Twenty-Third Day: Wednesday, 19th December, 1945
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.,
[Page 110]
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:--
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...."
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
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...." [Page 112]
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."
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." [Page 113]
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:
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 [Page 114]
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:" ---
I just refer to a few of them:--
No. 4. The Synagogue at Graefenhausen, interior and
furnishings wrecked."
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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(Part 2 of 8)
[COLONEL STOREY continues]
"'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.
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.
[Page 111]
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.'
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
"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:
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.
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
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 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.
plundering are to be prevented. Report of execution of
orders to reach the brigade Fuehrer or office by 8.30.
Then there follows a list of 35 synagogues that were
destroyed.
"No. 1. The Synagogue at Darmstadt, Bleichstrasse,
destroyed by fire.
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.