A The functions, as I pointed them out, did not change after Kaltenbrunner assumed office.
Q I have one more question: What were the aims and purposes of the operation group which had been created on the basis of the agreement between the SD and the High Command? as I mentioned before, the task was laid down to protect the rear of the troops, and to use all means against opposition and against resistance.
Q To repress or to do away with?
A The words were: "All resistance is to be broken with every means".
Q By what means was the resistance suppressed?
A The agreement did not mention nor cover this in any way. It was not discussed.
Q But you know what means were used for that suppression, do you not? were equally harsh, but that is only hearsay, as far as I am concerned.
Q What does it mean more exactly? population was concerned, there were many shootings that took place.
Q Including the children?
A That I didn't hear.
Q You haven't heard it?
A (No response).
SIR DAVID MAXWELL FYFE: Since Your Lordship was good enough to ask me whether I wanted to put some questions, I have had some further information, and I should be very grateful if the Tribunal would allow me to ask one or two questions. QUESTIONS BY SIR DAVID MAXWELL FYFE: Kaltenbrunner, Gruppenfuehrer Nebe and Gruppenfuehrer Mueller, in the Spring of 1944, in Berlin at Wilhelmstrasse 102?
A Yes.
Q With what was that conversation concerned? to it, concerned about 50 prisoners of war, English or American, that had been shot. This conversation, in its particulars, was as follows, to the best of my recollection: There was a request on the part of the International Red Cross war. They were interested in getting information about their whereabouts. This through the Foreign Office, to the Chief of the Security Police and SD.
Q Just one moment. Was it already in the form of a protest against the shooting of prisoners of war?
A I do believe it was in the form of a protest. From the fragments of the conversation I gathered that there was a conversation as to what form the shooting of the prisoners of war, which had already taken place, was to be explained.
Q To be explained?
Q Did Kaltenbrunner discuss this with Mueller and Nebe? only picked up fragments of the conversation, I heard it hurriedly that they wanted to cover details more thoroughly in the afternoon. should be given to cover the shooting of the prisoners of war?
Q What were the suggestions?
A The large part was to be handled as individual cases; that they had perished through bomb attacks and then some, I believe, because of resistance, that is physical resistance and others persecution on their escape.
Q You mean shot while trying to escape?
Q These were the excuses which Kaltenbrunner suggested? prisoners. Does any number remain in your mind? Can you remember explanations arose or about how many?
A. I remember only that the number fifty was mentioned again and
Q. But the number fifty remains in your mind?
A. Yes, I hear fifty.
Q. Can you remember anything of the place or the camp in which these people had been, who were said to have been shot?
A. I cannot tell you under oath. There is a possibility that I might add a little bit.
It may have been Breslau but I cannot tell
Q. And can you remember anything of what service the people belonged to?
Were they Air Force or Army? Have you any recollection on that point?
A. I believe all of them were officers.
Q. Were officers?
A. Yes.
Q. But you cannot remember what service?
A. No, that I cannot tell you.
SIR DAVID MAXWELL-FYFE: I am very grateful to the Tribunal for
COLONEL AMEN: That is all for this witness.
THE PRESIDENT: Very well, the witness can go then.
COLONEL AMEN: I wish to call as the next witness Alois Hoellriegel.
THE PRESIDENT: What is your name?
THE WITNESS: Alois Hoellriegel.
THE PRESIDENT: Will you take this oath?
(The witness repeated the oath in German)
THE PRESIDENT: You can sit down if you want to.
DIRECT EXAMINATION BY COLONEL AMEN:
Q. What position did you hold at the end of the war?
A. At the end of the war I was at Mauthausen.
Q. Were you a member of the Totenkopf SS?
A. Yes; in the year 1939 I was taken into the SS.
Q. What were your duties at the Mauthausen Concentration Camp?
A. I was, until the winter of '42, with a guard company and I stood guard. From '42 until the end of the war I was in the inner service of the concentration camp.
Q. And you therefore had occasion to witness the extermination of inmates of that camp by shooting, gassing and so forth?
