Affidavit concerning commandant Franz Ziereis's account of Mauthausen, including the number of staff and prisoners, deaths, Himmler's order to liquidate all the prisoners, the gas chamber and gas van, orders given by Mueller and Kaltenbrunner; and Marsalek's account of visits by Kaltenbrunner and von Schirach

AFFIDAVIT OF HANS MARSALEK
I, Hans Marsalek, after first being duly sworn, declare as follows :
1. I was born on 19 July 1914 in Vienna, and was in Concentration Camp Mauthausen from 29 September 1942 until my liberation. I had the function of second clerk in this camp. My present occupation is with the Directorate of Police in Vienna as the Director of Department IV. Counter-Intelligence Service of the State Police [Staatspolizeilicher Abwehrdienst], and my present address is: Vienna 19, Grinzingerstrasse 12.
2. On 22 May 1945, the Commandant of the Concentration Camp Mauthausen, Franz Ziereis, was shot while escaping by American soldiers and was taken to the branch camp of Gusen. Franz Ziereis was interrogated by me in the presence of the Commander of the 11th Armored Division (American Armored Division) Seibel; the former prisoner and physician Dr. Koszeinski; and in the presence of another Polish citizen, name unknown, for a period of six to eight hours. The interrogation was effected in the night from 22 May to 23 May 1945. Franz Ziereis was seriously wounded—his body had been penetrated by three bullets— and knew that he would die shortly and told me the following:
"I joined the SS on 30 September 1936 as a training specialist with the rank of Obersturmfuehrer (Lieutenant). I was assigned to the 4th SS Regt at Oranienburg and was transferred to Mauthausen on 17 February 1939, with the rank of Hauptsturmfuehrer (Captain) and as successor to the former Commandant of the camp, SS Fuehrer Saurer. My
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rapid and extraordinary career is due to the fact that I volunteered frequently for the Front. By orders of the Reichs-fuehrer SS Himmler I was forced to remain in Mauthausen. The SS complement in Mauthausen had the following organization :
There was one SS man for ten prisoners. The highest number of prisoners was about 17,000 (seventeen thousand), with the exception of the branch camps. The highest number in Camp Mauthausen, the branch camps included, was about
90,000 (ninety thousand).
The total number of prisoners who died was 65,000 (sixty-five thousand). The complement was made up of Totenkopf units, strength of 5,000 (five thousand) men, which were made up of guards and the command staff.
Later, 6,000 (six thousand) men came from the Army and the Air Forces [Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe], for guard duty and they were put into SS uniforms. Moreover, there were many "Racial Germans" [Volks Deutsche] who had been conscripted into the Wehrmacht. The recruitment of former prisoners into the SS was done on orders of Himmler. These were to fight against the enemy, particularly the Bolsheviks. For the greater part they were to be recruited as volunteers.
I have personally killed about 4,000 (four thousand) prisoners by assigning them to the Penal Company. The formation of Penal Companies was done by order of Berlin to effect a more rapid extermination of prisoners through hard labor. I always took part personally in the executions.
By order of Dr. Lohnauer, incorrigible professional criminals were transferred to Hartheim near Linz as mentally deficient, where they were exterminated by a special system of SS Captain Krebsbach. The greatest number of murdered prisoners goes to the account of Bachmeyer. Chemielskwy and Seidler in Gusen had human skin specially tanned on which, there were tattoos. From this leather they had books bound, and they had lampshades and leather cases made.
According to an order by Himmler, I was to liquidate all prisoners on behalf of SS Obergruppenfuehrer Dr. Kalten-brunner; the prisoners were to be led into the tunnels of the factory Bergkristall and only one entrance was to be left open. Then this entrance was to be blown up by the use of explosives and the death of the prisoners was to be effected in this manner. I refused to carry out this order. This matter was the extermination of the prisoners of the so-called Mother
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camp, Mauthausen, and of the camps Gusen I and Gusen II. Details of this are known to Herr Wolfram and SS Obersturm-fuehrer Eckermann.
