Do you find that passage?
A. No.
Q. Well, you willfind the paragraph numbered (1) on your teletype, small Arabic number one. You will find they start to be numbered, (1), (2), (3), and so on. Do you find that, Mr. Witness?
A. I have got (1), yes.
Q. All right. If we hit someplace that we agree on, then we can move on. If you have found that number (1), that says that "For more than one year an agreement in draft form has been submitted to the SA--" Do you find that? "-- which requests that SA-cadre be furnished for the military training of the youth," and that the SA leadership did not comply with this request. Will you move down further in number (3), and following (3 ), three or four paragraphs, you will find -- it is in capital letters, by the way, what I want to call your attention to; I assume it is in capital letters in the German:
"I would be happy if the SA would put personnel at my disposal for support for this purpose, similar to the way in which the SS and the police have been doing for a long time already."
R. DODD: In the English, Mr. President, that is at the bottom of page four and the top of page five.
MR. DODD: In the English, Mr. President, that is at the bottom of page four and at the top of page five. BY MR. DODD:
Q Did you find that sentence?
A I haven't found it yet.
Q It is almost at the end of the teletype. Have you found it? sonnel at your disposal for support of this purpose, similar to the way in which the SS and the police have been doing for a long time already and you are referring -- if you will read back to the paragraph just ahead of that sentence -- to the training of the young people. You talk about Hitler schools and the training of Hitler youth. Now, it is perfectly clear, is it not, that you did have assistance from the SS, according to your own methods, from the SS and police for a long time before you sent this message?
A During the war, yes; since 1939 we had a war and when the war broke out we created army training camps, pr-army training camps and there I was looking after the training of youth. The army could not supply sufficient instructors and the SA couldn't do so either. The SS could place at my disposal a few young officers and so could the police. sonnel from the SS and police for the training of young people was it? for anything. We had, as I have stated, a leadership corps, a leader corps, which came from the youngsters which we created. was only from the beginning of the war that you had the assistance of SS and police personnel assigned to your youth organization for the training of young people? the following reasons: Take skiing, for instance; if we had a training camp, then it was possible that one of the instructors might have been an SA man or an SS man because he happened to be good or interested in that sport but I can't think of any other case where such a collaboration has taken place.
for training purposes; and I am not talking about some isolate ski-master, I am talking about a regular program of assistance from the SS to you in your training of young people. this teletype message that I asked for training purposes. Apart from that, I do not recollect where any such collaboration has taken place.
Q Do you know the term "High-Action? "H-O-C-H-A-K-T-I-O-N."
A High Action?
A I can't remember it. I do not know what it might mean.
Q Well, you have been in the courtroom every day. Don't you remember that there was proof offered here by the prosecution concerning the defendant Rosenberg and an action termed "High Action."
A No, I can't at the moment say that I do remember. I don't know.
Q Don't you remember that there was some talk here in the courtroom about the seizing of young people in the East and forcing them to be brough to Germany, forty or fifty thousand youths at the ages of ten to fourteen? You remember that, don't you, and that one of the purposes was to destroy the biological potentiality of these people. You don't know what I refer to? trial. The only thing I can say officially in that connection is this: It was during the war -- I can't tell you exactly which year -- Axmann informed me that he had accommodated a large number of young people near Junker's, the Junker's works at Dessau, in special hostels for this purpose, apprentices, and that these youngsters were extremely well accommodated there and very well looked after. I was not in any way concerned with this action before it took place but I have stated at the beginning of my examination here that as far as the action of youth in this war is concerned, I assumed responsibility and I adhere to that statement. I do not think, however, that youth is to be held responsible in this connection because I remember from fellow-defendant Rosenberg's statements, that he had complied with the wishes of the army and army group in that connection.