A. Yes, I saw that.
Q. And did you make an affidavit in this case to the effect that you saw Kaltenbrunner at that camp?
A. Yes.
Q. And that he saw and was familiar with the operation of the gas chamber there?
A. Yes.
Q. Did you also have occasion to see any other important personages visiting that concentration camp?
A. I remember Pohl, Gluecks, Kaltenbrunner, Schirach and Gauleiter Steyermark.
Q. And did you personally see Schirach at that concentration camp at Mauthausen?
A. Yes.
Q. Do you remember what he looks like so that you could identify him?
A. I believe that he has probably changed during the last times but I would certainly remember him.
Q. How long ago was it that you saw him there?
A. That was in the fall of '42. Since that time I have not seen him
Q. Will you look around the Courtroom and see whether you can see Schirach in the Courtroom?
A. Yes.
Q. Which person?
A. In the second row, the third person from the left.
COLONEL AMEN: The affidavit to which I referred was U.S.A. Exhibit
THE PRESIDENT: What is the PS number?
COLONEL AMEN: 27535 PS.
BY COLONEL AMEN:
Q. I now show you a copy of document Number 2641 PS in this case, and standing?
A. As far as it is able to be recognized -- and I cannot determine
Q. Would you repeat that answer please?
A. As far as it is recognizable I cannot say for sure whether that is the quarry near the concentration camp Mauthausen.
This quarry could be at any other place.
I would have to have more of a view but I believe
Q. Very good. Just lay the picture aside for a moment.
concentration camp by pushing them off a cliff?
A. Yes.
Q. Will you tell the Tribunal what you saw with respect to that practice?
A. I remember that was in the year '41. I was on guard duty and I the morning about 6 to 8 prisoners and then two SS men were with them.
One was Spatznecker and the other was Eichenhofer.
They moved -
THE PRESIDENT: Wait, you are going too fast. You should go slower.
A. (continuing) Their actions were rather strange and they were down the precipice, either by themselves or have them pushed down.
I that he was to cast himself down from the precipice.
The prisoner in
Q. How steep was the precipice?
A. I estimate thirty to forty meters.
Q. was there a term used amongst you guards for this practice of having the prisoners fall from the top of this precipice?
A Yes. They were called paratroopers.
COLONEL AMEN: The witness is available to other Counsel.
THE PRESIDENT: Does the Russian Prosecutor or French Prosecutor or Defense Counsel have any questions?
CROSS EXAMINATION BY DR. SAUTER (Counsel for Defendant von Schirach):
into the SS?
A That is right. On the 6th of September, 1939, I was
Q Did you have no connections with the Party before then?
A Yes. In April, 1938, I enlisted with the Civil SS your services?
A I cannot exactly declare that. Many were taken into the
Q Are you Austrian?
Q Then at that time you lived in Austria?
Q I am interested in a certain point for Schirach. You saw the Defendant at Mauthausen.
How often did you see him there?
Q Once?
Q Was Mr. von Schirach alone at Mauthausen, or was he together with others?
A He was with other gentlemen. There was a group of
A I didn't at that time know that I would have to use these Bachmeyer.
They entered the camp.
A I cannot remember that. I cannot remember those preparations but I do remember it was in the evening.
I can't tell you the exact hour.
It was the evening count or roll-call.
Q You didn't know the day before or didn't your co-workers know that an inspection was to take place the next day?
Q And didn't you notice afterwards that certain preparations had been made--certain preparations had been taken?
DR. SAUTER: I have no further questions of this witness.
CROSS EXAMINATION BY DR. STEINBAUER(Counsel for Defendant Seyss-Inquart): the casting over a quarry, of people.
Did you report this to your superiors?
Q In other words, you did not report this. Is it true that permitted to report happenings of this sort to a third person?
DR. STEINBAUER: I have no other questions.
REDIRECT EXAMINATION BY COLONEL AMEN:
Q Would you just look at that picture again?
the quarry underneath the cliff which you have just described?
to see more of the background. I do not see enough, but I am the picture?
Q Will you tell the Tribunal the ones which you do recognize?
COLONEL AMEN: That is all, may it please the Tribunal.
THE PRESIDENT: The witness can go and we will adjourn for (Whereupon at 11.
25 a recess was taken until 11.
33.)
COLONEL STOREY: If the Tribunal please, the next and final subject of the criminal organizations is the General Staff and High Command, to be presented by Colonel Taylor.
