In any case I had requested the transfer anyway without discussing it with him before.
Q During your various jobs which you held in the Waffen-SS, did you continue your private practice?
A Yes, during all those years I continued working at night and Sundays when possible and I continued on my private practice in Berlin-Lichterfelde, that is with the exception of the time when I was with the division.
Q I shall now come to your activity in the medical office of the Waffen-SS, Department 1/z, dental service. How long were you working there?
A I worked there from the 15th of December, 1940, to August, 1941, while my formal membership extended up to the 1st of May, 1942.
Q Witness, will you tell us a few things about the development of the dental service of the Waffen-SS?
A When towards the end of 1944, I was transferred to the dental service of the medical office, that dental service was rather small. In its early stages it only consisted of two rooms, but through the reconstruction of the Waffen-SS in 1941, and by setting up numerous new divisions, a compulsory extension of the dental service became necessary, and it was also realized that healthy teeth were good for the general physical condition of a human being. Thus during that time a large number of dentists were conscripted into the army who generally speaking were members of the General-SS in order to alleviate those conditions.
The dentists who were conscripted there were not young, anymore, generally speaking. They had private practices for years. As I stated before, as long as they had not received any basic training they were sent to that training and, as I stated before, their rank was fixed according to the time spent in service and experience in service. Later on, they were also promoted much faster than the other army officers.
Department 1-Z then became a Main department with several other departments. And later on after the large reorganization took place in 1943 it became Amt 14 in the operational main office.
Q. In the Operational Main Office and not in the WVHA?
A. No, not in the WVHA. The official designation was Office14 in Amtsgruppe D, Medical Office of the Waffen SS in the Operational Main Office.
Q. Would you now tell us what your job consisted of, as far as the inmates were concerned?
A. There was no difference in the treatment given by dentists in the Waffen-SS, regardless of who was being treated: an SS member or a concentration camp inmate. The treatment was always the same.
Q. Was that the official attitude of Office-14 in the Operational Main Office?
A. Yes. Office-14 and the chief at the time, Dr. Blaschke, felt that way too. In Office-14 this opinion was not only restricted to the treatment itself but also applied to the installation of the dental station and the provision for medical equipment.
Q. What were the competencies and the tasks of the Office-14 which you just mentioned?
A. The competence of Office-14 of the Dental Service in the medical office extended to all dental questions, both in a factual sense as well as in a personnel sense. And it was competent for all dentists of the Waffen-SS. It had to take care of the supply of all dental facilities for all the Main offices, including the WVHA and the concentration camps in connection with that, the same as it had to take care of supplying SS combat units out in the field or SS dental stations in SS garrisons in the homeland.
The tasks were the establishment of new dental stations and the supplying of these stations with all sorts of equipment and material.
Q. You told me that it was also competent in a personnel sense.
A. Yes, I said that. Yes, I said both in factual matters and also in personnel questions, with reference to all the dentists in the Waffen-SS.
Q. In the indictment it is stated that you were the Chief Dentist of the WVHA, and that all the dental officers in the concentration camps were subordinated to you. Would you make a statement as to that?
A. There was no such thing as a Chief Dental Officer in the Waffen-SS. Therefore, there was no such thing in the WVHA either. There was only one office chief in the dental service, and it was the Chief of Office-14 of the Medical Office. The dentists in the concentration camps were subordinated to me, as leading dentist, only in a factual sense. I was a liaison officer in Office-14.
Q. Witness, will you please explain how the establishment of supervising offices came about?
A. First of all, the term which you used before--leading dentist--did not necessarily mean that there had to be an office there. It is just a term. The leading dentist was necessary because as the result of the increase in the number of dentists the supervision had become more difficult. In order to eliminate that difficulty, this office of the leading dentist was established. That only applied to larger units: to the divisions and the field units of the Waffen-SS and the WVHA. That is to say, D-3.
As I stated before, the leading dentist was the factual supervisor of all the dentists who were working in his sphere, in his
Q. Would you explain to us now what the tasks of the leading dentists were, in general?
A. The leading dentist had to supervise those dentists who were under him, and he also had the right to exercise a control over them. The orders which came from the dental service of Office-14 in the Medical Office were sent to the dentist subordinated to them. The same is true of the monthly reports which were requested by Office-14; they were gathered by the physicians subordinated to them and forwarded to Office-14.
In other words, it was nothing but a transient agency in order to facilitate the tasks of Office-14.
