If General Yamashita could be executed for being the commanding general in charge of troops who committed atrocities several provinces away from his headquarters in Manila, Fanslau and Tschentscher should be made to bear their responsibility for what was done all around them by men whom they knew by name.
Such then in brief is the responsibility of these defendants for the crimes with which they have been charged. Few of these men committed murder with their own hands, but all are as guilty of murder as the operators of the gas chambers in Auschwitz. The concentration camps were one of the cornerstones of the Third Reich. The enormity of the crimes committed in those lawless jungles has been amply proved , and indeed has not been disputed by the defendants * The weary months of defense testimony have rather been devoted to a denial of knowledge of that which was known to the whole world and a relegation of responsibility to dead men. If these men are not responsible for the concentration-camp crimes then no one is guilty. In the absence of Hitler and Himmler responsibility for the concentration camps can be pushed no higher than these surviving members of the WVHA. Theirs was the power to establish and operate concentration camps. Theirs was the function to exploit the labor of the subjected peoples who were incarcerated behind the electric fences of the camps. Theirs was the task to make profitable the destruction of human lives on a mass basis . These things they did and gloried in them.
It is no use to say, as some have done, that they could not have prohibited the slaughter of Jews and the enslavement and degradation of uncounted millions. Even if it is true it is no defense. It may be that Hitler and Himmler could have found other men, other Pohls and Franks and Learners, but these defendants are the men who eagerly did his bidding.
They performed essential, functions and held responsible positions in the administration of a system of murder, torture and enslavement. They knew of the aims and practices of that system, and knowing that, devoted their best efforts to the promotion of that system. They participated in crimes of unprecedented magnitude and horror.
Justice can only be served by capital, punishment.
THE PRESIDENT: Dr. Seidl, we will hear your argument.
DR. SEIDL: (Attorney for Defendant POHL): Your Honors, before I turn to my defense of Oswald Pohl I would like to make a few remarks concerning the sequence in which the defense will introduce their final pleas for their respective clients.
The Tribunal has informed us that at the latest on Saturday night all final pleas will have to have been introduced. In order to distribute the time at our disposal in a fair manner, the defense has written up a schedule and I have been appointed to show this schedule to the Tribunal. I take the liberty of asking the Tribunal whether it agrees with my proposal or not. This is nothing but a proposal on the part of the defense, and, as far as the recesses are concerned, of course, this is up to the Tribunal.
As we have figured out so far, the defense counsel for August Frank, apart from myself, and also the defense counsel for Hans Loerner will introduce their final pleas to-day. Tomorrow defense counsel for Fanslau, Vogt, Georg Loerner, Tschentscher, Scheide, and Kiefer will introduce their pleas. According to my opinion, it will be a quarter to nine before we can finish tomorrow.
On Friday we propose to have the defense counsel for Eirenschmalz, Sommer, Pook and Hohberg give their final pleas, and that will probably require time until a quarter to five.
On Saturday, according to this proposal, the foliowing defendants will be able to speak, namely, the defense counsel for Volk, Bobermin, Mummenthey, Klein, and the last one, Baier. According to our schedule, I believe we will be able to finish by 7:15 p.m.
The defense has agreed to propose this sequence in which the final pleas will be introduced because that is how it introduced its evidence, namely, in the same manner as the defendants are sitting, and it is to be assumed that defense counsel will refer to certain things which have been mentioned before.
THE PRESIDENT: How late do you propose to stay in session tomorrow?
DR. SEIDL: For tomorrow? Well, from 9 o'clock on until a quarter to nine.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, we would be perfectly willing to sit tonight from 7:30 to 9:30.
DR. SEIDL: Yes. That is fine. That is just about what we thought it would be, Your Honor.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, will that make any change in tomorrow night, if we do that, if we sit tonight?
DR. SEIDL: No, it wouldn't Your Honor, it wouldn't. According to our schedule, we would probably work until 8:30 or 9:00. However, I don't doubt that defense counsel for Fanslau, who is right after me, will also be ready to start with his final plea.
THE PRESIDENT: All right, we will be in session then from now until 5:30 or until you have finished, Dr.Seidl, and then we will come back at 7:30 and sit until 9:30. Now does your schedule contemplate sitting tomorrow night, Thursday, Friday night, and Saturday night?
DR. SEIDL: Yes, indeed, Your Honor.
THE PRESIDENT: How late tomorrow night? You said nine o'clock?
