The Nizkor Project: Remembering the Holocaust (Shoah)

Twenty-Third Day: Wednesday, 19th December, 1945
(Part 2 of 8)


[COLONEL STOREY continues]

I now pass to Page 7 of this same Document, Page 7 of the English translation. It begins:--

THE PRESIDENT: Colonel Storey, does that mean that the S.A. were eliminated for the purpose of arrest or for other purposes too?

COLONEL STOREY: No, Sir. As I understand, Sir, the S.A. reached its height of popularity in 1934, and immediately after the Roehm purge began to decline. In the meantime, the S.S., which originated out of the S.A.,

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was growing and became really the strong part, and grew and prospered after that. So I think the evidence will show that after 1934 the S.A. started a rapid decline in its importance.

Now, on Page 7 of the English translation I should like to quote a part of the Consul's report, beginning in the middle of the page. Another American, Herman I. Roseman, made an affidavit which stated:--

"'Yesterday, 10th March, 1933, in the afternoon about 4:30, I came out of K.D.W. with my fiancee, Fraulein Else Schwarzlose, residing in Wilmersdorf (giving the address). A man in S.A. uniform stepped on my toe purposely, obviously offended me and said 'Pardon.' I said 'Bitte,' and walked ahead. He then followed me and kicked me saying, "Na und?" A police man saw this and walked ahead, paying no attention to attacks made on me. Then I took my passport out of my pocket, showed it to the second policeman, and said that I was an American citizen, but he walked ahead, obviously not able to afford me protection, or at least being unwilling to do so. The S.A. man continued to attack me, struck me in the face, wounded me over the eye, and continued to do me bodily harm. During this attack, all the time my walking along, we reached another policeman, and I applied to him, showing my passport and said: 'I am an American and am entitled to protection.' He shrugged his shoulders and said 'What can I do?' By this time the S.A. man had obviously attacked me enough and walked away.

Upon my appeal, the policeman brought my fiancee and me to the station house at 13 Bayreuther Strasse. My fiancee and I reported to the officer in charge. He heard the story and said that he was sorry, but that there was nothing to do. My face was bleeding. The policeman said that he had orders not to interfere in any affair in which an S.A. man took part. I then asked him what I could do to protect myself. He said that there was nothing to do but to wait until the situation was better. He added that the police were absolutely powerless, and were under the direction of the S.A., and that there were S.A. Sturm Abteilungen in the police itself. Thereupon I departed...."

Now on the next page, on Page 8, is another American, Mrs. Jean Klauber, and I quote from her affidavit.
"On the night of Friday, 10th March, 1933, she and her husband had retired for the night when they were awakened by a prolonged ringing of their apartment bell. They heard pounding upon the street door and a demand for immediate entry, and at the same time a threat to break the door down. The street door was opened by the janitor's wife, and a party of four or five men entered and went at once to the apartment of the deponent, where they again rang and pounded on the door. Mr. Klauber asked who was there and was answered -- 'The police.' He opened the door and a party of four or five men in brown uniforms, one wearing a dark overcoat and carrying a rifle, pushed in, jostling Mr. and Mrs. Klauber aside. One asked Mrs. Klauber where the telephone was and she indicated the room where it was to be found, and started to go there. Thereupon, she was knocked down by one of them. They went on to the bedroom where Mr. and Mrs. Klauber followed them, and there they demanded their passports.

Mr. Klauber went to the wardrobe to get his, and was stopped, being asked by the intruders whether he was carrying any weapons. Being clothed only

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in pajamas, his denial was accompanied by a gesture indicating his garb. He then turned to the wardrobe, opened it, and reached for one of his four suits hanging therein where he thought the passport was, and was immediately attacked from behind by all but one of the intruders, who beat him severely with police clubs, the one with the overcoat and rifle standing by. Remarks were shouted such as, 'Look! Four suits, while for fourteen years we have been starving.' Mrs. Klauber tried to inquire the reason for their actions, and was answered-- 'Jews. We hate you. For fourteen years we have been waiting for this, and tonight we will hang many of you.'

