Q It's a very famous place, Lidice, L-I-D-I-C-E. on had nothing whatever to do with the division. I heard nothing about this matter.
Q Have you heard the name today for the first time?
Q Oh, the whole world knows of the massacre of Lidice. Are you saying seriously to the Court you have never heard of it? You have admitted that the Prinz Eugen Division was an SS division, have you not? you have said that units of the Waffen SS didn't set fire to villages or commit atrocities against the inhabitants. This is a statement from the Yugoslav Commission for Ascertaining War Crimes taken from a member of the SS, Holtzer Leander; and he declares:
"In August 1943 the 23rd Company set fire to a village on the railway line Jablabnica-Prozor by order of the battalion commander, Obersturmbannfuehrer Wagner, under the command of the Company Commander, Untersturmbannfuehrer Schuh. The inhabitants of the village were shot in the meantime.
"In August 1943, on the orders of the same persons, the 23rd Company set fire to a village on the railway line Niksic-Avtovac; and the inhabitants of the village were shot. The order for the shooting came from Jablanica and the villages were burnt down already in the morning. The shootings in Pancevo were carried out by the police agent Gross, former master-dyer, Brunn, from the SS Division "Prinz Eugen" from Pancevo, a former master-miller. He received a reward of 20,000 Dinars for the hangings at the cemetery."
hanging prisoners?
A It is striking that one company was named as the 23rd. We did not have Such a number. Furthermore, I cannot tell you anything about it since I did not command this company. It never was subordinate to me. In this division, Prinz Eugen, there were many so-called "Volksdeutsche" Germans; and even its first commander, Fritsch, was a "Volksdeutsche" for the Balkans. I believe that the war in the Balkans showed a different aspect on both sides than elsewhere. I suggest to you that the Waffen SS, the Allgemeine SS, the SD, and the police branches of the SS formed one great unit of the Nazi state. Do you agree with that?
A No. I stated again and again that this, a parent unit, did not exist; that we had no connection with the general SS nor with the SD; and we were completely under the command of the army itself. Temporarily small parts of the Waffen SS were under the disposal of the higher police; and SS leaders were assigned for tasks in the roar areas; and, this being the case, that applies to Warsaw as well as the cavalry brigades. under Himmler, did it not?
A Only in cases of jurisdiction. First of all, the judges who were the divisional commanders were the competent judicial authority; but sentences beyond a certain degree had to be reported to Himmler for his approval and confirmation. his own organization, this armed SS. This is when he was addressing the officers of the SS Leibstandarte of Adolf Hitler:
"This armed SS will live only if our entire SS is alive, if the entire corps is actually an order which lives according to these laws and realizes that one part cannot exist without the other. You are unimaginable without the general SS; and the latter is not imaginable without you. The police is not imaginable without the SS, nor are we imaginable without this executive branch of the state which is in our hands." That is an extract from 1918-PS.
Then he said again in 1943, "It must be so cone about that this SS organization with all its branches, the general SS, which is the common basis ofall of them, the Waffen SS, and the regular uniformed police, the Sipo, with the whole economic administration, schooling, ideological training, the whole question of kindred, is even under the Tenth Reichfuehrer SS one bloc, one body, one organization."
That is, from PS-1919.
Is not that a true picture of the SS?
A Yes, I'd say that it was so. He said it would have to be and it should become so for he knew that unity did not exist.
Q Then finally I want to put to you Hitler's ideas about the Waffen SS, the Document D-665, GB-280, which I referred to this morning.
THE PRESIDENT: You didn't give us the number for that document which you said took place in 1943.
MR. ELWYN JONES: That is the famous 1919-PS, US-170.
Q These are Hitler's ideas on the Waffen SS. He says that the greater German Reich in its final form would not include within its structures anything but national entities who are right from the beginning well disposed towards the Reich, "It is therefore necessary to maintain outside the corps of the Reich a state military police capable of representing and imposing the authority within the country in any situation." Then he goes on, "Having returned home in the ranks of the army, after having proved themselves in the field, the units of the Waffen SS who possessed the authority to execute their tasks as state police ..." That again is a picture of the unity of the SS by the leader of the Nazi state. Are you saying that he is wrong and that you were right in this matter? and which he intended to realize after the war.
