THE PRESIDENT: Does the witness read the French language?
WITNESS: Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: Is the affidavit which was just handed to the witness in the French language or in the German language?
WITNESS: German. Excuse me, French. French.
THE PRESIDENT: Counsel may call the attention of the witness to the portion of the affidavit concerning which he interrogated her.
DR. FRITZ: Miss Eyer, under Paragraph 9, it is stated - and this is also in the French text which I have also seen - "Professor Rose, Inspector of the Medical Service of the Luftwaffe". It is mentioned that he came to Strasbourg twice.
WITNESS: Rose to Strasbourg twice? What it says here is a mistake. I didn't notice it when I read it through. I have already told you that somebody else typed it and I didn't read it good enough and that escaped me.
Q Therefore it is wrong as it stands now.
A Yes, it is wrong.
Q Another small mistake, Miss Eyer. In the same paragraph 9 it is stated and you have also repeated that earlier today that Professor Rose had gone to Strasbourg for the first time in 1942?
A Yes.
Q The fact is and has also been testified here by the witness Schmidt that Professor Rose came to Strasbourg for the first time in 1943, to visit Professor Haagen.
A That is possible.
Q I do not have any further questions.
DOCTOR MARX (Defense Counsel for defendant Schroeder): Pardon me, Mr. President, I request that I can ask the witness some further questions.
THE PRESIDENT: You may interrogate the witness.
DR. MARX: Miss Eyer, can you still recall the contents of the letter which were addressed to the Central Air Physician, Berlin, personally, with a copy for the Medical Chief of the Luftwaffe?
That is, a letter to the Central Air Fleet Physician, Berlin, with a copy for the Medical Chief of the Luftwaffe. Can you still recall such letters?
A I remember that I wrote them but I do not remember the contents.
Q You cannot recall the contents any more? In your affidavit you spoke of "virulent vaccines". What do you mean by that?
A I just remembered the phrase from a letter which I wrote once.
Q Well, in my opinion, in your affidavit you have talked about virulent vaccines.
A Yes, that was in a letter that fifty prisoners were infected with virulent vaccine.
Q Do you know what virulent vaccine is?
A I assume that the disease was injected into the prisoners through the vaccine but I do not know exactly. I have never studied medicine.
Q Yes. There are two kinds of vaccines - one virulent, one nonvirulent. Therefore, in my opinion, it is a living bacteria. Correct?
A Because it was virulent I assumed that it was to give the prisoners the disease. If it had not been virulent it would have been less dangerous probably.
Q That is a matter which we shall leave to the experts. You spoke of jaundice experiments. However, you stated that you did not know if the Kron prinzen Allee had jaundice.
A I don't know. I only saw a few letters that mentioned it.
Q Are you mixing up jaundice and yellow fever here?
A No, that was yellow fever.
Q You know what we mean by yellow fever?
A Yellow fever is a tropical disease. Jaundice......
Q There are two kinds of jaundice. One is hepatitis -- connected with paralysis of the liver.
A Hepatitis epidemic.
Q Well, there are still others. Once you stated that the experiments with yellow fever were concluded in the year 1943?
Correction sheet for Court No. 1 15 January 1947, page 1776 The question reading:
Q. That is a matter which we shall leave to the experts. You spoke of jaundice experiments. However, you stated that you did not know if the Kron prinzen Allee had jaundice.
SHOULD READ:
Q. That is a matter which we shall leave to the experts. You spoke of jaundice experiments. However, you stated that you did not know if the patients at Wittenau Kron prinzen Allee had had jaundice.
A In 1942.
Q Already in 1942?
A I believe so. They were not completed, they were stopped.
Q As far as I know this was connected with the termination of the Africa campaign.
A Yes. If it was 1943 that was 1943.
Q That was 1943 then. Thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: Any further cross examination of this witness?
Is there any redirect examination by the Prosecution?