When the intruders stopped beating Mr. Klauber he was unconscious, and they again demanded the passports of Mrs. Klauber. Mrs. Klauber found her American passport and her German passport (required by local authorities as the wife of a German citizen and issued by the police at Munich after her arrival here), and the intruders took both in spite of Mrs. Klaubers protests that she was American. She then searched for her husbands passport, laid hold of his pocket-book, and in her excitement offered it to them. Though full of money they refused it, and again demanded the passport. Mrs. Klauber then found it and handed it over.

Then the intruders returned to the unconscious Mr. Klauber saying: 'He hasn't had enough yet,' and beat him further. Then they left, saying, 'We are not yet finished,' and just as they departed, one of them said to Mrs. Klauber, 'Why did you marry a Jew? I hate them' and struck her on the jaw with his police club...."

That is the end of the affidavit. Now continuing, the next paragraph is the statement of the Consul:
"I personally can verify that the police had been instructed not to interfere; and that is, that there was official sanction for these activities. Affidavits taken from numerous victims attest this fact. I had become acquainted with the two police officers stationed at the corner of Bellevuestrasse and Tiergartenstrasse near where the Consulate General was located; these officers told me that they and all the other police officers had received definite instructions not to interfere with the S.A., the S.S., or the Hitler Youth."
In addition, S.A. members served as guards at concentration camps during this consolidating period, and participated in the persecution and mistreatment of persons imprisoned therein. I now refer to Document 2824-PS, which is a book entitled, Concentration Camp at Oranienburg. It is Exhibit USA 423. This was by an S.A.-Sturmbannfuehrer named Schaefer, who was the commander of the concentration camp at Oranienburg. I quote the excerpt on the first page of the English translation, reading:--
"The most trusted, boldest S.A. men were selected in order to give them homes in the camp, since they were the permanent camp guards, and in such a manner we created a cadre of experienced guardsmen who were constantly prepared to be employed."
Further evidence concerning the operation of the concentration camps by the S.A. is found in Document 787-PS, Exhibit USA 421. This is a report to Hitler from the public prosecutor of Dresden concerning the

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nolle-prosequi of one Vogel, who was accused of mistreatment of persons imprisoned in the concentration camp. I quote from that report:
"The prosecuting authority in Dresden has indicted Oberregierungsrat Erich Vogel in Dresden on account of bodily injury while in office. The following subject matter is the basis of the process:

Vogel has belonged to the Gestapo office of the State of Saxon since its foundation and is chief of Main section II, which formerly bore the title ZUB. In the process of combating efforts inimical to the State, Vogel carried out several so-called 'borderland actions' in the year 1933, in which a large number of politically unreliable persons and persons who had become political prisoners in the border territories, were taken into 'protective custody and brought to the Hohnstain protective custody camp.

In the camp serious mistreatment of the prisoners has been going on at least since the summer of 1933. The prisoners were not only, as in the protective custody camp Bredow near Stettin, beaten into a state of unconsciousness for no reason, with whips and other tools, but were also tortured in other ways, as for instance with a drip- apparatus especially constructed for the purpose, under which the prisoners had to stand so long that they came away with serious purulent wounds on the scalp. The guilty S.A.-leaders and S.A.-men were sentenced to punishments of six years to nine months of imprisonment by the main criminal Court of the provincial court in Dresden on 15th May, 1935. Vogel, whose duties frequently brought him to the camp, took part in this mistreatment, in so far as it happened in the reception room of the camp during completion of the reception formalities, and in the supply room, during issuing of the blankets. In this respect it should be pointed out that Vogel was generally known to the personnel of the camp -- because of his function as head of the ZUB -- and his conduct became at least partly a standard for the above-named conduct of the S.A. leaders and men."

I want to read the remainder of that quotation. I am sorry, I have not got it here. There is a little portion there that should be read immediately following my statement -- I will skip to the quotation just below:
"Vogel stayed in the reception room a long time and watched these proceedings without doing anything about them. In his presence for instance, the S.A.-man Mutze dealt such blows to one man, without provocation, that he turned on him. As already stated, Vogel not only took no steps against this treatment of the prisoners, but he even made jokes about it and stated that it amused him the way 'things were popping' here.

