A No, I can't remember it. I found this order here in the files. This is an order which deals with certain geographical and administrative questions to do with the 1st Mountain Division and On figure states that because of the continuous attacks in future instances hostages would be shot at the ratio of 1:10.
I am sure that the Division issued these regulations only for their sphere and that these regulations did not come to the knowledge of the Corps.
Q. Now, a similar order of the 1st Mountain Division has been submitted. This is also contained in Document Book XIX. It is page 150 of the German and page 139 of the English. This is Document NOKW-864, Exhibit 454. Did you know this order?
A. I knew this order principally because in the Opening Statement of the Prosecution this order was made the main count against myself. I read this order afterwards and from the distribution list of this order it can be seen that this order did not go to the Corps Headquarters but went from the Division , in the same way as the special regulations which we have talked about before, to its subordinate troops, to the regiments and to the battalions. This can be clearly seen from the distribution list of this order. That is, as we say,"an internal affair of the division"; in any case much as I would like to, I can't remember that I saw t he order.
DR. SAUTER: The distribution list, your Honor, about which the witness is talking reads, I quote from the Document 864, Exhibit 454: "Distribution down to battalions, detachments, et cetera."
Q. Witness, did you know whether , by reason of these special instructions, No, 6 and No. 9, of the 1st Mountain Division in the Ic sphere, shooting of hostages was actually carried out by the 1st Mountain Division, leaving aside whether you know the order or not?
A. No, I will be more precise. I know nothing at all about any shootings of hostages. It was never reported to me that the Division had carried out shootings of hostages, but I know from the documents -- just a minute; I must find the date -- that on the 29th of September 1943 that is, at the time when I was already there -- the Division -- that is, the 3rd Battalion of the 99th Regiment near Paravisia -- shot 50 Greeks; but, at any rater, this incident is set down in the War Crimes Documents of the Greeks, "50 Greeks shot as reprisal for a surprise attack on a German reconnaisance troop," a fact which wasn't reported to me but which the battalion had reported to the Division and there it remained; but it wasn't passed on to me.
They certainly had a good reason for not doing this.
DR. SAUTER: With regard to this subject, your Honors, I would like to submit a few documents which refer to this. These are contained in Lanz Document Book No. III and the first document is Lanz No. 60 on page 3 of Document Book III, and I give this the Exhibit No. 12, Lanz No. 12. This is an affidavit by Wolf Christian von Loeben living in Bremen.
The affiant states on page 3 that, first of all, he was Ia of the 22nd Mountain Corps during the time between the 24th of August 1943 and the 25th of June 1944; that is, he was Ia with General Lanz; and then I quote:
"I do not know anything about the orders of the 1st Mountain Division Ic, No. 612/43 or 13 September 1943 and No. 751/43, Secret, of 25 October 1943. I also do not know anything about the regulations contained therein concerning the proportion of hostages of 1 to 50 or 1 to 10. I also do not know by whom and when the 1st Mountain Division received these regulations.
Further, I do not know if such an order was received by the Corps' Headquarters of the 22nd Mountain Army and was then passed on the Division. I also do not know whether General Lanz himself was informed of this order,either by presentation of the written order or by word of mouth.
Finally , I also do not know whether the above mentioned orders were carried out by the troops. I also do not know whether the indigenous population was drafted for Air Defense of fixed installations. I also do not know if hostage orders were ever given by General Lanz."
The affidavit is duly signed by the affiant and certified by a notary.
Your Honors, it has just been pointed out to me that by a mistake on the part of the notary the signature of the affiant in his own handwriting is not given. The signature is only written with a typewriter.
I would like to ask that for the moment this document be temporarily accepted in evidence and I will try to get the handwritten signature for this document as soon as possible. As I said, it is a mistake on the part of the notary.
THE PRESIDENT: In other words, you are withdrawing the offer of this particular exhibit.
DR. SAUTER: Perhaps it would be more expedient if at the moment this document is admitted as Exhibit No. 12 until I can get the proper signature. I think perhaps that would be more expedient.
THE PRESIDENT: Very well.
DR. SAUTER: Thank you very much.
THE PRESIDENT: Up to the present time, Doctor, there has been no objection and there is no occasion for any delay then, so you may proceed and the Court will receive it.
