Then follows a paragraph on price policy, which I shall not read. Then follows the paragraph on mental institutions, reading as follows:
"Mental Institutions:
"The removal of patients of mental institutions to other districts could naturally not remain hidden from the public.
"It also appears that the established commissions work too hastily, are not always licky, and that several mistakes occurred. Nor can one prevent individual cases from becoming known and spoken about.
"The following cases should naturally not have occurred:
"1. Through an oversight one family received two urns.
"2. One notification of death indicated appendicitis as the cause of death. The appendix, however, had already been removed ten years previously."
Still reading from the report of the Kreisleiter at Ansbach, saying the following cases should not have occurred, he lists as:
"3. Another cause of death quoted was a disease of the spinal cord. Relatives of the family had visited the patient, then in perfect physical health, only eight days before.
"One family received a notification of death, although the woman still lives in the institution today and enjoys perfect physical health. "Some time ago, an obituary notice was inserted in the local 'Frankische Zeitung" by the relatives: '__________ has been taken away from us by a tragic fate.'" Those are the things that the Kreisleiter of Ansbach says should never have happened in the Euthanasia, program.
"With these highly delicate measures,....."
the report continues, "it is difficult to make suggestions as to how to counter a further spreading of facts or rumors arising from them as well as completely invested rumors.
It would be necessary, at least for the Kreisleiters, to receive confidential information about the measures themsel ves.
In addition, the competent Kreisleiter should also be notified at the same time as the relatives, in order to enable him to observe the effect on the relatives, to watch their behavior, and, if necessary, intervene in a suitable manner."
"Heil Hitler!
"(signature illegible)" The following is an excerpt from the second page of a letter, as shown by the original document, from E. Walz, Kreisleiter.
The translation unfortunately, starts in the middle of a sentence. However, the original document is complete:
"families were refusing to send their sick to institutions as they did not know whether they would get them back alive. The district physician in Nurnberg had informed him that in the city of Nurnberg, 2 charges for murder had been preferred by the relatives of such sick persons.
"The Party has not received any complaints or accusations of this sort, up to now."
"Heil Hitler!
(signature) "E. Walz, Kreisleiter."
The next part of the Document D-906 which I should like to refer to, is that contained on Page 277, which is a, letter dated 5 March 1941, which I will not read and at the bottom of Page 277 is a file note which I shall not take time to read. Turning to Page 278 I should like to read the letter appearing on that page, still a part of Document D-906, from Sellmer, Chief of the Gau Staff Office, addressed to Sturmbannfuehrer Freidrich, Nurnberg;
"Subject: Unrest of the population of Absberg owing to the conspicuous evacuation of the inmates of the Ottilienheim.
"As I have already informed you by telephone, the evacuation of further inmates of the Ottilienheim has caused much unpleasantness. I enclose herewith for your information the comprehensive report of the Kreisleiter, party member Geistner, and I will inform you in due course of further inquiries to take place.
I have just received a telephone message from the Ortsgruppenleiter of the NSDAP in Absbert, Party member Kirchhof, who is employed as foreman in the Muna Langlan and also lives there, about an incident which has disturbed the population in Absberg to an exceptional degree. In Absberg, which is part of the area of the former Kreisleitung of Gunzenhausen, the Abbey of Ottilienheim is situated in the middle of the market place. In this Ottilienheim were housed a few hundred mentally defective people who, as far as they were fit for any work, were employed on the farm of the Ottilienheim. These mentally defective persons were originally sent there by the various Country Welfare Organizations. Already last year 25 inmates were removed in the course of the well known measures. Of these, 24 died while 1 inmate was again brought back to the Ottilienheim. This was allegedly a case of inmates for whom the Country Welfare Organization of Swabia had to provide.."
And then comes the interesting part of the letter:
"Last Friday the inmates of the Ottilienheim for whose cost the Country Welfare Organization of Upper Franconia and Middle Franconia had assumed the responsibility, were taken away in two large cars. The removal was carried out under the direction of a professor from Erlangen by the personnel of that institution. The people were taken away in the most conspicuous manner imaginable. Instead of the buses entering the courtyard to pick up the inmates who were to be removed, the vehicles were stationed outside the Ottilienheim in the middle of the market place. The inmates of the Ottilienheim to be removed who had been thoroughly stirred up, had to be taken to the vehicles one by one and by the use of force. The whole population of Absberg, which is strongly Catholic, had congregated and watched the incident, crying loudly. That certain circles made appropriate psychological use of this incident cannot be regarded as a surprise. Party member Kirchhof reported that there were even party members among these weeping onlookers and that, in the general excitement of the people, certain remarks were made which must be regarded as irresponsible. It goes without saying that the pastor of the Ottilienheim himself helped to create the appropriate atmosphere by having the people who were to be removed brought to the Abbey church for confession and communion in the morning and having them practically carried to the altar with the help of the nuns.
