This is an affidavit by Friedrich Henrich Schwalm, of 11 July 1947. Schwalm testified as to Volk's activity as an expert in Housing and Evacuations, and he refers to the period of time between the Summer of 1943 until March 1944. He states in particular that by this activity Volk's time was claimed to such an extent as to make it impossible for Dr. Volk to do anything else, particularly, those things which the Prosecution has charged him.
Then I submit Document No. 10, which will be Exhibit No. 21 Document No. 11, which will be Exhibit No. 22 Document No. 13, which will be exhibit No. 23 Document No. 14, which will be Exhibit No. 24 Document No. 15, which will be Exhibit No. 25 Document No. 16, which will be Exhibit No. 26 Document No. 17, which will be Exhibit No. 27 Document No. 18, which will be Exhibit No. 28 Document No. 19, which will be Exhibit No. 29 Document No. 20, which will be Exhibit No. 30 Document No. 21, which will be Exhibit No. 31 Document No. 22, which will be Exhibit No. 32 All these documents have reference to that part of my evidence which concerns the high reputation and good character which distinguished Dr. Volk.
I wish to prove with these documents that Dr. Volk could never have committed acts, such as those charged by the Prosecution.
For instance, Document No. 10 shows that Dr. Volk disapproved of Gestapo methods.
Document No. 13, which is Exhibit 23, shows that Volk's membership in the Waffen SS was not a political one. Statements are made about his conduct in life generally. He says that he was not a typical SS man; he was a devout catholic.
Document No. 14, which is Exhibit 24, shows that Dr. Volk disapproved of measures taken by the Gestapo and, as much as he could, he tried to prevent them. He took people's side when people were persecuted by the Gestapo, as much as it was possible for him to achieve anything.
Document Volk No. 15 shows that Volk always disapproved of Party measures.
Document Volk No. 16 shows that Volk was formerly a member of the Zentrum Party.
Document Volk No. 17 shows that Dr. Volk did by no means approve of the Party Program and that particularly as far as the Jewish program was concerned he always took a negative attitude. In particular, he always acted humanely and kindly towards Jews. The affiant quotes an incident here on which he bases his knowledge.
Document No. 19, Exhibit No, 29, shows that the SS was not the dominent factor in Volk's conduct of life and that me merely joined these organizations through compulsion, whereas phychologically he was opposed to the Party measures.
The same applies to the next document, Volk No. 20, Exhibit 30.
Volk 21, Exhibit 31, says the same.
Volk Document 22, Exhibit No, 32 gives statements made by a lady who lived in Volk's neighborhood for years and therefore is in a position to form an impression of Volk's mental attitude.
Volk never indulged in propaganda in the Party sense and disapproved of all violent measures of the SS, particularly inasmuch as they were directed against Jews or political opponents of National Socialism.
This brings me to the conclusion of submitting such documents as have been translated. If Your Honors please, I shall now come to the documents which have not been translated.
I offer Document 40 as Exhibit 33. This is an affidavit by Frau Haufe of 21 August 1947. Frau Haufe was Volk's secretary for many years and in her affidavit she gives very detailed statements about what Volk really did. She says, at first, that it was the task of Dr. Volk as the prokurist of DWB and head of the Legal Department of Staff W simply to work on legal problems, notary problems, draw up drafts, and so forth, and one particularly important point is that Dr. Volk did not deal with any legal matters concerning DEST or DAW. Dr. Volk was not responsible for the legal matters of such companies that employed concentration camp inmates. Furthermore, Frau Haufe testifies that Dr. Volk did not have the authority to issue orders to Office Chiefs or the managers of the companies; also that at no time was Dr. Volk Chief of Staff W; also that Dr. Volk never worked on any documents concerning concentration camp matters; also that the office of DWB never employed inmates; moreover, that it was not in Volk's sphere of tasks to purchase land for the concentration camps, appraise, or buy it. She also makes statements about the fact that Dr. Volk did not know what was really going on in concentration camps and she gives detailed reasons about that. She also speaks about what Volk did as Pohl's personal assistant and that in that capacity he merely looked after the personal matters of Herr Pohl and his family. She knows that because she had to record anything that Volk did. She also says that the term "referent" as used in German was not correct. She speaks also about what Volk did in 1943 and 1944 when he was an expert in housing and evacuation matters when he evacuated the bombed out families of members of the WVHA whom he had to accommodate and that that claimed his time and energies to the fullest.
