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DR. FROESCHMANN: Dr. Froeschmann, Counsel for the defendant, Viktor Brack. Mr. President, as I have just found out, the signature of Otto Schellmann which was just read into the record was not sworn to. The statement itself is an excerpt of some unknown German file, which originates from June, 19466, and contains the interrogation by a prosecutor Kessler unknown to me. I don't know that file. I do not believe that this document which is being submitted by the Prosecution can be admitted into evidence especially since the document which was not read in its entirty says on Page 126 of the German Document Book that the character of the interrogation by the Prosecutor was very confidential and that statements were made which were certainly not meant for the court.
DR. HOCHWALD: As the document itself shows, this was a statement made in the presence of a German public prosecutor and in the presence of a court reporter. I suggest and Counsel for the Defense will be certainly informed about this fact, that before the witness gives such a statement, the witness is warned by the public prosecutor that in case he should not say the truth is punishable by law. This is a very similar procedure as the procedure which was adopted for the obtaining of affidavits for Defense Counsel in this trial. I do think that this document is perfectly admissible.
THE PRESIDENT: Will you pass the original document to the Tribunal ?
DR. SERVATIUS: Dr. Servatius, Counsel for the defendant, Karl Brandt. Mr. President, the legal statements made by the prosecutor are not quite correct. It is not correct to say that when examined before a prosecutor there is a warning that one has to say the truth and that one is punishable if one does not say the truth. According to German law it is the case that whenever one is interrogated by a prosecutor, there is no legal coercion to say the truth. Such obligation only exists if you testify before an examining judge who is commissioned to do that; that is to say, if the witness does not say the truth testifying before the prosecutor, he is not subject to punishment. In this case we are not concerned with a court file but only a file coming from the prosecutor's office. This can be seen from the notes made on the file where the words "J.S., Number so-andso" are contained.
I also, therefore, do not think that this document is admissible.
THE PRESIDENT: The original German document exhibited to the Tribunal consists of two and one-half typewritten pages in the German language. It bears no signature but two typewritten names.
DR. HOCHWALD: The original of the document is with the files of the Frankfurt court, German court in Frankfurt as it was submitted in a German trial. This copy, Sir, was certified to by the German authorities as a correct and true copy. I possibly can get a German certification of the document.
THE PRESIDENT: The certificate attached to the document is simply a certification by one Patricia A. Radcliff that "This document is the original of a document which was delivered to me in the usual course of my official business as a true copy of the document found in German archive That does not amount to a certificate that the document is a true copy.
DR. HOCHWALD: But we have a further document. The document room of CCC has a certificate which is not attached to the document in German which says that we obtained it; we certified the true copy.
MR. McHANEY: If the Tribunal, please, we will withdraw the offer until such time as the certificate is attached. It certainly should be. We do have one and it is simply an oversight. It is not in there. It should be. We will obtain it in a very few minutes and then reoffer the document on that basis.
THE PRESIDENT: The exhibit is temporarily withdrawn.
DR. HOCHWALD: And the next document on page 118 is NO-205 which already was submitted into evidence under Exhibit No. 163. With the permission of the Tribunal, I only want to read the first paragraph of this letter from Brack to Himmler.
THE PRESIDENT: What is the number of this exhibit which was formerly introduced into evidence.
DR. HOCHWALD: The exhibit number is 163, your Honor. The document number is NO-205. It is on page 118 of the document book. It is a letter from Brack to Himmler, dated Berlin, 23 June 1942:
"On the instructions of Reich-Leader Bouhler I placed some of my men -- already sometime ago -- at the disposal of Brigadefuehrer Blobocnik to execute his special mission. On his renewed request I now transferred additional personnel. On this occasion Brigadefuehrer Blobocnik stated his opinion that the whole Jew Action should be completed as quickly as possible so that one would not get caught in the middle of it one day if some difficulties should make a stoppage of the action necessary. You yourself, Reichsfuehrer, have already expressed your view that work should progress quickly for reasons of camouflage alone. Both points which in principle arrive at the same result are more than justified as far as my own experience goes; nevertheless, would you kindly allow me to submit the following argument: -- " The next document is on page 126 of the document book.
It is NO-155-- no. It is 1553-PS. I beg your pardon. It will be prosecution Exhibit 428. It is a statement -
THE PRESIDENT: You are not going to put in the document No. 206 appearing at 120?