"I shall now made detailed inquires about the incident through the Landrat. I consider it necessary, however, to advise the competent authorities to use somewhat more tact in the removal of these persons who just have to be eliminated as a Reich defense measure, as it is not necessary to create unneces sary difficulties and play into the hands of our opponents. As soon as I receive the report, I shall pass it to the Gaustabsamt (Gau Staff Office)."
"Heil Hitler, signed by "Sellmer" The next letter, on page 280, still a part of the same document, D-906, is a letter with the subject heading:
"Incidents on the occasion of the latest removal of mentally defective persons from the Ottilienheim Absberg" signed by Kirchhof, referred to in the previous letter, and dated 23 February 1941, reading as follows:
"To the Kreisleitung of the NSDAP, Weissenburg.
"With reference to the telephone conversation mentioned above, the desired report about the recent incidents in Absberg a few days ago is enclosed herewith for your information.
"We would like to request you not to pass on the original of this report to the Gendarmerie Officer Pfister in Absberg for eventual examination of the participating spectators, as the Ortsgruppe fears that Pfister, who is judged and regarded as strongly Catholic by us, may not take effective steps against his own fellow believers in this matter.
"The local Ortsgruppe itself, however, is of the opinion that the Ottilienheim will serve a much more useful purpose if it is cleared of its present inmates and placed at the disposal of the State as a military hospital or some other institution of military use."
"Heil Hitler!
(signature) "Kirchhof" The next following document is the report contained in Kirchhof's letter and is one of the most remarkable documents that I have seen.
It is a confidential report on the removal from Erlangen of the inmates of the asylum and it shows between the lines more eloquently than words the subjugation and the terror and the fear in which people lived under the Nazi regime. Obviously, Kirchhoff, the writer of this letter, lived in such mortal fear. The report contained in the previous letter reads as follows:
"In the course of last Friday, 21 February 1941, a bus from Erlangen took 57 inmates of the Ottilienheim Absberg away in two parties, allegedly for an examination at the clinic at Erlangen. In the bus itself there were a doctor and three nurses who loaded these people on to the bus and supervised each transport.
"A great number of spectators congregated each time these people were put on the bus and it is reported that the loading did not take place in the courtyard but in front of the gate. The wildest scenes imaginable are reported to have taken place then, as some of these people did not board the bus voluntarily and were therefore forced to do so by the accompanying personnel.
"There were people who......."
Parenthetically, these people who fought not to be taken on the bus to the Euthanasia Station, "........were imbeciles and feeble minded and were said to have other epileptic illnesses as well, and whose upkeep the state and other Public Bodies have so far had to provide for either completely, or at least for the greater part.
"I was able to learn in this connection that the Country Organization of Swabia fetched eight such persons back last autumn, and that seven of these were said to have died very shortly afterwards of influenza and low blood pressure, which set in. Only one person returned to the Ottilienheim in Absberg.
"This matter gradually became known to Absberg, and as a result a great crowd of people gathered also on the occasion of that last action who, I have heard, allowed themselves to pass remarks against the National Socialist State. I was unfortunately unable to find out the names of the spectators concerned, as all spectators who had taken part showed great reticence towards me about this matter during my investigation.
"These incidents during this action, which is, after all, necessary, are to be considered all the mere because even Party members themselves did not shrink from joining in the lamentations of the other weeping spectators. The fact that a certain group of the spectators concerned gave expression to their former convictions and did not refrain from minimizing and criticizing the great necessity of the measures taken and introduced in the course of Reich defense, was only to be expected from these people.
"It is said that a section of those people even went so far as to formulate and discominate more or less the following assertion. 'The State must be in a bad way new, or it could not happen that these poor people should simply be sent to their death solely in order that the means which until now have been used for the upkeep of those people are made available for the prosecution of the War'. This view originates predominantly from the Catholic population of Abensberg.
