Source: Nuremberg document NO-2429
Comment: Claussen is wrong to suggest all who allegedly destroyed the Hartheim facilities were killed. At least one person gave testimony
Text
TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT NO. NO-2429
OFFICE CHIEF OF COUNSEL FOR WAR CRIMES
I, Gustav Claussen, born in Busum [?], Schleswig, Holstein, on 7 March, 1897, and now residing in Dachau, Germany, duly swear and state:
That from the end of 1943 till March 1945 I was a prisoner on duty in the Arbeits Einstaz in Mauthausen where the administrative work was accomplished for Mauthausen and sub-camps; that in this office I did clerical work, such as making reports, keeping records, and corresponding with firms who used prisoners in the operation of their business; that in the course of my duties I saw a secret teletype message which to the best of my memory was as follows:
"TO THE CONCENTRATION CAMP MAUTHAUSEN, SS STANDARTENFUHRER ZIEREIS, HARTHEIM MUST BE DESTROYED IMMEDIATELY. EXECUTION MUST BE REPORTED. BY ORDER OF THE FUEHRER,
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Anton Kaindl, Commandant of Sachsenhausen. July 16 1946
Source: Affidavit of 16 July 1946, from which NI 280 was derived. Entered into Nuremberg Documentation Scheide 12 (Defense Exhibit Number).
Comment:
Text
DOCUMENT BOOK II SCHEIDE No. 33
Affidavit Nuernberg, 16 July 1944
Concerning my person: My name is Anton Kaindl, born on 14 July 1902 in Munich. My last rank was: SS-Standartenfuehrer of the Waffen SS. My last position was: commander of the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp, from August 1942 until its dissolution.
Being duly sworn/depose and say:
Ad rem:
Section I: Historical development of the Concentration Camp system
I
Staff commands and SS-Death-Head Units (Totenkopfverbaende) = SS - T - Wachsturmbann (guard unit)
Comment:
Text
DOCUMENT BOOK II SCHEIDE No. 33
Affidavit Nuernberg, 16 July 1944
Concerning my person: My name is Anton Kaindl, born on 14 July 1902 in Munich. My last rank was: SS-Standartenfuehrer of the Waffen SS. My last position was: commander of the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp, from August 1942 until its dissolution.
Being duly sworn/depose and say:
Ad rem:
Section I: Historical development of the Concentration Camp system
I
Staff commands and SS-Death-Head Units (Totenkopfverbaende) = SS - T - Wachsturmbann (guard unit)
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Richard Baer's Five interrogations
Source: Frankfurt trial DVD
Comment: Provided to assist my more misguided friends. Five interrogations in which Baer provides no details about homicidal gassings with a rather weak exception of the day after his arrest. The last interrogation was October 1961, there are no further records released until his premature death in June 1963.
Text
Richterliche Vernehmung des Angeklagten Richard Baer vom 22.12.1960
Amtsgericht, Abteilung 931
Frankfurt am Main, den 22.12.1960
931 Gs 7908/60
Gegenwärtig:
Amtsgerichtsrat Opper
als Richter,
Justizangestellte
Riedmüller
als Urkundsbeamtin der
Geschäftsstelle
Vorgeführt aus der Untersuchungshaftanstalt Frankfurt am Main-Hammelsgasse, erscheint der Beschuldigte Richard Baer.
Der Haftbefehl des Amtgerichts Frankfurt am Main – 931 Gs. 6320/60 – vom 21.10.1960, der dem Beschuldigten durch das Amtsgericht Schwarzenbek am 20.12.1960 bereits verkündet worden ist, wurde dem Beschuldigten erneut mit Beschwerderecht bekanntgegeben.
Dem Beschuldigten wurde außerdem der Beschluß des Amtsgerichts Frankfurt am Main – 931 Gs. 7862/60 verkündet.
Der Beschuldigte wurde gefragt, ob er auf die Beschuldigungen im Haftbefehl etwas erwidern wolle.