REDIRECT EXAMINATION
MR. HARDY: Miss Eyer, in regard to these reports sent to the high command of the Wehrmacht, could it have been that the reports were sent to the Chief of the Medical Service of the OKW?
WITNESS: I didn't understand the question.
DR. NELTE (Defense Counsel for defendant Handloser): I object to this question. The witness has replied to my question clearly that she could not recall to what office of the OKW these reports were submitted and I have asked the witness what signature was placed on the questions of the OKW and she stated that she was unable to recall and finally she answered to my question that she could not recall the reports to the OKW any more. After that, this question by the Prosecutor can only be of a leading kind.
THE PRESIDENT: Objection sustained.
BY MR. HARDY:
Q. Miss Eyer, when you said in your affidavit that Dr. Rose was inspector of the Medical Service of the Luftwaffe, did you mean to say that Professor Rose was from the office of the Inspector of the Medical Service of the Luftwaffe and that he was not the Inspector?
A. Yes, he belonged to the Medical Service of the Luftwaffe, but he was not inspector; at least, I don't believe so.
Q. Now, in these typhus experiments conducted by Dr. Hagen in Natzweiler, did Dr. Haagen infect the concentration camp inmates with typhus?
A. Yes, with virulent vaccines.
Q. New, when you say virulent vaccine, do you mean virulent virus?
A. With virulent virus. That is what I meant, yes.
MR. HARDY: I have no further question, Your Honor.
DR. PRITZ (Counsel for defendant Rose): Mr. President, I still have one additional question to put to the witness which has arisen from the examination by Mr. Hardy.
THE PRESIDENT? Counsel may proceed.
RE-CROSS EXAMINATION BY DR. FRITZ:
Q. Miss Eyer, to the last question of the Prosecutor you replied that the prisoners had been infected with virus. To a further question you stated that you meant with virulent virus, not virulent vaccine. I am now asking you whether you can tell we the difference, for example, between virulent virus and virulent vaccine.
A. No, I assumed that the 50 prisoners in question had to be given that disease so that the typhus experiments could be conducted on them. I have already said that I do not understand about these things.
Q. Thank you, that answers the question sufficiently.
THE PRESIDENT: There being no further questions, the witness may be excused.
(The witness was excused.)
MR. McHANEY: I would now like to offer Document NO 891, on page 52 of the English Document Book, as Prosecution Exhibit 414. This is a memorandum or directive from the Reich Minister of the Interior, Berlin, 6 September 1944. It is addressed to: (a) The Reich Governor, (b) The administration of the provincial association, (c) the County Presidents, (d) the Police President in Berlin, (e) The Lord Mayer of the Reich Capital Berlin. It is concerning "Mentally insane Eastern workers and Poles -- Circular decrees of ft he Reich Minister of the Interior of -- " and then fellows some sort of number and letter reference.
"1. Due to the considerable number of Eastern workers and Poles brought into the German Reich for labor employment, the a assignment of mental cases among them to German asylums is constantly increasing. The purpose of such assignments must be in any case the possibly speediest recovery to working ability. Thus, to those mentally insane people toe all the means of modern therapy must be applied.
But due to lack of space in German institutions, it can net be justified that patients who are not considered a s curable to be able to work again in a reasonably short time may remain permanently or for a long time in German institutions. In order to avoid that the following is ordered:
"2. In the following list I established for each district in the Reich a collective list for incurable mentally insane Eastern workers and Poles. They should be assigned to those institutions immediately if possible. In case this is impossible due to urgency or to transportation difficulties, the institution in question should deliver their Eastern, Polish patients to the collecting, institution in their respective district within at the most one month. It is not necessary to carry out the removal if the patient is considered as being able to leave the institution within six weeks at the latest.
"3. It is the task of the collecting institution to decide whether the restoration of working ability might be considered within a reasonable period of time.