Q. What were the qualities that the medical officers of the Waffen-SS had both in a factual and authoritative sense?
A. As I stated before, the largest percentage of the dentists who had been called into the Waffen-SS were all experienced and elderly dentists who had practiced for years privately. They had no criminal records, but rather they had carried on their dental activities and their private practices according to the normal ideas of morality and ethics. And they also carried on that activity under the same ideas, even when they were conscripted into the Waffen-SS, regardless of whether they were working, or being used in combat units, in depots or in a concentration camp as camp dentists.
Q. You stated before that later on the Main Department 1-Z became an office of it's own?
A. Yes; in the spring of 1943 the Medical Service of the Waffen-SS was reorganized and the medical office became a Main office in the WVHA. Therefore, the dental service became an independent office with several main departments. Nothing changed in the competence or in the field of tasks of the dental office and the medical office.
Q. I would appreciate it now if you would tell us what your activity was in Department 1-Z of the Medical Office. Did you have the authority to sign orders?
What was the extent of the work you had there, and who made all the necessary decisions as far as personnel matters were concerned?
A. As a person dealing with personnel questions, I could recommend transfers, approve or disapprove leaves and recommend promotions. The final decisions concerning personnel questions were made by the personnel office of the Medical Office.
Apart from that, I had to carry out the auditing of the accounts which had to be turned in by all the German Society of Dentists. This was nothing but factual and mathematical auditing and it was carried out by me and I passed on the vouchers to the Medical Office for payment.
Q. In order to understand the extent of the Office, would you tell us how many other experts worked in that department that you just mentioned, in 1-Z of the Medical Office?
A. There was a Chief of Department 1-Z, a Deputy Chief, and there were three experts, including myself.
Q. Who was the chief of the department? Who was his deputy?
AAt the time the chief was the former Standartenfuehrer Dr. Blaschke, who later on became leading dentist with the agency of the Reich Physician. His deputy was the Hauptsturmfuehrer Dr. Yost.
Q During your activity with the medical office, did you have anything to do with concentration camps?
A Yes.
Q What did you have to do with camp dentists at the time?
AAs the Dental Service, as I stated before, was pompetent for all dental questions, I myself had to keep records of the personnel files of all the dentists in the camps, the same as it applied to all the other records concerning the dentists. The monthly reports were also evaluated in the other departments and the monthly applications for sunds were dealt with there too, and passed on to the Medical Office, if they were approved.
Q Do you mean the applications and requisitions of the dental staff?
A Yes.
Q Did you, during your activity at the time or later on, find out anything or hear anything about inhumane actions in the concentration camps -- by that I mean, gassings and killings?
A No, during all the time of may activity in the Medical Office, that is to say, from September, 1940 to August, 1941, I never at any time had any knowledge about the extermination camps, nor did I know anything about cruelties and other inhumane treatment. However, later on, I never heard anything about these things, nor did I see anything.
Q Please tell us in detail about your activity as Chief Dentist in Office D-III with Dr. Lolling. How long were you working for him there? I am going to ask you a series of questions now.
A From the middle of September, 1943, up to the 15th of April, 1944.
Q What can you tell us about his personality as a such and about your relationship to him?
A It is rather difficult for me to say something at this point, because Lolling is dead, as I heard, and what I have to say about him is not good. I could not appreciate Lolling as a physician or as a human being. When I found out that I was transferred to his office, Lolling had just gone through a cure because he was a addict. The other office chiefs who were on the same level as I in office Group D did not appreciate him very much. They showed him that openly by the treatment which they gave him. They just didn't accept in their circle and he was quite aware of that. In order to create a counter-balance he was very bossy with other people where he could actually do it on the basis of his official capacity. He was constantly endeavoring to become indispensible to his chiefs, and he saw to it all the time that nothing was taken away from him with reference to competence and authority. All those things did not help to bring about a better or more friendly relationship with him. He had a certain circle of friends to which I did not belong and to which I really didn't want to belong.
Q Did you have frequent conversations with him? Did he tell you anything about his competence?
A I had very few official dealings with him, but even those few conferences which I had with him only referred to dental questions. Even in that particular field he made decisions without conferring with me about them. As I stated before, as my medical superior he gave me trouble. All those things naturally compelled me to try to find a different job with the Waffen SS as a dentist.
Q How was your subordination to Lolling?
A I believe that I already stated before that militarily and disciplinarily I was subordinated to Gluecks the Chief of the Amtsgruppe D, and in medical sense I was subordinated to the Chief of Office, D-III, Lolling, and I was subordinated to Office 14 in Amtsgruppe D of the Operational Main Office.