Er erklärt, daß er sich nicht im Sinne der Beschuldigungen im Haftbefehl strafbar gemacht habe.
Er erklärt:
Ich bin nur Lagerkommandant im Lager Auschwitz I gewesen. Mit den Teillagern, in denen Vergasungen stattfanden, hatte ich nichts zu tun. Ich habe auch keinen Einfluß auf die Vergasungen selbst gehabt. Die Vergasungen fanden im Lager II statt. Dieses Lager unterstand nicht mir, sondern dem Hauptsturmführer Kramer. Er war zu meiner Zeit Kommandant des Lagers II. Der Evakuierungsmarsch wurde vom Reichssicherheitshauptamt in Berlin angeordnet und unter meiner Leitung, allerdings nur, soweit es sich um das Lager I handelt, durchgeführt. Ich selbst habe nach einigen Stunden des Marsches gesehen, daß das so nicht ging. Es lag viel Schnee, und die Häftlinge waren nicht in der Lage, die vorgesehenen sechs Tage bis ins KL Groß-Rosen zu marschieren. Ich bin dann im Auto vorausgefahren und habe in Ratibor nach mühsamen Verhandlungen mit Beamten der Reichsbahn erreicht, daß ich offene Waggons bekam, mit denen dann die Verlegung zum Bestimmungsort durchgeführt worden ist.
Comment: Provided to assist my more misguided friends. Five interrogations in which Baer provides no details about homicidal gassings with a rather weak exception of the day after his arrest. The last interrogation was October 1961, there are no further records released until his premature death in June 1963.
Text
Richterliche Vernehmung des Angeklagten Richard Baer vom 22.12.1960
Amtsgericht, Abteilung 931
Frankfurt am Main, den 22.12.1960
931 Gs 7908/60
Gegenwärtig:
Amtsgerichtsrat Opper
als Richter,
Justizangestellte
Riedmüller
als Urkundsbeamtin der
Geschäftsstelle
Vorgeführt aus der Untersuchungshaftanstalt Frankfurt am Main-Hammelsgasse, erscheint der Beschuldigte Richard Baer.
Der Haftbefehl des Amtgerichts Frankfurt am Main – 931 Gs. 6320/60 – vom 21.10.1960, der dem Beschuldigten durch das Amtsgericht Schwarzenbek am 20.12.1960 bereits verkündet worden ist, wurde dem Beschuldigten erneut mit Beschwerderecht bekanntgegeben.
Dem Beschuldigten wurde außerdem der Beschluß des Amtsgerichts Frankfurt am Main – 931 Gs. 7862/60 verkündet.
Der Beschuldigte wurde gefragt, ob er auf die Beschuldigungen im Haftbefehl etwas erwidern wolle.
Er erklärt, daß er sich nicht im Sinne der Beschuldigungen im Haftbefehl strafbar gemacht habe.
Er erklärt:
Ich bin nur Lagerkommandant im Lager Auschwitz I gewesen. Mit den Teillagern, in denen Vergasungen stattfanden, hatte ich nichts zu tun. Ich habe auch keinen Einfluß auf die Vergasungen selbst gehabt. Die Vergasungen fanden im Lager II statt. Dieses Lager unterstand nicht mir, sondern dem Hauptsturmführer Kramer. Er war zu meiner Zeit Kommandant des Lagers II. Der Evakuierungsmarsch wurde vom Reichssicherheitshauptamt in Berlin angeordnet und unter meiner Leitung, allerdings nur, soweit es sich um das Lager I handelt, durchgeführt. Ich selbst habe nach einigen Stunden des Marsches gesehen, daß das so nicht ging. Es lag viel Schnee, und die Häftlinge waren nicht in der Lage, die vorgesehenen sechs Tage bis ins KL Groß-Rosen zu marschieren. Ich bin dann im Auto vorausgefahren und habe in Ratibor nach mühsamen Verhandlungen mit Beamten der Reichsbahn erreicht, daß ich offene Waggons bekam, mit denen dann die Verlegung zum Bestimmungsort durchgeführt worden ist.
