The Nizkor Project: Remembering the Holocaust (Shoah)
Nuremberg, war crimes, crimes against humanity

The Trial of German Major War Criminals

Sitting at Nuremberg, Germany
27th May to 6th June, 1946

One Hundred and Forty-Fifth Day: Monday, 3rd June, 1946
(Part 3 of 9)


Q. Is it known to you that the foreign workers were cared for by the German Labour Front?

A. Yes.

Q. Also with respect to their health?

A. On only one occasion did I meet a commission from the Labour Front in my camp.

Q. Do you know of the institution of the Gau camp doctors?

A. It was planned to create an institution of that kind in Essen, but it did not succeed. At that time, when we had just had a typhus epidemic, I suggested to the Health Leader - at that time it was Dr. Heinz Buehler, in Muhlheim - to institute something of the sort. Then, also, at a meeting I spoke about my aims, but I did not hear anything more about it from this Gau office of camp doctors.

Q. That is enough. How many camps did you supervise?

A. That varied. First, there may have been five or six, then later, maybe seventeen or eighteen; then later the figure became smaller. But I am not able at this moment to give you the exact figure.

Q. What was the nature of your task?

A. Above all, I was supposed to assure the medical care of foreign workers.

Q. Did you have anything to do with the treatment of sick workers?

A. Only when they were brought to me and when I was in the camps. I personally always concerned myself with the individual cases in the camps whenever I inspected them.

Q. You had not only a supervisory capacity but you also treated them yourself?

A. When I was in a camp I was consulted by the camp doctors and I advised them.

Q. What was the duty of the camp doctors?

A. The camp physicians had their daily duty in the infirmary and the treatment of the patients in general.

Q. So your activity was a supervisory one?

[Page 264] A. Yes.

Q. Witness, the Prosecutor has repeatedly interrogated you outside this court room?

A. Yes.

Q. You have been in Nuremberg before, in this building here? That was when the proceeding started?

A. Yes.

Q. Did you make an affidavit about the conditions in the Krupp camps?

A. Yes.

Q. I will put this affidavit to you. This is an affidavit of 15th October, 1945. Did you give that affidavit as a witness for the prosecution?

A. As far as I can remember, yes.

Q. Now I ask you to state whether you still stand on the statements which you made at that time?

A. Yes.

Q. I shall read the statements to you: "My name is Dr. Wilhelm Jager. I am a general practitioner in Essen ...."

THE PRESIDENT: Dr. Servatius, we cannot have the whole document read to him. You can put to him anything you want to challenge him upon.

DR. SERVATIUS: Very well.

BY DR. SERVATIUS:

Q. You say, at about the middle of the first page:

"My first official act as senior camp doctor was to make a thorough inspection of the various camps. At that time, in October, 1942, I found the following conditions ...." - and you go on to say - "The Eastern workers and Poles who worked in the Krupp works at Essen were kept at camps at Seumannstrasse, Grieperstrasse, Spendlerstrasse, Hogstrasse, Germaniastrasse, Dechenschule...."

THE PRESIDENT: Are you challenging that?

DR. SERVATIUS: Yes.

THE PRESIDENT: Where were these camps?

DR. SERVATIUS: Yes, that is what I want to ask him.

BY DR. SERVATIUS:

Q. Did these camps exist at the time and were they occupied?

A. As far as I can remember. One has to take into consideration that, until I started my work, I did not know at all what camps existed. In a meeting which had been called where there were physicians of the most various nationalities I asked first of all what kind of camps these were. One did not know. Then, for the first time, a list was provided in which the camps were listed. Then ...

Q. Witness, you have mentioned the camps here by name and you are not certain that these camps existed at that time, in October, 1942?

A. As far as I could remember, I listed the camps which existed at the beginning of my work. I had to go to each one of these camps personally and I had to depend entirely upon myself.