DR. SEIDL: Tomorrow night until a quarter to nine p.m.
THE PRESIDENT: And Friday night?
DR. SEIDL: And on Friday until approximately a quarter to six. Of course, Your Honor, we could also take in some defense counsel who would normally speak on Saturday. They could speak on Friday.
THE PRESIDENT: What about Saturday?
DR. SEIDL: On Saturday I propose that we start at nine o'clock in the morning as usual and if the five defense counsels can finish by then, I imagine we will be working until 7:15 p.m.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, on Monday we will have to give some time for the statements of each defendant. That will take about three hours, assuming ten minutes for each man. That would be 180 minutes, or three hours, but we can use the rest of Monday.
We can use Monday forenoon for arguments. I think we will do it this way, Dr. Seidl. We will sit tonight, 7:30 to 9:30, tomorrow night until 5:30, Friday until 5:30, Saturday night all night, if necessary, until we are all asleep, and then finish up, if necessary, Monday morning. Will that be agreeable?
DR. SEIEL: Yes, indeed, Your Honor. I believe that all defense counsels agree with this proposal.
THE PRESIDENT: That still leaves us Sunday, if we have to, Heaven forbid. All right, that will be the program them. That is, we come back at 7:30 to 9:30, tomorrow night 5:30, Friday night 5:30, Saturday night forever, and Monday morning.
DR. RAUSCHENBACH (Attorney for Defendants August Frank and Hans Loerner):
Your Honors, I would appreciate it if this evening the Court could possibly begin at seven o'clock or then finish at 10 o'clock, because I shall need two hours for my two defendants and then I believe I will be interrupted right in the middle of my final plea.
THE PRESIDENT: That is all right. We will start at 7 and we will stay until you finish.
DR. RAUSCHENBACH: Thank you very much, Your Honor.
DR. SEIDL: Dr. Seidl for the defendant Oswald Pohl. Your Honor, the final plea for the Defendant Oswald Pohl, which is before you now, is, as can be seen by the index, divided into 12 parts. Considering the time at my disposal, I will not read everything I have in the index and I shall limit myself to quoting certain excerpts. In order to give you a clear picture of what is contained in here, I would like to read the index into the record.
No. 1 deals with Control Council Law No. 10, and particularly with the Crime against Humanity clause.
No. 2 deals with the structure and development of the SS-Administration from 1 February 1934 until 3 March 1942.
No. 3 deals with the development and position of the Inspectorate of the Concentration Camps.
No. 4 deals with the incorporation of the Inspectorate of the Concentration camps into the Main Economic and Administrative Office.
No. 5 deals with the labor allocation of the inmates of concentration camps.
No. 6 deals With the lotting and sequestration of property in the occupied countries.
No. 7 deals with the medical experiments.
No. 8 deals with Operation 14 F 13, Euthanasia.
No. 9 deals with the Operation Reinhardt.
No. 10 deals with the Warsaw Ghetto.
No. 11, "Acting Under Orders", and all the main questions in that connection.
And finally, No. 12, the limitations of the Legal Responsibility of the Defendant Oswald Pohl in his capacity as Head of the Main Economic and Administrative Office.
Your Honors, in paragraph No. 1, I have a short legal argument which is in connection with Control Counsel Law No, 10 and that particularly refers to the crime against humanity. I did that in order to prevent the other defense counsel from repeating these points. I would appreciate it if the Tribunal would take judicial notice of these articles and I believe I will not read it into the records.
No. 2, which deals with the development of the SS Administration from 1 February 1934 until 3 March 1942 I shall not read. The defendant Pohl while on the witness stand describe this development in great detail to the Tribunal and I direct your attention to his testimony.
I would like to turn to Article 3. I am reading that. That is on page 24 of this draft.
Title: Development and Position of the Inspectorate Concentration Camps.
The creation of further concentration camps in the years 1933 to 1936, beside the Dachau concentration camp, resulted in the commander of the Dachau camp, the later SS-Obergruppenfuehrer Eicke, being commissioned with the personal leadership and administration of all existing concentration camps, acting as their highest authority.
The office which was appointed for this purpose as supreme governing and supervising organ was called "Inspectorate of Concentration Camps". Eicke himself was appointed "Inspector of Concentration Camps". His official residence was first in Berlin later in Cranienburg.
The Inspectorate of Concentration Camps was the highest Supervising authority for these camps. The camp commanders were exclusively and directly subordinated to and responsible to the Inspector. They received all the orders and directions which referred to administrative matters of the concentration camps from the Inspector alone and via him personally.