"4. The charge of costs from the date of registration in the collecting institution is to be taken over by the Head cf the Central Financial clearing Office of the Sanitarium in Min*/Oberdenau, P.O. Box 324, which has to be informed immediately of such Assignments. The fixed rate for patients of the general class will be pair to the institutions. The Eastern workers and Poles already assembled in collecting institutions are to be reported on a list immediately to the Central Financial Clearing Office. The charge of costs for those patients as transferred as from 1 October 1944 to the Central Account Office.
"5. After four weeks of the registration in the collecting institution, at the latest, a short report on the prognosis of the case and on the question of working ability has to be sent to the head of the Central Financial Clearing Office. It is the task of that office to direct the transportation of patients from the collecting institutions to nearby special asylums in their home district.
"6. As Poles are to be considered only those who were brought into the Reich for labor employment. This decree does not apply to local Polish population.
"7. The leaders of the Gau, etc., mental institutions are to be informed by their superior officials and the leaders of welfare and private institutions by their competent higher administrative authorities. The required copies are enclosed herewith."
And there follows a list of collecting institutions, which we need, not mention here particularly, except Number 9: "For Kurhessen, Nassay and land Hessen: Mental Institution Hadamar."
"By order: Wiesbaden, 11 September 1944, Landeshaus."
A copy is noted as having been received by the County Mental Institution, Eichberg, "with the request to acknowledge and take further steps."
This document indicates that those Eastern workers who had been forcibly brought into Germany, who no longer wore able to work and who were considered as a burden on the mental institutions in Germany were to be brought together in a collecting institution and, unless they could be discharged in a matter of six weeks, they were to be exterminated and brought under the scope of the euthanasia program. I now would like to offer Document NO 1116 on Page 55 of the Document Book as Prosecution Exhibit 415.
This is a judgment, or rather, an extract from the review and recommendations of the Deputy Theater Judge Advocate in the case of the United States vs. Klein, Wahlmann, et al, held at Wiesbaden, Germany, from 3 October 1945 through 15 October 1945.
I do not think that it is needful for me to read these extracts into the record. I'll state briefly that this is a review of a judgment handed down by a duly appointed military commission of the United States Army in the case of a number of Germans who were tried for participation in the execution of persons of Polish and Russian nationality at Hadamar Institution, which, as we know, was one of the extermination institutions in the euthanasia program. The facts here involve the execution of in excess of 400 Russians and Poles between the dates 1 July 1944 and 1 April 1945 at Hadamar Germany.
Suffice it to say that three of the seven individuals tried were sentenced to be hanged by the neck until dead, that one was confined to hard labor for life and one for 35 years, one for 30 years, and one for 25.
The Court found that it had jurisdiction to try these individuals for the murder of persons of nationality other then that of the trying Tribunal. In other words, the fact that the persons executed were not of American nationality did not preclude the Court from taking jurisdiction.
THE PRESIDENT: Wasn't that matter settled by the Judges of the International Military Tribunal, Mr. HcHaney?
MR. McHANEY: Sir?
THE PRESIDENT: Wasn't that matter more or less settled by the Internati nal Tribunal?
MR. McHANEY: Yes, I think so. Yes, Mr. Hochwald will now proceed to introduce -
THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal will now recess until 9:30 o'clock tomorrow morning.
(The Tribunal adjourned until 0930 hours, 16 January 1947).
Official transcript of the American Military Tribunal in the matter of the United States of America against Karl Brandt, et al, defendants, sitting at Nuernberg, Germany, on 16 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, you will ascertain if the defendants are all present in the courtroom.
THE MARSHAL: May it please Your Honor, all the defendants are present in the court.
THE PRESIDENT. The Secretary General will note for the record the presence of all the defendants in the courtroom.
This morning Tribunal 1 convenes at 9:40 o'clock, a delay which was due to mechanical difficulties in the recording appliances of the court. They having been promptly repaired by the efficient agents in charge of them, the court now convenes at 9:40 o'clock. The prosecution may proceed.