Also she says that the Reinhardt Action, or the Reinhardt Fund was not knowing in its true meaning by Volk's agency or by Volk himself. She speaks also about the fact that Volk never worked on any problems connected with prisoners of war or foreigners.
The next document will be Document Volk No. 43, Exhibit 34. This is a draft, if Your Honors please, a sketch, rather, of the camp of Stutthof and this sketch makes it clear that the negotiations which were held did not concern the concentration camp, but only the site of the school which was outside the concentration camp. I might perhaps remind the court that my evidence in this respect was based on the fact that Dr. Volk was not in charge of these negotiations; that he merely participated because the money came from the sale of the site of the school and was to be used for an SS settlement near Dantzig.
I then submit Document Volk No. 36, which will be Exhibit 35. This is an affidavit by Reinhold Stechemesser of 14 August 1947. Stechemesser testifies about what Dr. Volk did with the Main Department 3-A-4; that there Dr. Volk was only in charge of the internal office; that he worked on legal problems, but that in that position he did not have the right to arrive at independent decisions or to work independently altogether.
Then I submit Document Volk No. 32 which will become Exhibit 36. This is an affidavit given by Hermann Klauss-Henrich concerning Volk's activity with the DWB. This affiant testifies that Dr. Volk preponderantly worked on the legal problems of the holding company and that he did not have the right to issue orders to the affiliated companies or the legal departments of such companies as employed concentration camp inmates. He also testifies about Volk's activity as Pohl's personal assistant and that he merely coped with Pohl's personal problems and those of his family; also that Dr. Volk between 1943 and 1944 was busy as the expert for housing and evacuation. He also testifies in another para graph that he was not a full time SS officer and that in the beginning of 1940 he was drafted into the Waffen-SS by the Wehrmacht local command on the basis of an order with which he had to comply.
He also speaks about Volk's general political attitude and that the SS was not the dominent factor in Volk's private life, and as far as the measures of the then government were concerned his attitude was a highly critical one.
I then offer Document Volk No. 42, which will become Exhibit 37. This is an affidavit given by Richard Hildebrandt of 25 August 1947. I believe the Tribunal has this affidavit before it. He has information concerning the negotiations in Stutthof; that is to say, he says that Dr. Volk participated in these negotiations, not because he wanted to purchase a site for concentrationcamps, but because Pohl had ordered him to inspect the land for a planned settlement in Adlershorst near Danzig. Hildebrandt says with emphasis that Dr. Volk had nothing to do with the establishment of the former labor camp, which later on became a prison camp. I beg to draw the court's attention to the fact that Hildebrandt was the leader of the Vistula Sector, which was in charge of the concentration camp Stutthof. He is a man, in other words, who has expert knowledge about the state of affairs at the time. In paragraph 8 he emphasizes that Dr. Volk was merely interested in having the financial problems disentangled, not in the purchase of the site for the concentration camp.
I am offering Document Volk No. 44, which will become Exhibit 38. This is an affidavit by Dr. Karl Krauch. This affidavit refers to the problem of the Slate Oil Company and the Slate Oil Research Company, G.m.b.H. Krauch testifies that the production in ErzingenOehringen mentioned in prosecution documents was carried out by the Slate Oil Research Company, which was a Reich Company not under the WVHA. The WVHA was incharge of the German Slate Oil, G.m.b.H., but they had not started operating. All that was submitted by the prosecution in this connection refers not to a company under the WVHA, but to a Reich company namely the Slate Oil Research Company, G.m.b.H.
Then I have Documents Volk 37 and 38. They are Exhibit 39 and 40. These documents are official documents by the president of the Hanseatic Court of Appeals of 22 January 1947 and a letter by the President of the Court of Appeals of Hamm of 7 February 1947. From those two documents it may be seen what pressure and compulsion were applied to young lawyers.
Those two documents -- for instance, Document Volk 38 says, "In accordance with the provisions at the time" -- this means provisions between 1933 and 1935 -- "young recruits for civil servants were impressed with the fact that they must take an active part in the Party and its formations. For instance, this was the final sentence about the record of examination of the higher legal officials. The presidents of district courts were asked to see to it that the young lawyers would be actively cooperating with the Party and formations and show their close link with the National Socialist State. This is a copy of the decree issued by the President of the Court of Appeal of 1937, but the same applies to the earlier period of time and I wish to prove thereby that Volk did not by genuine conviction join the Party and the SS but as a young lawyer in training yielded to the pressure which was applied to the young attorneys by higher authorities against his inner conviction.