A gassing plant was built in Concentration Camp Mauthausen by order of the former garrison doctor, Dr. Krebsbach, camouflaged as a bathroom. Prisoners were gassed in this camouflaged bathroom. Apart from that a specially built automobile commuted between Mauthausen and Gusen, in which prisoners were gassed while travelling. The idea for the construction of this automobile was Dr. Wasicki's, SS Unter-sturmfuehrer and pharmacist. I, myself, never put any gas into this automobile, I only drove it, but I knew that prisoners were being gassed. The gassing of the prisoners was done on the urging of SS Hauptsturmfuehrer Dr. Krebsbach.
Everything that we carried out was ordered by the Reich Security Main Office [Reichssicherheitshauptamt], furthermore, by SS Obergruppenfuehrer Mueller or Dr. Kaltenbrun-ner, the latter being Chief of the Security Police.
SS Obergruppenfuehrer Pohl gave the order that prisoners were to be driven into the woods because they were weak and had had no food, in order to pick berries there and to eat buds. The above-mentioned shortened the daily ration from 750 grms per day to 350 grms per day through the administration. SS Gruppenfuehrer Gluecks gave the order to classify weak prisoners as mentally deranged and to kill them by a gas plant which existed in the Castle Hartheim near Linz. There, about a million or a million and a half human beings were killed. Those prisoners were reported as having died from natural causes [Normal Verstorbene]. The death reports of prisoners still alive, who were to be transported, were sent to the political department concerned previous to their transport.
The number of prisoners who were murdered in Hartheim is not known to me, but the number of victims at Hartheim is about one million or a million and a half, including the civilians who were sent to Hartheim, The gassing plant in Mauthausen was really built by order of SS Obergruppenfuehrer Gluecks, since he was of the opinion that it was more humane to gas the prisoners than to shoot them. One day Obergruppenfuehrer Pohl sent me about 3,000 women and children without prior notice, who were without food for ten days. In December 1944, they were transported in open coal cars without blankets. The children of these transports had
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to be put on the march to Bergen Belsen by order from Berlin and I suppose that all of them died.
The Gauleiter Eigruber denied me food for new arrivals and all weak prisoners. He ordered that I was to turn over 50% of the potatoes which had been stored for the winter to the Gau (District).
SS Obergruppenfuehrer Gluecks was the one who gave the order to transfer those prisoners who were working in the Crematorium of Mauthausen Concentration Camp to Gusen and to have them killed by shooting them in the neck. There was a secret order whereby the Crematorium.Kommando was to be killed every three weeks.
In the presence of Baldur von Schirach, Gauleiter Reiner, Dr. Ueberreiter, Dr. Juri, I received the following order from Reichsfuehrer Himmler: The Jews who were working on the South East Wall fortifications must be put on the march from all places of the South East Border of the Ostmark after finishing their work; their destination was to be Mauthausen. According to Himmler's order, 60,000 Jews were to come to Mauthausen. In point of fact only a fraction of this number arrived. As an example I mention a transport which left with 4,500 Jews but which arrived with 180. It is unknown to me from which place the transport originated. Women and children had no shoes—they were covered with rags and had lice. In this transport there were whole families and innumerable persons were shot on the way because of general bodily weakness. *
Under my administration, following camps: as Commandant, there were the
Mauthausen with about 12,000 prisoners
Gusen I and II with about 24,000 prisoners
Linz I with about 5,000 prisoners
Gusen III . with about 300 prisoners
Linz II - - with about 500 prisoners
Linz III with about 300 prisoners
Ebensee with-about 12,000 prisoners
Passau I with about 600 prisoners
Passau II with about 150 prisoners
Passau III with about 60 prisoners
Ternberg with about 500 prisoners
Grossramming with about 3,000 prisoners
Melk with about 10,000 prisoners
Eisenerz with about 500 prisoners
St. Lambrecht with about 350 prisoners
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20 prisoners 500 prisoners 70 prisoners 500 prisoners
3.000 prisoners
4.000 prisoners
1.500 prisoners
1.000 prisoners
3.000 prisoners
1.000 prisoners 800 prisoners
2.000 prisoners
3.000 prisoners
1.500 prisoners
2.000 prisoners
3.000 prisoners 450 prisoners
1.000 prisoners
Schloss Lindt ........ with about
Peggau ............... with about
Klagenfurt-Junkerschule with about
Laibach .............. with about
Loiblpass ____________ with about
Schechart-Henkelwerke.. with about
Wiener-Neustadt ...... with about
Mistelbach ........... with about
Wiener-Neudorf ....... with about
Florisdorf ___________ with about
Florisdorf Henkelwerke with about
Sauerwerke Wien....... with about
Steyer-Muenichholz ... with about
St. Valentin ......... with about
Weis ................. with about
Amstetten ............ with about
Gunskirchen .......... with about
Schlier ______________ with about
There were still several other camps, the total being about 45 (forty-five). However, I cannot remember anymore exactly now.