"It is even said that those poor victims - as they are regarded by the clergy and the religious inhabitants of Absberg - were taken to the Catholic church for confession and communion shortly before their departure. It seems absolutely ridiculour to attempt to absolve by an oral confession the possible sins of people, some of whom completely lack all mental powers.
"Although of the 57 people that were fetched away, there were some that had been employed by the Ottilien-heim in the kitchen and in agriculture and, as it happens, could only carry out these asks under supervision, the measures taken can, for that reason too, not be understood by the population. As this measure is gradually becoming known now, yesterday already 7 such people were taken back by relatives into their households, so that they allegedly could no longer be included in the action. To be added to this is the fact that about 14 days age strangers thoroughly inspected the Ottilienheim and made notes as to the size of the rooms, etc. Because of all these reasons, the population of Abensberg now fears that the Ottilienheim may possibly be evacuated and made available for other purposes." dated 24th February, 1941, signed Kirchhof. On the following page appears another report on the same incident, which I will not read. The same is true of page 285 and the same is also true of the report on page 286, still a part of the British Document D-906, also page 287. On page 288 appears a letter, signed by the Kreisleiter of Gauleitung Franconia dated March 7, 1941, which reads as follows:
"Regarding: Removal of inmates of the Bruckberg institution.
"The Ortsgruppenleiter of the Bruckberg Ortsgruppe, Party member Reuschel. makes the following report:
"The news of the removal of some of the inmates of the Bruckberg Institution has caused the greatest unrest among the population of Bruckberg, unrest which was further increased by the fact that some of the inmates to be removed, namely, these who in the opinion of the inhabitants are still 'in their right minds', came into nearly every house to say good-bye. One could almost be led to believe that it is a question here of a farewell carried out on orders, but I am informed from reliable sources that the inmates felt of their own accord that it was their duty to say goodbye, and that probably one imitated the others. Apart from the fact that one recognizes clearly in these case how far the ordinary German is receptive to the solution of this question to hereditary disease, I asked before for my own opinion for weeks from all sides and what attitude the Party takes in this matter.
"Ortsgruppenleiter Reuschel is furthermore of the opinion that he should speak about the removal of the inmates, if possible at the next meeting of Party members, in order to give the facts and above all to squash, the rumors that have arisen to the effect that the inmates would very seen be put out of the way, done away with or poisoned.
"I, however, am of the opinion that it is better now as before not to talk about his matter at all and I ask you to notify me accordingly if you held different views.
"As I evaluate the situation, a certain amount of unrest will naturally continue to arise, which will be especially fostered by attacks, the sooner will calm be restored here too. Heil Hitler," (signed) the Kreisleiter.
The next part of Document 906, appearing on pages 290 and 291, I will omit reading. On page 292 appears a latter signed by Dr. Schumann and addressed to the attention of Professor Heyde, reading as follows:
"Dear Professor Heyde: Enclosed I submit to you a letter of a relative whose two sisters have died at our place.
"I ask for information, whether in this case the writer is to be brought here for a discussion, or whether as usually the necessary precaution is to be used especially in explaining that the death of the two sisters secured in a natural way.
"We have sent a copy of this letter to Dr. Hefelmann because he is interested in such letters and since he considered particularly to give reasonable hints in the letters to the relatives. Heil Hitler," (signed) Dr. Schumann.
Page 294 is near the end of Document D-906, however, since it is a repetition of what was given before, I will omit reading it.
On page 295, I offer as evidence Document 660, as prosecution Exhibit 377. This document is a secret letter signed by Sellmer, regarding mental institutions. The nature of the letter is of such a secret nature that even the names of the addresses does not appear on the letter.
"The following is for your personal information. Please destroy this sheet afterwards.
"For sometime, the inmates of mental institutions are visited by a commission which functions upon the order of some very high office. The commission has the order to find out which inmates should be selected for a transport to certain other institutions, The commission bases its decision on the records of the institution. The patients who are then transferred are examined again in the institution designated by the commission and then the decision is made whether they should be freed from their sufferings.
"The dead body itself is to be cremated and the ashes are placed at the disposal of the relatives. Small mistakes in notifying are naturally always liable to occur, and in the future it will not be possible to avoid them either The commission itself is anxious to avoid all mistakes. I could give you further information but I would like to abstain from it and beg you to lock me up when you visit the Gauleitung.
