DR. BERGOLD: May it please the Court, in view of this surprising conclusion of this matter, I have nothing to report to you at the moment. I have asked one or two witnesses for tomorrow. One of them will come back to Nurnberg this afternoon, Colonel Pendele. The other one is witness Wolff, who has not been asked and whom I haven't seen yet. Perhaps Mr. Denney can help me. He said the other day that he wanted to read something into the record.
May it please the Court, there is one question which should be debated as I remember right now. On Page 8 of Speer's interrogation there is a mistake which does not make sense -- on Page 8. That is in Speer's answer in roughly the middle of his big answer where Speer says there: "The first category: Milch had given me plenipotentiary powers from 1942 on to carry the liaison between workers and soldiers." I see that in the English translation it is correctly stated with the word "Hitler." In the German text by mistake it says "Milch", and I would ask to have it ordered that the German report should be altered to substitute that word "Milch" for the word "Hitler" on that page.
MR. DENNEY: We have no objection, Your Honor. In the German copy the record reads "Milch " which is incorrect. The English copy is correct where it says "Hitler." In Your Honors' book or a copy of the document that is the fourth line of the last answer beginning on Page 8 of the testimony taken before Judge Musmanno on 4 February 1947. The fourth word in that line reads "Hitler" which is proper, and in the German record on Page 8 the version of the testimony taken on the same day, the 14th line of the page, the first word reads "Milch" and it is conceded that the word should be "Hitler."
THE PRESIDENT: Very well, the transcript will be corrected in accordance with the undisputed fact. Now, Mr. Denney, I think this statement did not get on to the record. The transcript will be corrected in accordance with the undisputed fact.
Mr. Denney, Judge Musmanno raises the point that this interpolation now of prosecution material is apt to be confusing, I mean this piece-meal presentation.
In reviewing the Defense testimony, we are suddenly confronted with the Prosecution testimony which is out of order, and it would simplify the problem of the Tribunal if you will withhold the material you are about to offer until the Defense has rested its case. It does save a few minutes, but it adds confusion which isn't time-saving.
MR. DENNEY: As Your Honor pleases.
THE PRESIDENT: You won't have any testimony ready to submit this afternoon, Dr. Bergold?
DR. BERGOLD: No, I have not.
THE PRESIDENT: But you will have tomorrow morning?
DR. BERGOLD: Yes, tomorrow morning.
MR. DENNEY: If I could find out who his witnesses are going to be -- Colonel Pendele, I take it, and former SS Obergruppenfuehrer Wolff.
DR. BERGOLD: Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: Those witnesses are here in Nurnberg?
DR. BERGOLD: Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: Very well, the Tribunal will hear them tomorrow morning at 9:30. I would like the Counsel for both sides to see me after the recess if you please, Dr. Bergold and Mr. Denney.
The Court will now recess.
THE MARSHAL: This Tribunal is now in recess until 0930 tomorrow morning.
(The Tribunal adjourned until 0930 hours, 18 February 1947.)
AFTERNOON SESSION
THE MARSHAL: Tribunal No. 2 is again in session.
DR. BERGOLD: May it please the Court, may I call the witness, Max Koenig?
THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Marshal, please bring the witness, Max Koenig, into the court room.
JUDGE SPEIGHT: Witness, raise your right hand and repeat after me:
"I swear by God, the Almighty and Omniscient, that I will speak the pure truth and will withhold and add nothing."
(The witness repeated the oath)
JUDGE SPEIGHT: You may be seated.
WITNESS: Thank you.
DIRECT EXAMINATION BY DR. BERGOLD:
Q Will you please give the Court your first name and second name?
A Max Koenig.
Q When were your born?
A 19 August, 1897.
Q What was your last position in the war with the Wehrmacht?
A Oberstleutnant in the Reserve.
Q And where were you?
A With the Commander of the Luftwaffe in Rechlin in charge of the testing station.
Q It is known to you, witness, whether and what sort of orders, if at all, Milch gave with reference to the treatment of so-called terror pilots?
A My department was subordinate to the G L, and, therefore, received orders from that office concerning the treatment of pilots who had made emergency landings, and such orders were to the effect to inform the Burgenmeister and the Councillors that the prisoners who had made emergency landings should be sent to Oberursel at once.
Q Then were these orders given or wore they repeated in certain cases?
A. I myself vent there in 1942 to that office and I remember very well that the first orders in this respect were given in 1943 and then in 1944.
Q. Have these orders provided for the taking of prisoner of all pilots by the Luftwaffe and taking them to Oberursel?
A. The G L ordered, followed by the threatening of heavy punishment, if the orders were not obeyed, that all pilots who bailed out or made emergency landings, should be taken at once in the quickest way possible to Oberursel.