DR. SAUTER: Yes, your Honor. Now, as the next document I submit an affidavit. This is the next one in Lanz Document Book No. III, Document No. 62. This becomes Exhibit No. 13. This is to be found on page 5 of Document Book III for Lanz. This is an affidavit by Gebhard von Lenthe who also belonged to the staff of General Lanz, and who has also given affidavits which have been submitted about other subjects. This affidavit concerns, as it states, the orders of the 1st Mountain Division dated 13 September 1943 and 25th of October 1943, "Special Regulations concerning Ic Duties," and the affiant states the following with regard to this:
"I did not know of these orders up to the present time. They were obviously internal regulations of the 1st Mountain Division which were at that time not presented to the Corps Headquarters. I am interested to see Order 9 of 25 October 1943 as in this I have, for the first time, come face to face with the regulation that 50 Greeks must be shot for one German.
"Up to that time, though we had heard in the staff Lanz that such an order existed, we had never actually seen it.
That this order must have been issued at an earlier date ---- even before the Corps existed -is proven by the first paragraph of the Order No. 9 which says that the execution order his to be suggested by the Military Commander of Greece. It is, therefore, clear that a previously given order had been taken up and worked on again.
"General Lanz would never have issued such a regulation. He objected to retaliation measures and the shooting of hostages. I actually do not know of a single case in which shooting of hostages was proposed or carried out by the Corps Headquarters following such a regulation of the 1st Mountain Division or of such an order being given by General Lanz."
This affidavit is also duly sworn to by the affiant Gebhardt von Lenthe and certified by a notary.
As Lanz Exhibit No. 14 I offer to the Tribunal an affidavit by Friedrich Erdmann, German national living in Duesseldorf, and , as he states, he was ADC with the 22nd Mountain Army in the time between 1 September 1943 and the end of the war.
He states and I quote on page 7 of Lanz's Document Book No. III:
"The following orders, copies of which have been presented to me, Special regulations on Ic matters No. 6 and Special regulations on Ic matters No. 9, are not known to me.
"The regulations contained therein, especially those concerning the proportion of hostages of 1:50 or 1:10 are not known to me.
"I do not know who has issued these regulations nor do I know from whom and when the 1st Mountain Division may have received them.
"I do not know of such an order having been received by the Corps headquarters of the 22 Mountain Army and having been passed on to the divisions.
"I do not know of General Lanz having been informed of such an order either in writing or by word of mouth.
"I do not know of a single case in which the troop made any suggestion concerning 1a) of the order of 25 October 1943 to the Military Commander of Greece or shootings based on these orders, especially in sub-paragraphs 1b) and e) of the order of 25 October 1943 and sub-paragraph 10 of the order of 13 September 1943 having been carried out."
I would ask that judicial notice be taken of paragraph g) without reading it. The affidavit is duly sworn to and certified. As the last document in this connection I offer Exhibit No. 15, This is the next document, a short document, on page 9 of Lanz Document Book No. III. This is Document No. 63, Lanz Exhibit No. 15. This is an affidavit by Dr. Karl-Heinz Rothfuchs living in Frankfurt/Main. He states that he was Ic with the 1st Mountain Division from June, 1942, until the end of the War, and his testimony concerns those two special regulations. He states:
"The Special Regulations No. 6, 7 and 9 of the 1st Mountain Division are internal orders of the Division which were issued only for the area of the Division. They were distributed only to troops and offices underthe command of the Division (see distribution list on Special Regulations No. 9). The Corps-Headquarters was not issued with a copy.
Quotas of hostages stated in the Special Regulations No. 6 and 9 may he part of the orders of Army Group E with which the division has probably been issued at a time when it was still under direct orders of the Army Group E and before Corps-Headquarters XXII Mountain Army was set up. I do not know of any case in which any of the hostages who were taken along in meter vehicles came to bodily harm.
signed: Dr. Karl Heinz Rothfuchs.)
and the signature is duly certified, and the affidavit is duly sworn to. These affidavits, Your Honor, have mostly only negotive importance and, therefore, we only submitted them because they are done by the closest collaborators of General Lanz, and because these Special Regulations in our opinion could not have escaped the notice of these affiants if they had actually come to the staff of General Lanz.
Q. Witness, the last affiant mentioned that hostages were taken along in lorries or supposed to have been taken along in lorries as a protection against terror actions. Did you know anything about that, about the fact that the 1st Mountain Division set this down in an order dated the 5th of October, 1943. This is the order in Document Book 19 of the Prosecution German page 144, English page 129. It is document NOKW-909, Exhibit No. 454. Did you know about that?
A. I know about the order as such from the documents. Whether actually the Division knew about it at that time I don't know. I can't say for certain, but in any case, I don't know of any case or I don't remember any case in which hostages lost their lives in an army lorry. I didn't hear anything about that, at any rate.
