ACTION REINHARDT The extermination and deportation of the Jews in the East produced a vast amount of valuable property, both real and personal, which the Reich was quick to recognize and seize.
To marshal these resources, the Action Reinhardt was instituted, named, appropriately enough, for Reinhardt Heydrich, formerly Chief of the Security Police and SD, who met his death -- and this, too, appropriately enough - in Czechoslovakia in 1942. The purpose of the action was to gather into the Reich all the Jewish manpower and wealth which could be reached. It was an ambitious and profitable undertaking for Germany. The Jews themselves were herded into concentration camps as slaves and their entire worldly possessions confiscated. The real property, where possible, was put to German use (largely through the WVHA agency of OSTI) and the movable property was shipped to WVHA, where it was inventoried and appraised and distributed through prescribed channels. The thoroughness of this program of looting is evidenced by the articles listed: Featherbeds, quilts, blankets, woolen yardage, shawls, umbrellas, cames, thermos bottles, flasks, baby carriages, combs, handbags, belts, pipes, sun glasses, mirrors, table silver, luggage, linens, pillows, eye glasses, furs, watches, clocks and jewelry. Everything that could be lifted was moved. The defendant Frank listed as received up to April 30, 1943, 94,000 men's watches, 33,000 women's watches and 25,000 fountain pens. Currency and precious metals seized reached a total value of 60,000,000 Reichsmarks. About 2,000 carloads of textiles reached Germany as a result of this plunder, and in all a grand total of over 100 million Reichsmarks in personal property was thus acquired. When Jews died in concentration camps, additional loot became available. The clothing was stripped from their bodies and, after being carefully searched for hidden valuables and the distinguishing Jewish star removed, was distributed to still living inmates or to German civilians.
Camp commandants were cautioned not to ship clothing which was stained with blood or showed bullet holes. To complete the desecration, the hair was shorn from the heads of the dead (one report showed a carload of 3,000 kilograms) and all the dental gold was extracted and deposited through WVHA in the vaults of the Reichsbank. It was ordered by the defendant Frank that all property originating from Action Reinhardt be called "goods originating from thefts, receiving of stolen goods, and hoarded goods." In the true sense, this description is more accurate than Frank intended.
In the Southern German Legal Gazette, March 1947, crimes against humanity are defined as acts involving "cruelty against human life, degradation of the dignity of man or destruction of human civilization." The Tribunal is quite content to use this German concept as a standard in deciding whether or not the facts heretofore found constitute crimes against humanity. Only one conclusion is possible. These facts establish beyond a reasonable doubt the wholesale commission of both war crimes and crimes against humanity. It next becomes necessary to determine to what extent, if any, the several defendants are criminally responsible therefore, by reason of actual perpetration, participation or taking a consenting part therein.
A defense which has been almost universally advanced is that all the criminal acts of the Reich were conducted under a cloak of secrecy which prevented the defendants from knowing about them. Hitler's famous secrecy order has been offered by nearly every defendant. It has been urged that there was strict censorship of the press, that listening to foreign broadcasts was prohibited, that concentration camp prisoners were required upon their release to be sworn to secrecy as to events which they had observed or experienced, and that the German people generally were kept in complete ignorance of what was going on. All these facts are true. But in the very nature of things, it was impossible to maintain complete secrecy or anything like it. It was impossible to keep hidden from public view the huge transports which carried the slave laborers from the East to the concentration camps.
It was impossible to keep secret the public demonstrations against the Jews. Streicher's infamous "Der Sturmer" had a circulation of 600,000 copies. Himmler spoke openly about "the final solution of the Jewish problem" at Posen, Cracow and Metz. When prisoners were liberated from concentration camps, it is impossible to think that they maintained the complete secrecy to which they were bound. Soldiers returning on leave from Poland, Russia and the Ukraine must have talked to some extent. The pall of smoke from the crematoria at Auschwitz could not be kept hidden. In spite of decrees, foreign broadcasts were heard. The systematic murder of millions of human beings, extending over five years? could not by reason of its very magnitude be kept secret. It is undoubtedly true that millions of obscure and unimportant German citizens had no way of knowing and did not know of the horrible wrongs which were being perpetrated. But if high-ranking officers of the SS, whose daily tasks for years brought them into immediate contact with the operation of the camps, claim that they had no suspicion of the events occurring within the barbed wire, that defense cannot be believed. Undoubtedly some knew more than others and some limited few knew nothing. With this conclusion Pohl himself agrees. In his interrogation of June 13, 1946 (Ex. 693), Pohl was confronted by Kaltenbrunner's testimony before the International Military Tribunal that "there were only a handful of people in the WVHA who had any control or knew anything about concentration camps," to which Pohl commented:
"Well, that is complete nonsense. I described to you how these were handled in the WVHA. As for instance, in the case of the use of textiles and turning in of valuables, and also from Bluecks and Loerner right on down to the last little clerk, must have known what went on in the concentration camps, and it is complete nonsense for him to speak of just a handful of men."
