Twenty-Fourth Day: Thursday, 20th December, 1945
Incidentally, I might call to the Tribunal's attention the fact that
S.S. Obergruppenfuehrer Pohl, who was head of the W.V.H.A., was also a
General of the "Waffen S.S.," which goes to show that there is no
manner in which you can characterise functions in the S.S.
The extent to which the number of prisoners was increased through S.S.
efforts is illustrated by our Document 1166-PS, which I offered in
evidence yesterday as Exhibit USA 458. This document is a report from
Office Group D of W.V.H.A., dated the 15th of August, 1944. I shall
read the first page of that report, beginning:
"1. The actual number on 1 August 1944, consisted of:
(a) Male prisoners 379,167
In addition, there are the following new arrivals:
1. From the Hungary programme (anti-Jewish action) -- 90,000
Most of the prisoners are already on the way and will be received
into the concentration camps within the next few days,"
All other prisoners incapable of working (tubercular cases, bed-
ridden cripples, etc.) are to be basically excepted from this
action. Bed-ridden prisoners are to be drafted for suitable work
which they can perform in bed.
The order of the Reichsfuehrer S.S. is to be obeyed strictly in
future.
Requests for fuel for this purpose are therefore out of the
question."
The S.S., however, was to some degree enabled to achieve both goals
that of increased production and of elimination of undesirables. The
Tribunal will recall the agreement between Minister of Justice
Thierack and Himmler on 18th September, 1942, our Document 654-PS,
which was read in evidence by Mr. Dodd as Exhibit USA 218. I am not
going to quote again from that document, but will remind the Tribunal
that the agreement provided for the transfer of anti-social elements
from the prison to the Reichsfuehrer S.S. for extermination through
work.
The conditions under which such persons worked in the camps were well
calculated to lead to their death. Those conditions were regulated by
the W.V.H.A. As an illustration of W.V.H.A. management, I call the
Court's attention to our Document 2189-PS, which I offer in evidence
as Exhibit USA 460. It is an order directed to commandants of
concentration camps, dated 11th August, 1942, and bearing the
facsimile signature, which does not appear on the translation, but
does appear on the original, of S.S. Brigade Fuehrer and General of
the Waffen S.S. Gluecks, who was Chief of Office Group D of W.V.H.A.
That is Document 2189-PS. I read the body of that letter:
In accordance with this order the Main Office Chief of the Main
S.S. Economic Administration Office, S.S.-Obergruppenfuehrer and
General of the Waffen S.S. Pohl, has ordered, to be effective
immediately, that punishment by beating will also be executed by
prisoners in concentration camps for men.
It is forbidden that foreign prisoners should execute the
punishment on German prisoners." [Page 158]
In view of different events (demonstrations, placing posters
inimical to the Reich on urns of deceased inmates in the halls of
the home town cemeteries, of pilgrimages to the graves of
deceased inmates, etc.) within the Protectorates, the delivery of
urns with the ashes of deceased nationals of the Protectorate and
of Jews is henceforth prohibited. The urns shall be kept within
the concentration camps. In case of doubt about keeping the urns
oral instructions shall be obtained from this agency."
This activity is necessary, as I said: (i) to eliminate these
negative people from German people; (2) to exploit them once more
for the great folk community, by having them break stones and
bake bricks, so that the Fuehrer can again erect his grand
buildings ; and (3) in turn to invest the money, earned soberly
this way, in houses, in land, in [Page 160]
THE PRESIDENT: There is no date on that document you just read, is
there?
MAJOR FARR: There appears to be no date on the English translation.
The original document bears the notation of a speech in April, 1943.
At a later stage in this case, evidence of some of the details of this
programme of experiments will be presented. It is not my purpose to
deal with those experiments from the substantive aspect. I shall show
only that they were the result of S.S. direction, and that the S.S.
played a vital part in their successful execution.
The programme seems to have originated in a request by a Dr. Signiund
Rascher to Himmler, for permission to utilise persons in concentration
camps as material for experiments with human beings, in connection
with some research he was conducting on behalf of the Luftwaffe. I
refer to our Document 1602-PS, a photostatic copy of a letter, dated
15th. May, 1941, addressed to the Reichsfuehrer S.S., and signed "S.