Q. Witness, speaking purely hypothetically, of course if you at that time had heard about this regulation, would you have done anything about objecting to these regulation, or would you have thought that it was justified and admissible?
A. Well, this is another one of these famous hypotheses. I can't answer with absolute certainty. I can only say in any case I would have certainly convinced myself how this protection was carried out with the hostages.
I think that similar measures are usual in other armies, too. For instance, I remember a similar measure in an American regulation, and I also know that in Greece during the guerilla fighting, as it is called today i.e, the band fighting, similar regulations were valid and carried out by the Greek commander in chief. That I found out from the press. Such a measure must be judged according to the way in which it is carried out and according to the military necessity for it. That, in my opinion, is the criterion for such a measure.
Well, then, to come back to your question, if at that time I had learned about it, then I probably would have found out how it was carried out, More I cannot say.
Q. Well, if I understand you correctly, General, then you want to say that in itself the German military view is that these measures in themselves are not inadmissible, are not contrary to international law?
A. No, in my opinion.
Q. Witness, an order has been submitted by the Prosecution here dated 3 October 1943. This is an order shortly after your arrival in Epirus. It is contained in Document Book 19 of the Prosecution, page 137 of the German and page 118 of the English -- Document Book 19, English page 118. It is NOKW-909, Exhibit No. 454. Witness, as far as I have been able to find out up till now from all the Prosecution documents which have been submitted, this is the only hostage order which you issued. Did you issue this order? Have you got the order there, or can you remember it?
A. I can remember it, Yes, I issued the order. That is correct.
Q. Why did you issue this order?
A. At that time in the Arta district which is concerned -- this locality is on the map -- continued acts of sabotage were taking place on the telephone cables. These were the telephone cables which ran from our Corps to the 104th Division in Agrinion. Therefore, from a tactical and operational point of view they were very important for us, and we hadn't been able to do anything up till then in order to stop these acts of sabotage.
Thereupon I ordered the arrest of forty hostages. Thereupon the acts of sabotage stopped.
Q. And then what happened to the hostages?
A. The hostages were released.
Q. Therefore, none of then were shot?
A. No, I did not know anything about it.
Q. And on this occasion I would like to ask you a general question. What was your general attitude towards hostage orders or the seizing of hostages?
A. In general I was rather skeptical with regard to these hostage matters, if not to say negative. During the Eisner Republic in Munich so-and-so many hostages had been shot, and because of this I had a negative attitude towards the shooting of hostages. Therefore, if possible, I avoided them.
Q. Nevertheless, witness, why did you in spite of this in this one case, which fortunately had no results, make an exception? This is a completely isolated exception.
A. Because unfortunately there are principles in life which one sometimes breaks. I don't know Dr. Sauter. I can't tell you and I can't think so much about how or why I acted in such a way in such a situation four years ago.
DR. SAUTER: Well, your Honor, with regard to this problem I would like to offer three affidavits. The first one is contained in -
THE PRESIDENT: Before you start on the introduction of these documents, I think we will take our afternoon recess, Dr. Sauter.
(A recess was taken)
THE MARSHAL: The Tribunal is again in session.
DR. SAUTER: May it please the Tribunal, as to the problem of this one order concerning hostages, issued by General Lanz, I would like to offer three affidavits in order to prove that no one from among these hostages was shot or hanged.
The first affidavit is contained in Document Book Lanz No. IV. It is document 112, in other words, the first document in that volume, on page 1, and I offer it as Lanz Exhibit 16. The affiant, Konrad Beteranderl, who was born in Bavaria in 1918 had the position -
THE PRESIDENT: Pardon me, Dr. Sauter, the members of the Tribunal did not get the document to which you are now giving reference. Will you be kind enough to repeat it?
DR. SAUTER: Certainly, Your Honor. It is contained in Document Book IV. The number of the document is 112 on page 1 and it is offered as Lanz Exhibit No. 16. It is an affidavit by Konrad Peteranderl who was born in Bad Aibling, Bavaria. He states that his position was Private First Class (Oberjager) with the Arta Garrison from about 10 September 1943 until about 25 October 1943. Us affidavit deals with the order to take hostages of 3 October 1943, in other words, concerning a period of time when the affiant was present down there.
I quote: "Of the hostages who were arrested by order of the Commanding General of the XXII Mountain Army Corps, dated 3 October, 1943, by Major Seidl, Commanding Officer of the Reconnaissance Battalion 54, and who were handed in to Arta local garrison headquarters, none were executed by shooting on the order of Major Seidl. The arrested hostages were released." This affidavit has been duly sworn to and properly certified by the Buergermeister.