In Liebehenschel's letter of February 25, 1943, written as Chief of Amtsgruppe D of the WVHA and addressed to all the concentration camp commanders, he states that the population in the East is beginning to be startled by the frequent casualties in the concentration camps. Apparently, in some areas at least, the secret was beginning to leak out.
The Tribunal is convinced that the ignorance professed by many of the defendants is the ignorance of convenience.
At the outset of the testimony, the Tribunal realized the necessity of guarding against assuming criminality, or even culpable responsibility, solely from the official titles which the several defendants held. It became apparent that, in conformity with the ancient German passion for high-sounding titles, many purely ministerial officers, performing perfunctory or even menial tasks, were designated by sonorous names which did not necessarily connote substantial power or authority. In some instances minor officers, engaged in purely routine tasks, were designated on the elaborate tables of organization by lengthy and awe-inspiring titles, which upon closer inspection were found to cover nothing more than a few desks in a remote corner. The Tribunal has been especially careful to discover and analyze the actual power and authority of the several defendants, and the manner and extent to which they were exercised, without permitting itself to be unduly impressed by the official designations on letterheads or office doors.
Court No. II, Case No. IV.
OSWALD POHL Prior to 1934, defendant Pohl was Chief Disbursing Officer of the German Navy.
On a visit by Himmler to the Naval Base at Kiel in 1934, he met Pohl and persuaded him to sever his connection with the Navy and assume an administrative position with the SS Main Office. Pohl had been a member of the National Socialist Party since 1926 and of the SA since 1929. At Himmler's insistence he became Chief of the Administrative Department of the SS Central Office in February 1934. In 1939 that office was organized into two Main Offices under the names "Main Office Budget and Building" and "Main Office Administration and Economy." These offices were in complete charge of all administrative matters affecting the fast-growing SS. On February 1, 1942, these two Main Offices were united and renamed "SS Administrative Main Office," known as "WVHA", to which was also added the Main Office of Inspector of Concentration Camps, which became Amtsgruppe D.
For eleven years Pohl was continuously the administrative head of the entire SS organization. His only superior within his field was Himmler. At the beginning of the war he became a member of the "Freundeskreis" or "Circle of Himmler's Friends," a small select group of intimates who enjoyed Himmler's confidence. As Chief of the WVHA he was in absolute control of an organization composed of 5 amtsgruppen and 28 amts, with a personnel at the peak of over 1700 employees. He not only directed and administered the fiscal affairs of the entire SS but he was in charge of the administrative aspects of all concentration camps and was head of the trememdous industrial empire which the SS built up under Amtsgrupoe W. It is obvious that his duties were not perfunctory or formal but that he was an experienced, active and dominant head of one of the largest branches of the German military machine.
Although he had no actual military duties in the field, he attained the military rank of Obergruppenfuehrer, which is equivalent to the rank of Lieutenant General.
CONCENTRATION CAMPS Three months after the outbreak of the war, Himmler ordered that "the supervision of the economic matters of these institutions and their application to work is the responsibility of SS Obergruppenfuehrer Pohl."
The change in Reich policy by which concentration camps were converted from places of mere detention to places of productive free labor was announced in April 1942, and the ruthless plan of exacting from concentration camp inmates their last once of energy in furtherance of the Reich's war plans became operative. It became Pohl's task to implement this policy and to make it work effectively for the Reich. Neither Pohl nor the WVHA had anything to do with the commitment of inmates to concentration camps nor with their release, except by death. Neither Pohl nor any other member of the WVHA had authority to order the execution of concentration camp prisoners. Nor is there any evidence that he or they attempted to exercise any such prerogative. The order for executions originated between the Secret State Police and Himmler personally. The greater part of the task of procuring inmates fell upon the Security Police and the SD, although it is quite evident that the SS and the Wehrmacht in the field rendered no little assistance. Pohl's jurisdiction began when the inmates reached the gates of the concentration camps. Pohl has contended that the inclusion in WVHA of Amtsgruppe D, which was concerned exclusively with concentration camp matters, was more a formal than an actual subordination and that this amtsgruppe, under Gluecks and Maurer, continued to operate more or less independently of Pohl, taking most of their orders directly from Himmler.