DR. HOCHWALD: May it please the Tribunal, the last document which was presented by Mr. McHaney last night was NO 1116 which was Prosecution Exhibit 415. I also offered into evidence a set of documents which were prosecution exhibits in the case against the defendants Wahlmann and so on; excerpts which were read into the record by Mr. McHaney. The first document is NO 748 which will be on page 66 of document book, Your Honor, which will be Prosecution Exhibit 416. It is a statement of Alfens Klein. I do not want to read this document into the record. The next document I offer is also an exhibit from the Hadamar case, prosecution exhibit from the case, NO 730, on page 69 of the document book and will be Prosecution Exhibit 417. I quote:
"Before me, Capt. Luke P. Rogers, being authorized to administer oaths, personally appeared Philipp Blum, who, being duly sworn through the interpreter, made and subscribed the following statement.
"My name is Philipp Blug, I live in Frickhofen, Germany; I am a cousin of Alfons Klein.
Since 1940 I had been in the Hadamar Mental Institution. There I has to take care of the switchboard until February 1943, when I took ever the burials. Klein ordered me to take over this job.
"In November or 1942 Klein became administrative inspector of Hadamar and he still hold that position in august 1944 when I left. Klein was Chief of the Hadamar-Institution and issued all orders.
"Bernotat was district counselor (Landesrat) and used to visit Hadamar frequently; there he had conferences with Klein and Wahlmann.
"Wahlmann was the physician in charge of Hadamar and conducted all medical treatments in the Institution. Every morning a conference between Wahlmann, Chief-nurse Ruoff and the female chief-nurse Huber took place.
"Two or three months before I left the Institution to join the Wehrmacht, Russians and Poles began to come to Hadamar. Klein told me that those Russians and Poles were afflicted with TB. All those Poles end Russians were brought to Ward lb on the ground floor. If there were too many for this ward they were brought to ward 11a on the first flour. The female nurses Hachbarth and Bellin worked in ward lb, Zackow, Weiland, and Borkowski in 11a.
"Ruoff and Willing gave, as far as I knew, injections to all these Poles and Russians. All these Russians and Poles were dead about two hours after their arrival. Both the male and female nurses informed me usually when they were ready to be buried.
"The female nurses informed me of the death of these people so that they could clean up the rooms and make the beds. I then carried the bodies down to the collar.
"I entered the names of the dead into a burial-book in Merkle's office. Merkle kept a register of the dead, based on the documents carried by the Russians and Poles. When the Russians and Poles arrived, their documents were landed ever to Klein, who in turn gave then to Merkle. Every morning Merkle gave me a slip of paper with the names of these who were to be buried the same day.
"With the all of a few insane people, I used to carry the bodies to the cemetery and to bury them there. I used to bury 8 to 20 in one gave and I used to enter in the burial-book where they were buried. I estimate that I buried perhaps one hundred Russians and Poles while I was there.
"Once came a large transport of Russians and Poles to Hadamar. There must have been forty or fifty in this transport. They were brought from Limburg in trucks. Everybody in the institution knew, that a large transport of Russians and Poles was to arrive from Limburg. I was present when these Russians and Poles arrived, and they were brought to ward 11a and 1b. Ruoff gave injections to these Russians and poles. The nurses undressed the women and brought them to bed. I remember for certain, that nurses Hackbarth, Beellim and Zachow were present. I am not quite sure, if the chief-nurse Huber or the others were there. I took all clothing down to the cellar with the aid of some of the insane, I was present until all these people died, which lasted about two hours. I carried them down to the collar with the assistance of a couple of insane; they were to be buried the next day.
"I was a member of the National socialistic party since 1933."
(Signature) Phillipp Blum.
The next Document No. 751 of the Document book will be Prosecution Exhibit 418; it is also a Prosecution Exhibit of the Hadamar case; a statement of Karl Willig, which I offer into evidence without reading it into the record.
So is the next Document No. 730 on page 73, which will be prosecution Exhibit 419.
The next Document - Document No. 728, which I offer into evidence as prosecution Exhibit 420. This is also a Prosecution Exhibit of the Hadamar case. This is a summary of the people killed, the foreigners killed at Hadamar and shows the following: Poles - 80; Russians - 380; Russians or Poles - 16; Grand Total 476, of which are men - 263; women - 197; and children - 16.