Q Well, we have the document here. It is already in evidence as USA 171 -- the Tribunal is familiar with it -- and I would like to call your attention to the fact that in this document it says that Rosenberg agreed to the program of seizing or apprehending forty to fifty thousand youths at the ages of ten to fourteen and the transportation of them to the Reich; it also said that this program can be accomplished with the help of the officers of the Hitler youth through the Youth Bureau of Rosenberg's ministry; and it also said that a number of these young people were to be detailed to SS and SS auxiliaries. Now, what I want to ask you particularly is what you know about that program and how the Hitler youth cooperated in it?
A I can't tell you any more about that program than what I have already stated. weren't you, the Kriegseinsatz? of the Reich Youth Leader. As far as my own knowledge is concerned, I can only speak generally but not about special cases.
Q Mr. Witness, I ask you again, weren't you appointed and didn't you serve as the person responsible for the war commitment of youth in Germany? Now, I have got the document to show your appointment if you want to see it.
A Yes; I don't want to deny it. In 1939 and 1940, as long as I was the Reich Youth Leader, I have myself directed that war commitment. 1939 or 1940. You were appointed the person in charge of the war commitment of German youth by the Fuehrer at his headquarters in March of 1942, weren't you? I consider it possible, I have no exact recollection.
Q It is 3933-PS, US -868. You don't know you were appointed in charge of the war commitment for youth without being shown the document?
A No. Only, I can't tell you from my recollection what the exact date was. I had been under the impression that I had been responsible for the commitments beginning in 1939. fact responsible for it and continued to be responsible for it right up to the end of the war. I understood you to say a minute ago that the Reich Youth Leader was the man responsible rather than yourself?
A No. I have said that I could only give you general information and no special information because the action is, regarding war commitment, a matter for Axmann; but I do not in any way want to influence my own responsibility by saying that.
Q Very well. I think we are sufficiently clear about the fact that you were certainly named to the position no matter how you now wish to "water" your responsibility. What do you say is the date when you first became responsible for the war commitment of youth? the outbreak of war, but I now see that this decree wasn't signed until 1942.
Q All right; we will agree them from that date, March 1942, you were responsible. Now, I want to ask you to look at another document.
A Just a moment, there is something I have to say to that. This is a draft and I don't know about that--when it might have been signed-- I can't say, therefore, that during these days of March in 1942, the actual decree was signed by Hitler--by Axmann. Here, Axmann is informing me that the draft of the decree is now going to the Chief of the Reich Chancellory, who will ask the Reich authorities for their agreement and that----
Q You do not need to read it, really. What are you saying now? Are you saying that maybe it was not signed, or maybe you were not appointed, or are you going to say that you were appointed? Will you please give us an answer?
A Not at all, really. I cannot say for certain that the date of the publication of this decree is definitely March, 1942. It may have been that it was not until May.
Q I am not attaching any great importance to the date. I want you to look at 345-PS, which we offer as U.S.A. 869. This may help you on this Heu-Action program; that is, with respect to your memory. Lammers at the Reich Chancellery for the Fuehrer Headquarters on the 20th of July, 1944. You will observe that in the first paragraph there is stated:
"In accordance with an agreement between the Reich Marshal as Supreme Commander of the Air Force, the Reichsfuehrer SS, the Youth Fuehrer of the German Reich and the Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories, the recruiting of youthful Russians, Ukrainians, White Russians", and so on, "will take place on a volunteer basis for Kriegseinsatz in the Reich", "Kriegseinsatz" being a program that you were responsible for clearly at that time. want to remind you of the Heu-Action paragraph that is already in evidence. This telegram says:
"On the basis of a suggestion by military offices, the seizing and turning over of youths between the ages of 10-14 into the Reich territories will take place (Heu-Action) in a part of the operational territory, since the youths in the operational territory present a not insignificant burden."
It goes on to say "The aim of the action is a further disposal of the youths by placing them in the Reich Youth Movement and the training of apprenctices for the German economy in a form similar to that which has been done in agreement with the General Plenipotentiary for Arbeitseinsatz (GBA) with White Russian Youths, which already shows results."
I particularly call your attention to that last phrase , "which already shows results."
