total number of Jews who died by Nazi hands, but it is believed that cumulative evidence would not vary the guilt of these defendants. the deaths of 4 million Jews in camps, and deaths of 2 million Jews by the State Police in the East, making a total of 6 million, Document 2738-PS. This is a statement -- Adolph Eichmann, Chief of the Jewish Section of the Gestapo is the source of the figures quoted - made by Dr. Wilhelm Hoettl, Deputy Group Leader of the Foreign Section of the Security Section, AMT IV, of the RSHA. Dr. Wilhelm Hoettl, in affidavit form, made the following statement, and I quote from page 2:
"Approximately 4 million Jews had been killed in the various concentration camps, while an additional 2 million met death in other ways, the major part of which were shot by operational squads of the Security Police during the campaign against Russia." are, almost without exception, from the official sources of the
THE PRESIDENT (Interposing): Major Walsh.
MAJOR WALSH: Yes, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: You only read that one statement, but where does the person who made the affidavit got his information from?
MAJOR WALSH: I shall be pleased to read that in there, sir. I made the statement that Eichmann was the source of the information given to Dr. Wilhelm Hoettl, one of his assistants, and on page 1 it says:
"According to my knowledge, Eichmann was at that time the leader of the Jewish Section of the Gestapo, and in addition to that he had been ordered by Himmler to get a hold of the Jews in all the European countries and to transport then to Germany. Eichmann was then very much impressed with the fact that Rumania had withdrawn from the war in those days. Moreover, he had come to me to got information about the military situation which I received daily from the Hungarian Ministry of War and from the Commander of the Waffen-SS in Hungary. He expressed his conviction that Germany had now lost the war and that he personally had no further chance. He knew that he would be considered one of the main war criminals by the United Nations, since he had millions of Jewish lives on his conscience.
I asked him how many that was, to which he answered that although the number was a great Reich secret, he would tell me since I, as a historian, would be interested, and that he would probably not return anyhow from his command in Rumania. He had, shortly before that, made a report to Himmler, as the latter wanted to know the exact number of Jews who had been killed." ing quotation:
THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal will adjourn now.
(Whereupon at 1245 hours the hearing of the tribunal adjourned to reconvene at 1400 hours).
Military Tribunal, in the matter of: The
THE PRESIDENT: The motion that was made this morning on behalf of the Defendant Kaltenbrunner is denied and the affidavit is admitted and will not be stricken from the record. But the Tribunal wished me to say that it is open to the Defendants' counsel, in accordance with the Charter and the Rules, to make a motion, in writing, if they wish to do so, for the attendance of Pfaffenberger for cross-examination and to state in that motion the reasons therefore.
DR. KURT KAUFFMANN (Counsel for Defendant Kaltenbrunner): I am here on a similar question, This question deals with the case of Pfaffenberger, and I beg for two reasons that the evidence of Dr. Hoettl be crossed off, that which was incorporated into the record this morning -- to have it stricken from the record, in other words.
Dr. Hoettl, as far as I know, is in Nurnberg.
THE PRESIDENT: One minute. Do you understand that the Tribunal has just denied the motion that you made this morning?
DR. KAUFFMANN: I cannot hear, your Honor.
THE PRESIDENT: I asked you whether you understood that the motion you made this morning had been denied by the Tribunal?
DR. KAUFFMANN: Yes, I understood that correctly.
THE PRESIDENT: What is your motion now?
DR. KAUFFMANN: I would like to ask to have the evidence given by Dr. Hoettl stricken from the record for this reason, and which depends on several other reasons than given to me this morning in the Pfaffenberger case.
As we can see, or as follows from the affidavit, Dr. Hoettl was interrogated on the 26th of November, that is about three weeks ago and, as I further heard, Dr. Hoettl is under arrest here in Nurnberg. There is no delay to be expected if we ask this witness be brought before the Court.
writing, I asked to have him brought in as a witness. I am convinced that he has a wealth of important evidence and material which he can reveal to the Court, The declaration of Dr. Hoettl is infinitely important. The death of millions of people is involved. His evidence is based on certain results. These things were shown to us according to hearsay and I am of the opinion that the case will look entirely different and that the Tribunal will not direct me later on, after weeks or months, to bring this witness into Court.