During the last month, or month and a half before the end, there was a Kommando of Lithographs and Graphic experts in Camp Schlier. They were exclusively occupied in printing false Pound Sterling notes, as well as with the falsification of identification papers and stamps from all over the world. As far as I was informed, this Kommando made a total of 750,000,000. Pound notes and this Kommando was founded at the time by order of Dr. Kaltenbrunner, at Oranienburg, in the Concentration Camp Sachsenhausen.
In order to stop sexual intercourse between prisoners of the same sex, as far as possible, in the year 1942 a bordello for prisoners was opened. The visitors were asked two marks as payment—the prostitute received fifty Pfennings [Translator's note: 14 mark] and the remaining l1/^ Mk went to the central Concentration Camp Office at Oranienburg.
The reason for the execution of the Austrians who had been in Mauthausen Concentration Camp for almost a year is the following:
On the suggestion of the Gauleiter Eigruber, Dr. Pip-prater, and also the Director of the Linz Gestapo Office, Spann, the execution was carried out. A certain agent of the Gestapo, Prohaska, was put in charge of the execution.
The son of Regent [Reichsverweser] Horthy lived in ar-
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rest at Mauthausen under the covername "Maus" (Mouse), Badoglio, under the name "Brausewetter." All prominent prisoners in the arrest building at Mauthausen received these covernames. On order of the Gauleiter Eigruber, the above-mentioned were to be killed, but after further discussion with Col. Kuppert I refused to carry out this order. I sent these people to Dachau with the exception of Horthy who hid himself among the cells."
3. I, Hans Marsalek, declare in addition, as follows: '
With reference to the number of one million to one and a half
million murdered human beings in Hartheim, which was the number given by Franz Ziereis, it is pointed out to him by me that this number was too high. He however insisted on this number and explained to me that actually a great number of mentally deranged from the entire Southern Area of Germany were shipped there and liquidated. This accounts for the high number of victims. In spite of his serious injury and his knowledge that he would probably die soon, Franz Ziereis tried to put the greater part of the guilt on his subordinates.
In early summer of 1943, SS-Obergruppenfuehrer Dr. Kaltenbrunner visited the Concentration Camp Mauthausen. The Camp Commandant Ziereis, Gauleiter Eigruber, first leader of the Protective Custody camp Bachmeyer and several others accompanied Kaltenbrunner. I saw Dr. Kaltenbrunner and the people who accompanied him with my own eyes. According to the testimony of the "Corpse Carriers" of that time, the former prisoners Albert Tiefenbacher, present address Salzburg; and Johann Polster, present address Pottendorf near Wiener Neustadt, Austria; about fifteen prisoners of the arrest class were selected by Untersehar-fuehrer Winkler, in order to show Dr. Kaltenbrunner three ways of extermination, by a shot in the neck, hanging, and gassing. Women whose hair had been cut were among the executed and they were killed by shots in the neck. Above-mentioned "Corpse Carriers" were present at the execution and had to carry the corpses to the Crematorium. Dr. Kaltenbrunner went to the Crematorium after the execution and later went into the quarry.
Baldur von Schirach visited the camp in fall of 1944. He, too, went to the arrest building and also to the Crematorium. Eight or nine "political" Austrians were shown to him at the time, and he promised to discharge them soon. As a matter of fact, actually one of these men, whose name I have forgotten, was discharged soon thereafter. -
4. I declare that the above testimony was given by me voluntarily and that no compulsion was exerted on me.
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It conforms to the truth, to the best of my knowledge and to the best of my conscience, and I swear to it.
Nürnberg, 8 April 1946.
/s/ Marsalek, Hans.
/t/ Hans Marsalek.
Subscribed and sworn to before me today this 8th day of the month of April 1946.
/s/ Smith W. Brookhart Jr. *
/t/ Smith W. Brookhart Jr. Lt. Col Executive Officer, Interrogation Division OUSCC APO 124A US Army.