Then thelast clause in the next sentence says "... these youths are to be used later in the occupied eastern territories as especially reliable construction forces."
You will observe that the last paragraph says, "The Actions under points 1 and 3 are known to the Fuehrer". And there is something about the SS help in regard to this action. You had set a time limit on that. Marshal, the Reichsfuehrer SS, the Reich Youth Fuehrer, and the Reich Minister of Interior, and down at the bottom, a Gauleiter Bureau, among others. and the turning over of them to your youth organization in Germany during these war years, and about how many thousands of them were so kidnapped, if you know? which I assume in this connection. But it was not until later that I was informed of it. I was not the youth leader of the German Reich in that year; someone else was. This agreement is between him and the Reichsfuehrer SS and the Supreme Commander of the Air Force. But I -
Q (Interposing) Later you were the youth Reichsleiter of Germany, were you not; and you were also the war commitment officer of youth in Germany at this very time?
A I was at Vienna, and the date is the 20th of July, 1944. You will remember that the history-making events of that time were occupying all officials in Germany -- the Americans, to a considerable extent. Later on I heard from Axmann, and I know that the accommodation, training, feeding -in fact, treatment -- of all these Russian youngsters were simply wonderful and outstanding. to find thousands of these young people to return them to their proper place? Do you know that this morning's press carried an account of 10,000 people that are still unlocated? in apprentice hospitals and who were living under exceptionally well organized circumstances, and extremely well trained for their profession?
program was in fact in operation. The letter from Dr. Rosenberg says so. He says it had "already shown results." And so your youth organization must have had something to do with it before this message was sent. Eastern Territories, there were youth leaders acting there. And from what I have heard at the trial, I want to say that I can perfectly well understand that, as the generals in the east would say, the youngsters must be brought out of the combat zone. The point was that we wanted to take these youngsters from 10 to 14years of age away from the front.
Q With the help of the SS? some idea, if you do not recall, of what was done with these young people, and how many of them are involved.
That will become U.S.A. 870.
THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Dodd, there is a paragraph at the bottom of Page 1 of that document which relates to another defendant.
MR. DODD: Yes, your Honor. I am sorry; I overlooked that. I will read it for the benefit of the record, if I may, at this time.
BY MR. DODD:
Q Mr. Witness, I direct your attention back, if I may, to this document 345-PS, so that you will be aware of what I am reading. You will observe that in the last paragraph of Rosenberg's communication to Dr. Lammers, we find this sentence:
"I have learned that Gauleiter Sauckel will be at the Fuehrer's Headquarters on 21 July 1944. I ask that this be taken up with him there and then a report made to the Fuehrer." he? Do you know about that?
A I have no knowledge of it. I cannot give you any information on that subject.
memorandum, dated the 27th of October, 1944, and it closes with a report by the Brigadier General of the Hitler Youth, a man named Nickel.
Do you know Nickel, by the way? N-I-C-K-E-L?
A The name is known to me, and possibly I know him personally. But at the moment he does not mean anything to me. At any rate,he was not a brigadier general. He was a Hauptbannfuehrer.
Q All right. Whatever he was, he was an official of the youth organization. That is all I am trying to establish. I may have his title wrong. We have it brigadier general. is reporting about the seizing of these youths in the occupied eastern territory. This is October of 1944. And he begins by saying that on the 5th of March he "received an order to open an Office for the recruitment of youths 15 to 20 years of age from the population of the Occupied Eastern Territories for war employment in the Reich." work: Lithuania, Estonia, Lettland, the middle sector of the Eastern front, the southern sector of the Eastern front. And then on the next page of the English -- and I imagine it is also on your next page -- it tells how they were classified, those that were brought back:
"1383 Russian SS Auxiliaries, 5953 Ukrainian SS Auxiliaries, 2354 White Ruthenian SS Auxiliaries, 1012 Lithuanian SS Auxiliaries."