"I believe that we as National-Socialists can welcome this action, which is for the affected individual extraordinarly serious.
I beg you therefore, to oppose all rumors and grumblings with the necessary emphasis by presenting our point of view in regard to these matters."
The next document, which I should like to offer into evidence, is No. 665, Prosecution Exhibit 378 and it appears on page 296 of the document Book No. 3. I will not read the entire document, but only the last paragraph. It is signed by Kreisleiter Gerstner and dated February 24, 1941. On the letterhead is the NSDAP, Nuremberg. The last paragraph reads as follows:
"I shall now have detailed investigations made by the Landrat with regard to this incident," the incident being the removal of the inmates from the Ottilien home, "but it also seems necessary to me to draw the attention of the responsible authorities to the fact that somehow more that should be used in the removal of such people who are to be done away with in the course of the Reich defense, as it is not necessary to create unnecessary difficulties and to play into the hands of our opponents. As soon as I shall have the report, I shall transmit it to the Gau staff office."
The next Document, which I should like to offer, is No. 781 as Prosecution Exhibit 379, appearing on page 299. I will omit reading this Document as it describes generally the Euthanasia program and is a repetition of what already has been read.
The same is true of Document No. 781, which I would like to offer as Prosecution Exhibit No. 379, appearing on page 302.
The last document in the Document Book No. 3 is No, 781. I should only like to read the last page in the document book, which is page 303. It is a letter signed by Blankenburg, marked "confidential", to the Gauleitung Franconia of the NSDAP, dated 8 March 1941. The reads as follows:
"For special reasons I request you to submit a complete list of all workhouses and other institutions within your Gau which serve as shelters for social and anti-social elements.
At the same time I request information as to who is in charge of operating the institution in question and how many inmates are sheltered there.
"Since the composition of the groups of inmates varies quite extensively, according to previous experience, I should also like to receive information on that subject, if possible. I place special emphasis on learning whether, due to the lack of other housing facilities - which I know to be the case in individual institutions - incurable cases of insanity as well as idiocy are also kept there.
"Please send me the list within 4 weeks.
Heil Hitler!"
Signed "Blankenburg."
This completes the presentation of Document Book No. 14, and if the Tribunal please, we have a witness to put on, and since it is nearly time to adjourn, I suggest we wait until morning to examine the witness.
DR. FROESCHMAN: Mr. President, Mr. Froeschman for the defendant Brack. At the concluding of the reading of Document D-906, the Prosecution his read a letter from Dr. Schumann to Heyde, which was not contained in the Document Book. This appears of importance for the defense, and I request the prosecution see that we be given this document. I would also be grateful to the Prosecution if in presenting the individual document, they would also state the page in the German Document Book, because the series in the German Document Book vary considerably from the page numbers in the English Document Book.
MR. ROBBINS: We will obtain the Schumann letter for defense counsel, and I am sorry it was omitted from the book. We will also see if it is not possible at the same time to see that the English pages referred to are referred to in the German Document Book.
THE PRESIDENT: The suggestion by the Defense seems most reasonable. I hope the prosecution will comply with the request if possible.
When did you expect to call your witness?
MR. ROBBINS: We would prefer to wait until the first thing in the morning.
THE PRESIDENT: You are advised that Tribunal No. 1 will recess until 11 o'clock tomorrow morning. The tribunal will recess until that hour.
Official transcript of the American Military Tribunal in the matter of the United States of America, against Karl Brandt, et al, defendants, sitting at Nurnberg, Germany, on 14 January 1947, 0930, Justice Beals, presiding.
THE MARSHAL: The Honorable Judges of Military Tribunal 1.
Military Tribunal 1 is now in session.
God save the United States of America and this Honorable Tribunal.
There will be order in the courtroom.
THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Marshal, ascertain if the defendants are all present in the courtroom.
THE MARSHAL: May it please, Your Honor, all the defendants are present in the courtroom.
THE PRESIDENT: The Secretary-General will note for the record the presence of all the defendants in the court.
The prosecution may proceed.