It is probably true to some degree that the heads of Amtsgruppe D, which had formerly been an SS Main Office, resented somewhat their subordination to Pohl and continued to look to Himmler for orders. The fact remains, however, that Pohl, as head of the WVHA, was the superior of Gluecks and Maurer and was in a position to exercise and did exercise substantial supervision and control over Amtsgruppe D. Pohl himself, in his affidavit of April 3, 1947 (Ex. 525), states:
".... Gluecks was Chief of Amtsgruppe D and was subordinate to me in my capacity as Main Office Chief. Thus I became authority for the administration of concentration camps within the sphere of activity of the WVHA. The camp commanders were nominated by the SS Personnel Office on my recommendation and appointed by me."
As chief judicial officer of the SS, he had full disciplinary power over all guards who served in the concentration camps. All judgments arising in disciplinary proceedings against SS guards were submitted to Pohl for modification or confirmation.
One of the purposes in organizing the WVHA was to centralize and concentrate administrative authority and to reduce the number of independent administrative offices. In view of the fact that the SS enterprises administered under Amtsgrupoe W were manned by concentration camp inmates and in many instances operated in concentration camps themselves, it was inevitable that the administrative affairs of the camps should be placed in the hands of Pohl, who was also the head of the enterprises. The camps and the enterprises were so inseparable that a unified control of both had to be fixed, and this control was inposed on Pohl.
Armed with this power, Pohl energetically set about driving the inmates to the limit of endurance in order to further the economic and war efforts of the Reich. In April 1942, he wrote to Himmler:
"The custody of prisoners for the solereasons of security, education or prevention is no longer the main consideration. The mobilization of all prisoners who are fit for work, for purposes of the war now and for purposes of construction in the forthcoming peace, come to the foreground more and more."
In the affidavit of Phillip Grimm (Ex. 298), who in 1942 was Labor Assignment Officer at Sachenhausen and later was transferred to Office D II of WVHA, it is stated:
"Through my activity as Labor Assignment Officer I know that in 1942 an order by Pohl was sent to the Concentration Camps, which authorized the Camp Commanders to retain prisoners who had been released for discharge by the Reich Security Main Office, but were important for the organization of labor in the camp. The duration of this illegal imprisonment could be extended to the end of the war."
To the very end of the war Pohl kept a tight rein on all aspects of concentration camp administration. He constantly fought for longer hours, more intense effort, more production, selection of specialized skills, less loafing, and more strict supervision. As of July 1944 there were 20 concentration camps and 165 labor camps supervised by his Main Office. There was no phase of the administration of these camps in which he was not intensely interested, and this interest manifested itself at times in the smallest details. In some instances he recommended appointments and transfers of camp commanders, who were the slave drivers in the camps. In January 1943, in a letter to all camp commanders, he directed that the working hours of prisoners be kept at 11 hours per day during the winter, 6 days per week, and a half day on Sunday. In May 1941, when he found that half of a shipment of Jews from Hungary were women, he asked Himmler's approval for putting them to work on construction projects. Needless to say, Himmler consented. In December 1943, Pohl wrote to all camp commanders, complaining that SS guards were not urging prisoners to work sufficiently, stating, "Please instruct detachment leaders every Monday on this obvious duty of the guards."