Another affidavit in this context is contained in Document Book Lanz No. III. It is Document No. 64 on page 10; repeating: Document No. 64 on page 10, and it is offered as Lanz Exhibit No. 17. It is given by one Matthias Starl of Lindau-Aeschach. The witness says that his position was that of a Captain and First ADC with the 22nd Mountain Army Corps between 3 September 1943 and 14 November 1943.
Concerning the hostage order by General Lanz (40 hostages seized on the occasion of the wire-sabotage in the area of Arta) the witness says as follows and I quote:
"Because of the ever-increasing number of cases of wire-sabotage in the Arta area General Lanz ordered the seizure of 40 hostages from Arta and Fillipias who were jailed by the station headquarters in Arta. As, thereupon, sabotage-actions came to an end, these hostages were released after a while". Lindau, 5 October, 1947. The affidavit is duly sworn to and properly certified by the Buergermeister.
And the third document offered in this connection is the immediately following one in the same document book, Lanz No. III. It is Document No. 65 on page 11 and it is offered as Lanz Exhibit No. 18. This is an affidavit by Dr. Karl Heinz Rothfuchs of Frankfurt/Main. About the subject matter the affiant says that his position was Ic with the 1st Mountain Division in the time between June 1942 and the end of the war. Concerning the order of the Commanding General of the 22nd Mountain Army of 3 October 1943 for the seizure of 40 hostages in Arta, the witness says as follows:
"I am not sure that I can remember the above order, nor do I know whether such seizures have ever been made. I also do not know of any executions by shooting. It is likely that the above order was issued because of the many cases of wire-sabotage in the area of the 1st Mountain Division."
This affidavit has also been duly sworn to and properly certified as to the signature.
BY DR. SAUTER:
Q Witness, now this brings me to individual cases mentioned in the indictment of 12 May 1947. I'd like to ask you first, what was the situation you found when you arrived on 9 September 1943 and took over the command in Epirus?
A Let me say a brief word about the area which I had to take over. The map which has been handed around gives an approximate impression of the area which became my responsibility. The area is about of the same size as the whole state of Albania, to give a routh comparison. It was about 300 kilometers long and if I was to include my supply roads, which went via Korea in Albania to Fiorina, a small town in northwestern Greece, which has been in the news lately owing to recent incidents in Greek politics, the whole length of the area was extended by 200 kilometers.
The east to west dimension amounted to about 150 or 200 kilometers if you include the islands. This whole area, which is usually called the Province of Epirus and the Ionian Islands, which are in front of it, which included going from north to south, the Islands of Korfu, the Island of Leukas, the Island of Kephalonia, whence the southernmost Ionian Island was not part of my area. This area was very mountainous, most of it was difficult for access and in the whole area, apart from one small railway there were no railways at all, with the result that the town of Joannina, a provincial town, could be reached only by devious detours in motor cars, or else by aircraft.
There were only very few roads in this territory. There was one from north to south which was the only one in that direction and that was our main supply route and line of communication and was, therefore, particularly important for band warfare and acts of sabotage; and there was, from east to west, after the Mecovon Pass had been opened, in the second half of October 1943, one road from Larissa via Trikkala, and the Mecovon Pass, which was said to be 1700 meters high to Joannina, to the coast of the Adriatic Sea at Jgumonica. Then there was another road from Joannina through the southern tip of Albania to Sarande, which was a small Albanian harbor town facing the northern part of the Island of Korfu; and there was another road from Joannina, via Philippias, to Prevesa.
Prevesa was apart from Sarande, the biggest port - if you can call it a big port at all - in the Epirus area.
But, the essential point in all this is that four-fifths of the country is mountainous, most of it desert country and serves as pastures for sheep, there are high mountains, some of which were nearly 2,000 meters high, difficult to access and there the partisans could well hide themselves. Places of human habitation in Epirus consisted of about eight or ten biggish villages or smallish towns about which I shall have more to say later on. Let us say there were a large number of small villages and a large number of isolated farms and isolated houses which were scattered about along the mountain slopes and along the valleys of the rivers all over the country. That, roughly speaking, sketches the territorial conditions so that one can form a general picture of this area.
Q What were the tasks, Witness, which you were given in that area?