MR. HOCHWALD: 206 was already offered into evidence and I am not going to read it.
THE PRESIDENT: As what exhibit?
MR. HOCHWALD: Just a minute. As Prosecution Exhibit 164, sir, and I an not going to offer 501-PS which is the next document in your Honor's document book.
THE PRESIDENT: Has it been heretofore offered?
MR. HOCHWALD: 501 is not offered. It is not offered at all, so that the next is on page 126, 1553-PS, Exhibit 428. This is page 138-
MR. MC HANEY: If the Tribunal please, the document we now offer is an unsworn - statement of one Kurt Gerstein. It was admitted before the IMT-
THE PRESIDENT: What document is that, Mr. McHaney?
MR. MC HANEY: It is 1553 PS beginning on page 126. This document was admitted before the International Military Tribunal as an exhibit of the Republic of France, No. 350. It constitutes a number of bills of lading, or shipment notices covering a certain gas known as Zyhlon B, Prussic Acid. That is a shipment notice from a firm by the name of Degesch, the manufacturer of the gas, the notice being sent to this man Kurt Gerstein. These were a number of bills which were attached to the statement which Gerstein gave on April 25, 1945, before a United States Army officer. However, it does not appear that the officer were Mr. Gerstein before the statement was given. Despite that fact, however, it was admitted before the IMT. I do not know whether ever objection or not. In any event, as such it constitutes a part of the record before the International Military Tribunal and consequently is entitled to at least judicial notice before this Tribunal. We have made a very sincere and earnest effort to find Kurt Gerstein and I have been unable to do so. If the defense counsel arc interested in cross-examining Mr. Gerstein, we will continue our efforts to locate him after appropriate application and approval of this Tribunal. In any event, we are offering this document as a prosecution exhibit at this time. It is a natter of some importance to the case because it informs the Tribunal as to the activities of the man by the name of Globocnik, and the Tribunal has seen from the letter of Victor Brack to the Reichsfuehrer SS that Pouhler and Brack put people at the disposal of Brigadefuchrer Globocnik, so it becomes a matter of considerable importance to the Tribunal to be informed of what Globocnik was doing.
That is the reason we are offering this document and we ask that it be admitted at this time.
THE PRESIDENT: The copy of the English Document we are looking at shows no certificate that this is a copy of the record before the International Military Tribunal.
MR. MC HANEY: The certificate on the original which goes into evidence reads: "I certify that Document No. 1553 PS was introduced into evidence as Exhibit No. RS 350 in the trial by the International Military Tribunal of Hermann Goering, et al" etc., and signed "Fred Niebergall, Chief of Document Control Branch, Office of Chief of Counsel for War Crimes".
I think it would be helpful if I had are original document passed up. The statement, as I state, shows that it was taken before two United States Army officers and was sent through with a covering memorandum.
DR. SERVATIUS (Counsel for Karl Brandt): Dr. Servatius, for Karl Brandt, Mr. President, I attach importance to cross-examining this witness and I formally make the application that witness be called as seen as he is found.
THE PRESIDENT: Councel will execute the formal application for calling the witness. The court will consider the application and doubtless will approve it and summons the witness and counsel may be entitled to summon this witness for cross-examination so that he will not be treated as a defense witness but will be called for cross-examination. I notice, Mr. Mc Haney, that this certificate - - purported certificate - -- is a true copy of an exhibit introduced before the International Military Tribunal and that at as not signed except for the rubber stamp. The signature of Fred Niebergall is manifestly not a signature but a rubber stamp.
MR. MC HANEY: We will rectify that. I suppose the explanation is that the Document Section feels that they process so many of these that they have a facsimile signature.
However, we can have that rectified. Would the prosecution be able to have a ruling on the admissibility of this document on the assurance that the certificate will be executed in handwriting. I am just informed that they keep close central over these matters. I can assure the Tribunal that Mr. Niebergall can certify to the facts stated and, if possible, we would like to have the question disposed of at this time and, if possible, read the exhibit.
THE PRESIDENT: The exhibit will be admitted in evidence when properly certified and the objection is overruled.
MR. HOCHWALD: I would like to read from page 139. This will be Prosecution Exhibit 428 and I want to read from the first part of page 139 of the Document Book, sir.