MAJOR WALSH: If the Court please: Dr. Hoettl's affidavit, Document 2738-PS, was in part read into the record this morning for the sole purpose of showing the approximate number of Jews, according to his estimates, that had met death at the hands of the German State, No other portion of his testimony was referred to and the evidence offered was only for the sole purpose of establishing his estimate of the number. His position in the Party and in the State, as well as the position of Adolf Eichmann, the source of his information, was also stated for the record.
I believe that Dr. Hoettl, if he is desired for any other purpose by the Defense, may be called by the Defense, but the Prosecution had no other purpose in utilizing his evidence.
THE PRESIDENT: Do you wish to add anything more?
MAJOR WALSH: That is all I have, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal makes the same ruling in this case as in the case of Pfaffenberger, namely that the affidavit is admitted in evidence but that it is open to Defendants' counsel to make a motion, in writing, for the attendance of the witness for cross-examination and to state in that motion the reasons for it.
MAJOR WALSH: During the morning session, the Court requested certain information concerning documents that had been offered and accepted in evidence. I refer to Document 1061, the report, "The Warsaw Ghetto Is No More." This report, I am told, was prepared for presentation at a meeting of the SS Police Leaders, to be held on 18 May, 1943. This is indicated on page 45 of the translation before the Court.
delivered by them to the G-2 of the United States Forces in the European Theater. In turn, they were delivered to Colonel Storey of the United States Prosecutors Staff some months ago.
THE PRESIDENT: Major Walsh, I think the Tribunal also wished to know whether you could tell us to whom the report had been made?
MAJOR WALSH: The report, sir, according to the teletypes, the daily teletypes sir, were addressed to the higher SS and Police Fuehrer, SS Obergruppenfuehrer and General of the Police Kruger or his deputy.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you.
MAJOR WALSH: The Court further inquired about Document L-53 and I have obtained some information concerning this document. This document was captured by T-Force of the Counter-Intelligence Corps Detachment No. 220, found among the German records at Weimar, Germany, sometime prior to 10 May, 1945.
THE PRESIDENT:L-53 you said, didn't you?
MAJOR WALSH:L-53, yes, sir. letters "W.B." I regret that I have been unable to obtain definite information as to the meaning of "W.B.", but it has been suggested to me that it might mean West-Bund or Western Ally, because it is used in connection with the capture, the destruction of all prisoners before capture by either the W.B. or the Red Armies, and I presume that it may mean West-Bund. alone; for the impact of this slaughter is even more tragic to the future of the Jewish people and mankind. Ancient Jewish communities with their own rich, spiritual, cultural and economic life, bound up for centuries with the life of the nations in which they flourished, have been completely obliterated. The contribution of the Jewish people to civilization, the arts, the sciences, industry and culture, need not, I am sure, be elaborated upon before this Tribunal. Their destruction, carried out continuously, deliberately, intentionally and methodically by the Nazis, represents a loss to civilization of special qualities and abilities that cannot possibly be recouped. committed against the Jewish people by the State which these Defendants ruled, because, with sober regard for contemporary and historical truth, a detailed description of some of these crimes would transcend the utmost reaches of the human faculty of expression.
The mind already recoils and shrinks from the acceptance of the incredible facts already related. Rather, it is my purpose to elucidate the pattern, the successful and successive stages, the sequence and concurrence of the crimes committed, the predetermined means to a preordained end.
the Defendants' own sources, and submitted, in evidence before this Tribunal, defy rebuttal. gloating declarations of Himmler and the Defendant Frank in 1943 and 1944 the annihilation of the Jewish people in Europe was man-nade - made by the very men sitting in the Defendants' box, brought to judgment before this Tribunal. services of that group of the Staff of the United States Prosecution, through whose painstaking search, analysis and study, this presentation of evidence was made possible: Captain Seymour Krieger, Lt. Brady Bryson, Lt. Frederick Felton, Sgt. Isaac Stone and Mr. Hans Nathan.
COLONEL STOREY: If the Tribunal please: occupied countries, will be presented by Captain Sam Harris.
CAPTAIN SAM HARRIS: May the Tribunal please: have been assembled in a document book bearing the letter "U". These document books are now being distributed for the use of the members of the Tribunal. I ask your Honors to note that the tabs on the side of the document book are numbered 1 to 30. The index sheet at the front of the book keys these numbers to the Ec and PS number of our exhibits.
For your Honor's convenience, we have also numbered the pages in each exhibit in pencil at the upper right hand corner of each exhibit.
The documents which we shall introduce were collected by Lt. Kenyon, who sits at my right, and by Doctors Darenberg and Jacoby. Without their untiring efforts, the presentation would not have been possible.