COL. SMIRNOV: Mr. President, I would like to put only a very vew questions to this witness in supplement to the detailed cross examination which was made by my British colleague. Do you allow me to do so ? I am submitting to the Tribunal as USSR Exhibit 520.
THE PRESIDENT: Have you fresh matters to gointo, or fresh documents to put in ?
COL. SMIRNOV: I have a few fresh documents which I would like to submit, and in connection with that I have a few questions to put to the witness. Only three or four questions. ment of the Yugoslav State Commission, which deals especially with the actions of the SS Division "Prinz Eugen". My colleagues have already quoted a few documents referring to this, and this is summarized. BY COL. SMIRNOV:
Q. I would like the witness to apy attention to page 3, 4, 5, of the documentm which is a list of the villages destroyed during one action, and it is not the name of the villages, but it is the names of the heads of the families which were killed. I would like the witness to follow me while I read two paragraphs. "After the murder had been carried out, these SS groups went in the direction of the villages of Srijane, Bisko, Gernji Delac and Futisic in order to continue their mass murders and arsons,-
THE PRESIDENT: Can you tell us which page it is in the English ?
COL SMIRNOV: Page 6, My Lord, page 6. It is the fourth paragraph -- no, it is the third paragraph from the bottom. My Lord. Page 6 of the English text. May I continue ?
THE PRESIDENT: Yes. BY COL SMIRNOV:
Q. After the termination of the massacre, these SS-troops proceeded in the direction of the villages Srijane, Bisko, Gernji, Delac and Putisic in order to continue their mass murders and arsons. All the cattle they found in the burnt down villages was taken with them.
The entire complex of these crimes, which were committed in March 1944 in the district of Split stands out distinctly from the usual SS criminal style by a particular fact. It is that climax of brutal cynicism, lock women and children in stables filled with hay and starw, deliver speeches to them and thereafter burn them alive." I ask you, witness, does not this contradict slightly your description of the SS ?
A. In both of these paragraphs I can only say that we are concerned with the Balkans. I do not know which units are meant here, and therefore cannot comment on this.
Q I will submit the following document to be submitted to you. It is a statement of your old acquaintance. I believe that you remember the name of August Schmidthuber. Do you remember that officer ?
A. Yes, I know that name,
Q. Maybe you will recall that he commanded a batallion, the Batallion "Das Reichs" in the period when you were the commander of the division.
A. He was in the division when I commanded the division, and that is why I remember him, but for a long period of time he served-in the Balkans.
Q. I would like to quote only on sentence from the statement of the Waffen SS Major General, and I will submit the original to the Tribunal Please listen to this paragraph, page 3 of the Russian text : "A war correspondent told me that the commander of this first battalion Kaaserer, after having locked up a large number of citizens in a church in Krivaya Reka, blow it up. I do not know how many casualties there were." Do you not consider this action as a very heavy crime against humanity ?
A. It appears that we are here concerned with reports of various sources. Direct witness did not make any statement here.
Q. No, this is the statement of the division commander. This is a statement of a general of the Waffen SS.
A. Yes, but a reporter makes a statement here, and he seems to have belonged to this battalion. But for a fact I cannot comment on this, for I was not there, and this division was never under my command.
Q. Perhaps you will tell me what you thing of the following document. I direct USSR 513 to be shown to the witness. Have I correctly understood you yesterday when you stated that the SS troops did not murder hostages ?
A. Yes, even I said that to my knowledge the divisions which were under my command did not even take hostages.
Q. I will read three sentences a proclamation of Sturmbannfuehrer Breimaier, who was in command of a battalion in the Prinz Eugen. "On the third of November, 1943, around 20 hours, a German soldier on the Veli street in Sinj was ambushed and killed. Because we did not succeed, despite all our efforts, in finding the culprit and because the population did not support us in this matter, 24 civilian persons will be shot and one hanged. The sentence will be executed on 5 November 1943 at 5:30 hours. Signed, Breimaier, SS-Sturmbannfuehrer and Battalion Commander." I do not read now the list of hostages that were shot. Isn't this a typical example of hostage shooting carried out by SS troops ?
