That was the reason why I was wearing a uniform. Mummenthey started speaking to me, and he asked me if I had ever been a member of the General-SS at any time, and I confirmed that fact, and I said that I was a Rottenfuehrer. Thereupon Mummenthey told me that it would be appropriate if now, as I was an officer of the army, I would receive a rank in the General-SS also. Thereupon he applied for my promotion as a SS leader, and in august 1941, I was promoted from an NCO Rottenfuehrer to an Untersturmfuehrer of the General-SS, to assimilate it to my Wehrmacht rank. In January, 1942, I then became an Obersturmfuehrer of the General-SS. I didn't serve in the General-SS during all that time though.
Q. Neither before nor after the assimilation of rank?
A. Yes, that is correct, neither before nor after that rank assimilation. All I saw in that was an honor on the basis of my rank in the Wehrmacht.
Q. When was it that you met Obergruppenfuehrer Pohl for the first time?
A. That must have been towards the end of 1941 or early 1942. At the time most of the civilian members of the DEST were ordered to as to take WVHA to the main office building. We met there in a large hall. The officers were up front, of the two main offices, wearing their uniforms, and the civilians were sitting in the back. Pohl then held a long speech concerning the corruption case of Sauerzweig, S-a-u-e-r-z-w-e-i-g. During that occasion he threatened everybody that they would be placed before a court martial and have them shot who would try to get more food than the actual allocation was, and who, by committing some sort of a corruption, would become conspicuous. It was on that occasion that I saw Pohl for the first time.
Q. When did you meet Standartenfuehrer Mauer for the first time who became your chief after that?
A. It must have been in the middle of March, 1942, when Mummenthey asked me to accompany him on some conversation which he had to have with the WVHA, that is to say, when we had to go and see Sturmbannfuehrer, at the time, Maurer, M-a-u-r-e-r. Maurer at the time was chief of Staff I in the personal office of Pohl, and he told us that the entire correspondence concerning the labor assignment of the inmates in the concentration camps no longer would run between the main offices of the economic enterprises and the inspectorate and would no longer be dealt with by those two agencies, but was only to be channeled through him, Maurer. Then inmate labor assignment was discussed for quite a while on that evening, and I told Maurer at the time that I thought it impossible to reach a somewhat normal inmate labor assignment so long as his commanders were the only men in charge within their own sphere of authority, as long as they were the bosses of that organization that they wouldn't help the industrial enterprises at all. On that occasion I also mentioned a case which had become known to me where commanders of the concentration camps had made meatballs out of horse mean and were selling them to the inmates for a mark and half in their cafeterias. I told Maurer that was a clear case of corruption. Maurer at the time asked that all such cases that became known were to be reported to him immediately, and that he would then instruct the camp commandants, or rather that he would take care of them all right, as he said.
When I had a short discussion with Mummenthey a few days later, he told me that according to Maurer's order, all the mail from the enterprises could be sent to Maurer directly, and that therefore the department inmate labor assignment actually had become superfluous as all the other tasks would also be decentralized, and he told me that he intended to then appoint me as assistant, or assisting business manager as he called it.
Q. Will you tell us how you joined the Department D for "Dog" II of the WVHA?
A. A little while after that conversation with Maurer the Inspectorate of the Concentration camps was incorporated into the WVHA as Amtsgruppe D for "Dog". Maurer became chief of Office D for "Dog" II, that is to say Department Labor Assignment of Inmates.
Mummenthey asked me to come and see him one day, and in the presence of Opperbeck, who was an assistant manager there, asked me the rather surprising question, "Do you want to become a main office chief"? He told me then that Maurer had asked him, to use me as a collaborator in Department D-II, that is to say, to have me released from the DEST, the German Earth & Stone Works, and he would leave it up to me if I wanted to collaborate with Maurer or not. I asked him to give me twenty-four hours' time to think it over, and on the following morning I asked Mummenthey to help me to speak to Maurer personally. I then went to Oranienburg; I reported to Maurer, and he told me approximately the following: I knew all the trouble of the economic enterprises with reference to labor assignment, and he would appreciate it if I would help him to create clearer and much cleaner conditions of of labor assignment. He intended to have me released from the DEST and and employ me as a civilian employee in his organization. I would like to point out explicitly here that at the time during that conference we only mentioned the fact that inmates were to be used in the economic enterprises.
We didn't speak about any labor assignment in the armament industry, because according to my knowledge there was no such thought at the time. At least, as far as my conference with Maurer was concerned, we didn't discuss any such thing.