Q. Did you transmit these orders to the Mayors and Councillors of your District?
A. These orders were passed on by the Commander of the testing station to the ground organization of the base, passed on to all Burgermeisters and the City Councillors.
Q. Can you confirm that these orders came from Milch?
A. They came from the G L. It was even ordered how we should proceed. As far as I can recall we were ordered, among other things, that the contents of their pockets should be taken away from the pilots and sent to Uberursel with an accompanying letter.
Q. Witness, did you know at that time that the Party wanted the pilots to be treated in a different manner?
A. I did not know that for we in Rechlin had hardly any contact with the Party.
Q. Therefore, you never corrected orders from the Party? Or would you have done this?
A. No, we were subordinate to the G L, and, therefore, we could only take orders from that superior office.
Q. Witness, what do you know within your office as to how concentration camp inmates were treated?
A. I should say this: When labor was requested for the building of a pill box, we were given a detachment from Oranienburg. These prisoners were housed by the evacuating of our testing station, that means our German soldiers, in Lerz, and prisoners from the concentration camp at Oranienburg were moved into the billets of the German soldiers. There were about a thousand of these.
Q. Were the barracks in good condition?
A. I beg your pardon, they were not barracks in the bad sense of the word. They were the best billets which we had at our disposal, in Lerz. They were new buildings and contained, apart from the living rooms, a theatre room, and a big kitchen, with I believe four stoves. I know the camp because I visited it repeatedly.
Q. Witness, what orders did you receive for treating of those people by the GL?
A. I remember two orders that were to the effect that all those who actually worked, whether foreigners or concentration camp inmates, should be treated well in order to save their good health and in order to increase their efficiency.
Q. What has been done for that purpose?
A. As far as their health was concerned, this order saw to it that I obtained medical supplies from the hospital, and dressing material .
Q. What you call the revier - revier is the hospital ward?
A. It is part of my office and is equivalent to a hospital. I must collect myself here. You asked a question about treatment, about orders from the Party concerning treatment of pilots who had bailed out of their planes. I myself recall, I believe in 1944, an aircraft was shot down and four pilots made emergency landings on the other side of the lake. Then I called up and officers of the Luftwaffe were immediately sent forward in order to collect the four pilots. I say this now because the officer came back and reported that four pilots were no longer available but had been transported away by the police. Put our orders were to collect them and I am sorry I didn't mention it before but now my case is complete.
Q. Let us go back to concentration camp inmates. What has been done in health matters?
A. There was an estate, called Boek. This estate consisted of several thousand acres and apart from potatoes and turnips also produced wheat. We received from that estate both for Larz Commander and concentration camps and for the foreign workers large quantities of goods produced there were handed over.
Q. These concentration camp inmates; were they exploited unfairly during their working hours?
A. I can say this - I myself was in the hall east from there up to the building of the Commander, and was about a kilometer and a half. The foreign workers and concentration camp inmates lived in smaller and bigger groups and worked in such groups, but I could always observe them when I 1192-A walked along the lanes.
It seemed that when the civilian and other employees there were still working the concentration camp groups had already stopped working because they had to be in their camp at a certain time. The time they needed to march to and fro was part of their working hours.
Q. Were they told to work particularly fast, or particularly heavy?
A. I can say this that I could really judge them because after all I saw them almost daily. Their work was not particularly slow, it wasn't particularly fast. And one couldn't say they were driven on.
Q. Were these people happy or did you hear complaints?
A. Should complaints have occurred I would have been the first to hear about them for it would have been my job to hear them because I headed the particular office for food and treatment which was the liaison office between ourselves and the Stalags.
I even listened at times to outbursts of Joy. And from the liaison office we bought everything, beginning from cigarettes and other small gifts, food stuffs, etc. This was used both in the camps and foreign workers were always running about freely there.
Q. Did your office ask for concentration camp inmates or were they sent to you by labor exchanges on the basis of assignment of labor?
A. We had to use two ways, we had to use two channels here one through labor exchanges and the other through our unit who ordered labor for us and on the basis of our application with the Labor Exchanges and the GL whether this special commando and attachment came from Oranienburg on the basis of our application I really don't know.
Q. Did you request concentration camp inmates or simply workers?
A. I may say quite frankly here I asked for German workers and I expected they would turn up but as we were under orders to maintain secrecy neither did I think of foreign workers or concentration camp inmates.
Q. Witness, did you hear that Milch regarded the War as lost quite openly and that he made very strong statements in public?
A. I myself and my Commanding Officer were friends. As my Commanding Officer was immediately subordinated to Milch and I had to see from conversation, apart from official relationship there was also a friendly relationship. I also heard what Milch thought - I heard that Milch went very far in his judgment and not only regarded the war as lost but was very critical of certain institutes and certain people.