In 1942, Gluecks, Chief of Amtsgruppe D, in writing to the camp commanders, stated that Pohl had ordered that punishment by beating was to be executed by prisoners in concentration camps for men, but that it was forbidden to have foreign prisoners execute the punishment on German prisoners. This letter is significant because it recognizes Pohl's superior authority to issue such an order. If Gluecks enjoyed the degree of independence which Pohl attributes to him, he would have issued this order in person without attributing it to Pohl. On several occasions Pohl's interest led him to inspect concentration camps in person. He visited Ravensbruck, Auschwitz, Dachau and Oranienburg. During his visit to Auschwitz in 1943, Pohl was shown the plans for the enlargement of the camp, including the construction of four new crematoria with modern gas chambers. His solicitude for the inmates led him to order that specially hardworking prisoners be granted additional rations of food and tobacco and permission to patronize the camp brothel. For this last service Pohl fixed the charge and prescribed the method of dividing the income between the female inmates, the woman manager, and the WVHA. He also held periodic conferences with concentration camp commanders in Berlin. It was part of his duty to select new sites for concentration camps and to determine their economic potentialities. When a new camp was proposed, he determined its size and capacity and the number of inmates which would be utilized in it.
There is no need to further elaborate upon the proof on this point although much more could be adduced. From all the evidence, it becomes clear to the Tribunal that Pohl at all times had an intimate and detailed knowledge of happenings in any way connected with the concentration camps. He made it his special business to know these facts. It is futile for him to say that he was not aware of the creatoria when the plans were drawn and the construction supervised in his own organization and he visited the camps where they were installed.
Nearly every Amt Chief testified that he reported frequently to Pohl in person concerning events and problems arising in his immediate sphere. According to his own testimony and correspondence, he kept a running inventory, classified as to nationalities, of the labor supply of inmates in every camp. He knew how many prisoners died; he knew how many were unfit for work; he knew what mass transfers were made from camp to camp. There was doubtless no other one person in Germany who knew as much about all the details of the concentration camps as Pohl. At least this much can be said and cannot be denied, that Pohl knew that hundreds of thousands of men and women had been cast into concentration camps and compelled to work, without remumeration and under the most rigid confinement, for the country which had devastated their homelands and abducted them into bondage. When these slaves died from exhaustion or starvation or from the abuse of the SS overseers, Pohl cannot escape the fact that he was the administrative head of the agency which brought about these tragedies. His was more than a mere consenting part. It was active participation. Leaving all other considerations aside, Pohl stands before this Tribunal as an admitted slave driver on a scale never before known. On this count if no other he is guilty of direct participation in a war crime and a crime against humanity.
The mistreatment of prisoners of war, especially Russian and Polish prisoners, in the concentration camps, must also be laid at the door of Pohl. On September 30, 1944, Martin Bormann, Director of the Party Chancellory, sent out an order from Hitler, which said in part:
"The mobilization of labor of the prisoners of war will be organized with the present labor mobilization office in joint action between SS-Obergruppenfuehrer Berger and SS-Obergruppenfuehrer Pohl."
On September 28, 1944, Himmler ordered that the question of the labor allocation of prisoners of war was to be submitted to Pohl. Not since the Roman Caesars brought back their prisoners of war chained to their chariot wheels has such inhuman treatment been accorded captives in battle as is shown by the record in this case. They, too, were simply grist for Germany's mill. By her treatment of these prisoners, Germany made the honorable profession of a soldier a by-word and a slur.
DESTRUCTION OF THE WARSAW GHETTO In the Fall of 1942, Himmler's plans for the complete subjugation of Poland reached a pinnacle.
The Jewish ghetto at Warsaw covered a total area of approximately 320 hectares, or 800 acres. It comprised a large residential area and, in addition, housed a great number of industrial enterprises, principally textile and fur manufacturing plants. The ghetto had a population of nearly 60,000 persons. In October, Himmler ordered that the entire Jewish population of the ghetto was to be gathered together in concentration camps in Warsaw and Lublin, to be used as an immense labor pool for armament purposes. After the round-up was completed, the Jews were to be deported to large concentration camps in the East and Polish labor substituted in the Warsay industries. Himmler added:
"Of course, there, too, the Jews shall someday disappear in accordance with the Fuehrer's wishes."
All private Jewish firms were to be eliminated and no Jew was to be employed in private industry. This order raised a strong protest from the armament firms in Warsaw, in which a large number of Jews were employed, but Himmler was obdurate and insisted on the letter of his order being carried out.
The Jewish residents of the ghetto, however, resisted deportation vigorously, and a pitched battle, lasting over a week, was necessary to uproot them. In February 1943, Himmler directed that after the removal of the concentration camp the ghetto be completely demolished. In his order he stated:
"A master plan for the pulling down of the ghetto has to be submitted to me. It has to be accomplished in any case that the living space, which accommodated 500,000 sub-humans and was never suitable for Germans, will completely disappear, and that the City of Warsaw, with its one million inhabitants, will be reduced in size, having always been a dangerous center of rebellion."