Q. When did you start your position in Office D for "Dog" II?
A. The department labor assignment with the DEST was dissolved, and I started working with D for "Dog" II on the 5th of May, 1942.
Q. Up to what time were you a member of Office D for "Dog" II?
A. Approximately up to the capitulation. Office D for "Dog" II, practically speaking, had ceased existing towards April, 1945, because there was no connection whatsoever with the concentration camps then. That was about mid-April 1945.
Q. Where did you live at the time?
A. At the time I lived in Berlin, and I drove daily from Berlin to Oranienburg, and I returned to Berlin in the evening, and did that approximately up to the 23rd of August, 1943. On that day I was bombed out in Berlin and I had to move out to Oranienburg.
Q. Would you give this Tribunal a sort of description of the organization or work of Amtsgruppe D for "Dog"?
A. Amtsgruppe D for Dog was at the time inspectorate of the concentration camps, and in addition to that, or rather as an extention to that, had Office D-II, labor assignment of inmates. Amtsgruppe D consisted of Office D-l, the central Office, which was always used as a liaison office for us between the RSHA and the concentration camps.
We had Department D-2, Labor Assignment of Inmates; Office D-3, which, according to the Organizational Chart, was the medical inspectorate of the concentration camps, which we, however, also considered the chief physician of the concentration camps. We had Office D-4 which was administration of concentration camps, which was deactivated towards August 1942, and which was then re-established in the middle of 1943.
Q. Would you tell the Tribunal a synopsis concerning the organization of the fields of task of Office D-2?
A. The organization of Office D-2 corresponds to the organizational chart introduced by the Prosecution in NO111, Exhibit 38, in Book 2. Office D-2, in May of 1942, consisted of the Chief of Office and three experts. The name of Office D-2 was Labor Assignment of Inmates; and Special Department D-2-1 was Inmate Labor Assignment. D-2-2, Training of Inmates; and the Department D-2-3, Accounting and Statisttics.
Office D-2 was Pohl's instrument, so to speak, for the guidance of labor assignment of all the concentration camp inmates within the Reich area; and later on also, in addition to that, of the concentration camp Herzogenbusch. Then the concentration camps of the Occupied Eastern Territories were added and the concentration camps in the "Eastland", that is to say, in Riga, Kaunas, and Waigara, in the Baltic territories--they were immediately subordinated to the SS Economist of the Higher SS and Police Leader, and that directly.
The conditions in the Government General were not very clean ever since the beginning, and they were only established slowly and subordinated to the SS economists.
There was no written order through the Office D-2. The work of Department D-2, in detail, is approximately the following.
That office had to deal with the wishes of the business managers of the SS enterprises concerning labor assignments and then by channeling it through the camp commandants, who at the same time were the business managers. They had to receive all those things.
Furthermore, they had to take care of the wishes of the SS Construction Agencies, and only at the beginning--only to a very small extent-- they had to take care of private enterprises. The wishes had to be submitted to Pohl, and Pohl decided if the transfer of the inmates should be effected provided that there were inmates in the camps.
In the end of summer, 1942, there were also negotiations with agencies with Reich authorities in Berlin upon Pohl's orders. Then there were negotiations with the members and agents of the self-administration of the German economy, also in Berlin, Furthermore, instruction of the commanders and their experts by drawing their attention to the necessity of the importance of the labor assignment of inmates. Then there was a current checking-up on the labor assignment of the inmates with the industrial firms by the Chief of Office Maurer. Then we had to pass on basic orders of Himmler's and Pohl's, and also from Gluecks, to the camp commandants as far as they were concerned with questions of labor assignment. Then the writing of periodical reports concerning labor assignment of inmates. We also had to compile reports on the number of inmates to Pohl and Himmler, current control of labor assignment on the basis of reports which were sent in by the camp commandants--and that to Office D-2.
Then guidance of auxiliary and skilled workers. If there ever was a lack of such skilled workers, or surplus of such men somewhere--that went to Gluecks.
Furthermore, we had to take care of all procedures which dealt with the labor assignment, and thereby taking care of them in an official way.
THE PRESIDENT: We will take the usual recess.
THE MARSHAL: The Tribunal will recess for fifteen minutes.
(A recess was taken.)
THE MARSHAL: The Tribunal is again in session.
DR. BELZER:
Q. Witness, before the recess you described to us the field of tasks of the Office D II. If you want to give us any details on that question, please do it now.