COLONEL TELFORD TAYLOR: Your Lordship and members of the Tribunal: The indictment seeks the declaration of criminality under Articles 9 to 11 of the Charter against six groups or organizations, and the last one listed in the indictment is described as a group, described as the General Staff and High Command of the German Armed Forces. widely one from another, both in their composition and in their functions, but all of them are related and we believe that they are logically indicted together before the Tribunal because they are the primary agencies and the chief tools by means of which the Nazi conspirators sought to achieve their aims. All six of them were either established by, controlled by, or became allied with the Nazis, and they were essential to the success of the Nazis. They were at once the principal and indispensable instruments, the party, the government, the police, and the armed forces. It is my task to present the case in chief against the General Staff and High Command group. other groups and organizations against which we have sought this declaration. For example, the leadership corps of the Nazi Party, of the NSDAP, is the leadership corps of the party itself, the party which was the embodiment of Nazism, which was the instrument primarily through which Hitlerism rode to full power and tyranny in Germany. The SA and the SS were branches -- to be sure, large branches -- of the Nazi party. The German police had certain roots and antecedents which antedated Hitlerism, but it became 99 per cent a creature of the Nazi Party and State. The Reichs-cabinet was in essence merely a committee or series of committees of Reich Ministers, and when the Nazis came to power, quite naturally these ministerial positions were filled for the most part by Nazis. ALL these other groups and organizations, accordingly, either owe their origin and development to Nazism or automatically became nazified when Hitler came to power.
I need not remand the Tribunal that German armed might and the German military tradition andedate Hitlerism by many decades. One need not be a graybeard to have very vivid personal recollections of the war of 1914 to 1918, of the Kaiser and of the scrap of paper. For these reasons, I want to sketch very briefly, before going into the evidence, the nature of our case against this group which is unique in the particulars I have mentioned. the size and the permissible scope of activities of the German armed forces were severely restricted. That these restrictions did not destroy or even seriously undermine German militarism, the last few years have made abundantly apparent. The full flowering of German military strength came about through collaboration, collaboration between the Nazis on the one hand and the career leaders of the German armed forces, the professional soldiers, sailors, and airmen. affairs. He found a small Reichwehr and a body of professional officers with a morale and outlook nourished by German military history. The leaders of these professional officers constitute the group named in the indictment, the General Staff and High Command of the German Armed Forces. This part of the case concerns that group of men.
Now, needless to say, it is not the prosecution's position that it is a crime to be a soldier or a sailor or to serve one's country as a soldier or sailor in time of war. The profession of arms is an honorable one and can be honorably practiced, but it is too clear for argument that a man who commits crimes cannot plead as a defense that he committed them in uniform.
Now, it is not in the nature of things and it is not the prosecution's position that every member of this group was a wicked man or that they were all equally culpable, but we will show that this group not only collaborated with Hitler and supported the essential Nazi objectives, we will show that they furnished the one thing which was essential and basic to the success of the Nazi program for Germany, and that was skill and experience in the development and use of armed might.
Why did this group support Hitler and the Nazis? I think Your Honors will sec, as the proof is given, that the answer is very simple. The answer is that they agreed with the truly basic objectives of Hitlerism and Nazism and that Hitler gave the generals the opportunity to play a major part in achieving these objectives. The generals, like Hitler, wanted to aggrandize Germany at the expense of neighboring countries and were prepared to do so by force or threat of force. Force, armed might, was the keystone of the arch, the thing without which nothing else would have been possible. two alternatives, either to collaborate with and expand the small German army, known as the Weichswehr, or to ignore the Reichswehr and build up a separate army of their own. The generals feared that the Nazis might do the latter and accordingly were more inclined to collaborate. Moreover, the Nazis offered the generals the chance of achieving much that they wished to achieve by way of expanding German armies and German frontiers, and so, as we will show, the generals climbed onto the Nazi bandwagon. They saw it was going in their direction for the present. No doubt they hoped later to take over the direction themselves. In fact, as the proof will show, ultimately it was the generals who were taken for a ride by the Nazis. conquest and then succeeded in submerging them politically and, as the war proceeded, they became his tools. But as these military leaders became the tools of Nazism, it is not to be supposed that they were unwitting or that they did not participate fully in many of the crimes which we will bring to the notice of the Tribunal. The willingness, and indeed the eagerness of the German professional officer corps to become parties of the Nazis will be fully developed. There will be first a description of the composition and functioning of the General Staff and High Command group as defined in the indictment; next, the evidence in support of the charge of criminality under Counts 1 and 2 of the indictment; finally, the evidence in support of the charges under Counts 3 and 4.