Q. Furthermore, you state concerning the food of the Eastern workers - if you will look at the second page of the document - the following:

"The diet prescribed for the Eastern workers was altogether insufficient. They were given 1,000 calories a day less than the minimum prescribed for any German ...."

THE PRESIDENT: Dr. Servatius, below the names of the camps, he says:

"All of the camps were surrounded by barbed wire and were closely guarded."

I understand you are challenging that?

[Page 265]

BY DR. SERVATIUS:

Q. Were the camps surrounded by barbed wire and closely guarded as it says here?

A. In the beginning, yes.

Q. But you do not know whether that was the same in the case of all camps, do you?

A. The camps which I visited where they did not know me, for instance, Kramerplatz and Dechenschule, were closely guarded and I had to show my credentials in order to get in.

Q. I repeat the question concerning the food. You said the Eastern workers received 1,000 calories per day less than the minimum for Germans; whereas German workers who did hard work received 5,000 calories per day, the Eastern workers who performed the same kind of work received only 2,000 calories per day. Is that true?

A. That was true at the beginning of my duties. The food for Eastern workers, as could be seen from the list, had been determined as to quantity, and there was a difference between that for Eastern workers and that for German workers. The 5000 calories mentioned here were given to specific categories of German workers who did the hardest type of work. They were not given to everybody.

Q. Witness, I shall put to you a chart of the categories.

DR. SERVATIUS: I submit to the Tribunal a copy of this chart. It is an exact table of the calories to which the individual categories of workers were entitled. It begins with 9th February, 1942, and it shows the individual quotas for the various types of workers, and on the last page there is a summary of the average quotas of calories which were assigned.

It is shown there in the summary Group 1, Eastern workers and Soviet prisoners of war, average workers 2,156 calories; heavy workers, 2,615; heaviest workers, 2,909; long time and night workers, 2,244. Are you familiar with these figures?

A. Approximately.

Q. Will you compare that with what the German workers received; the normal workers, 2,846 calories; heavy workers, 3,159; heaviest workers, 3,839; long time and night workers, 2,846. Is that in accord with your statement, according to which you said that German workers received five thousand calories whereas the Eastern workers received only two thousand?

THE PRESIDENT: It is very hard to follow these figures unless you give us the exact page. Are you on the last page?

DR. SERVATIUS: This is a summary ....

THE PRESIDENT: Well, on which page are you?

DR. SERVATIUS: On the last page, the last sheet on the right side. First, there are the food groups 1, 2, 3, on various pages, and then on the last page on the right side, next to Group 3, concerning the Poles there is a summary of calories for Eastern workers, for Germans and for Poles; and if you compare here the columns, the amount of calories, then that should tally with what the witness has stated here. He singled out the heaviest workers and said that the Germans received five thousand calories. The table shows that they received only 3,839. And he says the Eastern workers received 2,000 calories, whereas according to the table, they received 2,900 That is, instead of a proportion of 5,000 to 2,000, it is from 2,900 to 3,800, in round figures a difference of about 1,000 calories, and not, as the witness has said here, of three thousand calories. Is that correct? Do you stand on your statement? A distinction has to be made ....

THE PRESIDENT: I did not hear the witness' answer.

MR. DODD: I think it would be more helpful to the Tribunal and certainly to the prosecution if it were established who made up this chart and whether or

[Page 266]

not the figures given here cover the camps where this witness had jurisdiction. From looking it over I cannot tell where it was made up, except on the front page it says:

"According to the food table by Dr. Hermann Schall, Medical Superintendent of the Sanatorium 'West End.' Calculations of controlled food supplies for the community camps of the firm Krupp ...." And so on.

But these tables can be made up ad lib. and presented to witnesses. Unless there is some foundation laid, I think it is an improper way to cross-examine.

DR. SERVATIUS: I have an affidavit which can prove where that chart comes from.

THE PRESIDENT: Have you ever seen this chart before?

DR. SERVATIUS: It is the affidavit of the witness Hahn.

THE WITNESS: Was a question put to me, please?