"July 14 to August 23, 1938, second imprisonment, in the Welzhaim concentration camp. Hearing of the massacres of idiots and insane people at Grafeneck, Hadamar, etc., shocked and deeply wounded, having, such a case in my family, I had but one desire, to see, to gain an insight of this whole machine and then to shout about it to the whole world. With the help of two references written by the two Gestapo employees who had dealt with my case, it was not difficult for me to enter the Waffen SS. March 10 to June 2, 1941, elementary instruction as a soldier at Hamburg-Langenhoorn, Arnhem and Oranienburg - -
THE PRESIDENT: Will counsel read a little mere slowly?
MR. HOCHWALD: I am sorry.
"together with forty meters. Because of my twin studies, technology and medicine, I was ordered to enter the medical-technology branch of the SS Fuehrungshauptamt, Medical branch of the Waffen SS, Antsgruppe D, Hygiene Department. Within this branch, I chose so for myself the job of immediately constructing disinfecting apparati and filters for drinking water for the troops, the prison camps and the concentration camps. My close knowledge of the industry caused me to succeed quickly where my predecessors had failed.
Thus, it was possible to decrease considerably the death tell cf prisoners. On account of my successes, I very seen became a lieutenant. In December 1941, the tribunal which had decreed my exclusion from the NSDAP obtained knowledge of my having entered the Waffen SS. Considerable efforts were made in order to remove and persecute me. But due to my successes I was declared sincere and indispensable. In January 1942 I was appointed Chief of the Technical Branch of Disinfection, which also included the branch for strong poison gases for disinfection. On 8 June 1942 the SS Sturmbannfuenrer Guenther of the RSHA entered my office. He was in plain clothes and. I did not know him. He ordered me to pot a hundred kilograms of prussic acid and to accompany him to a place which was only known to the driver of the truck. We left for the potassium factory near Collin. Once the truck was loaded, we left for Lublin. We took with us Professor Pfannenstiel, MS, Ordinary Professor for Hygiene at the University of Marburg on the Lahn. At Lublin we were received by SS Gruppenfuehrer Globecnik. He told us: This is one of the most secret matters there are on, even the most secret, Whoever talks of this shall be shot immediately. Yesterday two talkative ones died.' Then he explained to us: 'At the present moment (August 17, 1942) there are three installations.'
1. Beleec, on the Lublin-Lemberg read, in the sector of the Russian demarcation line. Maximum 15,000 persons a day. Seen.
2. Sobiber, I do not knew exactly where it is located. Not seen. 20,000 persons per day.
3. Treblinka, 120 kilometers northeast of Warsaw. 25,000 persons per day. Seen.
4. Maidanek, near Lublin. Seen in the state of preparation. Globecnik then said, 'You will have to handle the sterilization of very huge quantities of clothes, 10 or 20 times the result of the clothes and textile collection which is only arranged in order to conceal the source of these Jewish, Polish, Czech and other clothes. Your other duties will best change the method of our gas chambers (which are run at the present time with the exhaust gases of an old Diesel engine), employing mere poisonous material, having a quicker effect, prussic acid.
'" "But the Fuehrer and Himmler, who were here on August 15 - the day before yesterday - ordered that I accompany personally all those who are to see the installations.
Then Professor Pfannenstiel asked: What does the Fuehrer say?' Then Globocnik, now Chief of Police and SS for the Adriatic Riviera to Trieste, answered: "Quicker, quicker, carry out the whole program!", he said. And then Mr. Herbert Lindner, Ministerial direktor in the Ministry of the Interior said: "But would it not be better to burn the bodies instead of burying them?"
I want to point here, we respectfully submit, your Honors, that the name Herbert Lindner should read Herbert Linden who is the person to be seen in the same box as Conti on the left hand side of the chart. "A coming generation might think differently of these matters!" And then Globicnik replied: "But, gentlemen, if ever, after us there should be such a cowardly and rotten generation should arise that they do not understand our so good and necessary work, then, gentlemen, all National Socialism will have been for nothing. On the contrary, bronze plates should be buried with the inscription that it was we, we who had the courage to achieve this gigantic task". And Hitler said, "Yes, my good Globocnik, that is the word, that is my opinion, too." The next day we left for Belcek. A small special station of two platforms leans against a hill of yellow sand, immediately to the north of the road and railway: LublinLemberg. To the South, near the road, some service horses with a sign board: "Belcek, service center of the Waffen-SS.' Globocnik introduced me to SS-Hauptsturmfuehrer Obermayer from Pirmasens, who with great restraint showed me the installations. That day no dead were to be seen, but the smell of the whole region, even from the large road, was postilential. Next to the small station there was a large barrack marked "cloakroom" and a door marked "valuables". Next a chamber with a hundred "barber" chairs. Then came a corridor, 150 meters long, in the open air and with barbed wire on both sides. There was a sign board: "To the bath and inhalations"...Before us we saw a house like a bath house with concrete troughs to the right and left contained geraniums or other flowers.