Q Therefore, you had three superiors. What was your official relationship with regard to these three superiors?
A That applied to all dentists. Each dentist had a three-fold subordination system over him, so to say. I, as dentist in Amtsgruppe D hardly had any official contacts whatsoever with Gluecks, my military superior. There was only one occasion when I stepped into his office, and that was shortly after my transfer, in order to report to him just as it is customary in the military service. I had a few things to do with Lolling as my medical superior and with Office 14 in the Medical Office, that is to say, with the Chief of office and I had something to do in a factual respect, because, just as all the concentration camp dentists were factually subordinated to me, I was subordinated to the Chief of Office 14 in the Operational Main Office. All orders and reports of a factual nature came form there and I also had to forward all the monthly reports asked for by Office 14 to them. That activity of mine as a leading dentist was of such a subordinate nature that this was one of the reasons why I was looking for a different assignment. The only thing was that I could work in the dental station as a leading dentist.
Q What was you position as a leading dentist toward the subordinated dentists?
A I was the factual superior of the camp dentist. However, I had no authority to issue any orders of my own. All orders of a factual nature came from Office 14.
Q Will you explain to us the subordination system as far as the camp dentists were concerned?
A. The camp dentists also had a three-fold subordination. By that I mean, in a military and disciplinary sense, to the camp commandant; medically, to the camp physician; factually they were subordinated to me.
Q The camp dentists, just like you, therefore could receive orders from three different directions. Therefore, it was possible that a camp dentist would receive an order from the camp commandant or the camp medical officer of which you as leading dentist and factual superior knew nothing at all?
A Yes, it was absolutely possible. The camp dentist could receive an order from the camp commandant, or the camp medical officer, of which I knew nothing. That was an internal camp matter.
Q According to your opinion, how far did your official responsibility go?
A My official responsibility arose from my official position. I had to obey my superior and I was responsible for the actions on the part of the camp dentists who were subordinated to me factually, but only as far as actions were concerned, as I said, within the framework of my capacity as supervisor.
Q If a camp dentist received an order from a camp commandant or from a camp medical officer, then he himself had to take the responsibility; is that correct?
THE PRESIDENT: We will recess until tomorrow morning at 9:30.
THE MARSHAL: The Tribunal will recess until 9:30 tomorrow morning.
(The Tribunal adjourned until July 3, 1947, at 0930 hours.)
Court No. II, Case No. 4.
Official Transcript of the American Military Tribunal in the matter of the United States of America against Oswald Pohl, et al, defendants, sitting at Nurnberg, Germany, on 3 July 1947, 0930-1500, Justice Robert M. Toms, presiding.
THE MARSHAL: Take your seats, please.
The Honorable, the Judges of Military Tribunal No. 2.
Military Tribunal No. 2 is now in session. Gos save the United States of America and this honorable Tribunal.
There will be order in the court.
THE PRESIDENT: The record will indicate that the defendant Scheide is absent from this session of court by request of his counsel and with leave of the Court.
DR. FRITSCH (Counsel for defendant Baier): Your Honor, I would appreciate it if the defendant Baier could possibly be excused this afternoon from this court in order to enable him to prepare his defense.
THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal will recess at three o'clock anyway. The Tribunal proposes to recess for the day at three o'clock anyway. Your client may be excused at twelve thirty.
HERMANN POOK - Resumed DIRECT EXAMINATION (Continued) BY DR. RATZ (Counsel for the Defendant Pook):
Q Witness, I asked you yesterday about the position and activity which you had in Office D-3. I would like to continue with the examination today. It says in the indictment that you had something to do with the dental care of the concentration camp inmates. Is that correct?
A The dental care of all those who belonged to the Waffen-SSand, therefore, also of the concentration camp inmates was subordinated to Office 14 in the Operational Main Office. All regulations for the entire dental service came from there, and this office also had to carry out the supplying of material and the establishment of new stations.
In this particular case, I was acting as a liaison officer between the dental officers of the camps and the Office 14 of the Oper ational Main Office.
I was, so to speak, an executive in that sense.
BY THE PRESIDENT:
Q Will you put your earphones on?
Will you explain what Office 14 of the Operational Main Office was? That had no connection with the WVHA, did it?
A Yes; indeed, Your Honor. Office 14 was, so to sped, the highest dental agency in the entire Waffen-SS. It was the office for dental care within Amtsgruppe D of the Medical Office of the Waffen-SS in the Operational Main Office.