A. I am hearing the name Breimaier for the very first time. I do now know whether previsouly he had instituted a court marshall and if things had taken the course as set down here, that would have been Justified.
Q. Very well. Perhaps I will succeed in convincing you by what is termed "ocular" evidence. Will you show the witness these two photographs. With the permission of the Tribunal I will read a very brief extract of the statement of the State Commission of Yugoslavia. The original will be submitted to the Tribunal. It is now being shown to the witness. Will you listen under what conditions these persons were beheaded. "On the 9th of June, 1944, and on the following days the SS-Troops from Trieste committed atrocities and crimes against the Slovene population in the Slovene coastal area, as we have already stated above." I will skip the next sentence and the second sentence, which are cumulative. "On that day Hitler's criminals captured two soldiers of the Jugoslav Liberation Army and the Slovene Partisan battalions. They brought them to Razori, where they mutilated their faces with bayonets, put out their eyes and then asked them if they could, see their colleague tito.
Thereupon they called the peasants together and beheaded to two victims before Sedej's house. They then placed the heads on a table. Later, after a battle, the photographs were removed from a fallen German, From this it can be seen that they confirm the above described incident, namely the crime of bloodthirsty German executioners in Razori." Don't you consider these acts as a typical example of crimes against humanity ?
A. If it had been perpetrated by men of the Waffen SS it would have been crimes, but that has not been proved here. It was one of thirty-five divisions in the Balkans, as against the large corps of the Waffen SS.
Q. Then I will show you another original German document which is USSR Exhibit 133, and which is a letter for information of the German high command to the battalion commander "Supersloda", Lieutenant Supreme Commander. I will only quote two sentences. You stated yesterday that SS troops did not kill prisoners. Did I correctly understand you ?
A. Yes.
Q. I will then ask you to listen to two sentences quoted from a German document. First, at the beginning of the page, "SS division is with its west blank near RIPAC". I skip one sentence, and I continue. "As a result of the successful engagement, 23 dead and 34 wounded and more than 100 enemy dead have been counted."
please pay attention to the following words: "47 captured soldiers have been shot, 363 provisionally apprehended," In a report exchanged by two commando units it is officially stated that the prisoners were shot. This was a very cruel method on the part of the SS troops ?
A. Yes, a first lieutenant reports on crimes which allegedly an SS unit is supposed to have perpetrated, without mentioning the unit to which they belonged.
Q. I believe that the 47 shot soldiers is a cruel thing. Have you any different opinion on that matter ?
A. I have no proof of the fact that it was one of the Waffen SS who did this
Q. Then please answer the following question. Do you have knowledge where the third SS tank corps was engaged in the territory of the USSR ?
A. The third tank corps ? The third ? Is that a corps, a panzer corps ? I believe that that was used in the southern sector.
Q. No, it was engaged in Estonia. Did you know General Steiner ?
A. Yes he was the commanding general.
Q. Did you know where the Totenkopf divisions were engaged ?
A. Yes, we discussed that today already.
Q. It was engaged at Miansk and other districts of the Movgoro region, isn't that right ?
A. I just heard the words "Miansk". Did I hear that correctly ?
Q. Yes. Thank you.
A. Yes, that is where the division was.
Q. That division was commanded by Major General Eicke, isn't that right ?
A. Eicke ? Eicke, yes indeed.
Q. Do you have knowledge where the Adolf Hitler division was engaged ?
A. At the same period of time as the division SS was it Miansk I believe it was used in the southern sector as well. Miansk -- I believe that was in the year 1942, or perhaps 1941.
Q. This division was commanded by Lieutenant General Simon, isn't that right ?
A. Simon was the successor to Eicke, yes.
Q. All right. Then when did Obergruppenfuehrer Dietrich command this division ? Was that later ?
A. No, he was there up until the summer of 1943.
Q. Do you know where the 134th SS high division was engaged ?
high/
A. We did not have numbers of that category.
Q. And the 97th Division, "Golden Lily" ?
A. Neither did that one exist. We had at the most 35 to 40 divisions.
Q Which was the Golden Lily? Was that in the SS Division?
A I am hearing that name for the first time, Golden Lily. No. No. That is an entirely new concept to me.
