Q. When did you leave the Wehrmacht?
A. On the 1st of February, 1932, I left the Reichswehr as a lieutenant general.
Q. How did you come to the SS?
A. In 1933, as a non-party member, I joined the Stahlhelm.
Q. Please speak more slowly, witness.
A. In 1934 I was transferred to the SA reserve with this organization. After the events in the summer of 1934, I was asked by Himmler whether I would be willing to take over the establishment and direction of an officecandidate school. I accepted this assignment, and in November, 1934, I joined the Verfuegungstruppe.
Q. At what time and in what position did you acquire the knowledge which enabled you to appear here and testify as a witness for the SS?
A. From Easter, 1935, to the summer of 1936, I directed the school. Then I was inspector of the Verfuegungstruppe from 1936 to 1939. During the war, for two years in each capacity, I led an SS division and an SS Panzer Corps, and then from 1944 on, in the army, I was employed as commander-inchief of an army group. times and on the Waffen SS during the war, as far as I knew it personally; and it was under my orders. I did not know the General SS. During the war I was not employed at the Central Office.
Q. What was your last rank in the Waffen SS?
A. I was colonel-general of the Waffen SS.
Q. What was your last position?
A. At the beginning of 1945 I was commander-in-chief of Army Group B
Q. About how many divisions were under you at that time?
A. This Army Group had 20 to 30 divisions, only two of which belonged to the Waffen SS.
Q. How did you as general of the Waffen SS come into a leading position in the Army?
A. That was a result of close cooperation between the Army and the Waffen SS. On the basis of my previous experience with the Army, my employment in that capacity was suggested.
Q. Go back to the beginning. When was the Verfuegungstruppe created? How strong was it, and how did it become?
A. The beginning of the Vorfuegungstruppe went into the year 1933. In this year, the Leibstandarte was created as a sort of body guard for Adolf Hitler. Following that, individual battalions were formed more for representational purposes. Only at the very beginning, in 1933 and 1934, were men of the General SS used. Later the very youngest of the age-groups subject military duty were recruited.
Q. What was the strength in 1976, and as an example, in 1939?
A. In 1936, there were three infantry regiments and three battalions. In 1939 there were four infantry regiments, one artillery regiment, and three technical battalions.
THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal thinks this would be a convenient time to break off.
(A recess was taken)
THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal will adjourn at half past four this afternoon. BY DR. PELCKMWSN:
Q. Witness, what was the purpose and the task of the so-called Verfuegungstruppe? Was it to serve as a new armed force alongside the Wehrmacht?
A. The aim and the task could be seen from the basic decrees of Hitler of August 1938. According to those decrees the Verfuegungstruppe was to belong neither to the Wehrmacht nor to the Police. It was to form a standing troop at the disposition of Adolf Hitler and it was paid from State monies. The training was supervised by the High Command of the Army and replacements were to be taken from volunteers of the youngest age group.
Q. Through that was the Verfuegungstruppe to be a political nucleus? The Prosecution accuses it of being a special instrument for the oppression and doing away with of political opponents and of having been a weapon for the realization of Nazi trains of thought.
A. That is not true. The Verfuegungstruppe had neither political nor police tasks. It developed eventually into a test troop which had to watch and observe all the old soldierly virtues, to begin them with modern times, the relationship between officers and enlisted men, do away with the different without certain examinations, and for the doing away with any and all exclusiveness.
Q. Were the members of the Verfuegungstruppe expected to give blind obedience?
A. No. They swore obedience and loyalty to Adolf Hitler and to superiors, but an unconditional obedience which would have included crime was not expected and was not sworn to.
Q. The prosecution is accusing the Verfuegungstruppe particularly of having incited racial hatred and the fight against the Jews and that these two tasks were its special ones. Was the troop trained that way?
A. This education could only have been carried through by training. I, personally, as leader of the candidate school as well as an inspector of this training, for I myself was a new man and had to orient myself to the new processes of thought.
I can tell you that race hatred and extermination of Jewry of the eastern peoples was never taught and was never demanded.
Q. According to the prosecution, this troop served the purpose of preparation for an aggressive war. Was their predominance in Germany through terror and the conquering of all Europe, was that taught?