Then he gets into the air force:
"3000 Estenian Air Force Auxiliaries", and so on.
I am not going to read all of it; but it gives you an idea of what distribution was made of these men, or young boys and girls, rather than men. "Reich Minister for Occupied Eastern Territories." That means that he was not acting on behalf of the Reich Youth Leader's office, but on behalf of the Reich Eastern Ministry.
Q Yes. I also want to ask you if you will look at page 6. I think it is page 5 of the original, of your German. You will find what personnel Hauptbannfuehrer Nickel had for the purpose of the carrying out of his task. He had members of the Hitler Youth, so he says; 5 Leaders, 3 BDM leaders, 71 German Youth leaders as translators and assistant instructors, 26 SS Leaders, 234 non-commissioned officers and troops, drivers and translators, of the SS. And of the air force personnel, he had 37 officers, 221 non-coms, and so on. people were engaging in? Do you recall any more of it now? document that I know of it is concerned. known to me, and I do not know what task the Hitler Youth Ministry personnel might have prepared. I assume responsibility for anything that was done on my orders, but something which was done by order from others must be the responsibility for others. have just made. That personnel, that I read out, you know, was only in one part of the program. And on the last page of the document you will see on how wide an area Nickel was operating. He was operating in cooperation with the Netherland Hitler Youth Operational Command, the Adria Hitler Youth Operational Command, the Southern Hitler Youth Operational Command in Slovakia and Hungary, the Lt. NAGEL special Command in refugee camps within the Reich, and then, interestingly enough, the field-offices in Vienna.
That is where you were located at the time, is it not? And you are telling the Tribunal youdid not know anything about this program and the participation of your Hitler Youth leaders?
A I had no reports from Nickel. This report which is here in the document went to the Reich Ministry for occupied eastern territories, and just how far the Reich Youth Leader was being informed, that isn't known to me. my statement as to the first of the Junker's work and the professional training which these youngsters were given in Germany. Apart from that I have no further knowledge.
Q Observe also, if you will, Mr. Witness, that your Hitler Youth Operational Command was inPoland and even in Northern Italy. And now I ask you once again, as the longtime Hitler Youth Leader, as the leader for the war commitment of youth, then Gauleiter in Vienna, with part of this program being carried on in Vienna and the whole program being carried on on this vase scale, do you want the Tribunal to believe that you know nothing about it? letter to Streicher's "Stuermer".
MR. DODD: I would like to submit this in evidence, Mr. President, so that the Tribunal will have an idea of what it appeared like on the front page of the "Stuermer". Witness. It is USA 871. I just wanted you to have a look at it before it was submitted. You know about it anyway.
Q Yes, I didn't wish to go into it further. What I do want to ask you, Mr. Witness, is do I understand you clearly when I say that from your testimony we gathered that it was Hitler who ordered the evacuation of the Jews from Vienna and that you really didn't suggest it or wish to see it carried out?
Is that a fair understanding of your testimony of a day or two age? evacuation of the Jews from Vienna was Hitler's idea which he communicated to me in1940 at headquarters. Furthermore, I have stated that under the of the opinion that it would be better if the Jewish population were accomodated in a closed settling area, because from time to time Goebbel's propaganda and Goebbel's actions made them the target. I want to state that quite clearly here to you. Furthermore, I have said in connection with the same matter, that therefore I will identify myself with that action without having carried it out.
Q Now you had a meeting at the Fuehrer's headquarters in October of 1940. Present was the Defendant Frank and the now notorious Koch whom we have heard so much about. Do you remember that meeting?
A I don't know for certain and exactly.
Q You mean you don't recall that meeting at all?
A October, 1940. At that time I went to the Reich Chancellory because that was the time when I was organizing evacuation of youngsters. It is possible.
THE PRESIDENT: You were asked whether you recalled a particular meeting in October, 1940 with certain, particular people. Do you remember it or don't you?