Q And Langemark, did you ever hear of that?
A There was a batallion "Langemark."
Q Do you know Sturmbannfuehrer Sehlung?
A No. No. I do not know him.
Q And do you know Lt. General Lueneberg?
Q No. Lueneberg. Division.
COLONEL SMIRNOV: Mr. President, I will submit to the Tribunal a note. This notice has been compiled according to the Commission's documents which are already submitted to the Tribunal. It is signed by the secretary of the Commission. And it is confirmed also. This might aid the Tribunal.
THE PRESIDENT: Have you, Colonel Smirnov, the original of this document?
COLONEL SMIRNOV: Yes.
MR. PRESIDENT: May I see it?
COLONEL SMIRNOV: Yes.
MR. PRESIDENT: Colonel Smornov, have you put in yet the report of the Extraordinary State Commission?
COLONEL SMIRNOV: Yes, Mr. President. A series of reports have been submitted. Thidnotice is a summary of material whichhas already been submitted. This is only to help the Tribunal.
THE PRESIDENT: Colonel Smirnov, does this document consist of extracts from the Extraordinary State Commission Report?
COLONEL SMIRNOV: Mr. President, It tells of the various units engaged in different regions of the USSR. This is not an extract. It refers to the SS attachments engaged in this territory, and in most cases the facts which were at the basis of those divisions. They are all mentioned in the report of the State Commission which we have all already submitted.
THE PRESIDENT: Colonel Smirnov, I think the Tribunal appreciates that you have done this for the convenience of the Tribunal, that this document has been prepared for the convenience of the Tribunal, but the Tribunal thinks they had better refer only the report of the Extraordinary Commission itself which has already been offer in evidence.
COLONEL SMIRNOV: I have no further questions to put to the witness. BY THE PRESIDENT:
Q. Witness, what unit were you commanding at the time war against Russia broke out ?
A. At the start of the campaign against Russia I was the commander of the Division Das Reich.
Q. Das Reich. Where was that division stationed at the outbreak of the war ?
A. It was used and stationed in the middle sector of the eastern front.
Q. The middle sector of the eastern front. Was it employed in the original attack upon the Soviet Union ?
A. The attack was west of the Beresina, south of *---*. However the division was not deployed there but brought up.
Q. You mean it wasn't deployed were upon the first day ?
A. No, it was brought along as a rear echelon unit.
Q. How long after the attack opened ?
A. Yes, several dvisions were one behind the other, for the motorized division could be brought along -
Q. I asked how long after the attack opened was your division deployed ?
A. Only two to three days after the outbreak of hostilities.
Q. And are you telling the Tribunal that at that time or about that time you never heard of the order to kill Commissars ?
A. I have already testified that this order was not received by us and that in the divisions we did not act according, to it. I know only that later on we received an order for a separation of the Commissars, and I have already stated that this troop had very little to do with this matter, for the Commissars were not recognized by the troop.
Q. You say you didn't receive the order. What I asked you was : Did you hear of the order ?
A. As the second order came through about the separation, I believe I heard that a previous order had gone out, but it had not been transmitted by many offices of the general command.
Q. This order to kill the Commissars ?
A. We did not receive that order, that is correct, and I was dealing with this order.
Q. No, but when you received the second order, you said you had heard of the other order, and what I wanted to know was if the ether order was the order to kill the Commissars ?
A. I did not quite understand the question.
Q. You said you received a second order to separate the Commissars, and at that time you heard of the first order, What was the first order ?
A. I said that I heard of the first order to kill the Commissars, but only at a period of time when the other order had come through for the segregation.
THE PRESIDENT: The witness can retire now.
DR. PELCKMANN: May I have a word, your Honor ?
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, certainly. I thought you were through.
DR. PELCKMANN: In the course of the cross examination of this witness the British and the Russian prosecution, as far as I am able to judge, submitted 20 to 30 completely new documents. Not all of these documents were used in the questioning of this witness.
THE PRESIDENT: Dr. Pelckmann, the purpose of re-examination is to ask questions and not to argue.