The next document is a list of the names of the foreigners killed in the Hadamar Euthanasia station, Document No. 727, which will be prosecution Exhibit 421 on pages 18 to 95 of the Document Book. The list is Document No. 731.
THE PRESIDENT: The counsel will proceed a little more slowly with the totals of these Exhibits.
MR. HOCHWALD: I beg your pardon, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: Just read the title, number and page of the Exhibit to which you are referring.
MR. HOCHWALD: Yes sir. The Document 727 starts on page 80 of the Document book and will be Prosecution Exhibit 421. It is a list of names of foreign nationals, who were killed in the Hadamar Euthanasia Station. It is one of the prosecution Exhibits in the Hadamar case. This Document is on Pages 80 to 95 of the English Document Book.
The next Document No. 731 on page 96 of the Document Book will be Prosecution Exhibit No. 422, also one of the Prosecution Exhibits from the Hadamar case. It is a statement of Heinrich Ruoff.
The next Document, Your Honors, is No. 729 on Pa?c 99; also one of the Prosecution Exhibits, which is an interrogation of the witness Frederick Dickmann.
THE PRESIDENT: What will be the number of that Exhibit?
MR. HOCHWALD: This is Prosecution Exhibit 423, sir.
The next Document on Page 105 of the Document Book is No. 752. which will be Prosecution Exhibit from the Hadamar case, a statement of Heinrich Ruoff. It is another statement of Heinrich Ruoff.
The next Document, which I offer into evidence, is on page 110, Document No. 808, which will be prosecution Exhibit 425. It is a sworn statement of Otto Beringer and I quote:
"Before me, Matthias Schumacher, acting in accordance with article 1 and 3 of the Decree of the Grand Duchy of 3 July 1945 concerning War Crimes, appeared today, 18 October 1946, Herr Otto Beringer, physician, born 29 November 1908 at Kolmar-Berg, domiciled in Walferdingen, who being duly sworn as a witness, stated:
"As a physician, I was assigned for duty to the mental Hospital Eichberg near Eltville-Wiesbaden-Rheingau. In this capacity, I remained in the institution from 2 march 1942 to 26 July 1943- Director of this mental Institution was the Chief Physician SS-Obersturmbannfuehrer Fritz Mennecke.
The First Physician's name was Walter Schmidt. He also held the title of SS-Obersturmbannfuehrer. The institution was built for 600 inmates, but temporarily accommodated 1400. It was an open secret in the Gau that the chief physician Mennecke was directed by Himmler to comb the mental institutions all over Germany for mentally sick people whom he brought, among other places, to Hadamar where they were gassed. Indeed, I could make the observation that during my stay at Eichberg the named physician Fritz Mennecke was continuously away on travels. At the time when Mennecke was chief physician and SS Walter Schmidt was first physician of the institution the following incident occured, late in the fall of 1942, which I witnessed with my own eyes. One day, in this late fall of 1942. Mennecke said to me: The first physician Schmidt will come to your station tomorrow and then he will give a treatment to the patient Kessler. Order came from Berlin to let the man disappear.'
"Next Morning, at 10 o'clock Schmidt gave Kessler an injection of 5 ccm luminal. The luminal was injected intramuscularly. The victim passed out, then he was completely undressed and brought into a sort of bath room, a room that was la??? with glazed tiles and there he was laid on the floor. The window was opened. At 5 o'clock Kessler received a second injection; this was the same evening that he got that second injection. When I was at the station next morning, I asked a male nurse, whose name was Schaaf, how Kessler was getting on: the named Schaaf showed me the victim Kessler, who still lay naked on the floor of the tiled room. The temperature in the room was ice-cold. Schaaf told me that Kessler had received another injection of 5 ccm luminal that morning. The third day Kessler passed away. In the death certificate, pneumonia was quoted as the cause of death. If an autopsy had been made pneumonia would have been found to be the cause of death, indeed. By the injections of luminal a paralysis of the breathing centers of the victim was caused. The prevailing cold was unavoidably bound to cause pneumonia.