After climbing a small staircase, 3 garage-like rooms on each side, 4 x 5 meters large and 1.90 meters high. At the back, invisible wooden doors. On the roof a Star of David made out of cooper. At the entrance to the building, the inscription: Foundation Heckenholt. That was all I noticed on that particular afternoon. Next morning, a few minutes before 7, I was informed: In 10 minutes the first train will arrive. And indeed, a few minutes later the first train came in from Lemberg. 45 cars, containing 8,700 persons; 1,450 of whom were already dead on their arrival. Behind the little barbed wire openings, children, yellow, scared half to death, women, men. The train arrives: 200 Ukranians, forced to do this work, open the doors, and drive all the people out of the coaches with leather whips. Then, through a huge loud speaker instructions are given: To undress completely, also to give up false tooth and glasses - some in the barracks, others right in the open air. To tic one's shoes together with a little piece of string handed everyone by a small Jewish boy of 4 years of age, hand in all valuables and money at the window marked "Valuables", without bond, without receipt. Then the women and girls go to the hairdresser, who cuts off their hair in one or two strokes, after which it vanished into huge potato bags "to be used for special submarine equipment, door mats, etc.", as the SS-Unterscharguehrer on duty told me. Then, the march begins: Right and left, barbed wire, behind, two dozen Ukranians with guns. Led by a young girl of striking beauty they approach. With police Captain Wirth, I stand right before the death chambers. Completely naked they march by, men, women, girls, children, babies, even one-legged persons, all of them naked. In one corner, a strong SS-man tells the poor devils, in a strong deep voice: Nothing whatever will happen to you. All you have to do is to breathe deeply, it strengthens the lungs; this inhalation is a necessary measure against contagious diseases, it is a very good disinfectant" Asked what was to become of the, he answered: "Well, of course, the men will have to work, building streets and houses. But the women do not have to. If they wish to, they can help in house or kitchen." Once more, a little bit of hope for some of those poor people, en ough to make then march on without resistance to the death chambers.
Most of them, though, know everything, the odor has given them a clear indication of their fate. And then they walk up the little staircase --- and see the truth! Mothers, nurse maids, with babies at their breasts, naked, lots of children, of all ages, naked too; they hesitate, but they enter the gas chambers, most of then, without a word, pushed by the others behind them, chased by the whips of the SS men. A Jewess of about 40 years of age, with eyes like torches, calls down the blood of her children on the heads of their murderers. Five lashes into her face, dealt by the whip of Police Captain Wirth himself, chase her into the gas chamber. Many of them say their prayers, others ask: who will give us the water for our death? Within the chambers, the SS press the people closely together, Captain Wirth had ordered: "Fill them up full." Faked men stand on the feet of others. 7-600 crushed together on 35 square motors, in 45 cubic meters! The doors are closed. Meanwhile the rest of the transport, all naked, wait. Somebody says to me: "Naked, in winter! But they can die that way!" The answer was: "Well, that's Just what they are here for!" And at that moment I understood why it was called "Foundation Heckenholt". Heckenholt was the man in charge of the diesel engine, the exhaust gases of which were to kill these poor devils. SS-Unterscharguehrer Heckenholt tries to set the Diesel engine moving. But it does not start! Captain Wirth cones along. It is plain that he is afraid because I am a witness to the breakdown, Yes, indeed, I see everything and wait, Everything is registered by my stop watch. 50 minutes. 70 minutes - the Diesel engine does not start! The people wait in their gas chambers. In vain. One can hear them cry. "Same as in a synagoaue" says SS-Sturmbannfuehrer Professor Dr. Pfannenstiel, Professor for public Health at the university of Marburg/Lahn, holding his ear close to the wooden door.