In the supply room, Vogel himself took a hand in the beating amid the general severe mistreatment. The S.A. men there employed whips and other articles and beat the prisoners in such a manner that serious injuries were produced, the prisoners partly became unconscious and had to lie in the dispensary a long time. Vogel was often present in the supply room during the illtreatment. At least in the following cases he personally laid violent hands upon prisoners."

And then skipping down:
--- "the prisoner was laid across the counter in the usual manner, held fast by the head and arms, and then beaten for a considerable

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time by the S.A. men with whips and other articles. Along with this Vogel himself took part in the beating for a time, and after this mistreatment slapped him again, so that the prisoner appeared green and blue in the face. The prisoner is the tinsmith Hans Kuehitz, who bore the nickname 'Johnny.' Upon his departure, Vogel gave the head of the supply room, Truppfuehrer Meier from five to six reichsmarks with the stated reason that the S.A. men 'had sweated so.' The money was then distributed by Meier to those S.A. comrades who had taken part in the illtreatment."
Another activity of the S.A. during the days just following the Nazi seizure of power was to act as auxiliary police. This is shown in Document 3252-PS, Exhibit USA 424. This publication is a book written about Hermann Goering.

THE PRESIDENT: Colonel Storey, is that a document which shows on its face that the man was punished for this conduct?

COLONEL STOREY: I think it does; yes, Sir. I think it does.

THE PRESIDENT: I think that fact ought to be stated.

COLONEL STOREY: I believe it is stated, Sir. You see in the beginning it says that the prosecuting authority in Dresden had indicted Vogel on account of bodily injury, and I thought it stated that he had been punished.

THE PRESIDENT: The document does appear to state it, but I think you ought to state it in Court. The document ends up with -- paragraph three --

COLONEL STOREY: It does state that he was punished. The purpose of introducing it was to show what actually took place.

I now turn to Document 3252-PS. As I have just mentioned, the book is entitled, "Hermann Goering, the Man and His Work," by Erich Gritzbach, in which it is declared that the ranks of the Security Police were strengthened by the S.A. and which was characterised as the most reliable instrument of the movement. I should like to quote on the first page of Document 3252-PS, the English translation -- it is the fourth paragraph:

"The present reorganisation of the Security Police is hardly noticed by the public. Their ranks are strengthened by the S.A., the most reliable instrument of the movement. The Auxiliary Police have given effective aid by their fighting spirit, in the struggle against the Communists and other enemies of the State, not only to Goering, but have, driven by their National Socialist desire for a new spirit within the executive police, assisted in their rigid organisation."
I now skip to the S.A. participation in the Jewish pogrom of 10th - 11th November, 1938, shown by Document 1721-PS, Exhibit USA 425. This is a confidential report of the S.A.- Brigadefuehrer to his Group Commander, dated 29th November, 1938, in the English translation, starting at the beginning. Without reading the addresses, it is to S.A. Group Electoral Palatinate (Kurpfalz) Mannheim.
"The following order reached me at 3 o'clock on 10th November, 1938.

On the order of the Gruppenfuehrer, all Jewish synagogues within the 50th Brigade are to be blown up or set on fire immediately.

Neighboring houses occupied by Aryans are not to be damaged. The action is to be carried out in civilian clothes. Rioting and

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plundering are to be prevented. Report of execution of orders to reach the brigade Fuehrer or office by 8.30.

I immediately alerted the Standartenfuehrer and gave them the most exact instructions; the execution of the order began at once.

I hereby report that the following were destroyed in the area of:" ---

Then there follows a list of 35 synagogues that were destroyed.

I just refer to a few of them:--

"No. 1. The Synagogue at Darmstadt, Bleichstrasse, destroyed by fire.

No. 4. The Synagogue at Graefenhausen, interior and furnishings wrecked."

And then under "Standarte 145":--
"The synagogue at Bensheim, destroyed by fire."
And then the next four items are synagogues destroyed by fire. In Standarte 168, eight synagogues are shown to have been destroyed by fire.

In Standarte 168, the synagogue in Beerfelden was blown up, and then follow several others where the furnishings were wrecked. In Standarte 221, the synagogue and chapel in Gross- Gerau was destroyed by fire, and the next one torn down and the furnishings destroyed. And then it is signed by the Fuehrer of Brigade 50, by the signature which is illegible, "Brigadefuehrer."


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