"All the mentally defentice children received by the Eichberg institution were murdered, none of them died a natural death. These mentally defective children were murdered by luminal injections. When saying none of these children died a natural death, I have to correct myself; by far the greatest number of them were murdered by luminal injections.
"The First Physician Schmidt also performed medical or pseudo-scientific experiments on these mentally defective children. Systematically quantities of up to 60 ccm cerebro spinal fluid was withdrawn from the children by suboccipital puncture and in its place air was blown in. This caused terrible headaches to the children, so that for half a day they yelled loudly and vomited. After air was pressed into the children's cranium, the children were X-rayed. A person - half responsible for these experiments and for the murder of the mentally defective children - was the head nurse Helene Schuluerch from Swabin. This head nurse originated from Wuerttemberg and just have had her home near Stuttgart. Her guilt in regard to these crimes was just as great as the guilt of SS-Obersturmbannfuehrer Walter Schmidt.
"In late July 1943 I left the institution Eichberg in order to settle down as a physician in Kirchen on der Sieg, because I had moved. I still came to Eichberg a few times. At the occasion of one of those visits, I heard in the institution that 5 to 8 Russian civilian internees had been received by the institution and had been murdered there in a mysterious way.
"This my statement, which in all details corresponds to the truth, was read to me; then I have singed it with my own hand."
(Signature) Dr. Beninger.
The next document, NO-893, is on page 113 of the document book and will be Prosecution Exhibit 426. It is a letter from The President (Administration of the District Union, Nassau), dated Wiesbaden 15 May 1943, to the District Mental Institution, Eichberg/Rhine, sugnect: Admission of partly Jewish minors to the Institution:
"By order of the Reich Minister of Interior I set up in the District Mental Institution Hadamar, District Limburg/Lahn an educational institution, to which all Jewish or partly Jewish children and youths, who are now under institutional care, in reformatories or in other institutions, are to be brought.
"For this purpose please send me at your earliest convenience, however not later than 20 May 1943, a list with the names of tho partly Jewish minors; who are in the institution there. A report of missing inmates is likewise required.
"Please inform me in the future immediately of admissions of partly Jewish minors to your institution.
By order:
(signed) Bernotat, Landesrat" The next document on page 114 is NO-896 and will be Prosecution Exhibit.
"Kassel, 4 July 1946".
"Present, Public Prosecutor Kessler and Justice employee Nerreter as court reporter.
Summoned, the retired provincial counselor Otto Schellmann, born 19 November 1880 in Kassel, resident in Kassel-Harlessbausen, Saengelsrain 5, appeared and stated the following, after having been informed about the subject of the examination:
"For the following statement I have, by way of precaution, obyained the consent of my agency.
"From 1912 on I was employed by the office of the governor (Landeshauptmann) in Hesse. On 1 September 1939 I entered tho service with the Wehrmacht as a railroad station commander at the main station in Kassel. On 1 July 1941 I was dismissed from the Wehrmacht because of a serious accident, and I returned to my civilian agency, where without interruption until about June 1945, I acted as deputy of Landeshauptmann Traupel, who had in the meantime been drafted into the Wehrmacht.
"1. When I took up my position, on 1 June 1941, the so-called planned economy measures concerning the destruction of the so-called life unworthy of being lived in the sphere of care for insane persons were in full swing. I had until that time heard no details of these measures. They induced me, however, to have a detailed discussion at once with the heads of the three provincial mental institutions, under our jurisdiction - Heina, Merkshausen, and Marburg/Lahn. I emphatically instructed the heads of the institutions to take the position in their reports to tho ministries, etc., that insane person, even if they had only slight working ability, should absolutely be kept from 'transfer' to another institution. The consequence was that relatively few patients were included in the 'transfer'. At the end of August 1943 these planned economy measures were completely performed. They ceased there and as far as I know, were never resumed As for as I remember the insane persons are said to have been transported from our institutions first to the various institutions of the district agency of Nassau and from there to the district mortal institution at Hadaman and Nassau. The order for the 'transfer' of insane persons did not pass through my office either but to my recollection came directly from the Ministry of the Interior to the institutions in question. As far as I recall, this Ministerial agency was camouflaged under the designation of a transport company, the orders of which were all forwarded as being secret.