DR. SERVATIUS: The witness has the original. It is attached. May I ask the witness to return the document to me?

THE WITNESS: I wanted to make a statement. At the beginning of my duties the Eastern workers' food definitely differed from that of the German people and also from that of the so-called Western workers, the French and Belgians and so on. It can be seen from the figures that, even though it may not be stated exactly, at least there is a difference of 700 to 800 calories. In the beginning until, I believe, February or March, 1943, the Eastern workers received no additional rations for long work, heavy work or very heavy work. These additional quotas were given only when Sauckel had ordered it, and that was, if I remember correctly, at the beginning of 1943.

At that time, if I remember correctly, the Eastern workers were put on an equal footing with the German workers, as far as food was concerned, and they received special rations for long work, for heavy work and for very heavy work, which they had not received before.

BY DR. SERVATIUS:

Q. Witness, if I understand you correctly, you want to say that this chart may be right but that in reality the workers did not receive what is listed on the chart. Did I understand you correctly?

A. Even from this chart you can see the difference.

Q. It was a difference of 3,000 which you mentioned, whereas the table shows a difference of about 1,000.

A. I said before that there were individual categories of workers doing the heaviest type of work, such as stokers and miners, and that they received up to 5,200 calories. But that was not general. Those were only special workers who received up to 5,200 calories.

Q. Then what you say here is not correct because you do not mention that. You say generally that, whereas the German worker who did the heaviest type of work received 5,000 calories, the Eastern workers who did the same type of work received only 2,000 calories per day. But that is a general statement, and it cannot be seen from this that you are referring to exceptional cases of individual groups of workers. Is that correct?

A. That is the way I saw it, and I believe that you understand it as it appears here.

THE PRESIDENT: Now, where does this chart come from, and are you putting it in? Will you put it in?

DR. SERVATIUS: In the affidavit this assertion is made, and the witness said clearly at that time that the workers doing the heaviest type of work, if they were German, received 5,000 calories, and if they were Eastern workers, received only 2,000 That is a very clear statement in the affidavit, which is not according to the chart.

[Page 267]

THE PRESIDENT: Are you offering it in evidence?

DR. SERVATIUS: Yes.

THE PRESIDENT: What will it be? What number will it be?

DR. SERVATIUS: That will be Exhibit No. 11.

THE PRESIDENT: Does the affidavit refer to the chart?

DR. SERVATIUS: I asked whether the affidavit is correct.

THE PRESIDENT: No, I asked whether the affidavit refers to and identifies the chart, which the witness has just had in his hand.

DR. SERVATIUS: Yes.

THE PRESIDENT: Dr. Servatius, you have put in an affidavit by Walter Hahn. Does that affidavit mention the chart and say where the chart comes from and by whom it was made up, to what it refers?

DR. SERVATIUS: The affidavit which is here as Document D-228 does not mention the chart, but only the affidavit which I have submitted - now I understand; it is the affidavit by the witness Hahn, and the chart is attached and it is covered by the affidavit made by the witness. That document I submit in evidence.

THE PRESIDENT: I said the affidavit by Walter Hahn - does it identify and is it attached to the chart? What page? There are seven pages, you know. We cannot find it unless you tell us.

DR. SERVATIUS: In the German text on page four.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, do you mean where it says:

"The amount of calories contained in this food can be seen from the calory table made by me which covers the whole period of the war"?

Is that what you mean? That is on page four of our copy. It is under the heading "C," "Food Supply of French Prisoners of War and Italian Military Internees."

DR. SERVATIUS: It is there, as I have said before, on page four of the German text, which says that the nutrition quotas are shown according to calories, and the calory amounts can be seen from the calculations which I have made and which cover the entire duration of the war. That is the document attached.

THE PRESIDENT: But it is all right to say that the document is attached, but it does not refer to it by any name.

DR. SERVATIUS: But the document is attached, so that it can be seen that it must belong to it.

THE PRESIDENT: Very well.


[ Previous | Index | Next ]

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.