Rascher. " I offer it as Exhibit USA 454. I shall quote from the
second paragraph of the translation, the fourth paragraph of the
original letter. I quote:
I refer to our Document 1582-PS, a letter dated the 22nd of May, 1941,
addressed to Dr. Rascher, and bearing the stamp of the Personal Staff
of the Reichsfuehrer S.S., and the initials, "K Br," which initials
are those of S.S. Sturmbannfuehrer Karl Brandt. I offer this letter as
Exhibit USA 462.
Shortly before flying to Oslo, the Reichsfuehrer S.S. gave me
your letter of 15 May 1941, for partial reply.
I can inform you that prisoners will of course be readily made
available for the high-flight researches. I have informed the
Chief of the Security Police of this agreement of the
Reichsfuehrer S.S., and requested that the competent official be
instructed to get in touch with you."
I refer to our Document 343-PS, and I offer in evidence an original
letter, dated the 20th of May, 1942, addressed to S.S.
Obergruppenfuehrer Wolff, and signed E. Milch, as exhibit USA 463.
That letter, which appears on Page 2 of the translation, and on Page 1
of the original German, is as follows:
In reference to your telegram of 12 May, our sanitary inspector
reports to me that the altitude experiments carried out by the
S.S. and Air Force at Dachau have been finished. Any continuation
of these experiments seems materially unjustifiable. However, the
carrying out of experiments of some other kind, in regard to
perils on the high seas, would be important. These have been
prepared in immediate agreement with the proper offices ; Major
(MC) Weltz will be charged with the execution and Capt. (M.C.)
Rascher will be made available until further orders in addition
to his duties within the Medical Corps of the Air Corps. A change
of these measures does not appear necessary, and an enlargement
of the task is not considered pressing at this time.
The low-pressure chamber would not be needed for these low
temperature experiments. It is urgently needed at another place
and therefore can no longer remain in Dachau.
I convey the special thanks from the Supreme Commander of the Air
Corps to the S.S. for their extensive co-operation.
I remain with best wishes for you in good comradeship and with
Heil Hitler!
Always yours
MAJOR FARR: The letter on the preceding page, dated the 31st of
August, 1942, is also from General Field Marshal Milch, and is
addressed to the Reichsfuehrer S.S. It reads as follows:
I thank you very much for your letter of the 25th of August. I
have read with great interest the reports of Dr. Rascher and Dr.
Romberg. I have been informed about the current experiments. I
shall ask the two gentlemen to give a lecture, combined with the
showing of motion pictures, to my men in the near future.
[Page 162]
Hoping that it will be possible for me to see you on the occasion
of my next visit to Headquarters, I remain with best regards and
The Nizkor Project
(Part 2 of 8)
[MAJOR FARR continues]
"With reference to the above-mentioned telephone call, I am
sending herewith a report on the actual number of prisoners for 1
August, 1944 and of the new arrivals already announced, as well
as the clothing report for 15 August, 1944.
[Page 158]
This intensive drive for manpower to some extent interfered with tne
programme which W.V.H.A. had already undertaken to exterminate certain
classes of individuals in the camps. I offer a photostatic copy of a
letter from W.V.H.A., dated 27th April, 1943, our Document 1933-PS. It
is Exhibit USA 459. The letter is addressed to a number of
concentration camp commanders, is signed by Gluecks, S.S. Brigade
Fuehrer and Major General of the "Waffen S.S." I read it:
(b) Female prisoners 45,119
2. From Litzmannstadt (Police prison and Ghetto) -- 60,000
3. Poles from the Government General -- 15,000
4. Convicts from the Eastern Territories -- 10,000
5. Former Polish officers -- 17,000
6. From Warsaw (Poles) -- 400,000
7. Continued arrivals from France, approx. -- 15,000 -20,000
" The Reichsfuehrer-S.S. and Chief of the German Police has
decided after consultation, that in the future only mentally sick
prisoners may be selected for action 14-F-13 by the medical
commissions appointed for this purpose.
The action "14-F-13 " is not defined in the letter but it is perfectly
apparent what it means. Every human being, bedridden, crippled, no
matter what his physical condition, from whom any work at all could be
extracted, was to be excepted from the action. Only the insane, from
whom nothing could be expected, were to suffer the action. What could
the action be? It is perfectly apparent. The action was extermination.
