Otto Horn The following are extracts from the Horn deposition in the Demjanjuk
case. For preliminary remarks, see
pub/people/h/horn.otto/horn.001 & ~horn.002.
DIRECT EXAMINATION
BY MR. MOSCOWITZ:
Q. Please state your full name?
Q. What city do you reside in?
Q. What is your date of birth?
Q. What is your present age?
Q. What is your profession?
Q. Are you now working or are you retired?
MR. MARTIN: A what?
Q. Have you been in German military service?
[...]
Q. Before we went off the record, you indicated that you travelled from Treblinka to Trawniki. Is that correct?
Q. And approximately when was it that you arrived at Treblinka?
Q. Mr. Horn, what kind of place was Treblinka?
Q. What if anything happened when you first arrived at
Treblinka?
Q. Let me refer you back to the first day of your arrival.
Were you - were you met by anybody?
Q. What was his name?
Q. And what did Franz do with you and the others who came to
the camp?
Q. What happened then?
Q. Was that where you were assigned to duty?
Q. You were assigned to duty in the upper camp?
Q. Mr. Horn, I would like to show you what has been marked
as Government Exhibit Number 1, which is a diagram in German
of Treblinka.
[Attorney for defendant examines exhibit, Otto Horn offered
his glasses, which he puts on]
Q. I show you [the exhibit] and let me ask you if this is a
fair and accurate representation of the Treblinka camp as
you recall it?
[Horn is asked to point to the upper camp, and draw a circle
around it]
MR. MOSCOWITZ: Let the record reflect that the witness,
using a pen, has just drawn a line around the area of the
camp which is in the upper right-hand corner of the diagram,
which has written in the middle "Totenlager".
Q. Mr. Horn, you mentioned that you were assigned to the
upper camp. Was there another part of the camp as well?
MR. MOSCOWITZ: Let the record reflect that the witness
pointed to this area of the camp [indicating] - the lower
right-hand part of the diagram.
Q. Mr. Horn, what was the function of the lower camp?
What took place there?
Q. The unloading and undressing of whom?
Q. Who were the people who were unloaded and undressed?
Q. Where did these Jews come from?
Q. How did they arrive at this unloading?
Q. Mr. Horn, while you were stationed at Treblinka, were you
in uniform?
Q. Did you have a rank?
Q. Mr. Horn, directing your attention to the upper camp, what -
what was located in the upper camp?
Q. By what means were they gassed?
Q. Was it a chamber or building in which this took place?
Q. Can you draw an "X" on the gas chamber on this diagram?
MR. MOSCOWITZ: Let the record reflect the witness has drawn an
"X" on a box which is marked "Neue Gaskammern". [...]
Q. This chamber, this gas chamber on which you have drawn an "X",
this is the place where the Jews were brought to be gassed?
Q. Were these people all men?
Q. Yes.
Q. Were there children included as well?
Q. Were there other Germans, aside from you, stationed on duty in
the upper camp?
Q. Approximately how many were there?
Q. Was there a German commander of the upper camp?
Q. Do you recall who the commander was of the entire camp?
Q. Aside from the Germans stationed in the upper camp, was
anyone else stationed there?
Q. Generally, what were the duties of these Ukrainians?
Q. Were there Ukrainians stationed in other parts of the camp
as well?
Q. The Ukrainians stationed -- these Ukrainian guards --
stationed in the upper camp, were they permanently there, or
did they rotate down to the lower camp as well?
[...]
Q. Aside from the Germans and the Ukrainians, was there any - was
there anyone else present or stationed in the upper camp?
Q. Were there any prisoners or inmates kept there?
Q. And what nationality were these people?
Q. What were the duties of these Jewish people who lived in the
upper camp?
Q. Transporting the corpses away from where?
Q. And to where would they bring the corpses?
Q. Were there pits located in the upper camp where bodies were
put?
[Indicates other pits on the diagram]
The
original plaintext version
of this file is available via
ftp.
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Extracts from Deposition
In the
Matter of John Demjanjuk
(Part 3 of 5)
A. Otto Horn
A. Berlin.
A. The 14th of December, 1903.
A. I am currently 76.
A. I am a male nurse.
A. I am a pensioner.
MR. ZÄNKER: I'm a pensioner.
A. Yes.
A. Yes.
A. After a few hours, but I wouldn't know the exact time.
A. It was a camp - an extermination camp.
A. People were exterminated there, were gassed.
A. Yes. The Deputy Commander of the camp.
A. Franz.
A. He showed us around - I mean the outside of the camp -
fast.
A. And then within the camp, we were divided up and I came
into the upper camp.
A. Yes.
A. Yes.
A. As far as I recall, yes; but this - well I may not know
how certain things were so exactly any more.
A. Yes, the lower one right here [indicating] - the lower
one [indicating].
A. That was the unloading and undressing.
A. By Germans; and partly by prisoners ordered for such
purpose.
A. Jews mainly.
A. One doesn't know. One didn't know what area they came
from.
A. By train, here [indicating].
A. Yes - yes, a gray uniform.
A. Unterscharfu"hrer - something like a sergeant in the
army.
A. The people were gassed there and burned.
A. I don't know. There was some engine somehow.
A. It was here [indicating]. It was built there [indicating].
The gas chamber is here [indicating].
A. [Indicating] Here, the gas chamber.
A. Yes. Right.
A. That were taken there?
A. No. No. Just anything - men and women.
A. Yes.
A. Yes, there were some.
A. Perhaps eight.
A. Yes -- Mathes.
A. Stangl.
A. Yes, there were Ukrainians there.
A. They were guards on the towers, and when transporting the
corpses away.
A. Yes, also at the lower.
A. I can't say if they rotated. The guards possibly rotated.
A. No.
A. Yes -- 200 approximately, who had to work there.
A. Mainly Jews.
A. Transporting away the corpses and burning them.
A. From the whole -- from the gas chamber, that is.
A. To the pit here [indicating] and then burned right away.
A. Yes, there were some.