A My actual military assignment consisted of working against Allied landings on the islands and the coast of the continent. If I may interpolate this here, our presence in Greece served the only purpose of preventing an Allied landing there. It was the military purpose. In addition there was, I must say, unhappily, this unfortunate fight against the bands. By virtue of the fact that in most of the country the Partisans were active nothing could he done but to fight. That is a subject matter which I shall go into greater detail later on.
Q When you took over your command,Witness, in Greece, what was your first task which you were faced with?
A The first thing I had to do was, as the Italians had surrendered, to disarm them, to watch over their disarming and surrendering their units. When I went to Joannina in the afternoon of the 9th of September the Italian troops there had been ordered by the Italian Army in Athens to surrender and lay down their arms and fortunately the surrendering and disarming of the Italians throughout Greece went without any greater difficulties and incidents. The commanding officers of the Italians obeyed the order of the Italian Supreme Commander in Chief to surrender and to lay down their arms.
We concentrated these arms in certain central depots and the Italian troops were gathered together in certain districts and then according to plan the Italians were transported to railway starions, i.e. they marched there and from there they were transported where to I couldn't say in detail.
Q What was your own personal attitude towards the Italians, Witness, at that time?
A Well, it was understandable that to us, Germans, it was a painful and bitter memory leading back to the first World War when the Italians once again as we said justifiably, had betrayed us. I made every effort, however, to look upon these things in a matter of fact manner and my endeavors were directed towards the ending of having these poor, miserable Italians sent away from my area without too much clamor or difficulties.
Q Can you give us a few details about what you did for this purpose?
A Well, of course I could write a whole book about this. Let me be brief and to the point. Endeavoring as I was to get rid of the Italians an quickly as possible, I supported the staffs of the Italians who had to be used if the whole thing was to run properly, in their work as much an I could; I sent them liaison officers, give them the necessary signal equipment, left them their trucks and cars so that they could drive about and do their work. The corps staff in Joannina asked me when I arrived would I please leave them there in their quarters for a few days more and in their offices. I granted these requests and I, myself stayed with the mayor of Joannina. To be brief I endeavored to expedite and support this matter as much as I could. When the officers marched away they asked me to leave them their cars and their horses and their luggage and all that I granted to them with pleasure. In other words, I attempted to put the whole thing on a friendly and comradely basis; nor did I have any reason to be angry with these people.
These locals were hardly to be blamed.
Q Did you take any measures at that time to look after sick and wounded Italians?
A Well, that naturally is so much a matter of course that I did not even intend to mention it here but since you asked me. The Italians who were ill and inasmuch as they could be transported were sent away on medical lorries to the railway station in Joannina and those of the ill and wounded who could not be transported an Italian hospital was established in Joannina which I frequently visited in the following period of time and they were looked after there just as much as our own ill and wounded were. In that respect everything was done that can be reasonably expected.
Q How did the Italians behave after the surrender?
A Well, the Italians behaved just as anybody else who surrendered; they were only too pleased that the war was over. They were delighted that at long last they could go home. But there were some who went over to the bands; some individuals went over to the bands, quite a few in fact, but in some cases whole units went over to the bands, particularly in Albania. I shall talk about that later. In the summer of 1944 when we went out on operations against gands we always captured Italians among them. And then there was a large number of Italians who abandoned their uniforms, wore civilian clothes and disappeared among the population disguised as civilians so that they would not be taken prisoner or in order to find any other occupation perhaps, even an illegal one.
Q. Witness, in the indictments of 12 May 1947, you are charged, on page 17 of the German version under Count 3 figure 12 (e), that you had given an order and carried it out according to which in the case of every single Italian Division which would sell its arms after the capitulation, give them away, or destroy them one staff officer and fifty men were to be shot. Did you issue that order or pass it on?
A. No, I did not issue any such order. I believe this matter has been cleared up meanwhile.
Q. Were any other measures taken against Italians who, for instance, went over to the bands or supported the bands in any other way or did something offending against capitulation regulations?
A. An order was issued in those days according to which those Italians who were hiding in civilian clothes were to be apprehended and shot. The reason given was that people of that sort would increase the danger coming from the bands; and an order of that description was, as I see here in the documents, issued, passed on by my staff to the First Mountain Division. Unless I am mistaken, it was on 16 September.
Q. Witness, this is the order which is contained in the Prosecution Document Book XIX, on page 9 of the German, and English 15. It is Document NOKW-1118 and is Exhibit 446. Is that the order you mean, General?