A I have no recollection of it. If I am shown a document, then I might confirm that. BY MR. DODD:
Q Very well; that is what I wanted to know. I will now show you the document USSR 172. A part of this document was read over the system for the Tribunal by Colonel Pokrovsky. Now you will observe that on the 10th of October -- the 2nd of October, rather -- this is a memorandum, by the way, made up of the meeting. Mr. Martin Bormann compiled those notes so I assume he was think too.
After a dinner at the Fuehrer's apartment there developed a conversation on the nature of the Government General: "The treatment of the Poles and the incorporation already approved by the Fuehrer for certain districts of Ziechenan." Then it says: "The conversation began when Reich Minister Dr. Frank informed the Fuehrer that the activities in the Government General could be termed very successful. The Jews in Warsaw and other cities were now looked up in the ghettos and Cracow would very shortly be cleared of them. Reichsleiter von Schirach, who had taken his seat at the Fuehrer's other side, remarked that he still had more than 50,000 Jews in Vienna whom Dr. Frank would have to take ever from it. Party Member Dr. Frank said this was impossible. Gauleiter Koch them pointed out that he, too, had up to now not transferred either Poles or Jews from the District of Ziechenau but these Jews and Poles would now of course have to be accepted by the Government General." And it goes on to say that Dr. Frank protested against this also. He said there weren't housing facilities. I am not quoting directly. I don't want to read all of it. And that there were not sufficient other facilities. Do you remember that conference now?
Q Yes. And you suggested that you wanted to got 50,000 Jews moved into Frank's territory out of Vienna, didn't you?
A That is true. The Fuehrer asked me how many Jews there were left in Vienna. I mentioned that during my own examination the other day and it is contained in the files, that at that time there were still 60,000 Jews in Vienna. During that conversation, when the question of settling Jewish the Government General was being discussed, I also said that these 50,000 Jews from Vienna were also still to be transferred to the Government General. I told you earlier that because of the events of November, 1938, I had considered the Fuehrer's plan to take the Jews to a different settlement as a good plan. own counsel inquired, Lammers sent you a message in Vienna and he said the Fuehrer had decided, after receipt of one of the reports made by you, that the 60,000 Jews in Vienna would be deported most rapidly, and that was just two months after this conference that you had with Frank and Koch and Hitler, wasn't it?
A Yes, since 1937 -- and I think that becomes clear from Haszbach's minutes -- the Fuehrer had the thought of taking the Jewish population outside Germany, but the plan didn't become known to me until August, 1940, when, because of the taking over of the Vienna district, I was reporting to him. At that time he asked me how many Jews there were in Vienna and I answered his question, and now they were to be settled in the Government General. you were the Gauleiter?
A First of all, the carryong out of that action wasn't in my hands at all. I don't know how many of these 6,000 Jews were actually transported for that purpose.
Q Have you any idea where they went to? and the others were being taken into Poland to the Government General. On one occasion when I took my oath, either as the Governor of the town or on the occasion of a lecture regarding children in Vienna, I asked Hitler how the Jews were being occupied and he told me in accordance with their professions.
Q We will get around to that. You remember, don't you, that they were sent -- at least some of them were sent to the cities of Riga and Minsk, and you were so notified. Do you remember receiving that information?
A No, I don't.
Q Document 2931-PS, which becomes USA-672. Now this is a communication concerning the evacuation of Jews and it shows that 50,000 Jews were to be sent to the Minsk-Riga area, and you got a copy of this report as the Commissar for the Reich. If you will look on the last page you will see an initial there of your chief assistant, the SS man Dellbruegge, and also the stamp of your office as having received it.
A I can only say that Dr. Dellbruegge put the matter in the files. It shows D.D.A. to the files.
Q You knew nothing of the report. Returning to the Jews, even though you had been talking to Hitler about it, that they were being moved out of your area, I suppose your chief assistant didn't bother to tell you anything about it.