Evidence has already been introduced by Mr. Alderman, to prove that the Defendants conspired to wage aggressive war. It has also been proved that the desire for "Lebensraum" was one of the chief forces motivating the conspirators to plan, launch and wage their wars of aggression.
We propose, at this time, to present evidence disclosing what the conspirators intended to do with conquered territories, called by them "Lebensraum", after they had succeeded in overpower the victims of their aggressions.
We have broadly divided this subject into two categories:
Germanisation and spoliation. When we speak of plans to Germanise, we mean plans to assimilate conquered territories politically, culturally, socially and economically into the German Reich. Germanisation, we shall demonstrate, meant the obliteration of the former national character of the conquered territories and the extermination of all elements which could not be reconciled, with the Nazi ideology. By spoliation, we mean the plunder of public and private property, and in general, the exploitation of the people and natural resources of occupied countries. 30 documents. These documents lay bare some of the secret plans of the conspirators to Germanize, to plunder, to despoil, and to destroy. They do not, of course, tell the whole story of all the conspirators' plans in this field. In some instances, proof of the plan is derived from the acts committed by the conspirators, but these few documents are particularly illuminating with respect to the conspirators' plans for Poland, Czeche-Slovakia and Russia, and they indicate the outlines of carefully conceived plans for the rest of Europe. Others who follow will fill in this outline by showing a series of outrages committed on so vast a scale that no doubts will exist that they were committed according to plan.
Poland was, in a sense, the testing ground for the conspirators' theories upon "lebensraum" and I turn to that country first. into Germany by an order of 8 October 1939. This order, which was signed by Hitler, Lammers and Defendants GOERING, FRICK and HESS, is set forth in "Reichsgesetzblatt", 1939, Part I, p. 2042, and we ask the Tribunal to take judicial notice thereof. These areas of Poland are frequently referred to in correspondence between the conspirators as "incorporated Eastern territories". The 1939.
By that same order, defendant Hans FRANK was named Governor General name Deputy Governor General.
This order is set forth in "Reichs gesetzblatt", 1939, Part I, p. 2077, and we ask the Tribunal also to take show the following:
First: The conspirators specifically planned to exploit the people to reduce it to a vassal state.
At a later stage, plans were formulated for Second:
The incorporated area of Poland which was deemed to be a part of the German Reich, was to be ruthlessly Germanised.
To that end, the conspirators planned:
(a) To permit the retention of the productive facilities in the (b) They planned to deport to the Government General many hundreds compliant elements.
We shall show that the Jews who were deported to the Government General were doomed to speedy annihilation.
Moreover, since be Germanized and might serve as a center of resistance against their new order, they too were to be eliminated.
(c) They planned to deport all able-bodied Polish workers to Germany for work in he Nazi war machine. This served the two-fold purpose of helping to satisfy the labor requirements of the Nazi was machine and preventing the propagation of a new generation of Poles. Nr. Dodd has already produced abundant proof on this tonic, and I shall do not more than refer to it.
(d) They planned to mould all persons in the incorporated area who were deemed to possess German blood, into German subjects who would religiously adhere to the principles of National Socialism. To that end, the conspirators set up an elaborate racial register. Those who resisted or refused to cooperate in this program were sent to concentration camps.
(e) They planned to bring thousands of German subjects into the incorporated area for purposes of settlement.
(f) and finally, they planned to confiscate the property - particular ly the farms - of the Poles, the Jews and all dissidend elements. The confiscation of the property of Jews was part of the conspirators' larger program of extermination. Confiscation like wise served three additional purposes: (1) it provided land for the new German settlers and enabled the conspirators to reward their adherents: (2) dispossessed Polish property owners could be shipped to Germany for work in the production of implements of war; and (3) the separation of Polish farmers from their wives furthered the plan to prevent the growth of a new generation of Poles I first offer in evidence Document No. EC 344-16, which is USA Exhibit No. 297.
This document is a report of an interview with defendant FRANK on 3 October 1939, and was found among the files of the OKW which were assembled in bulk at the Fechanheim Document Center. This particular document was included in a large report prepared in the OKW by one Captain Varain at the direction of General Thomas, then Chief of the Military Economic Staff of the OKW. I quote from the first 19 lines of page 3 of the English text.
