AFFIDAVIT BY KURT EHRHARDT OF HAMBURG, STEINSTR. 23
I, KURT EHRHARDT, declare on oath:
I am 51 years old. I was an independent businessman for twenty-seven years and had my head office in Hamburg and branch offices abroad. I am married and have four children.
I wished to join the N. S. D. A. P. in 1933, but the Party would not accept me as I had a Jewish brother-in-law and a Jewish part-
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ner. I had a friend, however, who was a doctor and a member of the S.S. and he was able to get me admitted into the S.S. where I was placed on the reserve.
I never did anything active in the S.S. and in 1937 I was expelled from the organization as the Party spies had found out that I had a Jewish brother-in-law and as my business was financed with Jewish capital. In 1938 my Jewish partner was able to leave Germany with my assistance. He went to London. I went to London also where my partner, Herr Fraenkel, sold me the business by a contract. We both stipulated in a secret contract that Fraenkel was to remain a partner. The present Court of Appeal Public Prosecutor of Hamburg, Dr. Klaas, was present. On my return to Hamburg the Gau refused to recognize the contract. That I succeeded in obtaining its recognition nevertheless I owe to the fearless efforts of Dr. Klaas.
After the end of the war, beginning in about May 1945, I worked for the Military Government (AD05). On about the 28.1.46 I was interned because I had been a member of the Allgemeine S.S. reserve. I remained in No. 6 Civilian Internment Camp, Neuengamme, for six months, until I was released in July 1946 and taken back by the Military Government, for which I am still working at the moment.
In my estimation there were about 3-4,000 men in No. 6 Internment Camp, among them members of the S.S., the Gestapo, and
S.A. and political leaders. With the exception of a small group, to which I belonged myself all the internees had been and still remained keen Nazis.
Inside the camp the internees were organized by the senior Nazi leaders—among whom there was a number of Gauleiters, Kreisleiters and senior members of the S.S. and S.A.—along strictly National-Socialist lines. I know from my own'experience that many of these senior leaders maintained constant touch with their Kreis and their former organizations outside the camp, and that they did all they could to preserve and maintain the Nazi system and there was a terrific sign of terror until the list was sent off.
About the beginning of the year 1946 a lawyer who was defense council for the S.S. visited the camp and talked with leading members of the S.S. He gave them a questionnaire which was to be filled in and signed by members of the S.S. This questionnaire, as I understood it was to be used for defense purposes.
The questionnaire contained a number of questions which were
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of the following nature. (I quote only from memory and cannot remember all the questions) :
"Have you ever heard of atrocities which were perpetrated in concentration camps?"
"Have you ever had any knowledge of crimes committed by the SS?"
"Have you yourself committed atrocities?"
"Did you take a special SS oath?"
"Were you requested to leave the church?"
"Did you participate in the "Reich glass day", or have you any knowledge as to how it originated?"
"Did you participate in the persecution of the Jews?" etc.
I can only write about the questionnaire of the Allgemeine S.S. We junior ranks,—Unterscharfuehrer—did not want to have anything at all to do with the list. We believed that the Tribunal would reach the conclusion even without this questionnaire, that we small people had not made the horrible atrocity laws or committed the horrible atrocities. When the S.S. leaders realized our intention, a terrific working upon every individual began. The junior ranks were finally persuaded that if they did not sign, "We, the leaders, would be released, while you will have to stay here for years." They then arranged things in such a way that in each company every individual had to go to a senior S.S. leader to sign, mostly in the office. There everyone was worked on in such a way that he signed. The majority were not at all clear about the meaning of the questions, as I was able to ascertain from many conversations. If anyone was in doubt, he was persuaded and told that Nürnberg could never make inquiries owing to the large number of defendants. When I explained their stupidity to the junior ranks and told them that the senior ranks only wanted to use us to lie their way through, this led to heated discussions.
A former senior S.S. leader was always entrusted with the task of working on individuals within the companies; in my company it was a Hauptsturmfuehrer. He had me called in and placed the questionnaire before me for signature. I said "I will not sign". He said "Everyone must sign, otherwise the list will have no effect in Nürnberg". * * * I told him that I would
sign no list, no matter what he might threaten me with. I did not want to sign, firstly because I had been thrown out as early as 1937 and secondly because I myself had after all told my friends that we did not have to sign, and that this was only to be done for the benefit of the senior S.S. leaders. There were rather
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a lot of junior ranks in this company, so that they could not really get at me with the measures I had been threatened with if I refused to sign. I was then to be removed from the company and sent to the punishment camp. By chance a large scale round up (Razzia) by the British camp authorities began, and many of these S.S. leaders were sent to the Punishment camp themselves. Soon after that I was discharged.
The German leaders in the camp did not themselves have the power to send me to the punishment camp, but there were many delicate methods of deceiving the British camp staif into sending prisoners whom they (the German leaders) wished to harm, to the Punishment camp, or into punishing them in other ways, without them (the camp staif) knowing that an injustice was being committed. Among such methods were, for example, hints via the German clerks; the German interpreters, etc.
The S.S. leaders in the camp used to like to relate all the things they had done, and I myself heard many of their experiences. From all that I heard I am quite sure that of the 400 or so members of the Allgemeine S.S. in the camp not more than 40 could have filled in the questionnaire truthfully with innocent answers.
As I myself was expelled from the S.S. in 1937 I could have filled the questionnaire in relatively truthfully, but after I was expelled I learned enough to know that no member of the Allgemeine S.S. who was on active service after 1937 (i.e. nearly everyone in the camp) could have truthfully asserted that he had never heard of atrocities which were committed in concentration camps, or that he had never heard of crimes committed by the S.S. I myself heard of the atrocities in concentration camps when my driver drove to Neuengamme camp. He was not allowed in,. but saw enough from the gate. When he returned, he told me that things were bad in Neuengamme concentration camp.
[Sgd] KURT EHRHARDT.
Affidavit concerning SS men and other Nazis who were interned at the Neuengamme camp after the war, where the senior leaders attempted to evade prosecution, and the widespread knowledge among SS members about SS atrocities
Authors
Kurt Ehrhardt (businessman, Hamburg)
Kurt Ehrhardt
- Additional details not yet available.
Date: Date Unknown
Literal Title: Affidavit by Kurt Ehrhardt of Hamburg, Steinstr. 23
Total Pages: 3
Language of Text: English
Source of Text: Nazi conspiracy and aggression (Office of United States Chief of Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality. Washington, D.C. : U.S. Government Printing Office, 1946.)
Evidence Code: D-973
HLSL Item No.: 451506
Notes:D 973 (not necessarily this copy) was entered as UK exhibit 628 in the trial. The affidavit is not dated.