Is that what you want us to understand? light on this one. It is USA 808, already in evidence . It tells you what happened to the Jews in Minsk and Riga, and this was also received in your office if you recall. Maybe it isn't necessary to show it to you again. You remember the document -- that is one of those monthly reports from Heydrich where in he said that there were 29,000 Jews in Riga and they had been reduced to 2500, and that 33,210 were shot by the special unit, Einsatzgroup. Do you remember that? most carefully, and on this occasion I must make this principal statement, that on the cover, right-hand bottom, there is an initial something like Dr. FSCH. I think that is Dr. Fischer's initials. At the top they are not initialed by me but by the Government President, with the notiation that they should be put into the files. I myself had not read or seen them. claiming that these documents came into your organization and into the hands of your principal assistant? me, then there must be a corresponding initial on it, either "Put before the Reichsleiter" or something like that, and the officials in question would then countersign and initial it. If I myself had seen the document, then it will have my own initials "WKE"; that means to my knowlege.
Q Yes. I want to remind you that the date of that report is February 1942, and I also want to remind you that in there as well Heydrich tells you how many Jews they had killed in Minsk. Now you made a speech one time in Poland about the Polish or the Eastern policy of Germany. Do you remember it, Mr. Witness?
A In Poland?
A In 1939 I spent a short time in Poland and I don't think I was there after that.
Q Your memory seems particularly poor this morning. Don't you remember speaking in Kattowitz on the 20th of January, 1942?
Q Upper Silesia, all right. Do you remember that speech?
Q And did you talk about Hitler's policy for the Eastern territories?
A I can't tell you that from memory, what I said there. I have made many speeches. You were speaking to a group of Party leaders and German Youth Leaders. The Hitler Youth had carried out political schooling along the line of the Fuehrer's easten policy and you went on to say how grateful you were to the Fuehrer for having turned the German people toward the East because the East was the destiny of your people. What did you understand to be the Fuehrer's eastern policy or did you have a good understanding of it at that time? that wehad that part of the country back.
Q Well, I didn't ask you that, really. I asked you if you then understood the Fuehrer's policy when you made that speech? over Poland at that time and the recovery of German soil, and I did affirm the Eastern policy.
it.
A I don't quite know how I should answer that question. Perhaps Hitler understood something quite different on the Eastern policy than I did.
Q But my point is; he had told you about it, hadn't he, some time before you made this speech? USSR-172, and you will find that after you and Frank and Koch and Hitler finished talking about deporting the Jews from Vienna, the Fuehrer then told you what he intended to do with the Polish people, and it is not a very pretty story, if you will look at it. Government General to have only a small parcel of land sufficient for his own feeding and the feeding of his family. Anything else he might require in cash for clothing and additional food, he would have to earn through work in Germany. The Government General would be the central or parent office for retraining workers, particularly agricultural workers. The existence of these workers would be perfectly secure. They could always be used as cheap labor. This is a question of agricultural labor.
Q Let me read you a few excerpts that I think you have missed:
"The Fuehrer further emphasized that the Poles, in direct contrast to our German workmen, are born for hard labor..." and so on. "The standard of living in Poland has to be and remain low."
Moving over to the next page:
"We, the Germans had on one hand over-populated industrial districts, while there was also a shortage of manpower and agriculture. That is where we could make use of Polish laborers. For this reason, it would be right to have a large surplus of manpower in the Government General so that every year the laborers needed by the Reich could in fact be procured from there. It is indispensable to keep in mind that there must be no Polish landlords. However cruel this may sound, wherever they are, they must be exterminated. As I understand, there must be no mixing of blood with the Poles."
Further on, he had to stress once more that:
"There should be one master only for the Poles, the Germans. Two masters side by side cannot exist. All representatives of the Polish intelligentsia are to be exterminated. This sounds cruel, but such is the law of life."
Stopping there for a minute, by the way, Mr. Witness -- you are a man of culture, so you have told the Tribunal -- how did that sentiment expressed by the Fuehrer impress you? said that as far as the policy in the Ukraine in 1943 is concerned, I reproache the Fuehrer. In 1942, when I was talking about policy in the German town of Kattowitz in Upper Silesia, then I was, of course, not talking about this brutal Polish policy of Hitler's.