Captain Wirth, furious, deals the Ukranian who is helping Heckenholt 11 or 12 lashes in the face with his whip. After 2 hours and 49 minutes - as registered by my stop watch - the Diesel engine starts. Up to that moment the people in the four already filled chambers were alive, 4 times 750 persons in 4 times 45 cubic meters. Another 25 minutes go by. Many of the people it is true are dead at that point. One can see this through the little window through which the electric lamp reveals for a moment, the inside of the chamber. After 28 minutes only a few are living. After 32 minutes, finally all are dead. From the other side, Jewish workers open the wooden doors. In return for their terrible job, they have been premised their freedom and a small percentage of the valuables and the money found. Like stone statues, the dead are still standing, there having been no room to fall or bond over. Though dead, the families can still be recognized; their hands still clasped. It is difficult to separate them in order to clear the chamber for the next load. The bodies are thrown out blue, wet with sweat and urine, the legs covered with excrement and menstrual bleed. Everywhere among the others, tee bodies of babies and children. But there is not time! Two dozen workers are engaged in checking the mouths, opening them by means of iron hooks. "Geld to the left, without gold to the right." Others check anus and genitals - to look for money, diamonds, gold, etc. Dentists with chisels tear out the gold teeth, bridges or caps. In the center of everything, Captain Wirth. He is on familiar ground her. He hands me a large tin full of teeth and says: "Estimate for yourself the weight of gold. This is only from yesterday and the day before yesterday, and you would not believe what we find here every day. Dollars, diamonds, gold. But look for yourself." Then he led me to a jeweler who was in charge of all those valuables. After that they took me to one of the managers of the big Store of the best in. Berlin, and to a little man whom they made play the violin, both chiefs of the Jewish worker commands. "He is a captain of the royal and imperial (K.u.K) Austrian Army, who held the German Iron Cross 1st Class." I was told by Hauptsturmbannfuehrer Obermeyer. The bodies were then thrown into large ditches of about 100 x 20 x 12 meters, located near the gas chambers. After a few days the bodies would swell up and the whole contents of the ditch would rise 2-3 meters high because of the gases that developed in the bodies.
After a few more days the swelling would stop and the bodies would collapse, The next day the ditches were filled again, and covered with 10 centimeters of sand. A little later, I hear they constructed grills out of rails and burned the bodies on them with Diesel oil and gasoline in order to make them disappear. At Belcek and Treblinka nobody bothered to take anything approaching an exact count of the persons killed. The figures announced by the BBC are inaccurate. Actually about 25,000,000 persons were killed; not only Jews, however, but especially I Poles and Czechoslovakians, too, who were in the opinion of the Nazis, of bad stock. Most of them died anonymously. Commissions of so-called doctors, actually nothing but young SS men in White coats, rode in limousines through the towns and villages of Poland and Czechoslovakia to select the old, tubercular and sick people and to cause them to disappear, shortly afterwards, in the gas chambers. They were the Poles and Czechs of (category) III who did not deserve to live because they were unable to work. The Police Captain birth asked me not to propose any other kind of gas chamber in Berlin, to leave everything the way it was. I lied - as I did in each case all the time - that prussic acid had already deteriorated in shipping and had become very dangerous, that I was therefore obliged to bury it. This was done right away, The next day, Captain Wirth's car took us to Treblinka, about 75 miles NNE of Warsaw. The installtions of this death center differed scarcely from those at Belcek, but they were still larger. There were gas chambers and whole mountains of clothes and underwear about 35-40 meters high. Then, in our "nener" a banquet was given, attended by all of the employees of the institution. The Obersturmbannfuehrer, Professor Pfannenstiel MD., Professor Hygiene at the University of Marburg/Lahn, made a speech: "Your task is a great duty, a duty so useful and so necessary." To me alone he talked of this institution in terms of "beauty of the task, humane cause", and to all of them: "Looking at the bodies of those Jews one understands the greatness of your good work!" The dinner in itself was rather simple, but by order of Himmler the employees of this branch received as much as they wanted as far as butter, meat, alcohol, etc.
, were concerned. When we left we were offered, several kilograms of buttered and large number of bottles of liquor. I made the effort of lying; saying that I had enough of everything from our own farm, so Pfannenstiel took my portion, too. We left for Warsaw years.
A recess was taken.
THE MARSHAL: The Tribunal is again is session.
MR. HOCHWALD: If the Tribunal please, I should like to have the certification of the signing of Document 1533-PS signed by Mr. Neibergall.
