conclude with a few more words about
this paper.

State Attorney Bar-Or:  On 31 July 1941 you left Belgrade,
did you not?

Witness Salz Yes.

Q. You escaped to the Yugoslav area occupied by the
Italians?

A. Yes.

Q. You were taken to Italy?

A. Yes.

Q. By the Italians?

A. By the Italians.

Q. From there you reached Switzerland?

A. Yes, I reached Switzerland.

Q. When did you arrive in Switzerland?

A. On 18 or 19 September 1943.

State Attorney Bar-Or:  Thank you very much.

Presiding Judge: Dr. Servatius, do you have any questions to
the witness?

Dr. Servatius:  I have no questions.

Judge Halevi:  You said that you reported on that day
because you knew that you were registered as a Jew in the
card index?

Witness Salz Yes.

Q. When were you registered and by whom?

A. I should like to correct a point of history: When I was
registered, the registration took place not at Tasmajdan, as
it says in certain documents which I have read, but at
Kalamajdan.  This was a fortress, and there was a ravine
there, and in this ravine I was registered together with
many other Jews.  I remember that the man in charge was a
Gestapo man named Vincent; this is where I learned his name.

Q. When were you registered?

A. It could have been approximately between the middle and
end of April.

Q. That is to say, all Jews were registered at this time?

A. At this time the order was given to register all the
Jews.

Presiding Judge: Thank you very much, Dr. Salz, you have
completed your evidence.

State Attorney Bar-Or:  I should like to call Mr. Alexander
Arnon.

[The witness is sworn].

Presiding Judge: What is your full name?

Witness: Alexander Arnon.  Family name Arnon.

Presiding Judge: Do you understand Hebrew?

Witness Arnon: I request permission to answer the questions
in Serbo-Croatian or German.

Presiding Judge: Where do you live, Mr. Arnon?

Witness Arnon: In Tel Aviv.

State Attorney Bar-Or:  How old are you, Mr. Arnon?

Witness Arnon: Sixty-three.

Q. Where did you live until the outbreak of war with
Yugoslavia on 10 April 1941?

A. In Zagreb.

Q. What did you do in Zagreb?

A. I had several occupations.  At first I was secretary of
the Jewish Community in Zagreb.  Then I was director of
HICEM, the emigration organization.  Later I was territorial
director of JOINT, secretary general of the territorial
committee for aid to refugees.

Q. When you speak of "territorial committee" - do you mean
of the whole of Yugoslavia?

A. Yes.

Q. I should like you to tell the Court, as briefly as
possible, about this first year, after April 1941, about
what you saw, what you did, what you learned at first-hand
about persecutions of the Jews.

A. In order to be able to provide a clear picture of the
events in Yugoslavia, I should like to be allowed to give an
introduction about the structure of the Yugoslav Jewish
community.

Before the Second World War, 75,000 Jews lived in
Yugoslavia, that is one half of one percent of the total
population of Yugoslavia.  The 75,000 Jews were organized in
117 autonomous Jewish religious communities, which were
united in the Federation of Jewish Communities in Belgrade,
and the orthodox communities in the Federation of the
Orthodox Jewish Communities.  The Jews of Yugoslavia played
an important role in the economic, social and cultural life
of Yugoslavia - less so in the political sphere, except in
Serbia, where two Jews were members of Parliament
representing the Yugoslav National Party before the First
World War.  The Jews of Yugoslavia had a healthy Zionist
life - 102 Jewish communities had a Zionist majority.  The
Zionists had kindergartens and elementary schools, as well
as a theological seminary in Sarajevo.  There was latent
anti-Semitism actually only in the Croatian part of
Yugoslavia.

Presiding Judge: I think we shall shorten the general
survey.  We heard a comprehensive review at the beginning of
the trial - the witness may not know this - not just about
Yugoslavia, and we cannot go into these details.  Surely
this is not the purpose of the evidence.