DR. PELCKMANN: Very well, Mr, President, I shall do that. I shall not put any questions dealing with those documents to which I cannot refer in detail. The Prosecution did not put any questions either, and I am of the opinion that these documents could not be used. One document is in the Polish language, and I am sorry I cannot read it and therefore I am not able to put questions about that document.
BY DR. PELCKMANN:
Q. There is one document, Mr. Witness, which is found in the English language, and which comprises 184 pages, the title of which is "German Crimes in Poland", which I should like to put before you as an example. Will you please read the pester and will you tell me what connection it has with the Waffen SS, and if possible tell the High Tribunal the page on which it is found.
A. This poster is just beyond page 184. It contains an announcement of the SS and Police Leader, and 9t is therefore an organ or an instrument of the Higher SS and Police Leader and, as I have stated repeatedly, has nothing whatever to do with the Waffen SS.
Q. Now I shall have submitted to you another document, 4039-IS, a document about which you were not questioned by the Prosecution. Please tell me what connection this document has with the Waffen SS ?
Q. Here the District Chief of Warsaw, some official who was subordinate to the Governor General, made an announcement which had no connection with the Waffen SS.
Q. Isn't there anything found in this document regarding the Waffen SS ?
A. It says here only that the German Wehrmacht -
Q. I was asking you whether there is anything at all contained in here about the Waffen SS or any other formation of the SS ?
A. I'm sorry I have to give you a decided no for an answer. There is nothing contained herein.
Q. I should further like to submit to you the document 4038-PS. This document was also submitted to you by the Prosecution. Please take your time in reading this document, and then tell me what connection there is between this document and the Waffen SS ?
THE PRESIDENT: What number is that ?
DR. PELCKMANN: It is 4038- PS, Your Lordship.
THE WITNESS: It also is an announcement by the Chief of the Warsaw district who was subordinate to the Governor General of the Government General and has no connection with the Waffen SS.
BY DR. PELCKMANN:
Q. I should further like to submit Document D-954, as far as I am able to make out; it might be 57. However, this is an interrogation of the 27th of May 1946 of the witness -
THE PRESIDENT (interposing) : I think all these documents speak for themselves, and if they don't refer to the Waffen SS, the Tribunal will take note of that fact.
DR. PELCKMANN: Yes, Mr. President. Then I should like to ask just why these documents were submitted. I am only taking the liberty of referring to the fact that there is no connection. Mr. President, and I might make the same remark about this document as well. BY DR. PELCKMANN:
Q. And can you judge, Witness, whether in this book D-956 which you held in your hands, there is anything dealing with the Waffen SS ?
A. I looked at it but briefly, but I could not see any connection.
Q. You were reminded, witness, of the speech of Himmler at Kharkov. You said on that that this attitude and opinion of Himmler was wrong, that terror had been of use of the troops. Did you express that attitude or opinion to Himmler, and if so, in what way ?
A. On the same day I made known my opinion to Himmler, and as is customary between superior and subordinate, I did this between the two of us.
Q An SS Division "Prinz Eugen" was mentioned. How many divisions of the Waffen SS were there?
A To my knowledge, there, were more than 35 divisions. I believe they numbered higher than that. However, they did not exist at the same time. One of these divisions was the Division "Prinz Eugen", of which I have already said that it contained many racial Germans in its ranks.
Q Is it true also that in this division Serbs and Croats served?
A I can not give you the particulars about that. We had warrior divisions in the Balkans which contained Croats, Slovenians and Moslems.
Q Do you know about the fight in the Balkans? First we are concerned about whether, if this fight was carried on very intensively, atrocities committed by the other side were reported to you. I am not asking this question in order to determine whether and state that the other side committed atrocities; my purpose is only to determine the fact that through single atrocities you cannot draw conclusions as to generalities.
A I had no personal insight into the campaign in the Balkans. But from history I know that even before the First World War, fatalities did occur in the Balkans.
Q Do you know about the Eastern Front; that is, from reports which came to you? I should like to limit myself once more in the same way just so that the intention of my question is quite clear.
THE PRESIDENT: Dr. Pelckmann, the witness has already told us that he knows nothing about the war in the Balkans, and therefore any questions you put to him will have no significance to us.