This gigantic task of destruction and deportation was committed to Pohl as Chief of the WVHA. Himmler directed that the "city center of the former ghetto is to be flattened completely and every cellar and every canal is to be filled in. After the work is finished, the area is to be covered up with earth and a large park is to be planted."
By an order dated June 23, 1943, addressed to the Higher SS and Police Leader in the East and to Pohl, Himmler ordered the erection of a concentration camp in the vicinity of Riga, to which the largest possible number of the male Jews were to be transferred. Surplus Jews from the ghetto were to be evacuated to the East, which meant ultimate starvation or extermination. In the summer of 1943, Pohl set to work to carry out Himmler's order. The concentration camp in the Warsaw ghetto was established and Pohl appointed Goecke, a veteran of Mauthausen, as commandant. Pohl reported to Himmler that at first there were only 300 prisoners in the camp but that this number would be increased as speedily as possible. In October, Pohl reported that Amtsgruppe C of the WVHA had been charged with the technical execution of the demolition order and Amtsgruppe D with the placing of the prisoners. Pohl engaged Court No. II, Case No. IV.
4 private contracting firms, who guaranteed to pull down and remove 4500 cubic meters daily. He advised that 1500 prisoners were being used as laborers at the end of October, but that upon securing additional mechanical equipment 2,000 more prisoners would be needed at once. In February 1944, Pohl reported that 3,750,000 cubic meters of buildings had been demolished, and that 2,040 prisoners were being used. By April, 6,750,000 cubic meters had been "pulled down and blasted" and 2,180 prisoners were being used. By June, 10,000,000 cubic meters had been destroyed and the concentration camp had been completed. Thus was accomplished the most complete task of destruction of a modern city since Carthage met its fate many centries ago, and in this nefarious undertaking Pohl stood hand in glove with Himmler and Stroop in accomplishing the task of total destruction. This was not a city taken in battle; it had long before been captured and occupied by the German armed forces. It was the deliberate and intentional destruction of a large modern city and its entire civilian population. It was wholesale murder, pillage, thievery and looting, and Pohl's part in accomplishing this abominable project is recorded in his own handwriting. He cannot free himself from his share in Brigadefuehrer Stroop's shameful boast "The total number of Jews dealt with is 56,065, including Jews caught and Jews whose extermination can be proved."
MEDICAL EXPERIMENTS Pohl's connection with the medical experiments, which have already been described, consisted only in supplying the subjects from the inmates of the concentration camps.
It is not claimed that he actually participated in the performance of the experiments or did anything more than make them possible by supplying victims from his inmate pool. Here, again, his own writings convict him. In his own affidavit, dated June 23, 1946 (Exh.
183), Pohl outlines his part in these experiments. He states that he was aware that experiments were being performed from April 1942 until the end of 1944; that Dr. Schilling continually asked for prisoners, but that he does not know the exact number that were sent; that at Himmler's request prisoners were sent to Dachau for the purpose of experimentation; that he accompanied Himmler to Dachau on one occasion and observed a high-altitude experiment; he received reports from Dr. Lolling of the number of prisoners used in experiments, totalling 350 to 400; he knew of Dr. Klauber's experiments in sterilization, he knew that about 40 different experiments were performed. He states (Ex. 184):
"The inmates were simply picked out and assigned for the experiments. Sometimes Himmler specified that inmates condemned to death should be used, but this was not always the case. There was no requirement that the subjects volunteer. We conducted no campaigns in the camp for volunteers; if these doctors were experimenting on volunteers, they need not have gone to Himmler and the concentration camps.
It was for the very reason that they could not get volunteer subjects.....that they went to Himmler and got him to consent to experiments on concentration camp inmates. This was a fact well known to anyone connected with those experiments. ..... In accordance with Himmler's racial policies, non-German nationals were essentially used in preference to German nationals."
Further proof of Pohl's connection with these outrageous experiments would seem unnecessary, but there is plenty in addition. The affidavit of Rudolf Brandt, Himmler's adjutant, states:
"Subjects for experiments were selected by Pohl. Himmler or I used to inform Pohl that a certain number of prisoners should be supplied for a particular experiment. Certain groups were usually specified."