Q Say that again--the last. Repeat what you just said.
A Office 14 was the central agency for the entire dental service within the Waffen-SS. It was an office within Amtsgruppe D of the Medical Office. That is, the designation before used to be Medical Office-- and that was within the Operational Main Office. Amtsgruppe D was under Dr. Genzken; the man in charge of Office 14 was Dr. Johannsen--Obersturmbannfuehrer, at least in my time.
Q Well, was the Operational Main Office an office of Amtsgruppe D?
A No, it wasn't. The Operational Main Office was the highest level, so to speak, of the entire Waffen-SS; and it was not an organization of the WVHA. It was a Main Office, you see, which--
Court No. II, Case No. 4.
Q That's what I mean. The Operational Main Office was not a division of the WVHA?
A No, it wasn't. The Operational Main Office and the WVHAwere approximately on the same level; the same applied to all the other main offices in Berlin.
Q Well, you just said, or we understood you to say, that it had some connection with Amtsgruppe D.
A Your Honor, the former Medical Office within the WVHA also had the name of Amtsgruppe D, but this Amtsgruppe D was in the Operational Main Office, not in the WVHA. The term used for those two organizations is the same, but they are two entirely different organizations. They just used the same name, "D".
THE PRESIDENT: That's the thing that confused us. Mr. Robbins, do you have anything to add to this clarification?
MR. ROBBINS: Only, Your Honor, that in the basic information brief there are two charts and one of the charts is an overall picture of the 12 main offices of the SS. One of the main offices was the WVHA and another on the same level was the Fuehrungshauptamt, which the witness is referring to -- the Operational Main Office -- they were all on the same level under Himmler.
THE PRESIDENT: Also called the "Central Office"?
MR. ROBBINS: The German term is "Fuehrungshauptamt." Perhaps the translators can tell us -- is that the same as central office?
THE INTERPRETER: No, sir. Fuehrungshauptamt stands for "Oporational Main Office."
MR. ROBBINS: Isn't there an Operational Main Office also on that chart, Your Honor?
THE PRESIDENT: No, but there is an Office SS-Hauptamt.
MR. ROBBINS: That's it.
THE PRESIDENT: Called on the chart Central Office -- the same thing?
Here's another one: "Fuehrungshauptamt, Operational Headquarters Court No. II, Case No. 4.is that it?
DR. RATZ: That is the Operational Main Office, Your Honor.
THE PRESIDENT: We observe that under the Fuehrungshauptamt there is a Division D, called, "Medical," and that is the one that he refers to. Now, what was Office 14-D. Was that under this Amtsgruppe D of the Operational Headquarters?
WITNESS: Yes, Your Honor. You see, Amtsgruppe D consists of various offices. At the time you had Office XIII, which was the Medical Service, Office XIV, which was a dental service, and Office XV, which was the Pharmaceutical Department, and Office XVI, which was the Hygiene Institute, which became that Institute later on. All these four offices together formed Amtsgruppe D within the Operational Main Office.
BY DR. RATZ:
Q Witness, in order to understand your official position and therefore your responsibility and to clarify that point, would you please describe the outer system of your activities at the time? Where was Amtsgruppe D of the WVHA located? What were the offices like, and so on?
A Outside of the actual concentration camps and outside of the garrison department of Oranienburg, there was the building of the Inspectorate of the Concentration Camps at the time.
JUDGE PHILLIPS: As I understand it, you operated not as a member of the WVHA, but as a liaison for dental care in the concentration camps between WVHA and Office XIV, is that correct?
WITNESS: Yes, indeed, Your Honor. It is the same thing, just as it applies to the position of the leading dentists with reference to the field units of the Waffen SS. It is not an agency in itself, but it is more of a liaison office, a liaison man, who had to take care of and clarify the matters within that Dental Service, which had become a little complicated in the course of the years. As a dentist I found later on I belonged more or less to the Medical Office as far as regula Court No. II, Case No. 4.tions came from there and also regulations concerning personnel were concerned.
All that came from the Medical Office.
Q Now, you wanted to tell us the circumstances of your activity at the time.