The German text appears on p. 29, lines 25-36 and p. 30, lines 1-6. The report states, and I quote:
"In the first interview which the chief of the Central Division East and the Chief Administrative Officer (subsequently called Govenor General) had with Minister FRANK on October 3, 1939 in Poland.
According to these directives, Poland can only be machines, factory installations, etc.
, which are important for Polish intelligentsia.
"Poland", defendant FRANK stated, (and this is a quotation), "Poland" shall be treated as a colony:
Empire'".
text. In the German text, it is lines 18 to 23 of page 30.
Defendant Frank further stated, and I quote:
"By destroying Polish industry, its subsequent reconstruction importation of industrial products."
As further proof of the defendants' plan to plunder and despoil the Government General of Poland, I next offer in evidence Document No. EC 410, which is U.S.A. Exhibit No. 298. In addition to the proof of the defendants' plans to plunder and despoil the Government General, this document demonstrates the difference in treatment which the conspirators planned for the incorporated area of Poland and the Government General. It is a copy of a directive issued and signed by defendant GOERING on 19 October 1939, and was likewise found among the captured OKW files. I quote from lines 1 to 19 on page 1 of the English text. In the German text, it is all of page 1 and the first line of page 2. Defendant GOERING's directive states, and I quote:
"In the meeting of October 13th, I have given detailed instructions I will repeat them here in short:
1. The task for the economic at the earliest possible time.
On the other hand, there must be materials, scrap materials, machines etc.
, which are of use for the German war economy.
Enterprises which are not absolutely giving them German orders to be executed at their present location."
potential, the defendants planned to leave the country desolate. Not even the war damage was to be repaired. This is the clear import of the documents previously introduced, and is likewise made clear by Document No. EC 411, which is U.S.A. Exhibit No. 299. I offer this document in evidence. This is a copy of an order dated 20 November 1939, by defendant HESS, in his capacity as Deputy Fuehrer. This document was also found in the captured OKW files. I quote the English and German texts in their entirety. Defendant HESS stated, and I quote:
"I hear from Party members who came from the Government General Staff, the Reich Ministry for Labor, etc.
, intend to reconstruct certain industrial enterprises in Warsaw.
However, in accordance with a decision by Minister Dr. FRANK, as approved by the Fuehrer, to rebuild or reconstruct any industry in the Government General."
Turning from the defendants' program of economic spoliation in the Government General to their program of deportation and resettlement, I next offer in evidence Document No. 66-PS, which is U.S.A. Exhibit No. 300. This is a secret report prepared by the Academy of German Law in January 1940, upon plans for the mass migration of Poles and Jews from incorporated areas of Poland to the Government General, and for the forcible deportation of able-bodied Poles to Germany. This document was obtained from the Ministerial Collecting Settlement at Kassel, Germany.
The date does not appear in the English translation, but it is clearly set forth in the cover page of the original document as January 1940. Before quoting from this document, I ask first, that the Tribunal take judicial notice of the decree of 11 July 1934, embodied in the "Reichsgesetzblatt", Part I, p. 605, 11 July 1934, which provided that the Academy of German Law would be a public corporation of the Reich under the supervision of the Reich Ministers of Justice and the Interior, and that its task would be (quote):
"To promote the reconstruction of German legal life, and to the entire sphere of the law."
Academy of Law, I should like to offer in evidence Document No. 2749-PS, which is U.S.A. Exhibit No. 301. This is the title page of the publication of the Academy of German Law for 1940. It is offered for the purpose of showing that defendant FRANK was the president of the Academy of German Law during the period that the above-mentioned secret report of the Academy was made. The document specifically states, and I quote:
"Reich Minister Dr. Hans FRANK, President of the Academy for German Law:
7th year 1940."
Now, if I may ask your Honors to turn to Document No. 661-PS, I should first like to quote lines 6 to 24 of page 1 of the English text. In the German text, these extracts appear at page 6, lines 6 to 10; and line 22, page 6 to line 4, page 7. I quote:
"For the carrying out of costly and long-term measures for the already over-populated.
....... By further absorption of 1.6 This figure of 1.6 million will barely suffice to transfer from the Reich:
The Jews from the liberated East (over 600,000), parts of the proper, Austria, Sudetengau and the Protectorate (altogether over 1 million)". transfer from the Reich, and I continue to quote:
"The Polish intelligentsia who have been politically active in the past, and potential political leaders;large estates, industrialists and businessmen, etc.