A. In the Office D II beyond the tasks that I have already described, the supervision and the direction of the training of the inmates was also carried out. That was the training of the inmates which went beyond the training of the stone cutters and masons in the Dost; there it dealt with the training of carpenters, locksmiths, roof workers, and other professions. Then the Office D II exercised control over the demands which were raised by the administrative officers of the concentration camps with regard to the payments for the inmates, which payment was to be made by the enterprises; that is to say, with regard to the figure on the compensation and the number of inmates who had been furnished. This control over the sum of the working bonuses which was paid by the enterprises was ordered, as well as the particular evaluation of the controls over the allocation of labor with regard to the allocation of labor.
Q. Does the Office D II represent the continuation of a department which had previously existed in the Inspectorate of the Concentration Camps?
A. No. Before in the Inspectorate of the Concentration Camps we had the Main Department I/5. It had the designation The Commissioner for the Allocation of Labor. This agency had so-called branch offices in the concentration camps. They were directed by the chief of the branch of I/5, who was also called Protective Custody leader "E". The man in charge of the branch agency was immediately subordinated to the Main Department I/5 with the Inspectorate of the Concentration Camps. These men were responsible to that man for their work. Leave and official trips had to be approved by the Main Depart ment I/5; and the men in charge of the branch offices had to submit regular activity reports to the Main Department I/5.According to the Document NO-2167, which has been presented by the prosecution, being Exhibit 87 in Document Book IV, on Page 36 of the English text, the Inspector of the Concentration Camps Gluecks on 20 February 1942 ordered the dissolving of these branch offices.
He ordered that the execution of the entire labor allocation in the camps was to be transferred to the camp commander. After the establishment of the Office for the Labor Allocation of the inmates nothing changed as regards this regulation. With the establishment of the Office D II there appears for the first time the designation Labor Allocation Officer. That title had not existed previously. This labor allocation officer was the expert of the camp commander with regard to labor allocation matters. He was subordinated exclusively to the camp commander; and he received his instructions from the camp commander. He only had the responsibility toward the camp commander to submit to him the reports about his activity.
Q. What official contact did the Office D II have to the other offices of the Office Group D?
A. The four offices of the Amtsgruppe D were only connected with each other through the person of the Chief of Amtsgruppe Gluecks. Conferences between the offices, as far as I can recall, unfortunately never took place. A change of orders hardly ever took place. I should like to point out that the prosecution has submitted 550 documents. Among them there are forty-seven orders of the Office D I, which was the central office. These orders were addressed to the concentration camps and dealt with basic matters. Of these fortyseven orders, according to the distribution list, the Office D II received only seven. The Office D II itself only informed the Offices D III and D IV of the establishment of new labor camps. That is, the branch agencies were all Amt forms which were subordinated to the con centration camps.
As far as I can recall, that was the only official contact which the offices had among each other.
I must say today that this fact is very regrettable in my opinion. After all, with the closest collaboration, things certainly might have turned out differently. However, the procedure was that when D II was established within the Office Group D, the members of that particular office were received with a great amount of distrust. This distrust became increased when Pohl in the late summer of 1942 dismissed a large number of camp commanders, among whom was the Camp Commander Loritz, to whose case I shall refer later on and by whom the chief of Office D I Liebehenschel was also compromised to a certain extent. In addition to that, we have the completely different opinions of the office chief, which, in my opinion, resulted in the fact that no mutual conferences took place. The individual members of the various offices therefore gained only a very superficial insight into the tasks of the other offices.
Q. Who were the chiefs of the Office D II?
A.- When I entered the Office D II the later SS Standartenfuehrer Maurer was the chief of that office. On 15 January 1945, Maurer went to a combat unit. He was then succeeded until the Office D II was dissolved by SS Standartenfuehrer Moser.
Q.- Who were the experts in the Office D II?
A.- Only in the course of the summer 1942, were these special fields of the office D II occupied with special experts. I myself dealt with the question of the labor allocation of inmates. That was D II/1. D II/2 was handled by Oberfuehrer Stumpff. Until the spring of 1943, he was in charge of it. Later on he was transferred to another unit. Then this entire field was dissolved. The field D II/3, which was statistics and accounting, was directed by Obersturmfuehrer Gast, who later on was replaced by Oberscharfuehrer Staufeneck.
Q.- Now that you have described the field of tasks of the office D II, I should like you to tell the Tribunal very briefly what you yourself had to do in the office D II.