A Yes, as I stated, the building of Amtsgruppe D--that is the Inspectorate of the Concentration Camps was at Oranienburg, outside of the concentration camp are, as well as outside of the barracks area. In that building, apart from Amtsgruppe D, there were also other offices. For instance, offices for the Operational Main Office in Berlin, which was usually in Berlin, and they were all located there. Then there were also municipal institutions of the City of Oranienburg located there, the offices which belonged to Office D-III, especially. There were approximately seven or eight offices. Lolling had an office of his own there. He also had two offices, two additional offices, where he had the dispensaries. In one of the two offices he had his chief clerk. That is where all the official matters went through. Then he had the second office where the remaining staff was and where miscellaneous work was being dealt with. Then they also had a few dispensary offices and because Lolling was the garrison medical officer at Oranienburg, that is the reason why he had three rooms which he used as a dispensary for the dependents of the garrison of Oranienburg. He didn't carry out the treatment himself, but he had a physician working for him and that man would take care of everything. Furthermore, there was one office for the dispensary and another one for the physician.
Q How was your work subdivided and how many collaborators did you have?
A I had one collaborator who was working with me in my office all the time. As far as I was concerned I was working in the garrison dentistry all day long. That was not in the building of Amtsgruppe D, but rather, in the barracks area, which I mentioned before, that is to say, within the troop area, and this building was a distance of approximately one kilometre from the building of Amtsgruppe D. When Lolling Court No. II, Case No. 4.wanted to speak to me, I was called up and then I went over to his office.
Q Would you explain to us what you did as a leading dentist in Office D-III -- what you actually did?
AAs I stated before, the part which I played was not too difficult. It only restricted itself to the early days of the month, that is to say, to that time when the reports asked for by Office XIV were due, but even with these reports we, practically speaking, had very little to do. It actually consisted only of the acknowledgment of the fact and in the forwarding of those reports and the requests for material which came from the dentists of the concentration camps. We had to forward them to Office XIV of the Medical Office. That particular mail which came from the Medical Office, the other way round, was only seen as far as it referred to the dental matters and they were forwarded to the concentration camp dentists subordinated to me. This entire activity as such was absolutely unsatisfactory. I didn't like working in an office anyway. It was only because of my work in the dental station that I was satisfied a little bit, at least with my activity there.
Q How did the mail come in and go out?
A The entire mail which dealt with dental matters came to Office D-III and to the office of Lolling. Lolling submitted the mail to me on my desk, after he had opened it and sometimes put his opinion on some of the letters. The other way round it depended on whether the mail came from the Medical Office or not. It was sent to the dentists of the concentration camps through the camp physicians. The dental mail from the camps was first submitted to the concentration camp physician who had knowledge of them, because after all the dental office could not write without any further difficulty. They had to submit their official channels and whatever applied to me, I was informed of by Lolling.
Q You spoke of monthly reports before and I wanted to know what those reports were all about.
A. At the beginning of every month all sorts of reports were due, particularly the personnel report, and the report on the work, which, I believe, had to be turned in after the third day of the month, and it had to be in Office B-3. That report consisted of a four page book, so to say, where on the first page it listed the number of patients treated, and then the number of days on which treatment was given, whether it was half a day treatment, or only one day treatment. The main part consisted of actual dental work which had been carried out. It was written precisely and it mentioned all things that occurred with regard to dental care, that is, removal of teeth, the fillings, and so forth. The man in charge of the dental station had to report the gold in the possession of the dental station. He had to report the lectures which he had to give to the Army and the troops there at certain period of time, and then on the last page you had the entire personnel of the dental station with the entire personnel strength. The man in charge of the dental station there made second and third dental reports about the work there. Then he had to write a health report for the dental station of all civilian employees who were working there.
Furthermore, the monthly requisitions for material had to be submitted within a certain period of time during my time when there were several outside camps. Apart from the camp proper it worked out in the following way: The various dentists of all the other outside camps would write on a small slip of paper their requisition for the coming month. All those slips were compiled into one large requisition slip by the camp dentist.
JUDGE PHILLIPS: You said you made this report to B-3. Was this B-3 of the WVHA, or B-3 of the Main Medical Office.
THE WITNESS: Your Honor, he made the reports of the personnel strength and the work carried out. All of those reports had to be compiled by all the dentists in the entire Waffen-SS.
JUDGE PHILLIPS: I did not ask you that. I asked where you sent the reports and you just said to B-3?
A. Yes.
JUDGE PHILLIPS: I want to know whether it is B-3 of the WVHA, or B-3 of the Main Medical Office?
A. The official channels for all the camp dentists were through Office B-3, and they were transferred further on to the Medical Office14. Therefore, the Medical Office is part of the Operational Office.
JUDGE PHILLIPS: Was it B-3 of the WVHA?
THE PRESIDENT: I believe he said "D".
THE WITNESS: No, I said "D".
JUDGE PHILLIPS: D-3.