DR. PELCKMANN: Yes, Mr. President. I must have misunderstood. That is why I do not wish to inquire any more about the Balkans, but rather turn to the Eastern Front, where the witness had his experiences. BY DR. PELCKMANN:
Q Mr. Witness, do you understand that I am now turning to the Eastern Front in my question?
A Yes, incidents of that type did take place. And matters like that were collected as they were submitted, I believe, to the Red Cross at Geneva by the commanders of the armies. But I cannot give you particulars.
Q Do you know that reports like that were collected?
that systematically? were systematic.
GENERAL RUDENKO: Mr. President, I would like to make the following brief statement. The defense in the course of the examination has tried more than once, according to data which was published in White Fascist Books, to point out atrocities committed by the opponent; and therefore I consider that the question put by the defense now must be ruled out.
THE PRESIDENT: Dr. Pelckmann, the Tribunal considers that you have no right to ask this witness for his opinion about these matters. You must confine yourself to asking him questions as to facts, and what he knows do out facts. And you can make any argument about those facts that you like when you come to make your argument. BY DR. PELCKMANN: should like to ask you only the following. If you could see now the deeds which allegedly were committed by the SS, that is, deeds based on these documents and as shown by these documents, would you, despite everything, say that that was not a system but rather that these were single incidents caused by the severity of the battle, and which could have happened partly because of the discipline among foreign elements?
THE PRESIDENT: You should not begin by asking the witness for his opinion. He has already given it to us, you know; he has already said, when he was being cross-examined about those incidents in which the Waffen SS took part, that they were individual instances. He has already said that. BY DR. PELCKMANN: mentioned, according to which a Yugoslav was hanged. If in your troop you had received knowledge of a case like that, would you have taken steps? competent authority, and he is the divisional commander. If I as the commanding general had had reports like that, I should have taken steps, and I should have decreed a judicial procedure. Cases like that did occur several times.
Q You were confronted with the case of Oradur in France. Do you know whether your unit, that is, whether your command, participated in this crime? knowledge about it. In this case, it allegedly deals with an act of a single company leader. That took place at an earlier date, however, and if that had been brought to my knowledge and if the division commander had been subordinate to me, I would have given him the order to start a judicial proceeding.
Q Your unit was deployed in Normandy; is that correct?
AAt the time I led an army; yes.
Q Oradur is not situated in Normandy?
Q Was your unit responsible for this during your time as commander? and cited several quotations to you.
DR. PELCKMANN: I should be very grateful if this document could be put at my disposal so that I could present it to the witness; for just the quotations without seeing the document I do not believe can put the witness in a position to give an intelligent reply.
(A document was handed to Dr. Pelckmann). BY DR. PELCKMANN: This document is only English, and therefore I cannot hand it over to you. But I shall give you several quotations from this document. I shallquote the following:
"The greater German Reich, in its final form, together with its boundaries will not only contain racial units which are well disposed to the Reich, but in our Reich of the future, only police troops will have the necessary authority." tell us to what period of time these statements actually refer.
A I know this order only through oral transmission. It was transmitted to the military offices in order to pacify their misgivings about the expansion of the Waffen SS. This applies only to the future. It speaks of the greater German Reich as the Reich of the future.
But naturally what Hitler meant in particular by this is beyond my knowledge. was to receive police tasks in the future. Was that the basic principle of the Waffen SS during the war?
A No. No. I have to give you "no" for the answer. Perhaps Hitler sought a similar instrument to the one that existed in Austria, where there was a military bounday where the men worked, and in emergencies worked for bounday defense. crimes committed by Waffen SS units was quoted, and on this list one unit is mentioned. The witness was asked whether he knew the commander General Steiner. You said yes to that question, witness?
Q Now I shall read an affidavit. This is one of the affidavits which I shall submit later on. This is Affidavit No. 1, an SS affidavit from which we can see how strictly this Lieutenant General Steiner considered the discipline of his troops. I quote from the middle of this affidavit:
"Our attention had been called to an alleged spy, according to the affidavit of Walter Karlweiss.
"We tried to open the door of the neighboring house, but we were unsuccessful. Thereupon we broke a window, entered the house, and investigated it thoroughly, without, however, finding a Soviet spy. Since we had only to realize that to had made a mistake, we left the house by the way in which we had entered it, and to regretted very much having broken a window pane.