EXAMINATION BY THE PRESIDENT:
Q.- Before you leave the Exhibit 87, which is Gluecks' order to the concentration camp commanders, I want to inquire about it. Do you have it there?
A.- Well, that is Exhibit 87, your Honor?
Q.- Document 2167, the letter from Gluecks.
A.- Yes.
Q.- Dated the 20th of February.
A.- Yes, your Honor.
Q.- Is it your contention or your opinion that following this letter the entire matter of allocation of inmate labor was transferred to the concentration camp commanders?
A.- Your Honor, the Protective Custody Camp Officer E, who until then had been subordinated to the Inspector of Main Department I/5, left, and the camp commander was charged with the responsibility for the allocation of labor.
The direction of the allocation of labor in basic matters continued to remain with Gluecks. Later on it was transferred to the Office D II. It was in instrument of Pohl for the allocation of labor.
Q.- Gluecks and Office D II retained control over basic policy; that wasn't given up to the concentration camp commanders, was it?
A-. Your Honor, when Gluecks issued this order the Office D II was not yet in existence. The Office D II was established about three months later. However, the basic direction was done by Office D II, Pohl. Amt D II took care of that work for Pohl.
Q.- But the basic control was retained by Gluecks and later by Office D II?
A.- The basic approval for the furnishing of a detachment of inmates was transferred to Gluecks and later on to Pohl. However, in certain cases Pohl gave D II the possibility of issuing that approval.
Q.- That explains it.
BY DR. BELZER:
Q.- Witness, I now want to repeat my request and ask you to describe to the Tribunal briefly your own field of tasks within the office D II.
A.- I have already stated that I was charged with the field D II/1 which is the allocation of inmates. The field of allocation of inmates represents a part of the tasks of the Office D II. I myself had to get accustomed slowly to the work because I had to deal with completely new matters here which I had not dealt with when I was working with the DEST. In the first time of my activity in the Office D II Maurer frequently took me to negotiations with Berlin agency so that I would be able to get an insight into the subject-matter. The way the procedure was followed, of course, varied. However, from my field of work I can substantially state the following:
The mail arrived from the mail receiving center. It was sent to my desk opened, and I put the stamp of the top secret matters. These came in a sealed envelope, and I had to pass them on, leaving them closed. Where a letter arrived to which we had already had a reference then I had to look it up in the registry. Then I would submit to Maurer all the mail that had arrived and also submit the file if such a file existed. Or, I had to give him a short report on the subject-matter in case we had a big file on it.
Maurer then would make his decisions and put them down on that particular piece of paper. Or, he would give me some short dictation. Mail which dealt with basic matters he would take into his file so that he could submit it to Pohl also when he had his conference with him. Afterwards I dictated the necessary letters and submitted them to Maurer for his signature. All the mail which was addressed to the concentration camp was sent to the commanders or the Headquarters Labor Allocation if minor matters were concerned. That was the over-all work. In detail I had to take care of all the files with regard to the labor allocation of inmates, with the exception of the file top secret matters or two or three other files which Maurer kept in his wall safe. In addition to that I had to take care of long distance telephone calls. Before Maurer took a trip I had to report his arrival and if there was some delay in his trip I would have to inform the people of his new time of arrival. I also had to receive visitors who came to see Maurer and I had to listen to their requests asked for the procurement of inmates. That is a form which the prosecution Exhibit 362. Every applicant had to make this application; and I had to see to it that every applicant really submitted this application. On the second page of this application form the commander for a detail which was to be newly established -
THE PRESIDENT: What Exhibit number?
A.- It is Exhibit Number 362, your Honor, located in Document Book XIII, on page 94 in Document Book XIII. On the second page of this application form the camp commander had to certify that these inmates would be procured or that they could not be furnished.
Thus, when the camp commander raised any objections, then the Office D II had to see to it that a new examination was made of the availability of the inmates, or it had to agree with the commander and refuse to furnish the inmates. Therefore, the commander had to explain what the accommodations for the inmates were to be like; how the food was to be furnished; and so on.