;
encirclement of Polish territories in the East." The German text is at page 8, lines 3-10:
"In order to relieve the living space of the Poles in the (Their assimilation into the old Reich must be prevented)." English text.
In the German text it is the last 5 lines of page 40:
"Strictest care is to be taken that secret circulars, White Books printed in Paris or the U.S.A." propaganda campaigns conducted by Nazi Germany to discredit the Polish books when they made their appearance in countries friendly to Poland.
The last paragraph from this document which I have just read gives the lie to that whole Nazi propaganda campaign. which are set forth in the document from which I have just quoted, were not mere theories spun by lawyers. They represented, as the next three documents to be offered in evidence will show, a program which was in fact, ruthlessly executed.
I next offer in evidence Document No.2233-PS-G the Frank Diaries 1939, from 25 October to 15 December, which is U.S.A. Exhibit No.302.
This document was obtained from the 7th Army Documentation Center at Heidelberg. I quote from the last paragraph of page 1, carrying over to the first two lines of page 2 of the English text. In the German text, the statements appear at page 19, lines 19 to 28. Defendant FRANK stated, and I quote:
"The Reichsfuehrer SS" -- meaning Himmler -- "wishes that all Jews be evacuated from the newly gained Reich territories. Up to February approximately 1,000,000 people are to be brought in this way into the General Government. The families of good racial extraction present in the occupied Polish territory (approximately 4,000,000 people) should be transferred into the Reich and individually housed and thereby be uprooted as a people."
I next offer in evidence Document No. EC-305, which is U.S.A. Exhibit No. 303. This exhibit is the top secret minutes of a meeting held on 12 February 1940 under the chairmanship of Defendant Goering on "questions concerning the East." The document was found in the captured OKW files. Himmler and Defendant Frank likewise were present at this meeting. text. These extracts are found in the front page, lines 1 to 8 of the German text. The minutes state, and I quote:
"By way of introduction, the General Field Marshal " -- meaning Defendant Goering -- "explained that the strengthening of the war potential of the Reich must be the chief aim of all measures to be taken in the East." of the English text. The German text appears at page 2, lines 2 to 4.
"agriculture:
ownership."
page 2 of the English text. This is at page 3, lines 22-24 of the German text.
"Special questions concerning the Government General:
ordered to emigrate from Germany, and the New Eastern Gaus." of page 2 of the English text. These statements appear in the German text at page 4, lines 3-19.
"The following reported on the situation in the Eastern territories:
'2. Reichsstatthalter Gauleiter Forster (who said, continuing the quotation) The population of the Danzig/West Prussia Gau (newly acquired territories) is 1.5 Poles and 300,000 immigrant Poles, Jews and asocials (1800 Jews). 87,000 persons have been evacuated, 40,000 of these from Gotenhafen.
From there, also the numerous shirkers, who to the General Government.
Therefore, an evacuation of year."
meeting. These figures, it may be noted, were only as of February 1940.
The forcible deportations which are reported in the exhibits from which I have just read, did not involve merely ordering the unfortunate victims to leave their homes, and to take up new residences elsewhere. These deportations were accomplished, according to plan, in an utterly brutal and inhuman manner. Document No. 1918-PS, which is USA Exhibit No. 304, affords striking proof of this fact, and I offer it in evidence. This is a speech delivered by Himmler to officers of the SS on a day commemorating the presentation of the Nazi flag. It is contained in a compilation of speeches delivered by Himmler, which was captured by counter English, French and US Army. The exact date of the speech does not appear in the exhibit, but its contents plainly show that it was delivered sometime after Poland had been overrun. I quote from the second to the eighth lines of page 1 of the English text. In the German text, this quotation appears at page 52, lines 2 to 10. In this speech Himmler said, and 1 quote:
"Very frequently the member of the Waffen-SS thinks about the deportation of this people here.
These thoughts came to me today thousands; where we had to have the toughness.
.... you should hear this but also forget it again - to shoot thousands of leading Poles -"I repeat the latter part of the statement:
" Where we had to have the toughness.... you should hear this but also forget it again - to shoot thousands of leading Poles." Such Poles from the incorporated area as managed to survive the journey to the Government General could look forward, at best, to extreme hardship, and exposure to every form of degradation and brutality. Your Honors will recall Defendant Frank's statement contained in Document No. EC 344-16, now USA Exhibit No. 297, which was introduced a short while ago, that the Polish economy would be reduced to the absolute minimum necessary for the bare existence of the population.