MR. HARDY: May it please the Tribunal, during the examination of the witness Kogon reference was made to a man named Ferdinand Roemhild who was secretary in the hospital barracks at Buchenwald. Kogon stated that man might mere specifically testify as to some of the activities within the hospital barracks. The prosecution respectfully requests that the witness Ferdinand Roemhild be called to the stand at this time.
THE PRESIDENT: The marshal will summon the witness Ferdinand Roemhild.
FERDINAND ROEMHILD? a witness, took the stand and testified as follows:
BY JUDGE SEBRING:
Q Will you raise your right hand and be sworn. Repeat after me: I by God, the Almighty and Omniscient, that I will speak the pure truth and will withheld and add nothing.
(The witness repeated the oath.)
THE PRESIDENT: The witness will be seated.
DIRECT EXAMINATION
BY MR. HARDY:
Q Witness, your name is Ferdinand Roemhild?
A Yes.
Q You were born on 11 April 1903?
A 1903.
Q Where were you born, witness?
A Frankfort am Main.
Q You are a citizen of Germany?
A Yes.
Q What is your present address?
A Hebel Strasse 15.
Q Witness, what is your educational background?
A I went to a high school. Then I studied for a few years in Frankfurt on the Main and I later became a merchant.
Q When did you complete your education?
A In the year of 1925.
Q After 1925 your occupation was that of a merchant, witness?
A Yes, for sometime I was unemployed.
Q After the completion of your education and until your arrest in March, 1935, what was your employment? What did you engage in during that time?
A I didn't quite understand the German translation.
Q Would you kindly outline for us, witness, what your employment was between the dates of the completion of your education and until March 1935?
A For sometime I worked as a correspondent and then I worked until 1934 in my own business, together with a friend of mine.
Q Did you ever become associated with the German Communistic Party?
A Ever since December of 1934 I worked with the illegal Communistic Party and spread illegal leaflets.
Q In other words, witness, you were engaged in political activities which were construed to be anti-Nazi?
A Yes.
Q. And for that reason were you placed under arrest?
A On March 20, 1935, I was arrested and was indicted because cf preparing to commit treason. In November, 1935 I was sentenced to three years penitentiary, a sentence which I served until March, 1938 in the penitentiary of Kassel. After serving this sentence I was sent to the concentration camp of Buchenwald where I remained over since April 2, 1938, until my liberation on April 11, 1945.
Q Then you were an innate of the Buchenwald Concentration Camp for a period of approximately seven years, is that correct, witness?
A Yes, for about seven years.
Q Now, prior to your arrest in 1935 were you ever arrested or in the custody of the police?
A No this was my first sentence.
Q Now, returning to the Buchenwald Concentration Camp, what was your first duty in the camp?
AAt first I did physical work in the camp of Buchenwald. I went to the quarry, and then was put on various difficult tasks until finally, in the year of 1939, after having worked in the office for some time and in the photographic department of the camp, I became a clerk in the hospital of the concentration camp.
Q When did you become a clerk in the hospital barracks of the concentration camp?
A In the summer of 1939.
Q Were your duties there as clerk solely of an administrative nature?
AAt first I was active as a clerk in the First Aid Department and then later on was sent to the so-called administrative office where I had dealings with registrations, etc., and also for some years I had to take care of the monies belonging to the inmates.
Q Now, witness, in the spring of 1940, approximately one year after you were assigned to duty in the hospital barracks, did you become the first clerk in the camp.... in the first camp physician's office?
A The first clerk - yes, I became that in the summer of 1943.
Q Then were you assigned to duty as a subordinate clerk in the first camp physician's office in 1940?
A The German translation isn't coming through very well.
Q I repeat, witness. Differentiating between your duties as a clerk in the hospital barracks, were you in 1940 assigned as a clerk in the office of the first camp physician?
A The year of 1943, yes.
Q Now, in your duties in the camp as a clerk was Dr. Hoven assigned there to duty?
A For some weeks I worked for Dr. Hoven who then, at the beginning of September or the end of August of 1939, was arrested.
Q Now, witness, who was the first camp physician in 1940?
A In 1940, it was Dr. Bliess, and after that, Dr. Koebrich. Some time later Dr. Poppisch came to us. As far as I remember it was only then that Dr. Hoven came to us.
Q Was Dr. Hoven assistant under any of the three doctors you have just named?
A Dr. Hoven was at first the second camp physician and then later became the first camp physician.
Q When did Dr. Hoven become the first camp physician?