As far as police measures and executive measures were concerned, the Inspector was bound by the directions and decrees of the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA) and, above all, of the Secret State Police (Office IV of the Reich Security Main Office). The Inspector had only to receive these directions, decrees, and orders and to pass them on to the camp commanders. The Inspector did not have any executive authority of his own. Moreover, at each concentration camp there was established a political department (Department VI), which received its directions straight from the competent offices of the Reich Security Main Office. In this connection I refer to the Law on the Secret State Police of 10 February 1936, excerpts of which I have submitted as evidence to the Tribunal. According to this law, the Secret State Police administered the state concentration camps through the Inspector of Concentration Camps, who was attached to the Secret State Police Office.
The Reichsfuehrer-SS, too, as chief of the German Police, issued his orders either to the Reich Security Main Office, and thus to the Secret State Police Office (Office IV of the Reich Security Main Office), or to the Inspector of Concentration Camps, in exceptional cases even directly to the camp commanders themselves.
All internal administrative matters, in particular problems of food supply, clothing, and lodging of the inmates, were dealt with by the Inspector on his own authority. For the administrative offices of the concentration camps the Inspectorate of Concentration Camps was the highest supervising authority.
To carry out these tasks of administration and supervision, the Inspector of Concentration Camps had at his disposal the Inspectorate with all the necessary technical organs, namely:
a) The Central Office (later Office C-I) which acted as agent for communication with the competent offices of the Reich Security Main Office. The personnel office was also a part of this office.
b) The Office for Medical Matters (later Office D-III), which supervised all health matters in the Concentration camps. It received its professional instructions directly from the Reich Physician SS.
c) The Administration Office (later Office D-IV), which was in charge of all problems of food supply, clothing, and lodging. In this respect it acted independently and war only bound by the general legal administrative instructions or by the administrative orders issued for all administrative offices of the Waffen-SS by the ministerial authority, namely, the Economic and Administrative Office (WVHA).
d) Up to the year 1939/40 there was a Construction Department in addition to these regular supervising organs, which carried out all construction measures taken by the Inspector on his exclusive responsibility, including also the construction of all the concentration camps up to 1939/40.
e) A further office, the Office for Labor Allocation of Inmates (Office D-II), was established in March 1942.
This office got its orders direct from the chief of the Economic and Administrative Main Office and was competent and responsible for the execution of these orders.
After Eicke had been replaced as Inspector in spring 1940, Obergruppenfuehrer Heissmeyer was appointed "Inspector General of Concentration Camps and of SS-Death's Head Units". After a short time he was succeeded, however, by Brigadefuehrer Gluecks as "Inspector of Concentration Camps", while the Inspectorate of Concentration Camps was simultaneously incorporated in the SS Operational Main Office.
With regard to the object of the indictment and to the result of the evidence it does not seem necessary to examine in detail all the legal problems connected with the concentration camps. To supplement the statement of the defendant Oswald Pohl in this trial only a few aspects are referred to:
When on 30 January 1933 Adolf Hitler was commissioned by the Reich President von Hindenberg to form a national government, Germany was confronted by a complete economic breakdown and was on the verge of a civil war. Only the decided concentration of all the forces of the nation could open up a way one of this difficult situation. The government of the Reich believed the elimination of enemies of the state from public life to be indispensable. In the few state concentration camps established before the outbreak of World War II, leading members of the Communist Party in particular were imprisoned, beside criminal elements and other public enemies (anti-social subjects, persons in preventive police detention, and others). People were sent to a concentration camp - if political reasons were decisive for this fact - as the result of an "order for protective custody" by the Secret State Police. The estab lishment of the protective custody as well as the concentration camps themselves had as a legal bases the "Decree of the Reich President for the Protection of the People and the State, dated 28 February 1933". This decree was a so-called emergency decree in the sense of Article 48, paragraph 2, of the Weimar Reich Constitution.
It was issued by Reich President von Hindenburg. The so-called fundamental laws of the Reich constitution were cancelled by this decree with the object of making it possible for the state authorities, in particular the Security Police, to make the necessary encroachments upon personal liberty, property, freedom of association and assembly, freedom of speech, etc. etc.