DR. GEORG FROESCHMANN: Dr. Froeschmann, counsel for Viktor Brack Mr. President, during the recess I have just had the opportunity of receiving the extensive document, 1533, and of reading it over carefully. document and which are supporting the allegations of the prosecution towards Viktor Brack, I want to request that Kurt Gerstein be called here as a witness and then the prosecution discontinue the reading of this decument and further that the part of the document which has already been read be crossed from the record. In my opinion if things of such importance are to be made credible here by testimony which has not been sworn to, such a document is not suitable for consideration as evidence before this Tribunal.
THE PRESIDENT: Counsel, I understand, is referring to Document Number 1533-PS?
DR. FROESCHMANN: Yes, I am. May I say something in addition, Mr. President? Dr. Boehm and I are not quite clear whether this document was presented through the International Military Tribunal Number and if it was taken into the record. As long as I am still in doubt, the document appears still as unsuitable to be presented here as evidence.
I made a mistake before. I was reffering to the International Military Tribunal.
THE PRESIDENT: The certificate attached to this document shows that it was introduced in evidence as Exhibit Number RF-350 before the International Tribunal. The objection to the admission of the document is overruled; and the document will be admitted in evidence in this case. It seems to the Tribunal that the man who made this statement, Gerstein, could be a very important witness before this Tribunal and that if he is available as a fitness, his attendance should be procured. If counsel for any defendant will request that he be called as a witness for the purpose of cross examination by the defense, the Tribunal will give serious consideration to such a request.
Meanwhile the exhibit is admitted in evidence.
MR. HOCHWALD: If your Honors please, I have in the meantime soon the certification on Document NO-896, which was offered into evidence as Prosecution Exhibit 427. The certificate from the chief prosecutor in Frankfurt is in German. May I read the translation in to the record? The certificate reads:
"Certificate. I, Public Prosecutor Dr. Walter Wagner, testify that the attached copy is a correct and true copy of document from Volume III, consisting of three pages. I received the original document in the course of the execution of my official duties. The original is among the files of the proceedings for AJS-3-46; and it is needed for other purposes. Frankfurt, 4 January 1947. The chief prosecutor at the county court by order (signature) Dr. Walter Wagner, Prosecutor." To this is attached the stamp of the county court in Frankfurt.
DR. ROBERT SERVATIUS: Dr. Servatius for the defendant Karl Brandt. Mr. President, the fact that this document NO-896 has been certified to be a true document by the court does not stand in any connection with its value of evidence and the question of the admissibility of the document. This interrogation before the prosecution would not be permissible as evidence and would not be admitted before a German court. Before a German court the witness would have to be called and the reading of this interrogation would not be permissible. I believe that the Tribunal will have to proceed in a similar manner because only in this rap will the true reproduction of the interrogation be secured.
THE PRESIDENT: Has counsel for the prosecution any further argument in support of the introduction of this exhibit?
MR. HOCHWALD: I'm sorry, your Honor, I didn't hear.
THE PRESIDENT: Has counsel for the prosecution any further argument in support of the admission of this exhibit?
MR. HOCHWALD: The only argument is that I was informed that everyone who is heard in such a case is warned that he has to say the truth; and I do think that it is absolutely the procedure and is a very similar one to the procedure adopted for the obtaining of affidavits for the defense counsel. I respectfully summit that the credibility of the public prosecutor who was taking this statement, together with the court reporter has no less weight than the credibility of every one of the defense counsel who is permitted to take an affidavit in the interest of his client for evidence in this court.
DR. SERVATIUS: Mr. President, this is not a case of the credibility of the district attorney but of tho credibility of the person who was interrogated. There if defense counsel is entitled to accept an affidavit, then the person who is being interrogated knows that he will be punished if he makes any false statements. If somebody is being interrogated before tho prosecute, then ho knows that he cannot be punished in any way if he states the untruth. Therefore the situation is completely different.
THE PRESIDENT: The objection to tho admission of tho Exhibit No. 427 offered in evidence is sustained. The exhibit will not be admitted. The Prosecution, of course, will have tho right to offer later any other certified statement or record of this if it is in any wise amplified as without prejudice to the offer of tho exhibit in any subsequent form as would care to be made.