I then submit Document Volk No. 39, which will be Exhibit 41. This document is the contract of Dr. Volk with the German Municipal organization. This contract was drawn up in 1942 and from paragraph 1 of the contract it becomes clear that it applied as of 1 May 1942 for a period of twelve years. Paragraph 1 says the German Municipal Organization asked Dr. Volk as of 1 May 1942 to work for it for twelve years. The German Municipal Organization was not an organization of the NSDAP. I want to show thereby that Dr. Volk was not a full time SS officer, as he had a private contract with a corporation of public law.
I then submit Document Volk No. 33 which will become Exhibit 42. That document refers to Volk's political attitude and that Dr. Volk's mode of life was not inaccordance with the SS, but that he took an extremely pessimistic view of certain Party decisions; also that what he did was purely the work of a legal consultant.
Then I must submit Document Volk No. 34, as Exhibit 43, and Document Volk No. 35 will become Exhibit 44. These two affidavits also refer to Volk's political attitude, his reputation, and his general personality.
Document Volk No. 34 shows that Dr. Volk came from an anti-Fascist family. His father in 1933 was dismissed from service because of his AntiFascist convictions.
The next document, Volk No. 35, which is Exhibit No. 44, shows Volk's attitude towards Jews and that he helped a half Jewish woman. called Frau Helene Hoffmann and protected her against measures by the RSHA and he helped Frau Helene Hoffmann to keep her property. This is described in detail in this affidavit.
This brings me to the conclusion of the presentation of documents on behalf of Defendant Volk.
THE PRESIDENT: No more documents If there are any more documents which haven't been translated, Counsel can submit them without reading them into the record. Then can hand them in to the tribunal any time, --well, within the next week or so. There may be some documents which you haven't received yet.
The prosecution will start their argument tomorrow morning. In some way we will finish the argument by midnight Saturday. You should be prepared to spend some evening with us, one or two possibly, but we are going to finish the arguments by the end of this week, we will be here on Saturday, possibly tomorrow evening, possibly Saturday evening. Don't make too many dinner engagements. You may have to break them. Very well, we will recess until tomorrow morning at nine o'clock Prosecution will open. Dr. Seidl will follow and then you haven't arranged the order in which you will come one after the other. Dr. Hoffmann.
DR. HOFFMANN: If the Tribunal please, all I don't know is whether all final pleas have been translated. It might happen that the interpreter will have to translate.
THE PRESIDENT: I can tell that he is overjoyed. Well, you might have to change the order in which your arguments are presented; those that are ready go ahead. We'll see. We'll do it somehow. Tomorrow morning at 9:00 o'clock.
THE MARSHAL: The Tribunal will recess until 0900 tomorrow morning.
(The Tribunal adjourned until 17 September 1947, at 0900 hours.)
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 September 1947, Justice Toms presiding.
THE MARSHAL: Persons in the Courtroom will please be seated.
The Honorable, the Judges of Military Tribunal II.
Military Tribunal II is now in session. God save the United States and this honorable Tribunal.
There will be order in the Court.
THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal is ready to hear the closing arguments of the prosecution. Mr. Robbins, before you begin, will you indicate the point at which you'd like to recess? We'll suit it to you voice and convenience.
MR. ROBBINS: Thank you, sir.
The United States charges these defendants with responsibility for the atrocities committed in the administration of the concentration camp system of the Third Reich.
The history of thesevile institutions is the biography of these men. Himmler brought the defendant Pohl to his Verwaltungsamt-SS in 1934, and from that date Pohl's jurisdiction over concentration camp affairs increase steadily until he became chief of the entire system. Pohl took over construction matters and the SS enterprises in the first concentration camp in Germany at Dachau, and so distinguished himself that by 1936 he was handling the clothing, finance, auditing, and construction for all concentration camps and for the Death Head units which were used for guarding them. In 1938 he added the stone quarried at Mauthausen and Flossenburg. In 1939 a labor allocation office was added, and in February 1942 he assumed complete jurisdiction for the administration of all concentration camps and continued as their supreme chief until the collapse.
Every minute, every aspect of the inmates' lives was regulated by Pohl and his associates. Such food, clothing, medical care, and and billets as the inmates had these men furnished.
As the power to tax is the power to destroy, so the power to furnish includes the power to withhold. They allotted inmate labor and were themselves the largest users of it. The concentration camp commandant, the guards, the camp doctors, the labor allocation officer, the administrative officer were under their control.