which have been given the number CC. The first of these books is a series of sworn statements or affidavits which are available to the Tribunal in English and in Russian and in French, and which have been available to the defendants in German. The second and third books are the usual type of document books, separated merely for convenience of handling.
The second book contains documents in the C and L series, and the third book, in the PS and R series. For the convenience of the Tribunal we have had handed up a list of these documents in the order in which they will be referred to. short mimeographed statement entitled "Basic Information on the Organization of the German Armed Forces." That has also been handed up in English, Russian and French, and has also been made available to the Defendants' Information Center in German. indictment. Armed Forces known as the Great General Staff. This name, the German General Staff or Great General Staff, persists in the public mind, but the Grosse Generalstab no longer exists in fact. There has been no such single organization, no single German General Staff since 1918, but there has, of course, been a group of men responsible for the policy and the acts of the German armed forces, and the fact that these men have no single collective name does not prevent us from collecting them together. They cannot escape the consequences of their collective acts by combining informally instead of formally. The essence of a general staff or a high command lies not in the name you give it, but in the functions it performs, and the men comprised within the group as we have defined it in the indictment do constitute a functional group welded together by common responsibility, those officers who had the principal authority and responsibility under Hitler for the plans and operations of the German armed forces. German Armed Forces and then look at the composition of the group as specified in the indictment. As I just mentioned, we have prepared a very short written exposition of the organization of the German armed forces which we have handed up to the Tribunal. That document contains a short sketch setting forth the basic history and development of the Supreme Command of the German armed forces since 1933, and the structure as it emerged after its reorganization in 1938.
It also contains a simple chart which in a few moments will be displayed at the front of the courtroom. It also contains a short glossary of German military expressions and it contains a comparative table of rank in the German Army and in the SS, showing the equivalent ranks in the American Army and the equivalent ranks for the German Navy and the British Navy. I may say that military and naval ranks differ slightly among the principal nations, but that by and large they follow the same general pattern and terminology. controlled by a Reich Defense Minister who at that time was Field Marshal Werner von Blomberg. Under von Blomberg were the chief of the Army staff who at that time was von Fritsch, and of the naval staff, the Defendant Raeder. Owing to the limitations imposed on Germany by the Treaty of Versailles, the German Air Force at that time had no official existence whatever. in Germany, there was a change in the titles of these officers, but the structure remained basically the same. Field Marshal von Blomberg remained in supreme command of the armed forces, with the title of Reich Minister for Mar and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. Von Fritsch assumed the title Commander-in-Chief of the Army, and Raeder Commander-in-Chief of the Navy. this same time, but it was not put under von Blomberg. It was an independent institution under the personal command of the Defendant Goering who had the double title of Air Minister and Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force. principal German generals and the affidavits with reference to it will be introduced in a few moments.
It shows the organization, the top organization, of the armed forces as it emerged in 1938 after the reorganization which I will now describe. their positions and Blomberg's ministry, the War Ministry, was wound up. The War Ministry had contained a division or department called the Wehrmacht Amt, meaning the Armed Forces Department, and the function of that department had been to coordinate the plans and operations of the Army and Navy. From this Armed Forces Department was formed a new overall armed forces authority known as the High Command of the German Armed Forces - that is the box in the center right under Hitler - known in German as Oberkommando Der Wehrmacht, and usually known by the initials OKW. coordination of all armed forces matters was vested in the OKW which was really Hitler's personal staff for these matters. The Defendant Keitel was appointed Chief of the OKW and the most important division of the OKW, shown just to the right, was the Operations Staff, of which the Defendant Jodl became the chief. in a decree issued by Hitler on the 4th of February, 1938. This decree appeared in the Reichsgesetzblatt, and I invite the Court's attention to it by way of judicial notice. Copies are available and I would like to read the decree which is very short, into the transcript. I quote:
"Command authority over the entire armed forces is from now on exercised directly by me personally."