MR. MC HANEY: I think the Tribunal's remarks cover what I was about to say. No will endeavor to locate the person who gave this statement, have him sworn, and then sign a statement in similar form, and we would like leave to be able to submit that into the record after we close our case in chief.
THE PRESIDENT: Tho course suggested by the Prosecution will be followed. Any other exhibit may be offered after the close of tho case of tho Prosecution in chief, subject, of course, to any cross examination or objection by the defense counsel.
DR. HOCHWALD: Tho next document I want to offer into evidence is on Page 155 of tho Document Book, Document 1556-PS, which will be Prosecution Exhibit 427. This report of the United Nations War Crimes Commission was already admitted into evidence in tho first trial before tho International Tribunal under tho Exhibit Number USA 716. I would like to road from Annex B, which is on Page 158 of tho document. It is on Page 158 of tho document: "Detailed statement on tho murdering of ill and aged people in Germany. Annex B.
"1. The murdering can be traced back to a secret law which was released sometime in summer, 1940.
"2. Besides the Chief Physician of the Reich, Dr. L. Conti, the Reichsfuehrer SS Himmler, the Reichs Minister of the Interior Dr. Frick as well as other men, the following participate on tho introduction of this secret law.
"a. Tho Councillor of tho Ministry Dr. Herbert Linden of the Reich Ministry of the Interior "b. Dr. Staehle-Nagold, the Chief Physician of Wuerttemberg.
"c. Councillor of Medicine Dr. Hermann Pfanmueller, Director of the Sanatorium and Nursing Institution Eglfing-Haar near Munich.
"d. Professor Dr. Werner Heyde, Director of the Psychiatric and Neurological Clinic in Wuerzburg.
"To characterize Dr. Conti, who was her in Tessin, it may be added that ho changes his name from Leonhard to Leonardo, according to the change in the German people's feelings, the friendship of the Axis or to the change of feelings in the European community.
"3. As I hare already stated, there were after careful calculation at least 200,000 mainly mentally deficient, imbeciles, besides neurological cases and medically unfit people, these were not only incurable cases, and at least 75,000 aged people.
"4. The murders were mainly accomplished in Muensigan/Wuerttemberg and Linz on the Danube; several gas-chambers with cremation chambers directly attached were constructed there. As the gas chambers are next to the training grounds of the troops in Muensigen, it is believed that the mentally deficient who were murdered there were used for experimenting with now poison gasses.
"5. The transport from the institutions to the gas chambers is carried out by SS Kommandos. These call themselves Geminnuetzige Transport A.G., Berlin, Luetzowufer. This Limited Company also stores the individual medical case histories of the murdered inmates of the institutions.
"6. The inmates of the many smaller and middle-sized institutions were murdered almost without exception. The larger institutions are partly - to keep up the pretense to the outside world - still at hand, but they now have only a friction of the original number of heir inmates; for example there are now only some 500 inmates instead of 2,500 in Berlin-Buch; in Stadtroda/ Thueringen only about 150 instead of 600; in Kaufbeuren/Bayern only 200 instead of 1,000 etc. Of the larger Sanatoriums and Nursing Institutions the following were already closed dawn completely same time ago; Illenau/Baden 800 inmates; Berlin/Herzberge 2500 inmates, Kreutzburg/Oberschlesion 1500 inmates; Sonnenstein/Sachsen 800 inmates; Werneck/Unterfranken-Bayern 1111 inmates; Steinhof/Wien 3000 inmates, and others, most probably now also Schleswig with 1000 beds, Guenzburg with 400, etc.
"7. The following procedure is popular with old people, who are still perfectly healthy and who possess their own flat: the competent "political lender" reports then for welfare purposes; then a physician, usually an SS doctor who establishes "the fact" that the old people are mentally deficient, appears; he suggest in Court that they are to be put under tutelage and that they are to be sent to a nursing home. This suggestion is naturally put into force. The old people are then sent from tho nursing homo to tho gas chambers.
"3. Partly a very indirect procedure for killing these old people is used. For example a quite sudden transfer of a home for aged people in a very short period is very popular, this being often ordered and carried cut in only a few hours, in the hope that through the excitement already a part of the old people will be killed by an apoplectic fit. The home for aged people is also frequently transferred into promises which are absolutely insufficient as far as sanitary conditions are concerned; another way is that suddenly all the nursing staff are called up for work in the Red Cross or in a munitions factory and the helpless patients are left to look after themselves.