I have dealt with this document a little more in detail in view of the testimony of the former camp commandant at Buchenwald. He has stated in this affidavit that he as a camp commandant did not have any influence on the labor allocation of inmates. After a firm had filled in this form and sent it to the camp commandant and he had endorsed it, this form was sent to Office D-2, and after Bohl had given the basic approval of the furnishing of inmates, the order was then issued by Maurer. I had to work on this request from an administrative point of view. The commandant of the camp at first had to give us a detailed report, daily and later on every two weeks on the labor assignment of the inmates in this particular concentration camp. The Prosecution has also submitted this document as Exhibit NO. 364 in Document Book No. 13, as Document NO 1961. According to the necessities of the labor assignments I had to evaluate this report. The Office D-2 received this report of all tasks of the Reich territory, and from the concentration camp at Herzogenbusch which was located in Holland. From the camps in the General Government, and in the Baltic countries, the Office D-2 did not receive these reports, but it only received a statement from the SS Economist, and then it included the total in the report, which was then submitted to Pohl. The labor Allocation Officer had to certify the correctness of this report, and as an expert, and the camp commander, he also had to sign it. This synopsis shows the entire movement of the inmates which took place on the particular day in a camp. The synopsis which the Prosecution presented did not go to Office D-2, for it is not signed, and furthermore is dated 12 June 1944, when no synopsis was to be submitted to D-2 since they were only submitted on the first or the fifteenth of each month. That is to say, in two week intervals. The inward side of this synopsis showed the total number of inmates in a concentration camp. That is to say, all inmates which were located in a concentration camp itself, and in all the labor assignments which were attached to the concentration camp.
In addition to that the number of persons incapable of working was to be listed on the back and thus the number of inmates who were able to work could be clearly seen in those synopses. The number of inmates who were working in the operation of the camp was also given. This number first amounted to ten percent of the total strength, and later it was limited to only six percent. Then the individual working detachments were listed in a certain prescribed order. At the end the number of skilled workers, and the number of inmates were not used were also listed. The most important skilled professions, and the number of unskilled workers and guards, and other workers were also included. Therefore, this synopsis theoretically showed quite clearly who was using inmates, and how many were being used. I had to constantly supervise these synopses. First of all I had to see where the inmate detachments had been furnished for which no prior approval had been obtained, and, secondly, whether the number of inmates who had been approved for a separate kind of work was not exceeded; thirdly, I had to see to it that the detachments were not furnished any longer than had been specified on the previous order; fourthly, I had to see whether any metal workers were used in the food industry and so on. If any firm needed skilled workers who were idle in the camp, and were not otherwise used, then I had to report this matter to Maurer, who then requested with Glucks the transfer of these inmates to another camp, if their services were needed there, at the camp where the inmates were located, provided that these inmates can not be needed in that particular camp. Later on the so-called classification experts were sent by D-2 in the camp, they were civilian employees, with requirement of the firms who would need the inmates, and they gave tests to the inmates to see whether they were fit for the work for which they applied, so inmates would not be furnished who had stated they were skilled but who in reality had never worked in that particular profession before on the last page of this synopsis the camps had to describe in detail how ever number of inmates who were incapable to work were distributed; how many invalids were there, and how many were in special confinement, and how many inmates were in the camp there who were not occupied.
Then the number of inmates had to be given who were used for work in this camp, and was for the operation of the camp. At the end the camp had to report just what the capacity of the camp was, and that is, including all the branch camps, and what the maximum capacity of these camps was. This synopsis stated exclusively the figures. This synopsis did not show the names or the nationality, or the background of the prisoners, and the reason why they or he was in confinement. This synopsis for me enabled me to submit a report which on the first and fifteenth of every month had to be submitted to pohl and Himmler, and it showed the total number of all inmates of all the concentration camps within the territory of the Reich, and, also in the occupied Eastern territories. From the report, which was submitted to Pohl, it, therefore, could be seen how many inmates were located in all of the concentration camps on the first and on the fifteenth; how many of them were sick, and where and how many of them had been distributed for work in the individual economic industries. Under these groups we must count the construction agencies, the SS Economy Industries, the Armament Industry, the private industries, the was industries, and agriculture. I believe that these were the different industries. After I had compiled these reports, I passed the report on to the Office D-II-3, where a further evaluation took place, but my evaluation had to be carried out very quickly, because the time limits which Himmler and Pohl gave us were very short. There was a very short deadline, as the mail was delayed often because of air raids, and received these synopses at a very late time. However, then we would receive a report of various economy groups by teletype. Later on we received that by courier, as it becomes evident from document NO 1923, which has been presented by the Prosecution, Exhibit No. 552, in Document Book 22, there they reported to Office D-2 which was listed, and that was the only report which was received outside of the regular detachment for procurement of inmate labor.