Q But you knew about it when you made the speech, didn't you?
A I didn't remember that two years later, and I didn't mean it either. that you must be masters of these people, that they must remain at a low standard of living? Did that pass out of your mind so easily? spoke about quite different matters, and I assume that the Prosecution even have the shorthand record of that speech and you only need submit it here. This is only a short extract.
Q You see, Mr. Witness, the point is, knowing what the policy was, I would like to have you tell the Tribunal how you could urge and praise that policy to a group of young people and party leaders on the occasion of this speech in Kattowitz. that policy which Hitler developed in his speech.
Q Of course, you said it was the Fuehrer's policy in your speec, and you know what it was, but I won't press it further if that is your answer. of erroneous loyalty to the Fuehrer.
Q That is what I want to know. You were, weren't you, acting under an impulse of loyalty to the Fuehrer. Now you recognize it to be erroneous, and that is all I am inquiring for, and if you tell the Tribunal that, I shall be perfectly satisfied.
Q Very Well. And, Mr. Witness, now we are getting to it; that goes for all these things that went on.
Q Don't you have to say to the Tribunal concerning your letter to the Stuermer and all of these things about the Jewish people to the young people, and this slow building up of race hatred in them, the cooperation with the SS, your handling of the Jews in Vienna, that for all those things you are responsible?
MR. DODD: Finally, I want to offer in evidence, Mr. President, some excerpts from these weekly SS reports to which I referred briefly on Friday, so that they shall be before the Tribunal. There are 55 of them, Mr. President, and they run consecutively by weeks, and they all bear the stamp of this defendant's office as having been received there, and they supplant the monthly report which was receivedup to the time that weekly reports began arriving. defendant wishes to put in any others, we will make them available, of course. We have selected a few as samples to illustrate the kind of report that was contained in these weekly reports, and I wish to offer them.
The first one is No. 1, beginning on May 1, 1942, and No.4, No. 6, No. 7, No. 9, NO. 38, No. 41, and No. 49.
Now I want to make this clear to you, Mr. Witness,out of fairness. Besides statements concerning what was happening to the Jews, you will find in these weekly reports a number ofstatements about the partisan affairs in the East as well. These excerpts have mostly to do with what happened to the Jews, and wehave, Mr. President, drawn out a great number that had to do with the partisans. There are a number, however, that do have to do with partisans and not with the Jews, so we wish there to be no doubt about how we offer these weekly reports.
BY MR. DODD:
Q I just want to ask you, with respect to these weekly reports: Do you, this morning, recall that you did receive them every week in your office?
A But that isn't my office. My office is the central office. That office was run by the Regierungspresident as appears from the initials on the files, and as any official trained in German bureaucracy can confirm here, that office initialed the file through an official. Then it was put before the Regierungspresident and he initialed it. I couldn't know these documents at all.
Q Now just a minute. You were the Reich Commissioner for the defense of that territory, weren't you?
Q And that is the stamp that is on these weekly reports, isn't it?
Q Well, what do you mean by saying that it wasn't your office? ministry where it goes to the office of a minister. It came to the central office, and then there would have to be a corresponding mark on these files. I can understand perfectly well, considering the burden of work which I suffered from, why such files which had no connection with my activities and which were informatory in connection with Russian events and the fight with Russia, weren't put before me at all by the Regierungspresident. this examination: Dellbruegge, who initialed these, was your principal assistant, wasn't he? Yes or no. assistant, as we asked the other day.
A Dellbruegge was a high SS leader. He was a confidant of the Reichs Leader SS.
Q How did he happen to be working for you?
MR. DODD: Mr. President, I don't think it is necessary to read any excerpts from these weekly reports. They have been translated into four Then I think it would be better if we have them translated and submit them at a later date rather than take the time to read them now.