Q. I have no other questions. He is at the disposal of Prosecution.
CROSS EXAMINATION BY MR. DENNEY:
Q. Just what was your job in Rechlin?
A. I was 1-B or I Bertha - that means an organization and my job was 1194-A looking after the Army.
Q Your 1-B in the German Army is similar to G-1 in the American Army - personnel?
A No, not personnel. That would be 2-A or 2-B. 2-A and 2-B is personnel, and 1-B is purely organization which deals with statements and statistics of figures.
Q Well, in your position having to do with figures you possibly were concerned with labor in Rechlin?
A From Rechlin we started to build a shelter in Larz and to carry this out we had to ask for labor.
Q Didn't they consolidate requests for labor and give them to you and you would send than up?
A Requests were sent on to labor exchanges and all the others.....
went to the GL.
Q And they were sent by you?
A They were sent by the Commanding Officer of the Testing Stating, that is, to say, my superior officer.
Q But you got them up and gave them to him to send them on?
A I worked on them and passed them on to my Commanding Officer.
Q You said that you had concentration camp workers -- you also had foreign workers didn't you?
A There were about 1000 concentration inmates and a certain number of foreign worker's - Russians, French, and Italians.
Q Did you have any Prisoners of War?
A Yes, we had some Prisoners of War.
Q How many people were employed there altogether?
A In Rechlin Prisoners of War and foreign workers, Germans, altogether there were 4 to 5 thousand.
Q Well, now we have got 1000 concentration camp workers. So that leaves 3 to 4 thousand left. How were those broken down among Prisoners of War, foreign workers, and Germans?
A Prisoners of War roughly 500. There were about 300 foreigners, and the rest were German civilians and German military personnel.
Q Now, these concentration camp workers, were they guarded?
A They were guarded in their own camps and in some cases on trucks were taken to their places of work on the east Boek air strip.
Q And the foreigners, were they guarded?
A I think they were at first a little guarded or, let us say, not at all.
Q How about the prisoners of war?
A The Prisoners of War were under a similar condition as there were not very many guards at our disposal - guards were very few.
Q You talked about the concentration camp people marching back and forth. Were they marching under guard?
A Yes, they marched under guard.
Q In stockade?
A They were in large camps or huts under stockade and under guard.
Q. Was there barbed wire around it?
A. Yes, there was barbed wire.
Q. Add guards walking around?
A. And guards, yes.
Q. Armed guards?
A. Yes, they were armed.
Q. Now, you told about passing on these orders about the terror fliers to the buergermeisters. The order that you spoke of that you got from the defendant?
A. From the GL.
Q. The GL was Field Marshal Milch?
A. That was Herr Filch.
Q. And you gave those orders on to the buergermeisters about the so-called "terror fliers"?
A. The buergermeisters and county councils.
Q. And then one day you heard about four fliers who had parachuted or made a forced landing - anyway they came down, and you sent your soldiers over there and you were told that they were not available?
A. No. The officer came back and said that the police had arrested the four pilots who had made a forced landing, contrary to our order and contrary to the regulations where the telephone number of our air field had to be passed on to the buergermeisters. The report to the buergermeisters had the purpose to inform the air field as quickly as possible so that from there a truck could pick up the pilots.
Q. Which police had taken these four fliers?
A. Unfortunately I do not know. The officer of the air field came back and reported that the police had fetched them. He didn't see the police. He merely was informed by the buergermeister of this.
Q. And then what did you do? Did you call the buergermeister up?
A. No, we passed this on to the air field and the air field reported this to the Luftgau. The Luftgau is the next superior office above the air field.
Q. Did they ever get these four fliers back?
1198a
A. No.
Q. They never got them back?
A. I do not know where they were taken to.
Q. You were the second man at Rechlin. You know that these orders were passed on to the buergermeisters that you received through your immediate superior from the Generalluftzeugmeister?
A. I was not the second man. I was E Commander - commander of that office. I was purely an expert in I B. I was concerned in this because Colonel Peterson of the SD Commando ordered the air field should make investigations because of the Milch order to the effect that every pilot should be at once taken to Oberursel.
Q. At any rate, you didn't do anything about this after you heard it?
A. Oh, yes. The report was immediately sent to the Luftgau that the pilots had been taken away.
Q. Did you send the report?
A. No, the report had to be sent by the competent office of the ground organization - namely, the air field.
Q. You never made any effort to find out what happened to these four Allied fliers?
A. Oh, yes, that was passed on at once and the air field having received it sent it on to the Luftgau and continued to work on this matter. What happened at the end I could not possibly find out because the Luftgau, the next highest office, had to report on it through those channels of command.