In Document Book No. 3, as Exhibit No. 64 the Prosecution has presented Document NO 1548, and I would like to make a statement with regard to this document. In the index to this document the following is stated: "Hoess to all concentration camps demands reports to Office D-2 and 3, about the number of executions, deportation, and number of inmates where received special treatment at Auschwitz and so on." However, the document does not show that. The document states the final numbers which the director in charge of the political department had to be submitted and must agree with the report to Offices D-2 and 3 the very same day. The document continues to say that the report from the Protective Custody Camp must be provided with an appendix where amongst other things the special treatment cases in concentration camps Auschwitz are also to be listed. I would like to say briefly just what in my opinion brought about this order of the chief of Office D-1, of which the Office D-2 did not receive any copy. I had already stated that the basis for the report which I had to submit was the synopsis which was submitted by all of the camps. This report had to be submitted on the morning of each day; whereas, apparently, the director of the political department, who also had to submit the report on the very same day, only submitted and compiled his report in the evening. Of course, he also gave consideration to the movement of the prisoners of that day. That is to say, transports which had arrived on that day, could not appear in the report of the labor assignment officer. However, it would appear in the report of the director of the political department, to that both the figures, which were contained in these reports, and which was received by D-2 and D-1, of course, varied.
Court No. II, Case No. 4.
As far as I can remember, attention was drawn to that fact in Himmler's agency, and that is what brought about this order.
On the 25th day of each month, the Office D-II had to submit an additional report to Pohl about the labor situation. This report was a written statement on the number of inmates in the various firms and, in part, what work was being done there, and what the production rate of the previous month had been.
Up to approximately the middle of 1943, that is only after the Office D-IV had been dissolved in August of 1942, I furthermore had to keep the lists of the additional rations which the camp commanders had granted to the inmates. An order had been issued, according to which 90 per cent of all inmates were to be issued such rations. The number of normal workers' rations and the number of rations for heavy workers which had been issued had to be reported to Office D-II every month. I kept a list on that, and commanders where the number of heavy workers had not reached 90 per cent, would receive a reprimand.
From the middle of 1944 on I also had courier service between the Speer Ministry and Office D-II. I shall, however, refer to this courier service a little later on.
For a period of time I also had a special assignment to which I shall also refer a little later.
BY THE PRESIDENT:
Q Witness, will you look at Exhibit 64, Document NO 1548. It is in Document Book III, and you referred to it. Who wrote this letter? Liebehenschel?
A It is signed by Liebehenschel, Your Honor. The dictation mark is D I/1. That is the central office. "OT" -- that was Otto. He was a collaborator of Liebehenschel.
Q Our copy does not indicate who wrote the letter, but Liebehenschel was chief of Office D-I, was he not?
A Yes, Your Honor. I beg your pardon. I have just seen that this letter was only written on 13 January 1944. At that time Court No. II, Case No. 4.Hoess was chief of Office D-I. Liebehenschel was no longer there.
Q That is H-O-E-S-S?
A Yes, Your Honor.
Q Under No. 6 at the last of Page 1, the term "special treatment" is used. I think I know, but will you tell me what that means?
A I assume that the word is "Sonderbehandlung"--"special treatment".
Q What does "special treatment" mean? What kind of treatment is "special treatment"?
A Your Honor, I have the impression that in the concentration camps several things were called "special treatment", which always resulted in the death of a person. May I request that I be allowed to refer to this matter again in the course of my testimony?
Q You won't forget it?
A No, Your Honor, I certainly shall not forget it.
BY DR. BELZER:
Q Witness, you have stated that after the mail conference with Maurer you dictated the letters. Did you dictate these letters according to instructions by Maurer, or did you work and deal with them freely?
A The decisions for the individual letters were issued by Maurer. In several cases he would dictate the exact text to me. Almost all of these letters were signed by Maurer. I signed them only when a purely administrative matter was dealt with, as, for example, how a file was to be kept, or something of that sort.
Q You referred to an order according to which 90 per cent of the inmates were to receive the heavy workers' ration. Who had issued that order?
AAs far as I can remember, this order was signed by Pohl. It must have been issued after the Office D-IV was dissolved in July or August 1942. At the time I asked Maurer why only 90 per cent of all inmates were to receive this heavy workers' ration. He told me at the Court No. II, Case No. 4.time that it was feared that the Economic Offices, which had to make the rations for this allocation, would make difficulties and that, therefore, only 90 per cent could be reported to the Economic Offices.