A. These young troops needed time and peace for admission as candidates. Their commanders were veterans of the First World war without exception. They knew war and they knew that it had brought misery and misfortune to us once already. Terror on an unknown scale and conquering of small countries was completely foreign to this young troop.
Q. From the development and the building up of this Verfuegungstruppe, without considering the re-establishment of conscription in 1936, that through this troop a breach of the Treaty of Versailles was being hoped for?
A. Before the re-establishment of conscription, this troop had 45,000 men only and could come into consideration for neither a defensive nor an offensive, war. They had no divisional staff, they had no general staff; they had no replacement of man or officers. There was no preparation for a war of aggression: we were not ready.
THE PRESIDENT: "Witness, could you speak in a slightly lower tone of voice? The sound of your voice interferes with the sound of the interpreter's voice coming through to us.
THE WITNESS: Yes, sir. BY DR. PELCKMANN:
Q. what task did you personally have as inspector of the Verfuegungstruppe?
A. I was not commander with the power to issue orders and commands but rather I was an inspector responsible for training of the troop. Beyond that, I received executive orders from Himmler on questions of organization.
Q. Did the replacements consist of volunteers and where did they came from? what were the motives for their joining?
A. Until the beginning of the war replacements came from volunteers only.
In the first years, that is in 1933 and 1934, they came from the General SS.
THE PRESIDENT: Witness, may I remind you once more to speak a little lower and a little less loud. Otherwise the voices will cross in the translation. And please speak a little more slowly as well.
A. The volunteers were recruited in the entire country from their applications, which were present in many cases. Questions of ideology were not decisive. Men who wanted to serve in military service in the various units and especially in motorized units.
Q. What relationship existed between the Verfuegungstruppe and the many other various branches of the organization which was under Himmler's uniform command?
Q. What can you tell us about the task of the Death's Head units?
A. The tasks of the Death's Head units were contained in the basic decree of August, 1938 and with varying degrees and at times they furnished guards for the concentration camps. They had no entrance to the inside of the camp. Their replacements were recruited among the German youth or among men who had already served their period of military service. Their training was not supervised by the armed forces but on the whole was rather soldierly.
Q. Did service in the Death Head unit correspond or was it equal to service in the armed forces?
A. No, that was not the same and it did not serve the same purpose.
Q. And these young volunteers who were recruited, did they know that they were to be used to supervise and guard concentration camps?
A. I do not have an insight into the recruiting of the Death Head units. but I do not believe that they were told the aim.
Q. What do you know about the participation of these Verfuegungstruppe in the incidents of the 30th of June, 1934 and the 9th of November, 1938?
A. I can not speak of any participation on the 30th of June, 1934 for at that time I was not in the Verfuegungstruppe, but I do know that men of the Verfuegungstruppe were convinced that the executions which were being carried out there had been caused by acts of the State and force used by the State.
The excesses of the 9th of November, 1938, the Verfuegungstruppe was in no way connected with. The large majority, such as the regiment at Munich, and all the recruits, had gathered at Munich for the annual swearing in program.
Q. What do you mean by the Waffen SS ?
A. After the beginning of the campaign in the autumn of 1939, from the Reichsdeutsche (Reich Germans), the Death Head Units, and from men who had been trained for the police, three divisions were first of all set up, and variousother smaller units which were grouped together were then set up under the name of Waffen SS. Increasing need for more troops for the war gradually led to a marked increase up to more than 35 divisions. In the unplanned growth or increase, it is a fact that the contributing factor, that all German nationals who volunteered from the North, from the East, and from the Southeast of Europe, served in this Waffen SS. The total strength, with all lesses considered, might be said to be about 900,000 men. I might estimate that the figure of the Reichsdeutsche (Reich Germans) would comprise one-third to one-half.
Q. At the end of the war ?
A. Yes, at the end of the war.
Q. The Prosecution asserts that the Waffen SS deliberately particiapted in a war of aggression. Is that assertion correct ?
A. Members of the Waffen SS did not have the impression that they were participating in a war of aggression, and that they were being used for that purpose. They lacked any and all insight as to whether they were being used for a war of aggression. Their orders bound them to these idea. It was not possible for them to refuse to participate in a war.
Q. During the war was there a uniform or unified SS Chief Commandant ? To whom were the divisions suborder he during the war ?