Q. You never tried to find out, did you? Did you ever call up anybody over at the Luftgau and ask them what happened to these four fliers?
A. No, I could hardly do that because I belonged to the testing station and there was a certain amount of dualism. It was rather like air activity on the one hand and the ground organization on the other.
Q. You knew what the Hitler order was about terror fliers, didn't you?
A. Yes, I learned about this much later after this emergency landing in 1944. I heard about this in 1945 when I was interrogated in Munich by the Reichsmarshal Special Court.
Q. What nationality were these pilots?
A. I could not say that. I assumed they were Americans but I could not say that with certainty because we never saw the insignia of the aircraft nor even the pilots themselves as we did not take them prisoners.
Q. Were there any SD units around where you were?
A. In Rechlien itself, no, but my chief, Peterson, and I myself learned later on that we were supervised by the SD Service.
Q. You say that in your position you would have heard complaints from any of the workers of whom you had four to five thousand of whom approximately two thousand were made up of concentration camp workers, prisoners of war and foreign workers. You never got a single complaint from any of those people, is that right?
A. No. I can only confirm that repeatedly the foreign workers gave expressions of their gratitude for what the office did for them --presided over by a sergeant and which came to them from the Stalag.
We would have been forbidden anyway to enter the concentration camp compound because it was part of Oranienburg and Oranienburg was an SS office.
Q. So you never were inside, were you, in the concentration camp?
A. I went repeatedly there. I myself attended the hospital hours. That is to say, I looked at the ill people before they saw the doctor and I asked the doctor afterwards if he needed anything and thereupon I got the medical supplies from the air field and for that purpose I was able to do this because I was supported by the order of the GL.
Q. The Generalluftzeugmeister was able to arrange it so you could go into the camp and look around?
A. On the basis of the order where it was my duty to look after the people that they should be well-treated and well-looked after and therefore I was admitted into their compound.
Q. And the compound was under the jurisdiction of the SS who had jurisdiction over ....
A. (Interrupting) Yes, that was under the jurisdiction of the SS.
Q. And they had jurisdiction over all of the concentration camps?
A. I didn't know that but all I knew is that they came from Oranienburg and that the regulations concerning that compound came from Oranienburg.
Q. You knew that Himmler was head of the SS?
A. I heard about that in 1945.
Q. In 1945 you found out that Himmler was the Reichsfuehrer SS?
A. Yes.
Q. I have not more questions.
JUDGE MUSSMANNO: Witness, you mean you did not know, before 1945, what power Himmler had in the SS?
WITNESS: No, Your Honor. Particularly in the testing station we did not discuss that nor did we receive many reports there.
The attitude of my chief -- I may perhaps say here, of the GL himself it was known what their attitude was towards the Party. We ourselves were under the Gauleiter of Mecklenburg who supervised us. Therefore we went to no trouble to look into other matters.
THE PRESIDENT: This testing station was in Germany, wasn't it?
WITNESS: Yes. Rechlin is roughly 120 kilometers north east of Berlin on the Mulef Lake.
THE PRESIDENT: And an officer of the German Army, 120 kilometers from Berlin, didn't know who Himmler was until 1945?
WITNESS: Of course, I knew that Himmler was a Party member but that Himmler had all the concentration camps under him I really didn't know until very much later.
THE PRESIDENT: But you knew he was head of the SS?
WITNESS: I knew that he was an SS commander. I did not know until then that he was the head of the SS.
***** PHILLIPS:
Q. How many concentration camp victims did you hoar were killed up to 1945; starved to death and killed?
A. I did not know that and I only learned it from press notices, which came out in connection with the Nurnberg trials.
Q. How many concentration camp workers were killed in your camp?
A. Nobody was tortured or killed in our camp; not even one man.
Q. Did any of them die a natural death while you were there?
A. Nobody died; I can confirm to the court that both tho health and the individual's happiness was such that there was neither case of death or complaint.
BY JUDGE TOMS:
Q. The name of this concentration camp I must know; what was it?
A. The camp was near Rechlien and was an office attached to Oranienburg.
Q. That was Oranienburg you were talking about?
A. It must have been a branch of Oranienburg. Up to my resignation on 31 January 1945 neither torture or fatalities occurred there. I said that before, Your Honor, and I should like to repeat it.
Q. Don't repeat it.
BY JUDGE MUSMANNO:
Q. How many inmates were there in this camp; what was the population of this camp?
A. The camp was roughly about 1,000 people strong.
Q. And how long were you there?
A. From October, 1942 until January 31, 1945.
Q. So that in approximately three years time there was not one death in this camp?