Responsibility for the administration of the system cannot be shoved up higher than this. In the dock sit Pohl and his office chiefs. They are highly skilled administrative officers -- the brains of the concentration camp organization. They made it operate and operate successfully, from the Nazi viewpoint. They were high-ranking SS men, career men in the administration of the concentration camp system. Under the aegis of these defendants, every conceivable crime was committed -- the systematic commission of atrocities in concentration camps, the utilization of slave labor under brutal and murderous conditions, the extermination of Poles, Jews and Russians and those who were no longer fit for work, the razing of the Warsaw Ghetto, and the confiscation of property on a gigantic scale. Pohl and Frank understood what Himmler meant when he told them and his other SS Generals at Posen: "most of you know what it means when 100 corpses are lying together, when 500 lie there, or when 1,000 lie there. To have lasted through this and ---to have remained decent fellows has made us hard."
Technically, the WVHA was organized on the first of February 1942, but actually it was a continuation of Pohl's Verwaltungsamt-SS which was organized in 1934 and later, in 1939; became the Main Offices Budget and Buildings, and Administration and Economy. One month after the WVHA was formed, the Inspectorate of Concentration Camps was incorporated into it as Amtsgruppe D. The WVHA was merely the last of a succession of administrative offices headed by Pohl and staffed by these defendants.
The case of the prosecution rests upon documents and photographs found in the files of the SS. These documents establish the position, the activity, and the responsibility of these defendants. In addition, there are eye-witness accounts of the many crimes charged in the indictment. And there are motion pictures of the concentration camps taken by the advancing Allied armies. This is the character of the evidence supporting the charges here.
The defense is based primarily on what the defendants themselves have said, and the object of most of their talking has been to explain away or contradict what is in the documentary evidence. Such testimony is self-serving, a factor which tends to weaken its credibility and weight. But there are more important factors, most of them peculiar to this case, which must also be kept in mind when this testimony is considered. We now turn to these.
To comprehend the attitude and activities of these defendants before German's collapse, and their behavior on the witness stand, it is necessary to keep constantly in mind the burning spirit of comradeship and loyalty to their organization which is characteristic not only of them but of practically all of the hundreds of thousands of members of the SS. Without reference to this feeling of blood brotherhood, a good deal of the testimony by the numerous members of the SS who have been called as witnesses throughout the course of the trial becomes unintelligible gibberish. The sources of this feeling and the reasons which later fortified and nourished it are exceedingly complex. When one tries to understand the mentality of the SS man, he is, of course, seeking to analyze a peculiar, Irrational creed compounded, like some vile witch's brew, from ingredients which are so far removed from the thoughts and beliefs of the ordinary civilized person that it is almost incapable of being recognized by any intellectual process. The heart has its reasons of which the reason knows nothing. In trying to grasp the well-springs of these men's actions and outlook, the logic is almost a hindrance.
But we know at least what some of these ingradients are.
Among them are the pseudo-ethnological theories of Nietzsche and Gobineau - the concepts of the Aryan superman as opposed to the Semitic subhuman. Nietzsche wrote that the Christian religion was based on Judaism, which was essentially a philosophy devised by the weak to dupe and deceive the strong. Any Aryan who accepted these moral values which sprang from the codes of the ancient Jews was no more than a naive victim of a scheme deliberately adopted by this subhuman race in order to win by guile what it could not take by force. Therefore, the Christian doctrines of charity, mercy, and brotherly love were to be dumped on the scrap heap, and for them was to be substituted a now, virile set of moral values which corresponded to the true position of the superman. This new philosophy was to be based primarily on the promise that might makes right. Nietzsche died in a Bavarian madhouse in 1900 but these ethico-racial concepts of his were dusted off and incorporated as part of the official doctrime of the Nazi party and particularly of that party's so-called elite, the SS.
If a man seriously holds to such ideas as these, and the evidence in this case shows that every effort was made to indoctrinate the personnel of the SS with them, then it is not surprising if such a man act in complete disregard of the standards if ordinary decency and humanity as those standards are understood by the Christian world. The ethical and moral concepts of the Christian world are largely based on the Old and New Testaments, and these are the very standards which, according to the philosophy of the New Order, were to be despised and cast off. This is what Nietzsche meant by the transvaluation of all moral values.
It is a natural step from the adoption of such a philosophy to the incarceration into concentration camps of millions of human brings classified as "racial inferiors" and it is equally natural that these subhuman types should be wiped out after they had contributed as much as possible to the wealth and comfort of the superman.