A. A unified SS chief command post did not exist during the war. The main office was in Berlin and that was an administrative institution. All divisions of the Waffen SS were incorporated into the Army and fought under the command and in the final analysis, under the responsibility of the Army. I personally, in the five and one-Half years of the war, received orders only from the armed forces offices and agencies.
Q. Did Heinrich Himmler have any influence on the divisions of the Waffer SS, and if so, what influence did he have ?
A. The division which had been incorporated into the Army was subordinate to Heinrich Himmler only in question of personnel, the appointment of officers, andin judicial questions and questions of organization.
Q. The Prosecution states that the Waffen SS used special means of combat and that they fought deliberately cruelly, that they used terror methods, and carried through methods of extermination.
A. I must give you a straight no. The troop was young, it had no tradition, and it had no name. It had to prove itself first. The commanders had only personal pride in guarding the reports and the name of this troop in the brief time they were fighting in the field. The divisions in the Army fought in a mixed way with the troops and the generals would have treated any means that deviated from plain fighting just as they took steps in tactical matters -- they would have stepped in if this accusation of a terrorist method of fighting would have been a correct one, They would have noticed it gust as I would have noticed it for the commanders are on the read days on end and they see how the troops are fighting and can judge what methods are being used.
Q. Were the officers and men to know about the holding of plebiscites ?
A. Even in peacetime and as part of thier training the officers and men were informed of the Hague Convention and the Hague Rules of Land Warfare. The testing and supervision o f it, of course, took place constantly during the war
Q. Is it correct that Himmler, at one time, said that the successes of the Waffen SS were to be credited to terroristic measures ?
A. Heinrich Him mler used this expression at one time in a speech. I reported to him that it was completely wrong, that we had not gained our successes through terror methods that preceded us, but rather, through the brave work of men and of officers, and in serious cases, up to our last possibility.
Q. What basic principles were applied for the treatment of hostile prisoners-of-war ?
A. The prisoners-of-war were treated according to the rules which applied in the Army. First of all, welfare work, food, treatment, just like in the Army. I personally in some regions where I was stationed noted that friend and foe were treated alike, alike according to the same principles, and the old way of handling prisoners or of dealing with prisoners did not apply.
Q. Was the nomination of Himmler to the rank of Commander in Chief of the replacement Army and their organization, and was his nomination and appointment as chief of the Prisoner-of-War system the cause of any changes in policy ?
A. Regarding the Waffen SS. no. But, the Prisoner-ofWar system was put under his authority since Heinrich Himmler was Supreme Commander of the Replacement Army, and he decreed that the higher SS and Police Leaders at home be charged with the supervision of the security measures of the prisoner of-war camps. I do not know, however, the details. I can only state that thereupon, the Higher SS and Police leaders were made generals in the Waffen SS.
Q. The Prosecution asserts that the Waffen SS, because of their will to destroy committed crimes against humanity and crimes against the laws of war in the occupied countries and arbitrarily destroyed cities and villages. Did the Waffen SS participate in these measures and in the deportation of nationals to Germany ?
A. I had occasion to see these troops during the war. I lived with troops in the east and west. The relationship was always a good one. It rested on mutual aid and assistance. Where we had to call the indigent population to help us, of course, for instance, repair work, they received food for their services# The arbitrary destruction of villages would have made it more difficult for us to get accommodations. I don't remember a single case in which the front troops of my division had ever taken hostages or destroyed villages as a punishment.
Q. Before the Eastern campaign, had you known of a decree of Hitler's which allegedly said that excesses of the troops toward the civil population were not to be punished ?
A. That was not the wording of the order. Rather, it left the decision as to whether the troops, in their excesses towards the civil population, should be prosecuted by court and that was left to the court. The sentences were reported to the Reichsfuehrer and excesses like that were punished very, very severely.
Q. Do you know the Kommissar order or decree ?
A. The Kommissar order or decree was addressed only to the corps for the Waffen SS. In 1941 we did not have any corps at that time. This decree was and is unknown to me, therefore, we could not have been guided by it. I recall only having seen a later decree which asked for the forbidding of Kommissars. The troops, in reality, were not too concerned with this order for the Kommissars, as such, were not recognized by front troops ?
Q. Was the fight against the partisans a special task of the Waffen SS, and was this fighting to be considered a fight of extermination ?
A. The fight against partisans ...
(At this point there was a mechanical breakdown).
THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal will adjourn for today.
(The Tribunal adjourned until 1000 hours, 6 august 1946.)
Hermann Wilhelm Goering et al. Defendants, sitting
THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal will sit in closed session on Thursday afternoon. That is to say, it will not sit in open session after one o'clock on Thursday. It will sit in open session on Saturday morning until one o'clock. BY DR. PELCKMANN:
Q. Witness, was the Waffen SS a special fighting unit for the combatting of partisans, and was the fight against the partisans considered to be a war of extermination?
A. The fight against partisans is a rather general military political measure. Front troops of the army, as well as of the Waffen SS, were used with special exceptions if they were found in the rear areas. In the operational area there were no partisan fights on the whole. Usually they took part in the rear areas only. First of all, this fight was the task of the Sicherungs Divisions, Security Divisions, of the army and special defense battalions, and besides that, of special police troops. Units of the Waffen SS at the front were not especially trained to this kind of fighting. Panzer divisions of the army were not used for this kind of fighting, cither. In the East, units of my division were never used in the fight against partisans at any time. Therefore it was not a special task for SS units, and they had not been trained or selected for this purpose especially.
Q What relationship existed between the Waffen-SS on 6 Aug M LJG 2-1 one hand and the Sicherheitspolizei and Ordnungspolizei, and the so-called Einsatzgruppen and the Einsatzkommandos?
Himmler, unfortunately, wear the same uniform even though they wear different insignia. The common point was the head-Himmler. The various branches were completely separate from each other. The separation was intensified more and more during the war. Units of the Waffen-SS were under the command of the Army Officers. The other branches were subordinate to Himmler.
Q you hear anything about the SD-Einsatzgruppen? police. I never had any contact, any personal contact with the various branches. Therefore, I cannot give you any information as the activity. you hoar anything at all about the participation of small units of the Waffen-SS? matters. officers corp of the Waffen- SS? the Waffen-SS. They had no authority to command and they had nothing, whatsoever, to do with us. so-called Kommandantur personnel in concentration camps? nel in the Kommandantur did not belong to the Waffen-SS. Only in the course of the war, these units were designated as WaffenSS in order to give them freedom to carry out their police duties The members of the Waffen-SS considered this measure a deliberate deception on the part of Himmler. They only learned of it after the war. It did not have anything to do with the men of the concentration camp.
6 Aug M LJG 2-2
Q It is not quite clear, Mr. Witness, just what you meant when you said that these men were made free from military service so that they could do police cuties. to be relieved of military service in order to carry out their police tasks. That did not apply in all the units. In the main offices in Berlin, therefore, those units were considered and designated as nominal Waffen-SS. All of those things I learned later. a part of the whole SS organization, and that as such, it was needed for the carrying through of the total criminal conspiracy. Please comment on this. that the Waffen-SS was a completely separate and independant unit and connected with other organizations only through the personality and person of Heinrich Himmler. This separation of the various branches undoubted intensified itself during the war. Therefore, we can not be accused of having had criminal plans or of having participated in carrying them through.
Q But you felt yourself to be a part of the army? and the conception of serving as the fourth branch of the army; that was not generally known, but that fact did apply. camps, the Prosecution further asserts that the Waffen-SS, on the basis of its training, was a particularly cruel military tool and that is to be shown, allegedly, by the participation of the Waffen-SS men in the evacuation of the Warsaw Ghetto. The Prosecution further asserts that violations against International Law also applied in this case such as the murder of prisoners of war. Is that correct?
not marshalled to that end. Our method of fighting was super-
6 Aug M LJG 2-3 vised and approved as suggested by the Army, and we were not successful and did not gain prestige through cruel methods. The Commanders supervised with that idea in mind. They had personal pride in seeing a clean fighting unit participating in the evacuation of the Warsaw Ghetto and in the execution which took place in Bohemia and Moravia. These matters I only hoar about here. In this connection we can only be concerned with small parts of replacement units who temporarily were subordinated for a brief period of time. Unfortunately, during my arrest I heard of two trials against two members of the Waffen-SS. One of those proceedings has not been concluded as yet, and in my own mind, I cannot quite define my means.