"As the institution Hadamar belongs to tho district of Nassau and therefor was not subordinate to tho Landeshauptmann of Hessen, I cm also not in a position to make a statement about the procedures carried out there especially with regard to the treatment of the patients. I personally never visited tho asylum Hadamar since 1930.
"2. On 8 March 1943 a decree was issued from the Reich Minister of the Interior according to which mentally healthy partly Jewish minors (from approved schools) were to be assigned to the partly Jewish section of the Hadamar asylum. With regard to the scrupulous part that Hadamar had played during the treatment of insane persons I was of the opinion that I must be careful and asked on the occasion of my visit in the Landeshaus in Wiesbaden whether proper treatment of these minor was guaranteed.
To this question the lawyer of the institution Landesrat Bernotat answered affirmatively. I was especially assured that satisfactory and good schooling was guaranteed. After that I ordered our institutions at Homburg and Wabern to take care of the transfer of the children in question.
"To these measures were subjected the siblings Klara, Alfred, Edeltraud and Amanda. Gotthelf from Grosskotzenburg, District Hanau, who were transferred on 1 October 1943 to Hadamar. Soon afterward we received the news that the children, who had up to then been healthy on the whole, died suddenly, Alfred on 20 October, Amanda on 22 October, Klara on 26 October and Edeltraud on 1 November 1943. One other pupil named Wurr (a partly Jewish child) who was also brought on 1 October 1943 from Homburg to Hadamar, died there 22 October 1943.
"Of course this disconcerted me and I demanded the Hadamar institution in letter of 12 November 1943 to inform me immediately about the cause of death, by enclosing the death certificate. As a reply to this I received a letter of 18 November 1943 from the asylum Hadamar that the four Gotthelf siblings died of enteritis; with regard to the death certificates I was referred to the registry office in Hadamar.
To my recollection the latter then confirmed the death of the children by transmitting the death certificates.
"I was not able to forward my inquiry of 12 November 1943 to Hadamar any earlier because in the meantime on 22 to 23 October 1943, the office buildings of the district administration in Kassel had been destroyed by an air raid and as a resuly all commercial traffic was held up. Also all the files of the administration, in particular those concerning the siblings Gotthelf were destroyed, so that I am only able to speak about the further management of these cases from my own recollection.
"These strange casualties disconcerted me so that my scruples could not be put aside even by the official statement of the Hadamar Institution. On the other hand I had to consider the fact that the official statements of the Hadamar Institution were at hand and could not be dismissed as ...."
(Pause for adjustment of sound equipment)
If Your Honors please, I'll resume my quotation from Document NO-896:
"On the other hand I had to consider the fact that the official statements of the Hadamar Institution were at hand and could not be dismissed as unworthy of belief. I would certainly have met with difficulties for I would never have succeeded, in case the official statements had not been right, in obtaining in answer to my inquiry a rectification or clarification of the procedures. Nothing else remained to me than to avoid a repetition of such events by means of preventive measures. Explaining the state of the case therefore I personally instructed the Heads of our institutions in Wabern and Hamburg by word of mouth to send no more children to Hadamar under any circumstances. After that it did not happen any more in any case. If someone had objected to these measures I would have refuse to transfer further minors to Hadamar, pointing out what happened to the Gotthelf siblings. I declared this emphatically to a deputy of the Nassau district administration, I do not remember his name at the moment."
I'll skip the rest of the document and read only the signature:
"Signed Otto Schellmann."