A That probably was in the spring of 1941.
Q And you continued to work in the office under Hoven, is that correct, and became his private secretary in the summer of 1943?
A Yes. Until August, 1943 I was clerk in the administrative office and then I became his secretary.
Q Summing up then, witness, you were assigned to the camp hospital for a period of six years. That is, from the spring of 1939 until the liberation in 1945. Is that correct?
A Yes.
Q In your duties as a clerk and as secretary were you in a position to read classified correspondence and reports?
A Yes.
Q I assume, witness, that you know Dr. Hoven very well?
A I believe to know him rather well.
Q Witness, at this time will you please stop down from the witness box and go over to the defendants' deck and point to the man you know to be Dr. Hoven?
A Yes. He is in the last row.
Q What is his location?
A The fifth man in the last row.
MR. HARDY: I respectfully request, Your Honor, that the records show that the witness identified the defendant Hoven properly.
THE PRESIDENT: From which end of the line is Dr. Hoven the fifth man? From your right or from the left?
WITNESS: From the right - the fifth man in the last row.
THE PRESIDENT: The record will show that the witness correctly identified the defendant Hoven.
MR. HARDY: Did Hoven wear a SS uniform while in the camp?
A Yes.
Q What was his rank?
A At the end he was Hauptsturmfuehrer.
Q Due to your position and your association with other inmates and from general knowledge about the camp do you know anything about medical experiments conducted at the Buchenwald concentration camp?
A I only know about the so-called typhus experiments which were carried through in Block 46.
Q Do you know the name Dr. Ding-Schuler?
A Yes.
Q Was Dr. Ding-Schuler the commanding officer of the typhus station?
A Yes, yes.
Q In this position as commanding officer of the typhus station was Dr. Hoven the deputy to Dr. Ding-Schuler?
A He was at least the collaborator and probably represented him while the latter was absent.
Q Mr. Roemhild, did Dr. Hoven participate in the selection of inmates to be subjected to the experiments in the typhus station
A Yes.
Q Would you kindly tell the Tribunal how these selections were made.
A Whenever a series of experiments was intended a certain number of inmates were requested. The selection then followed by using the card index system which we had in our administrative office. The men were then ordered to appear and were brought to the block.
Q Now, did the defendant Hoven over strike anyone off the lists of those to be transferred to Block 46 because of the influence of the political prisoners?
A Certainly. They were mostly so-called criminal inmates and homosexuals. In only very rare cases were there any political prisoners among them.
Q Were any of the inmates used in the experiments volunteers?
A You can hardly speak about volunteers in a case like that.
Q Were any of these inmates used pardoned after successfully undergoing such experiments?
A No, I can't remember any such case.
Q Were the inmates used all healthy persons?
A They had to be healthy. Otherwise they wouldn't have stood up to the experiments.
Q Were the inmates used in these experiments, witness, all nationalities?
A They were mostly Germans since members of foreign nations were always considered as political inmates.
Q In the course of these experiments conducted at 46 can you estimate how many victims died as a result of the experiments? That is, all the experiments?
A It is very hard to estimate the number but I would say that it reached the number of three hundred.
Q Now, witness, after the inmates had been sent to Block 46 for experimental purposes and if an inmate died were records then kept as to the cause of his death?
A Yes, then a death report was made and the cause of death was always designated as something different - not always typhus.
Q In other words, most of the death certificates stated that the inmate died of natural causes. Would that be a correct presumption?
A Certainly.
Q Witness, are you familiar with the term "Action 14 F 13"?
A Yes.
Q Will you kindly tell the Tribunal what "Action 14 F 13" was?
A I heard about this action by way of writing only later after I received inside into the secret files. In the summer of 1941 there appeared in Buchenwald a delegation which presumably came from the Reich Criminal Office in Berlin and which selected the inmates, especially criminal witnesses who committed sexual violations, but among then were political inmates. These persons were selected - they used very cynical remarks while selecting them - and then at the end of 1941 - the summer of 1941 - were sent to transport to a unknown destination. A very few hours after their departure their personal belongings came back - among them teeth - so that we were quite sure that these inmates were dead. From a conversation between some of the camp leaders in the room where their personal belongings were, a conversation which one of the inmates heard, these persons were killed by way of gas. A second such transport, which was assembled in November, 1941, contained a large number of political inmates.