Q You mean the killing of prisoners? rather the falling by the wayside of personalities, the giving away of nerve when those people were deep in enemy territory. But these are matters which will never be thrown in the face of the general membership, even if it had not been two but rather ten cases either in the relationship or the ratio as applied to the entire membership of the Waffen-SS of a million men. This ratio would mean there would be oncecase as against 100,000 men in the membership. These happenings are the result of the Intensification of combat on the ground and in the air during a long war; happenings which have taken place on both sides always have taken place and always will take place. You cannot hold them, the bulk of the SS, responsible. attitude of the members of the Waffen-SS? to create an influence. During the war this was impossible. He did not address troups of the Waffen-SS. On occasion he talked to some officers or commanders in the field. It was generally known that Heinrich Himmler, who probably was only a 6 Aug M LJG 2-4 soldier for one year, was completely alien in his relations with troups.
He underestimated the importance of these tasks. That was well known. He liked to play the role of the strong man through exaggeration and through superlatives. If someone comes along with big words, the soldier does not pay much attention. In that way the influence of Himmler was very insignificant during the war. We were his uniform of course, but the Waffen-SS created their won models of behavior through working with them day by day. manders that was very strong?
A Quite the contrary. The Commanders, of course, were under him so far as military obedience is concerned. But the matter of critiques that was exercised with them was ideology. That was a possibility that was given them. It existed expecially in regard to his extravagant and romantic ideas. These men had enough experience and knowledge of live so that his speeches could be transmitted and reproduced in the language of the soldier. The critical attitude toward Heinrich Himmler increased during the war. A soldier believed he could do without such advice. Objections were cut off short with words that it is a typical attitude taken by the general staff. This was something which he fought against. sanctioned excesses against Jews and Slavs? which speech he mentioned three points, which, of course, called for opposition. His statements which were in very bad taste in regard to the Jews applied only to Germany. We could not recognize any extermination from these remarks. His references to the superior numbers of cur enemy was something which could be interpreted by the common soldier that that superiority of our enemy would have to be made up for during battle.
directed against Heinrich Himmler ?
A. He thought that after the war the various organizations which were subordinate to him, the SS and perhaps the police also, could be assimilated into one, to do just the opposite of that which happened during the war, and our intentions were against this intention of his.
Q. How far were the crimes in concentration camps known to the Waffen SS, such as the extermination of the Jews ? I should like to call to your attention that I don't want you to speak for yourself alone as a highly placed general, but I want you to speak for the simple SS man, based on your own experience, of course.
A. It sounds quite impossible, and foreign countries do not wish to believe it, but the members of the Waffen SS as well as myself knew nothing of the crimes of which we heard here. This perhaps may serve ad an explanation, that at home only those who had known victims at the concentration camps knew anything about it, only the secret opposition was always prepared to mention rumors. If one of them heard something, he figured he had better evaluate it as hostile propaganda. Foreign raidos or newspapers were not known to him at all, and even at home it was not possible to follow. The bulk of the Waffen SS was set up against the enemy, and sacrifices grew from year to year. We did not have the time or opportunity to check rumors, and I was surprised and indignant about these things which Himmler had done contrary to the things that he had preached to us in peacetime.
Q. Do you know the speech of Himmler's made at Posen in which he mentioned the fact that thousands and tens of thousands of Jews had been killed ?
A. I was not present at that speech at Posen, and only heard of the speech here, during my arrest. As far as I know, the speech was addressed to the leaders at home and in the occupied countries. The members of the Waffen SS were not present at all, or if SS, in very, very small numbers.
Q. The unitsfor the guarding on the concentration camps were designated as Waffen SS as well, and rank was given to persons connected with the concentration camp system. Did you know anything about these matters during the war ?
A. I have already mentioned that the designation of the Waffen SS men for supervisory purposes was made known to me only after the war, but I must add that Himmler deliberately cnfused the limits and demarcations between these varied organizations to the public, and just for that reason there was the designation of the guarding personnel units as Waffen SS and the giving of ranks in the Waffen SS to persons who did not have any connection with the fighting unit itself.
Q. Do you consider that the Waffen SS, in its majority, participated in the crimes which indubitably were committed ?
A. No. The Prosecution chains the Waffen SS to the fate of Himmler and a small cricle of criminals around him. The Waffen SS is taking this quite bitterly for it believes that in its majority it fought decently and fairly. ments and the testimony of the front soldiers on your side. I believe that they will not refuse us respect. There were exceptions where incidents like that happened, but the Waffen SS considers it as quite unjust that it is being treated differently from the mass of the German Wehrmacht, and it does not deserve to be outlawed as a criminal organization.