There can be no doubt that by the decree of the Reich President for the Protection of the People and the State dated 28 February 1933 the foundations of the so-called "constitutional state" were removed to a large extent. However, it is just as certain that the suppression of the fundamental laws of the constitution and the establishment of state concentration camps in themselves cannot be regarded as constituting any kind of punishable action. Germany as a sovereign state was at liberty to regulate her internal affairs. The measures taken by the Reich Government through the State Police can be condemned from the point of view of penal law all the less as at that time Germany was doubtless in a difficult position, and as the conservation of a formal constitutional security in itself cannot be considered as having any absolute value, however desirable it may be.
The weaknesses of the so-called free society are too obvious to be overlooked for a long time. The experience of recent history has shown that the institutions of the constitutional state can only be considered as safe when, beside the allegiance of the state and its organs to the law, a minimum of social security and material justice are guaranteed by means of suitable measures.
It is also known that formerly as well as nowadays both outside and within the borders of the German Reich there existed and exist camps in which prisoners were detained and are being detained for their political convictions alone. In this connection attention is drawn to the Law of 5 March 1946 for the Liberation from National Socialism and Militarism, promulgated in the Laender of the U.S. Zone, which provides for an imposition of "labor camp" up to 10 years. This is a political measure which is carried into effect against persons solely on account of their former political convictions, regardless of an offense against any penal law.
In this connection I would also draw attention to the Directive No. 38 of the Control Council for Germany which I have submitted to the Court as an exhibit in the document book for the defendant Oswald Pohl. This directive deals among other subjects with the arrest and surveillance of "potentially dangerous Germans". According to section I, figure 1c, it is the object of this directive to establish a common policy for the whole of Germany concerning "the internment of Germans who, although not guilty of specific crimes, are to be considered dangerous to Allied purposes and the control and surveillance of others considered potentially so dangerous". That this is a political measure and that the reason for arrest lies in the political convictions of the persons arrested is clearly expressed by part I, figure 5, which is worded as follows:
"A distinction should be made between imprisonment of war criminals and similar offenders for criminal conduct and internment of potentially dangerous persons who may be confined because their freedom would constitute a danger to the Allied cause."
When judging the contents of this directive it is essential to take into consideration the date of its promulgation. It was issued on 12 October 1946; that is almost one and one-half years after cessation of hostilities. Insofar as after the outbreak of the war nationals of the occupied countries were sent to concentration camps, this was effected for reasons affecting the State and Security Police by the organs of the Reich Security Main Office. Neither the Economic and Administrative Main Office nor its chief Oswald Pohl was in any way connected with these measures.
(4) Incorporation of the Inspectorate of Concentration Camps into the Main Economic and Administrative Office Examined as a witness, the defendant Pohl stated individually the reasons which led to the incorporation of the Inspectorate of Concentration Camps into the Main Economic and Administrative Office as Office Group D in March 1942.
This incorporation was directly connected with the decree of the Fuehrer on the subject of designating a Plenipotentiary General for Labor Allocation dated 21 March 1942. For the purpose of safeguarding the manpower requirements of the entire war economy, this decree charged Reichsstatthalter (Appointed Reich Governor) and Gauleiter Fritz Sauckel to direct the allocation of all available manpower in a uniform manner and in conformity with the requirements of the war economy. This decree of the Fuehrer was the result of a conference with Speer and Sauckel, also attended by the Reichsfuehrer-SS, at Fuehrer headquarters. Such a uniform directing of labor allocation could not disregard the manpower available in the concentration camps. The solution of this new economic task - namely that of directing the allocation for labor of the inmates of concentration camps - was the sole aim pursued by the incorporation of the Inspectorate of Concentration Camps into the Main Economic and Administrative Office, and also the sole aim that induced Reichsfuehrer-SS Himmler to remove the Inspectorate of Concentration Camps from the SS-Operational Main Office, where it had been a part of the organization since 1940, and establish it as Office Group D in the Main Economic and Administrative Office. The defendant Oswald Pohl opposed the reorganization planned by Reichsfuehrer-SS Himmler and pointed out the fact that the Main Economic and Administrative Office, whose task it was to care for the economic requirements of almost one million men of Waffen-SS troops, was suitable, both by purpose and organization, to absorb and handle in a responsible manner so far-reaching an administrative organization as the Inspectorate of Concentration Camps. The objections raised by the defendant Oswald Pohl did not serve to deter the Reichsfuehrer from his decision to carry out the planned reorganization. However, there was an agreement on the fact that this was only a special order, created by war conditions and limited in length of time, which was by no means destined, to have the responsibility for the entire administration of concentration camps combined with it.