State Attorney Bar-Or:  I have now reached the point where I
shall start my questions.

Presiding Judge: My remark was actually not meant for you,
but for the witness, because I see that he also digresses
from what you want to ask him.

State Attorney Bar-Or:  I promise, Your Honour, that I shall
interrupt him immediately if I shall see that he digresses.
I actually wanted to speak about Croatia now, and I shall
direct the witness to it.  He has just said - and here I
should really like to have him speak about these events -
that latent anti-Semitism existed actually only in Croatia.
My question is: Were you in Croatia on 10 April 1941?

Witness Arnon:  Yes.

Q. What happened during the first days in Zagreb?  Please
tell the Court about the establishment of the independent
state of Croatia, to the extent that the matter is connected
with the persecution of the Jews there.

A. On 10 April 1941, at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, the
German troops entered Zagreb.  At 5 o'clock Marshall
Kvaternik proclaimed the Independent State of Croatia.  On
11 April, at 11 o'clock in the morning, the first Gestapo
man arrived at the Jewish Community offices where I worked.
It was the eve of Passover, and we were distributing mazot
(unleavened bread) and charity.

Q. And he confiscated all the Community's money?

A. He proclaimed that the whole building, two floors, was
confiscated, and that all those present were under arrest.
He declared the same thing with regard to the Hevra Kadisha
(burial society) next door, which was in a separate
building, together with the refugee committee.  An
interrogation began which lasted for hours.

Q. What was the subject of the interrogation?

A. I knew at once that all the archives of the Community had
been examined during the previous night, as he asked
questions which related directly to the files on which I had
worked.

Q. How about the money which was in the Community offices at
that time?

A. There were about 700,000 Dinars in the Community offices.
He confiscated these at once and sealed the cashbox with a
red stamp, and on it the words "Gestapo - Geheime
Staatspolizei" could be seen.

Q. Immediately after this strong measures began to be taken
against the Jews in Croatia?

A. Not in actual fact.  The papers began to incite against
the Jews the very same evening.  On shops one could see
notices "Jews - Entrance Forbidden!" and similar things.

Q. Who were the active elements in the population in
connection with anti-Jewish acts in Croatia?

A. They were the Ustashi, the so-called Croatian Fascists,
who had remained in the country, had not emigrated, and had
prepared the revolution inside the country.

Q. Who helped them?

A. Very many ethnic Germans.

Q. Residents of Croatia?

A. Yes.

Presiding Judge: What is the meaning of "had not emigrated"
- I did not understand this expression.

Witness Arnon:  The Croatian Ustashi, the members of the so-
called Frank party.  Frank was the founder of the party for
an independent Croatia.  They split into two groups.  One
group emigrated to Italy before the thirties, among them the
so-called Poglavnik Pavelic with his band of 12,000 persons.
And the others, who remained in the country and prepared the
revolution.

State Attorney Bar-Or:  Had these Ustashi also been in
contact with Berlin before the War?

Witness Arnon:  It seems to have been so, and we had proof
for it.

Q. Was anti-Jewish legislation promulgated in Zagreb in
April 1941, and then in June?

A. Before the promulgation of the first laws concerning
Croatian citizenship, that is a week or two after the entry
of the German troops, all Jewish lawyers in Zagreb had been
arrested and taken to a camp in Kerestinetz near Zagreb.  On
30 April the first law about Croatian citizenship was
published.  Shortly afterwards there appeared the laws about
the protection of the Aryan race and of Croatian honour.

Q. Can you see this document, No. 1438?

A. Yes, of course.

Q. What is it?

A. These are the regulations about the so-called solution of
the Jewish Question.

Q. What is their main contents?

A. This is the regulation which, first of all, blocked all
bank accounts, confiscated all safes, and sequestered all
storage depots, while prohibiting the handing over of
anything to the Jews.

Q. What is the date of this legislation?

A. 26 June 1941.

Presiding Judge: This will be T/889.