Now the very fact that such a creed is so horrifying to the ordinary person is itself enough to draw those who do believe in it together and it was inevitable that these persons, mutually attracted by a common faith in their psychopathic cult, would quickly form a feeling of spiritual kinship to each other. This is one of the sources or the SS blood brotherhood.
But there are other ingredients which go to make up this feeling. A very potent one is the militaristic spirit. The Court will remember that almost every defendant eventually said that he regarded himself first and foremost as a soldier.
Even the auditors and bookkeepers professed to have this conception of themselves. Vogt said of himself:
"Since the age of 15 I was a man in the soldiers class." (T. 2864).
We had heard before of the church militant, but this was our first introduction to the adding machine militant. There is always a certain amount of feeling of comradeship among members of a military organization. This played its part in elding together the members of the SS. It was heightened and fed by their notion that they were members of an elite, exclusive organization, an idea which was systematically imparted to them by every method known to modern propaganda. The men of the SS were expected to be more than mere converts: they were to be the living embodiment if these ideals, and were to carry the gospel to the uninitiate.
This propaganda was so effective that the members of the SS even today believe, as Obergruppenfuehrer Karl Wolff testified here in this court, that they were the purest and finest that Germany has produced. He evidently saw nothing incongruous in making that statement and admitting at the same time that the crimes committed in SS uniforms were the worst in recorded history.
To those elements which constitute this intense loyalty, demonstrated by the blood-oath that every SS man swore, must be added another factor which manifested itself more and more as time went on. The guards of the concentration camps were always members of the SS. They advertised their ruthlessness; the Death Head was their symbol and fetish. Almost from its inception, therefore, the SS way associated in the minds of the German people with dark, sinister and fearsome happenings. Himmler recognized this when he said that there were people in Germany who became sick when they saw these black coats and that he did not expect that they should be loved by too many.
As the organization grew, the concentration camps multiplied, the feeling of terror of the SS on the part of the population became proportionately more acute.
After the end of the war, every member of the SS from Scharfuehrer up to General became an "automatic arrest case", and several thousand of them are still sitting behind barbed wire enclosures today. Therefore, to all of the other forces which tend to fuse and unite the members of this organization has been added the effect of this physical segregation and this social ostracism. They are now drawn together by very much the same feeling that must exist among members if a leper colony. The repugnance toward them is not even tempered by pity - their disease is moral rather than physiological.
DR. GAWLIK: If the Tribunal please, we cannot understand the translation. Large parts of the English text are being left out. It is hardly possible for us to follow the speech.
THE PRESIDENT: I think if we slow it down just a little bit, Dr. Robbins, the interpreter will keep up with it.
MR. ROBBINS:
What is significant here about all this is that this feeling of blood brotherhood and loyalty to the organization has been projected time after time into this very courtroom.
It must be abundantly clear to the Court by now that it is almost impossible to get a member of the SS to say anything even mildly unflattering, much less incriminating, about another member. It would be surprising if the situation were otherwise. It is expecting too much to think that a man confined in one of these SS internment camps will come into this courtroom and testify against his former leaders when he knows that after he has left the witness stand he is going to be sent back among his comrades. They know that though the wings of the SS have been clipped by the Allies, the personnel of the SS are still living together as a band of brothers, and they have seen enough of the way the SS operates to know that a good memory and a tendency to be loquacious is conducive to a short life-span.
What is the significance of all this? The credibility of the defendants and of the witnesses produced on their behalf is the most important question in this case. As we have said, the major part of the prosecution's proof is based upon captured documents, many of them written by these very defendants. Upon the naked evidence shown by those documents, every defendant stands condemned. That is why none of them dared to refuse to testify: they all know that if they did not make every effort to explain these creations of theirs in some way, if they did not do something to mollify their plain meaning, deflect their implications and minimize their effect, their fate was sealed. If one considers only the evidence of the documents and the positions of these defendants in the WVHA, there is not even a serious question of criminal responsibility left.
Therefore, we have been treated to a thesaurus of asseverations by the defendants that documents addressed to or signed by them were not read; or if read were not understood; or if understood were understood imperfectly; that official directives were never carried out or were secretly rescinded; that official duties assigned were never performed; and that official reports contained in their files were full of factual mistakes.
The question of credibility is therefore a principal issue in this case, and we are not indulging in a mere*oratorial exercise when we discuss these peculiar circumstances which bear upon it.