DR. PELCKMANN: Mr. President, I have no further questions to this witness. BY MR. ELWYN JONES.
Q. Witness you heard Himmler's Kaarkov speech in April 1 1943 to the commanding officers of the there SS divisions in the East, did you not ?
A. Yes, I heard that speech.
Q. And you remember that he ended his speech by saying.
"We will never let that excellent weapon, the dread and terrible reputation which preceded us in the battle for Kharkov, fade, but will constantly add new meaning to it." Do you remember him saying that ?
A. Yes, indeed.
Q. And your units of the Waffen SS constantly added new meaning to your reputation for terror, did you not ?
A. No. I have already expressed quite the contrary yesterday and today. I consider it as an insult to say what our successes were dependent on terror. Quite the contrary, I said that our successes resulted from the brave fighting of leader and man.
Q. Yesterday you told the Tribunal that the relations of the Waffen SS with the local population were good, and that your Waffen SS troops did not take hostages nor destroy villages as punishments, or commit war crimes. That was your evidence, was it not ?
A. I said that the relationship were unobjectionable and good, that we did, not displace any population.
Q. I want you to listen now to some documents I am going to put in with regard to the SS generally and with regard to the Waffen SS in particular, first, two documents from your own sources.
MR. ELWYN JONES: The first, my Lord, is Document D-419 to be GB-552. I am not proposing to cross examine the witness as to these numerous documents my Lord. It appears to be the desire of the Tribunal that they should be put in as speedily as possible.
THE PRESIDENT: If they are new documents, you can cross examine him upon them.
MR. ELWYN JONES: If your Lordship pleases. BY MR. ELWYN JONES:
Q. The first document, D-419 is a report by a General of Artillery named Detzel, dated the 23rd of November 1939, with regard to the internal situation in the Warthegau, western Poland, incorporated into the Reich as the document describes it.
I needn't trouble you with the first page of the document, the report of the 2nd of December and the letter of the 30th of November, but if you read the letter of General Detzel dated the 23rd of November 1939, the second paragraph reads :
"The great work of construction in all spheres is not furthered by the intervention of SS formations who are given special racial political tendency makes itself felt of interfering decisively in all spheres of administration beyond the framework of these tasks, and of forming a'state within the state'. This phenomenon does not fail to have its effect on the troops, who are indignant about the way the tasks are carried out and thereby generally get into opposition to administration and party. I shall exclude the danger of serious differences by strict orders. The fact that this makes a serious demand on the discipline of the troops cannot be dismissed without further ado."
And then, the next paragraph :
"In almost all large towns, public shootings have been carried out by the organizations mentioned in this, the selection varied enormously and was often incomprehensible, the way it was carried out frequently unwrthy. interned with their families. Arrests were almost always accompanied by looting. houses were cleared at random the inhabitans loaded onto lorries at night then taken to concentration camps. Here also looting was a constant accompanying phenomenon. The quartering and feeding in the camps was such that the Camps chief Medical Officer feared the outbreak of epidemics and thus endangering of the troops. into the most serious execesses. In turok three SS cars under the leadership of a higher SS leader drove through the streets, on the 30th of October 1939 while the people in the streets were hit on theheads at random with horse whips and long whips. Amongst the victims were also people of German blood. Finally a number of Jews were driven into the synagogue, there had to crawl in between the benches whilst singing, during which time they were continuously whipped by the SS men. They were then forced to take down their trousers in order to be hit on the bare behind.
A Jew who out of fright had dirtied his trousers was forced to smear the excrement into the faces of the other Jews. has issued the following orders :
1) From the 9.11., no unemployment relief may any longer be paid to Poles and Jews, only forced labour is paid for. (This measure has already been confirmed).
2) From 9.11., Jews and Poles will be excluded from the distribution of ration foodstuffs and coal.
3) Unrest and incidents are to be created by provocation in order to facilitate the carrying out of the racial political work.
4) The fire service is to be reinforced immediately in order to prevent undesirable spreading to other objects, in case of chance fires in Jewish and Polish residential quarters and factories."
The rest of the document I needn't trouble you with.