THE PRESIDENT: Where do we find it?
COLONEL TAYLOR: That is not a document, your Honor, because it is a decree from the Reichsgesetzblatt and subject to judicial notice, but copies are available here if the Tribunal cares to look at it.
I will continue with the second paragraph of this decree:
"The Armed Forces Department in the Reich War Ministry with its functions becomes the High Command of the Armed Forces and comes directly under my command as my military staff.
the Chief of the former Armed Forces Department, with the title of Chief of the High Command of the Armed Forces. His status is equal to that of a Reich Minister.
"The High Command of the Armed Forces also takes over the affairs of the Reich War Ministry. The Chief of the High Command of the Armed Forces, as my representative, exercises the functions hitherto exercised by the Reich War Minister. The High Command of the Armed Forces is responsible in peace-time for the unified preparation of the defense of the Reich in all areas according to my directives.
"Berlin, 4 of February. Signed by Hitler, by Lammers, and by Keitel.
branches of the Armed Forces: OKH, OKM, and the Air Force. The Air Force didn't receive the official designation OKL until 1944, and the Defendant Raeder remained after 1938 as Commander in Chief of the Navy, but Von Fritsch, as well as Blomberg, passed out of the picture, Von Fritsch being replaced by Von Brauchitsch as Commander in Chief of the Army. Goering continued as Commander in Chief of the Air Force. In 1941 Von Brauchitsch was replaced as Commander in Chief of the Army-that is the first box in the left column--by Hitler himself, and in 1943 Raeder was replaced as Commander in Chief of the Navy by the Defendant Doenitz. The Defendant Goering continued as Commander in Chief of the Air Force until the last month of the war.
OKW, OKH, OKM and OKL each had its own staff. These four staffs did not have uniform designations. The three staffs of the Army, Navy and Air Force are the three boxes in a horizontal line next to the bottom. The staff of the OKW is the little box to the right at the top, bearing the name of Jodl and Warlimont. the Generalstab or the General Staff. In the case of OKW, it was known as the Fuehrungstab or Operations Staff, but in all cases, the functions were those of a general staff in military parlance. German General Staff but, rather, that there were four, one for each branch of the Service and one for the OKW as the overall inter-Service Supreme Command.
So we come to the bottom line on the chart. Down to the bottom line we have been concerned with the central staff organization at the center of affairs. Now we pass to the field. Under OKH, OKM and OKL came the various fighting formations of the Army, Air Force and Navy, respectively. Germans, as indeed it is among the nations generally, as an army group or in German, heeresgruppe. Those are shown in the box in the lower left hand corner.
An army group or heeresgruppe controls two or more armies -- in German, armeen. Underneath the army come the lower field formations, such as corps, divisions and regiments, which are not shown on the chart. known as an air fleet or luftflotte, and the lower units under the air fleet were called corps, jagdeerps, or divisions, fliegerdivisionen. Those lower formations again we have not shown on the chart. controlled all naval operations in a given area, with the exception of the high seas fleet itself and submarines. The commanders of the fleet and the submarines were directly under the German Admiralty. group against which the Prosecution seeks the declaration of criminality. It is defined in Appendix B of the Indictment. The group comprises, firstly, German officers who held the top positions in the four supreme commands which I have just described, and, secondly, the officers who hold the top field commands. in the supreme commands, we find that the holders of nine such positions are included in the group. Four of these are positions of supreme authority: The Chief of the OKW, Keitel; the Commander in Chief of the Army, Von Brauchitsch, later Hitler; Commander in Chief of the Navy, Raeder, and later Doenitz; Commander in Chief of the Air Force, Goering and later Von Greim. those commanders in chief: The Chief of the Operations Staff of the OKW, Jodl; the Chief of the General Staff of the Army, Halder and later others; the Chief of the General Staff of the Air Force, and later others; the Chief of the Naval War Staff. of OKW. Throughout most of the war that was General Warlimont, whose name is shown under Jodl's on the chart. The particular responsibility of Jodl's deputy was planning, strategic planning, and for that end of the war in May 1945.