We urge the Court, when it weight the evidence in this case, to reflect that the situation here is far more complicated than in an ordinary criminal proceeding. We are not presumptuous enough to suggest to what extent these collateral circumstances should be used in evaluating the credibility and weight of the testimony here, but we do say that if these factors are ignored completely, then one of the most important factors in the case will be overlooked.
When the Word "credibility" is mentioned in connection with these men, not only must the Court keep in mind the nature of this feeling of blood-brotherhood, but it also should not lose sight of the fact that all of these defendants were Hitler's minions. They were all officers in an organization which was, to use their own expression, on the "ministerial level". Many of them had personal contacts with Himmler.
Pohl described himself as "one of Himmler's closest collaborators." Hans Loerner was a kind of super-caterer in Himmler's personal tent during the Nurnberg party rallies. August Frank described his inspection tour of one of the concentration camps in company with Himmler: The Court will recall his description of the fatherly interest that Himmler displayed in the inmates. Every one of them is an old member of the Nazi Party and has been thoroughly grounded in its methods of operation.
One of the customary methods by which Hitler achieved his results was through re-emphasizing and reiterating a falsehood so many times that his hearers, even if in the beginning they knew of its untruthfulness, were despite themselves brought around to believe in it. This is no mere speculation. Hitler was fond of cynically discussing the efficacy of this method. He describes it in his book Mein Kampf, he frequently talked about it in private conversations, and he even mentioned it in some of his speeched. He was firmly convinced that people could be made to believe anything if it was repeated often and loudly enough.
It must be admitted that up to a certain point his confidence in this belief seemed to be justified. But justified or not, the belief and the method were well-known to every old party member such as these defendants, and it is fairly evident that from time to time they have used it on this Tribunal.
Here again is a situation different from anything that ordinarily comes before a court - where all of the defendants are confessed leaders of an organization, one of whose principal tenets was that a lie will be believed if you repeat it often enough.
We have been speaking about the bonds of loyalty between all the members of the Waffen-SS. If what we have said about them is true, how much more powerful must be the ties between these defendants here. All of these men have long-standing connections with the SS. Some of them were active in concentration camp affairs as early as 1934. They are high-ranking officers, not only in the SS, but in the same main office of the SS. Most of them have known the others for years. They are personal friends. Some of them, before they came into the WVHA, were fellow officers in the same combat unit. Baier and Pohl were in the Navy together, and have known each other since 1912. Fanslau and Tschentscher were in the SS Viking Division together. All of these elements must be added to the ones which have already mentioned as forming this mystical tie between the members of the SS generally.
It has been perfectly apparent from the time this trial opened that there has been a definite plan among these defendants to coordinate and unify their testimony, and it is equally apparent that from the very beginning, certain strategic principles were adopted by the whole group and religiously adhered to throughout the course of the entire proceeding. We will briefly touch on the matters which show the existence and direction of this overall plan of strategy.
These defendants were apprehended at different times in different parts of Germany. When they were first arrested, the war had just ended and nobody knew precisely what was to happen next. All that these men knew was that they had been generals and colonels in one of the most important main offices of the SS. They knew that the particular organization with which they had been Affiliated was in charge of operating the entire concentration camp system, and also of handling the administrative side of the Rheinhardt Action.
They knew that when the invading Allied armies came in, they had uncovered proof of unspeakable horrors which had been committed in the concentration camps. The black heart of the SS had been laid bare. They knew that they were being held in connection with these atrocities, but they were not sure whether they were to be tried or summarily shot; or if they were to be tried, what sort of a trial it would be, or how they would be treated. The only police methods with which they were familiar were those of the Gestapo, the Secret Field Police, the SD, and similar organizations. The memory of these methods did not add to their peace of mind. Furthermore, the sense of guilt which they had carried, dammed up within themselves for so many years, finally found an outlet. They decided, in short, that the jig was up and that for once the simplest way was to tell the truth.
After they had been in captivity for some months, the machinery for the carrying out of these trials was eventually set up and they were interrogated. By that time, it had become apparent to them that no one intended to threaten or molest them; but enough of their original sense of guilt remained to cause them to talk comparatively freely. Further, even then these various defendants did not know how much the Americans knew about their activities. They did not know what documents we had and what documents we had not found. They knew that a systematic effort had been made to destroy the files of their various offices, but they also knew that this destruction of evidence had not been 100% efficient all over Germany and they could not be sure that such and such a letter or report which was sent to Himmler's office or to Oranienburg or to Auschwitz had not fallen into the hands of the Allies. They were also under the disadvantage of not being able to communicate with each other. None of them knew how much his colleagues had talked.