Concerning the warming experiments at Auschwitz and Dachau, Himmler wrote to Dr. Rascher:
"I am sending this letter to Pohl, whom I request to order the execution of your experiments."
Himmler wrote to Dr. Grawitz approving the use of eight Jews of the Polish resistance movement for experiments in epidemic jaundice at Auschwitz and sent a copy to Pohl, with the notation -
"Request that you duly note."
Dr. Sievers wrote to Pohl as follows:
"In compliance with our request of 30 September 1943, you approved the carrying out of experiments for the production of a new type of spotted fever vaccine, and for this purpose transferred 100 suitable prisoners to Natzweiler."
Pohl was particularly interested in the production of schweigroh, a plant to be used in producing wholesale sterilization. Pohl wrote to Himmler in June 1942, stating that experiments with this plant were at a standstill because the plant was obtainable only from North America and the proposed process for growing the plant in German in hot houses would not yield sufficient drug to permit largescale experiments.
Continuing, Pohl stated that he had informed Dr. Koch that he would attempt to obtain permission to build a large hot house for cultivation of the plant. Pohl arranged to put Dr. Lolling, whom he refers to as "Chief of my Office D III," in touch with a Vienna biologist for further study, looking toward the largescale production of schweigroh. Rudolf Brandt sent to Dr. Glauberg Himmler's order to first confer with Pohl and then go to Ravensbruck to pursue the sterilization program on Newesses in that camp. Brandt inquires how long it would take to sterilize a thousand Jewesses by x-ray without their knowing it. Further proof could be accumulated, but it is unnecessary. Pohl's participation in the medical experiments was intimate and direct, and he must share the responsibility for their criminality.
The Tribunal finds that the food experiments in which Pohl was greatly interested did not involve the use of poisons but were simply legitimate experiments in the nutritional values of food. As such, of course, they had no element of criminality.
ACTION REINHARDT This Action, as has been indicated, involved a plan for draining the eastern occupied countries of their last vestige of wealth.
It had the two-fold purpose of reducing the East to abject poverty so that starvation would be the inevitable result to the population and, at the same time, filling the Reich Treasury. It was a program of deliberate wholesale brigandage which was, at the same time, an added aspect of the extermination program.
In the execution of this program, Pohl's WVHA played a major role. His organization was the clearing house for all the booty. All of the stolen property was routed through WVHA, where it was inventoried, appraised and distributed. That pohl knew of the criminal source of this property is evidenced by his letter of February 9, 1944, to Maurer, directing that valuables found in clothing were to be delivered in sealed boxes to Amtsgruppe D, and directing, further, that nothing in the shipment should reveal its origin.
The money which was stolen was secreted in the Reichsbank under the assumed name of Max Heiliger. On July 4, 1944, Pohl, in a communication to the Main Office Chiefs, announced the names of officers responsible for the property seized in several areas, and stated:
"As a matter of principle, it has to be kept in mind that the entire Jewish property is to be incorporated into the Reich property."
Property from the Reinhardt action which had been delivered to the Reich Main Treasury was kept in a separate account, appropriately called "Department Booty."
Moved by the christian spirit of Christmas, Pohl on November 6, 1943, wrote to Himmler, stating that he intended to make gifts of watches and fountain pens to SS units, and asked whether the gifts should be made in Himmler's name. Himmler approved Pohl's generous plan and added that 15,000 ladies' watches should be distributed to Germans coming from Russia for resettlement. Pohl thought it would be a generous gesture to distribute 3,000 clocks which had been repaired to guards at the concentration camps and to Berlin inhabitants who had been bombed. As an after-thought, he suggested to Himmler that 16 extra-fine gold precision wrist watches, valued at 300 Reichsmarks each, which had been repaired, be distributed among commanders of technical units.
Pohl's own statement as to his knowledge of the operation of Action Reinhardt and of his participation in the distribution of the loot is again quite sufficient. In his affidavit of April 2, 1947 (Ex. 535), he states that the Action was instituted in 1941 or 1942 and was in direct charge of SS Gruppenfuehrer Globocnik; that by Himmler's direction he contacted the President of the Reichsbank to arrange for delivery of the valuables; these transactions were to be carried out in extreme secrecy.