"Two hours later, two Oberscharfuehrer were there when we were arrested. We asked the policemen for the reason of our arrest. They replied that the Ukraine owner of the house which we had searched had complained because of the broken window pane and complained to the divisional staff, and that the commander of the division, General Steiner, had decreed a strict investigation of this case at once before the Divisional Court, and Ernst Kugel and I were interrogated singly by an officer of the rank of Hauptsturmfuehrer.
"The judge said that according to the latest decree of the general, a de cent and clean deportment towards the Ukraine population had been laid down as our duty.
Together with my comrade Kugel I had violated this rule, since without permission and order, we had entered this Ukraine home."
"After this case had been cleared up in this matter, the judicial officer drew up a transcript and charged me with transmitting this record to General Steiner. He commented on my report, and these were his words:
'It is very well that your behavior was clean; otherwise you would have been severely punished. General Steiner charged me with reporting to him personally about the investigation, but I am happy that I did not have to give him any bad reports about his men. And apart from that, tell all your comrades Vicking is fighting chivalrously and cleanly.'" that first of all this was the basic attitude of General Steiner and his troops, and secondly that it was the basic attitude of the Waffen SS, who were stationed at the front, as well as of the Waffen SS who operated behind the lines?
SS. I know his strict opinion which is stated here. Whether it was a window pane and whether a judicial process is necessary in a case like that, that is a point I would not know. But as a basic principle, this opinion was held by the old leaders of the Vorfuegungstruppe and of the Waffen SS, and this view was hold from the beginning.
DR. PELCKMANN: I beg your pardon, Your Lordship. There are so many documents, but there is only one more which I should like to make the topic of my re-examination. deposed by Dr. Stanislaw Piotrowski is among that number, deposed on the 29th of July, 1946, right here in Nurnberg. I should like to suggest that this witnessbe called for cross examination before the High Tribunal. I should like to make this application, for it is quite obvious that this witness is present here and there would be no reason to satisfy ourselves with an affidavit.
THE PRESIDENT: What is the number of the document?
DR. PELCKMANN: No. D-939, Your Lordship.
THE PRESIDENT: Dr. Pelckmann, hadn't you better finish with the witness first and then make your motion afterwards, if you want to make a motion about cross examination.
DR. PELCKMANN: I have no further questions to put to this witness, Mr. President.
THE PRESIDENT: The witness may retire.
DR. PELCKMANN: I beg your pardon, Your Lordship. I have made a mistake. It is not Dr. Piotrowski; it is Israel Eisenberg. That is the name of the witness.
THE PRESIDENT: D-939?
DR. PELCKMANN: Yes.
M. FUSTER: Mr. President, night I ask a question to make something clear?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, it is very inconvenient to do it at this late stage. Why didn't you do it before?
M. FUSTER: It is not very important, My Lord. I will withdraw it.
THE PRESIDENT: Very well. The Tribunal will adjourn now.
(A recess was taken.)
THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Elwyn Jones, the Tribunal understands that the Witness, who is -
MR. ELWYN JONES: Israel Eisenberg.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes. Is he present in Nurnberg?
MR. ELWYN JONES: He is nowin Stuttgart, My Lord, and is available to be called if the Tribunal thinks it is necessary.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, the Tribunal thinks, unless there is some particular objection, in view of thenature of the evidence, that possibly he ought to be called for cross examination.
MR. ELWYN JONES: The prosecution has no objection to make at all provided that we have additional time to got the witness here.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, then, will you have him brought hare as soon as possible?
MR. ELWYN JONES: Yes, Your Lordship.
DR. PELCKMANN: I shall now call the witness Reinecke.
GUENTHER REINECKE, a witness, took the stand and testified as follows: BY THE PRESIDENT:
Q Will you state your fullname, please?
Q Will you repeat this oath after no? sworn, -- the Almighty and Omniscient, that I will speak the truth and will withhold and add nothing. (The witness repeated the oath) BY DR. PELCKMANN:
Q Mr. Witness, what position did you occupy in the SS? Court and Chief Judge of the Supreme SS and Police Court.
Q Did you have legal training?