A. Yes, that is the order. It is a teletype letter.
Q. You say that this went out from, your staff to the Division?
A. Yes.
Q. Before it went out, did you see that order?
A. I am not quite sure anymore about that. I can only speak about a probability there. The probability is that I did not see it, for the following reason: At that time, there was an actual occurrence and I made an entirely different decision. A Greek lady or woman was once brought to my office by my ADC, who was terribly excited when she came and talked to me And she said that an Italian captain, I believe it was, who had been billete in her house up to then, had been apprehended by a German patrol because he was staying in her house in civilian clothes and as she was terribly worried about the captain since he might be punished, that was why she came to see me, in order to ask me to do nothing against this man.
I told the lady that I would investigate the matter and she would hear from me in due course. I had the matter investigated by an officer immediately, whether the statements by the woman were correct, and I ordered that the Italian officer should wear his uniform again and that as soon as possible he was to be sent to a prisoner-of-war camp, in other words, the same place where all the other Italians were gathered together. And that is how I handled these things, in practice.
DR. SAUTER: Concerning this incident, I beg to offer to the Tribunal a document in evidence which is contained In Lanz Document Book III. It is Document Lanz No. 61. I withdraw that. It is Document 95, on page 61. This is offered as Exhibit 19. It is an affidavit given by a man called Fritz Doeppenschmidt, born in 1893 in Pforzheim. As he states the affiant was a Captain in the Reserve on the staff of 22nd Mountain Army in the period from August 1943 to August 1944. I shall not read the document because it bears out entirely what Gen. Lanz has just told us and it would therefore only be a repetition. The affidavit was duly sworn to and properly certified.
Q. Witness, what happened in actual fact? How were Italians who were arrested wearing civilian clothes treated, as far as your information goes?
A. Well, as far as I know, they were sent to the collecting points for prisoners.
Q. Have you never heard, Witness, that on the basis of the order mentioned an Italian arrested in civilian clothes was shot?
A. Among the documents to which we shall come, about which we shall speak later, there is one incident mentioned where Italians were shot, but it is not clear why they were shot. It is connected with a case of looting but this is prior to the period of time of this order. It therefore cannot have any connection with this order.
I do not know of any other case.
DR. SAUTER: Concerning this set of questions, if Your honors please, I offer a few documents. First, we have Document 94, contained in Lanz Document Book III on page 59 and it is offered as Lanz Exhibit 20. It is a affidavit by Herr von Lenthe, of whom I have already offered other affidavit in evidence. He served on the staff of Gen. Lanz as Ic between September 1943 until the end of the war. The affiant says in the affidavit concerning a teletype of the General Command of the 22nd Mountain Army Corps, dated 16 September 1943, "Italian soldiers in civilian clothes to be shot." As I very well remember, the above order came from Army Group E. It was passed on to the first Mountain Division by the High Command of the 22nd Mountain Army Corps for reasons of haste without the knowledge of the Commanding General, since the latter was absent at that time. When General Lanz learned about this subsequently, he was very displeased about it and ordered that this order be rescinded. I informed the Division immediately by telephone. No Italian, were shot on the basis of this order. The attitude of General Lanz on this occasion becomes clear from the following two cases, which I remember." I need not read the following passages that concern two individual incidents, one of which is identical with the one the witness has already testified to and it bears out what he has said. The affidavit of 27 September has been duly sworn to and properly certified. Another document which I beg to offer to the Tribunal in this context is Document 95, again contained in Lanz Document Book III, on page 61. I beg your pardon, I read this one before and I have offered it to the Court as Exhibit 19. I therefore need hot offer it again. The next document in this connection is an affidavit by Dr. Karl-Heinz Rothfuchs, which is Document 96, contained on page 63 in Volume III, and it is offered as Exhibit 21. It is given by Dr. Rothfuchs, whose position was that of Ic with the First Mountain Division between June 1942 and the end of the war. His affidavit also contains a teletype letter of the High Command under 16 September, and he says: "I cannot reliably remember the above-indicated order to shoot Italians captured in civilian clothes, just as I do not know that this order was passed on to the troops.
The actual practice in the First Mountain Division was that Italians captured in civilian clothes were brought to the prisoners collection center and were sent on to Florina. I consider it possible that perhaps an order of that sort was not executed on the basis of an oral directive of the Corps. General Lanz certainly would have consistently supervised the execution of the order if the order had been upheld."
Signed, and then it has been duly sworn to and certified by the Chairman of the Main Camp Court.
MR. FENSTERMACHEP: I'd like to clarify one point. Rothfuchs here says that the following statements refer to his position as Ic with the First Mountain Division. Withdrawn. Sorry.