THE WITNESS: That was the agency where I was.
JUDGE PHILLIPS: I see.
THE WITNESS: And from there it was sent on to the Medical Office. The reason was that Office-14, the Medical Office, could have a synopsis on the personnel strength of the Medical Station, or of the requisitions which were sent out. In other words, the department just mentioned for that was Department 14; they wanted to have a synopsis on what a dental station needed as far as material was concerned when the material report came in. They had special records there.
BY DR. RATZ:
Q. Dr. Pook, you told us with regard to these reports of the work on the personnel strength that they went through you. Did you forward those reports to Office-14 of the Medical Office; did that remain like that, or was there any change at a later date?
A. In the Summer of 1944 there was a change, and from that moment on I myself dealt with these reports, or the chief of Office14, or the chief of the Dental Service. The same applied to all the material requisitions which arrived every month. The reason why I had to deal with them myself, was that Office-14 in the Summer or Autumn of 1943 had been transferred from Berlin, as the result of the frequent air raids. In the summer of 1944 Office-14 was evac uated from Berlin, just like all the other agencies of the Operational Main Office, and they were all transferred to barracks in Buchenwald, and later on they were again transferred to Karlsbad.
There was considerable delay in working out all those details, particularly in reference to providing material. I approached the Chief of Office-14 of the Medical Office, and asked him if he possibly could put me in charge of all these matters for my assurance of activity in order to expedite the delivery to the dental stations. I also contacted the Medical Office of the central department there, and I convinced myself of the fact that deliveries were being carried out quickly.
Q. How were the requests of the inmates in reference to treatment dealt with?
A. When an inmate needed treatment, the dentist of that particular camp made a request, which had to have the approval of both the camp physician, and the man in charge of the Protective Custody Camp. When all those signatures were there they were sent out via D-3. I signed all these requisitions. I approved them, and they went back to the dental offices, and the man received his treatment. I can state that all the requests which were submitted to me for my signature, and believe me the number was rather large, were signed automatically. I can not recall ever having refused one of these requests.
THE PRESIDENT: May I ask a question. Your office was in Oranienburg, or in Berlin, which?
A. Yes.
Q. Oranienburg?
A. Yes, Your Honor.
Q. If an inmate had a sore tooth in Dachau, he had to go to the camp dentist, or, first he had to get the permission of his leader in the camp, and of the camp dentist?
A. Your Honor, for the treatment of the teeth no approval was necessary, or if that had to be done, then it was only for false teeth, Your Honor, where material was necessary. The requisition that went to you was just for material.
Q. For material?
A. Yes, Your Honor, those were material requisitions, for the dental material and any drugs.
Q. The man did not have to wait with his toothache until they sent him from Dachau to Oranienburg, and then back to Dachau for treatment?
A. No, Your Honor. The treatment was given at all times.
THE PRESIDENT: Oh, I see.
A. The application only referred to false teeth, false teeth.
THE PRESIDENT: Oh.
A. The treatment of filling, or extracting a tooth could be carried out at all times without a special permission, and without approval.
THE PRESIDENT: All right.
A. There was material for that available at all times.
BY DR. RATZ:
Q. Dr. Pook, would you please tell the Tribunal what you mean by false teeth?
A. For a certain time with regard to the treatment of inmates, there was not only a regulation for that, but there was a regulation also for the civilian section. It was within the scope of sickness insurance that false teeth could only be manufactured when a certain number of teeth were missing. That regulation as it was enforced in the civilian sector, that is, with regard to the sick insurance, applied to all dental treatment, and some regulations to special cases. In other words, false teeth could be only manufactured when there were less than five chewing units. When I speak of chewing unit I mean one tooth on the upper and the lower set, that is to say, one chewing unit consists of two teeth, the upper part and the lower part.
Q. Witness, you just told us that a dental station had to apply for all the necessary materials and drugs. I would like you to explain that those requisitions did not occur every time. Will you explain that, please?
A. The requesting of material for dental treatment, which took place every month, was intended for the coming month, that is to say, not for a special day, or for a special case, but it was only to request just what was needed in the course of the next month. Apart from that every dental station had a certain amount of material in the stores, anyway; so according to my opinion, it could hardly be possible that there was a lack in materials at any time. Only as far as the manufacture of false teeth was concerned could there have been some difficulty, because it could only be made after an approval had been received, and that was not done every week, or every two weeks, but it depended on how much work had to be done. This did not only apply to false teeth for inmates, but false teeth had to be approved for SS members also.