State Attorney Bar-Or:  Now I show you Prosecution document
No. 1623 of 21 May 1941.  What is it about?

Witness Arnon:  Mainly about the establishment, or
administration, of public order and security.

Q. Was this the administration which operated in the
Ministry of the Interior?

A. Yes, within the Ministry of the Interior.

Q. Did this administration operate within the Ministry of
the Interior?

A. Yes.

Q. This regulation is signed by the Minister of the
Interior?

A. No, by the Minister of Justice.

Presiding Judge: I see the signature of Kvaternik here.

Witness Arnon:  t is signed Dr. Mirko Puk.

Presiding Judge: Here it is signed Kvaternik.  Perhaps we
are not talking about the same thing.  Where do you see the
signature of the Minister of Justice?

The witness points to the signature.

Presiding Judge: But this has apparently not been
translated; it has also not been translated into German.

State Attorney Bar-Or:  The original, which will be
submitted to the Court at once, also contains several
additional provisions.  I request that the witness be shown
the regulation signed by Eugen Kvaternik on 13 May 1941,
which carries the signature of approval of the Minister of
the Interior.

Presiding Judge: Yes, this is what was translated into
German.  The approval is dated 14 May 1941.

State Attorney Bar-Or:  It is signed by the Head of the
Authority for Public Order and Security and approved by the
signature of the Minister of the Interior, Artukovic.

Presiding Judge: Kvaternik was the Head of the Office for
Order and Security?

Witness Arnon:  Yes.

State Attorney Bar-Or:  Was this the office responsible
until the end for carrying out the operations against the
Jews?

A. Yes, certainly.

Presiding Judge: This document will be marked T/890.

State Attorney Bar-Or:  Mr. Arnon, on 22 May 1941,
Regulations appear which mention the Nuremberg Laws, about
the wearing of the "Jewish Star," the prohibition of contact
with Aryan personnel, etc., is this correct?

Witness Arnon:  Modelled on the Nuremberg Laws, yes.

May I be permitted a digression.  At the beginning of May a
compulsory payment of 100 million gold dinars was imposed on
the Jews.  Simultaneously the first arrests were made,
allegedly for the purpose of guaranteeing this compulsory
payment.

Presiding Judge: What was the value of the dinar at that
time?

Witness Arnon:  Officially sixty dinars were equal to one
dollar.  Later on the contribution was raised by another
fifty million gold dinars.  The regulation about the wearing
of the Jewish Star appeared on 11 May.

State Attorney Bar-Or:  You can see here a yellow patch, and
on it a Star of David.  What is under the Star of David?

Witness Arnon:  "Z"  Zidov - Jew.  All Jews had to wear this
sign, including second and third generation baptized Jews;
it had to be worn on the left breast and on the right
shoulder.

Presiding Judge: Do you wish to submit this, or would you
rather keep it?

State Attorney Bar-Or:  Perhaps the Court would be satisfied
with looking at it.

Presiding Judge: You could perhaps photograph it, if you
wish.  I understand that he wants to keep it.

State Attorney Bar-Or:  We shall photograph it and submit
the picture.

Witness Arnon:  I may have another one at home.  I am quite
ready to hand it in.  In actual fact it must be said that
all Jews, even babies in prams, had to wear this sign.  We
had several cases in Zagreb where officers of the German
army were indignant and tore the sign off the children.


Home ·  Site Map ·  What's New? ·  Search Nizkor

© The Nizkor Project, 1991-2012

This site is intended for educational purposes to teach about the Holocaust and to combat hatred. Any statements or excerpts found on this site are for educational purposes only.

As part of these educational purposes, Nizkor may include on this website materials, such as excerpts from the writings of racists and antisemites. Far from approving these writings, Nizkor condemns them and provides them so that its readers can learn the nature and extent of hate and antisemitic discourse. Nizkor urges the readers of these pages to condemn racist and hate speech in all of its forms and manifestations.