This latter was to continue to be in the hands of the Inspector of Concentration Camps, Brigadefuehrer Gluecks. The activity of the defendant Pohl was to be confined to the handling, on ministerial level, of the allocation of labor of concentration camp inmates.
The incorporation of the Inspectorate of Concentration Camps into the Main Economic and Administrative Office took place by order of Reichsfuehrer SS Himmler dated 3 March 1942. The prosecution was unable to present the wording of this order. The statement made by the defendant Oswald Pohl, however, is proved as correct by another document submitted to the Court by the prosecution in its case in chief. This is the circular letter sent by the Chief of the Security Police and SD to all offices of the Security Police and the SD, dated 30 May 1942, and presented by the prosecution as Exhibit No. 39, Document No. 1063-F-PS. The wording of this letter is as follows:
"By order of the Reichsfuehrer-SS and Chief of the German Police dated the 3rd of March 1942, the agency of the Inspectorate of the Concentration Camps was removed from the SS Operational Main Office and incorporated into the SS-WVHA as Office Group D (concentration camps). These measures are taken in order to serve the war-important direction of the labor and, as I expressly emphasize, have no influence on the competency of the Reich Security Main Office concerning the commitments and releases of inmates, leaves and so on."
In this connection I would again like to go briefly into the matter of the wording of the order itself, which has in the meantime been introduced by the prosecution in evidence. I Will have to correct my statements made a few days ago that according to my opinion on the basis of the wording of that letter there can be no doubt that only the responsibility of labor allocation was to be covered and comprised by that order. This also results very clearly from the contents and the wording of this letter and from the sense of it where nothing is said about submitting the concentration camps to the supervision of Oswald Pohl or that they were to be incorporated into the WVHA, but it is only pointed out that SS-Brigadefuehrer Gluecks, together with his entire staff, was to be subordinated to the WVHA.
It results clearly there from that the agency Inspectorate of Concentration Camps was to lose nothing of its independence. The wording of the order is contained in Exhibit Pohl No. 39.
This circular was signed by the Chief of Office IV of the Reich Main Security Office (Secret State Police) SS-Gruppenfuehrer MUELLER and does not only disclose the purpose of the incorporation of the Concentration Camps Inspectorate into the Main Economic and Administrative Office as being solely that of uniformly directing manpower allocation of inmates, but also that the jurisdiction of the various offices of the Reich Main Security Office was not in any way affected by this re-organization. Even after the incorporation into the Main Economic and Administrative Office, all measures pertaining to matters of Security Police and State Police were directed and handled exclusively by the agencies of the Reich Main Security Office. This did not only apply to the question of confinement in or discharge from a concentration camp, but also to all other executive measures of the police or otherwise. The agencies of the Main Economic and Administrative Office did not dispose of any executive bodies, nor did they have authority for such measures.
The order of Reichsfuehrer SS Himmler, dated 3 March 1942, went into effect 1 May 1942. I have to correct this. It did not happen on 1 May 1942, but on the 16th of May 1942. This can also be seen from Pohl Exhibit No. 30. The incorporation of the Inspectorate into the Main Economic and Administrative office did not bring about the slightest change in the organization of the latter. Apart from the defendant Oswald Pohl, not a single, member of the Main Economic Administrative Office had more to do than before in connection with administrative matters pertaining to concentration camps.
The defendant Pohl, in his capacity as Chief of the Main Economic and Administrative Office, had no special aid on his staff to deal with concentration camp matters and did not keep any files. All questions of labor allocation were handled by the Concentration Camps Inspectorate in Oranienburg.
The main item of the defendant Oswald POHL's new duties was the weekly conference with Inspector of Concentration Camps Gluecks, which mostly took place in the Main Economic and Administrative Office in Berlin, and only in exceptional cases in the Oranienburg Inspectorate Office. The subject of this conference was the allocation of camp inmates to war industry. GLUECKS presentod to the defendant POHL requests made by the armament industry, which were received either by the camp commanders or by the Inspectorate and had already been dealt with by the latter up to a stage where only decision was required. The defendant POHL decided on those requests, in most cases in accordance with GLUECK's proposals, GLUECKS generally being accompanied by the Chief of office D II (Labor allocation) Standartenfuehrer MAURER.
GLUECKS and MAURER brought this data with them to Berlin into the Main Economic and Administrative Office for the weekly conference -- which lasted on an average not more than onehalf hour -- and took it back again to Oranienburg after it had been dealt with.