Together with Georg Loerner and Frank and others, he visited the Reichsbank and was shown the accumulated valuables in the bank vaults. "It was never doubted", he said, "that this loot was taken from Jews exterminated in the concentration camps. .....As I learned in 1943, gold teeth and crowns of inmates of concentration camps were broken out of their mouths after liquidation. This gold was melted down and delivered to the Reichsbank. ......When I received all the vouchers, setting out the economic assets received, I realized the extent of the operation. I realized that the greatest part of the textile goods listed in these reports had been taken from people who had been violently put to death and that the purpose of the operation had been the extermination of the Jews."
In another affidavit, dated July 15, 1946 (Ex. 536), Pohl further indicates his knowledge of an participation in the ghoulish scramble. The facts stated therein are cumulative and need not be specifically referred to.
The fact that Pohl himself did not actually transport the stolen goods to the Reich or did not himself remove the gold from the teeth of dead inmates, does not exculpate him. This was a broad criminal program, requiring the cooperation of many persons, and Pohl's part was to conserve and account for the loot. Having knowledge of the illegal purposes of the Action and of the crimes which accompanied it, his active participation even in the after-phases of the Action make him participates criminis in the whole affair.
OSTI Eastern Industries, known as "OSTI," was a running mate of Action Reinhardt in the so-called final solution of the Jewish problem in the East.
OSTI was organized March 1, 1943, and was dissolved one year later. The whole history of this project is clearly described in the report of Johann Sebastian Fischer in a final audit, dated June 21, 1944 (Ex. 491). It was impossible to completely strip the eastern territories of all Jewish property.
Some because of its nature could not be removed and some could best be operated by the Reich on the spot. To utilize this unremovable property, OSTI was organized, with a capital of 100,000 Reichsmarks. Of this Pohl held 75,000 and defendant Georg Loerner 25,000. Pohl was Chairman of the Augsichtsrat, or Board of Directors, of which Georg Loerner was also a member. Globocnik and Dr. Max Horn were the active managers. Fischer describes the corporate purposes as follows:
"OSTI had to administer all Jewish property within the territory of the Government-General except cash, jewelry and clothing, and in particular to utilize the manpower of the Jews living in the GovernmentGeneral for tasks benefiting the Reich."
This involved:
(1) Utilization of the working capacity of the Jews by erecting industrial plants in the Government-General in connection with the Jewish labor camps.
(2) Taking over commercial enterprises which had previously been maintained by the SS in the Government-General.
(3) Taking possession of movable property which was formerly Jewish, especially machines and raw materials. The machines were to be installed in plants and the raw materials to be used.
(4) Utilization of machines, tools and merchandise formerly Jewish property which had been transferred to non-Jewish ownership.
A partial list of the industries thus administered included a glass works in Wolomin, a peat-cutting plant near Lublin, an iron foundry, a large textile factory, a plant for the manufacture of brushes, and a stone quarry. Globocnik states that the entire manpower was brought together and kept in closed camps into which the manufacture of essential items for war had been transferred.
".... All together 18 establishments had been built up and still more were to be added. About 52,000 laborers were available."
The project continued as long as the supply of Jewish concentration camp labor was available, but when, due to the exigencies of the war, in the fall of 1943 this labor supply was withdrawn, it was determined to liquidate OSTI, and Dr. Horn was designated as liquidating officer.
As will be observed, OSTI was simply another manifestation of the policy of slave labor and appropriation of private property. Linked with Action Reinhardt, it was the consummation of the Reich plan to leave the occupied eastern countries as vast stretches of scorched earth. In the OSTI phase of this plan, Pohl had even a more direct connection than he had with Action Reinhardt. Here he was the directing head and the chief executive of the project. As an original incorporator he was in it from its inception and he actively participated in every phase of it until its liquidation. This being true, he was guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Under a plan which was perhaps devised to give some semblance of legality to this inherently lawless plan, Pohl was designated as a trustee of the properties seized in the East and operated by OSTI. This was a strange species of trusteeship. All of the interests of the trustee were violently opposed to those of the cestius qui trustent. The recognized concept of a trustee is that he stands in the shoes of his beneficiaries and acts for their benefit and in opposition to any encroachment on their rights. Here, however, the trustee was in the service of adverse interests and acted at all times under an impelling motive to serve those interests at the expense of his beneficiaries.