"The Reichsfuehrer S.S. and Chief of the German Police has
ordered that punishment by beating will be executed in
concentration camps for women by prisoners under supervision, as
ordered.
"According to a communication of the Chief of the Security Police
and the S.D., and conforming to a report of the Chief of Security
Police and S.D., in Prague, urns of deceased Czechs and Jews were
sent for burial to the home-cemeteries within the Protectorate.
The S.S. indeed regarded the inmates of concentration camps as its own
personal property to be used for its own economic advantage. The
Tribunal will recall that as early as 1942, the defendant Speer
recognised that the S.S. was moved by the desire for further profits,
when he suggested to Hitler that the S.S. receive a share of the war
equipment produced by concentration camp labour, in ratio to the
working hours of the prisoners. I refer to our Document R-124, at page
136, which was read into evidence by Mr. Dodd as Exhibit USA 179. The
Fuehrer agreed that a 3 to 5 per cent share should satisfy the S.S.
commanders. Himmler himself frankly admitted his intention to derive
profits for S.S. purposes from the camps, in his mass-speech to the
officers of the S.S. Leibstandarte " Adolf Hitler," our Document 1918,
Exhibit USA 364-the passage in question being found at the top of Page
3 of the English translation and on Page 10 of the original German,
seven lines from the bottom. The passage begins:
"The apartment-building programme which is the prerequisite for a
healthy and social basis of the entire S.S., as well as of the
entire Fuehrercorps, can be carried out only when I get the money
for it from somewhere. Nobody is going to give me the money. It
must be earned, and it will be earned by forcing the scum of
mankind, the prisoners, the professional criminals, to do
positive work. The man guarding those prisoners serves just as
hard as the one on close-order drill. The one who does this and
stands near these utterly negative people, will learn within
three to four months, and we shall see: in peacetime, I shall
form guard battalions and put them on duty for three months only
to fight the inferior beings, and this will not be a boring guard
duty, but if the officers handle it right, it will be the best
indoctrination on inferior beings and inferior races.
settlements, so that our men can have houses in which to raise
large families, and have lots of children. This in turn is
necessary because we stand or die with this leading blood of
Germany, and if the good blood is not reproduced, we will not be
able to rule the world."
One final aspect of S.S. control over concentration camps remains to
be mentioned. That is its direction of the programme of biological
experiments on human beings, which was carried on in the camps. Just a
few days ago, another military tribunal passed judgment on some of
those who participated in the experiments at Dachau.
"For the time being I have been assigned to the Luftgaukommando
VII, Munich, for a medical course. During this course, where
researches on high-altitude flights play a prominent part
(determined by the somewhat higher ceiling of the English fighter
planes) considerable regret was expressed at the fact that no
tests with human material had yet been possible for us, as such
experiments are very dangerous and nobody volunteers for them. I
put, therefore, the serious question: can you make available two
or three professional criminals for these experiments? The
experiments are made at 'Bodenstaendige Phuestelle fuer
Hoehenforschung der Luftwaffe, Munich.' The experiments, in which
the subjects may, of course, die, would take place with my co-
operation. They are essential for researches on high-altitude
flight and cannot be carried out, as has been tried, with
monkeys, who offer entirely different test-conditions. I have had
a very confidential talk with a representative of the Air Force,
Burgeon, who makes these experiments. He is also of the opinion
that the problem in question could only be solved by experiments
on human persons. (Feebleminded could also be used as test
material)."
Dr. Rascher promptly received assurance from the S.S. that he would be
allowed to utilise concentration camp inmates for his experiments.
"Dear Dr. Rascher:
The altitude experiments were conducted by Rascher, and in May 1942,
General Field Marshal Milch, on behalf of the Luftwaffe, expressed his
thanks to the S.S. for the assistance it furnished in connection with
the experiments.
Dear Wolff -- (the German says, 'Liebes Woelffchen') --
THE PRESIDENT: Major Farr, had you not better read the letter on the
preceding page? It may be capable of an explanation.
E. Milch." "Dear Himmler:
Yours
E. Milch."
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