The requests for allocation of inmates to armament industry plants received directly by the defendant Pohl in the Main Economic and Administrative Office were first of all sent to Oranienburg for handling and then dealt with in the same manner as the others. All files remained in Oranienburg.
For details I refer to the contents of the affidavit made by Gerhard MAURER, dated 3 July 1947. After the incorporation of the Concentration Camps Inspectorate into the Main Economic and Administrative Office, this witness was Chief of Office D II and thus the specialist handling all questions of labor allocation pertaining to camp inmates. After giving an account of the weekly report of Gruppenfuehrer GLUECKS to the defendant Oswald POHL in the Main Economic and Administrative Office, the subject of the conference being the decision in answer to requests made by the war industry for manpower allocation, the witness, under figure 4 of his affidavit, declares the following, and I quote:
''Office D II, Obergruppenfuehrer Pohl, received in certain periods of time concerning the labor allocation of inmates certain compilations from which the figures and places of allocation can be seen. Furthermore, in this connection and these figures you could also see the number of inmates not used, the ones in which they were also used could be seen from those reports in connection with their professions. However, the figures did not contain their nationality and they were not arranged according to nationality, nor was the reason seen which led to the issuance of this decree.
These figures simply dealt with the necessity of labor allocation. Obergruppenfuehrer Pohl received from Amtsgruppe D. Furthermore, certain reports concerning the man hours in the economy, and also the wages which the inmates received during that time. He also received reports about their wages in the industry containing figures and personnel strength figures of the inmates used. There were also certain reports in there about the action on the production which had been achieved.'' Unquote.
The documents submitted by the Prosecution prove the account of the defendant POHL as correct. Almost all letters concerned with administrative matters of a general nature dealing with concentration camps were sent out directly in Oranienburg by Office Group D. The reports and notices of the commanders of the concentration camps were sent back to Oranienburg -- unless they dealt with matters of State Police and had to be addressed to the various offices of the Reich Main Security Office. In this connection reference must be made to the fact that the Concentration Camp Inspectorate (Office Group D), had its own radio and news service, in which nothing was changed even after the incorporation with the Main Economic and Administrative Office.
The same applies to jurisdiction with regard to feeding, clothing and quartering in the camps.
The Inspectorate (Administrative Office D IV) continued to be sole supervisory authority on all these questions for the administrative agencies of the concentration camps. Only the camp commander was responsible for feeding, clothing and quartering the inmates, and he carried out his duty with the aid of the chief administrator (Verwaltungsfuehrer) and the latter's aids, who were on the staff of the camp commander and subordinated to the camp commander in all matters.
The timely and satisfactory procurement of food and clothing for guard squads and inmates and the maintenance of quarters were therefore tho responsibility of the camp commander and of his aids. He alone was responsible for the proper supply of commodities necessary to fulfill requirements of the camp inmates.
In this respect the function of the camp commanders was identical with that of commanders of an independent detachment of troops. Their feeding schedules were bound to conform with directives and schedules determined by the Reich Ministry of Food and Agriculture. Subsequent to approval by the Regional Food Office and the Food Office respectively, the administrative chiefs of the camps purchased the required quantities on the free market.
The evidence has proved that, after the incorporation of the Concentration Camp Inspectorate into the Main Economic and Administrative Office, the responsibility of the defendant Oswald POHL was confined to the uniform directing of labor allocation pertaining to camp inmates.
Nevertheless, in his capacity as chief of the Main Economic and Administrative Office, the defendant Oswald POHL endeavored to improve the working conditions of the inmates by appropriate interpretation and by spontaneous extension of the order he was under. Among other things he endeavored to remove from office these camp commanders from their jobs who did not appear to have sufficient understanding for the humane aspect of labor allocation and to replace them by suitable leaders. This attitude will serve to explain the motives underlying the proposals made by the defendant POHL to Reichsfuehrer SS HIMMLER, pertaining to the transfer of certain camp commanders.
The further endeavors of the defendant POHL to go beyond the limits of centralized directing of labor allocation of camp inmates and to gain influence on the working conditions themselves, extended to the following matters:
a) Feeding
1) Ensuring the additional ration for heavy workers for 90% of all inmates irrespective of the type of work to which they were allocated. The camp commanders had to report each month that 90% of all inmates had received the additional ration for heavy workers. This illegal method was used in order to obtain a permanent improvement of food supply for all inmates.