Saturday, May 21, 2011
NO-2368. Friedrich Entress on Auschwitz
Source: NO-2368. Only the English translation seems available.
Comment: Entress was a camp doctor. He was convicted and sentenced to death in the Mauthausen trial in 1946. This affidavit was given about 1 month before he was hung while seeking clemency.
Text:
I, Friedrich ENTRESS, swear, depose and state as follows:
1. I, Friedrich ENTRESS, was born on 8 December 1914 in Posen. There I attended the elementary school, the high school and the university.
2. I passed my state examination in June 1939, and in the middle of 1942 was given by decree the doctor's title by the Ministry of culture.
3. I was never a member of the NSDAP. In 1939 I enlisted in the self defense (Selbstschutz) in Posen voluntarily and was drafted into the Waffen-SS in October 1939.
Comment: Entress was a camp doctor. He was convicted and sentenced to death in the Mauthausen trial in 1946. This affidavit was given about 1 month before he was hung while seeking clemency.
Text:
I, Friedrich ENTRESS, swear, depose and state as follows:
1. I, Friedrich ENTRESS, was born on 8 December 1914 in Posen. There I attended the elementary school, the high school and the university.
2. I passed my state examination in June 1939, and in the middle of 1942 was given by decree the doctor's title by the Ministry of culture.
3. I was never a member of the NSDAP. In 1939 I enlisted in the self defense (Selbstschutz) in Posen voluntarily and was drafted into the Waffen-SS in October 1939.
Jan Karski: Story of a Secret State
Source: Story of a Secret State by Jan Karski
Comment: Items of interest
Text
[page 7 - mobilisation and German attack]
There were, too, the remarks my brother had made during the hours immediately after the mobilization. My brother, who was my senior by nearly a score of years, held an important government position and had belonged, as far back as I could remember, to the 'well-informed circles.' The citations which Pietrzak made from his father, who had even more authoritative channels of information, amplified and confirmed the analysis given by my brother. Others joined in with gleanings from relatives, friends and their personal deductions. The entire compilation, when sifted down, tended to leave us with the conclusion that our mobilization was simply the Polish riposte to the Nazi war of nerves. Germany was weak and Hitler was bluffing. When he saw that Poland was strong, united, prepared, he would back down quickly and we should all go home, If not, the farcical little fanatic would be taught a severe lession by Poland and, if necessary, by England and France.
Comment: Items of interest
Text
[page 7 - mobilisation and German attack]
There were, too, the remarks my brother had made during the hours immediately after the mobilization. My brother, who was my senior by nearly a score of years, held an important government position and had belonged, as far back as I could remember, to the 'well-informed circles.' The citations which Pietrzak made from his father, who had even more authoritative channels of information, amplified and confirmed the analysis given by my brother. Others joined in with gleanings from relatives, friends and their personal deductions. The entire compilation, when sifted down, tended to leave us with the conclusion that our mobilization was simply the Polish riposte to the Nazi war of nerves. Germany was weak and Hitler was bluffing. When he saw that Poland was strong, united, prepared, he would back down quickly and we should all go home, If not, the farcical little fanatic would be taught a severe lession by Poland and, if necessary, by England and France.
Friday, May 20, 2011
Jan Malinowski: Early Escapee from Auschwitz
Source: The Miami News - October 25, 1942 - North American Newspaper Alliance
Comment: Jan Malinowski escaped in June 1942, but was not aware of gas chambers and has only a garbled account of what might be phenol lethal injections.
Text
PRISONERS USED FOR GUINEA PIGS BY NAZIS, SAYS DOCTOR WHO FLED
[Editor's Note: This is the story of a Polish physician, who since March, 1940, edited an underground newspaper in Warsaw and was arrested in December, 1941 and has just succeeded in escaping to England. Dr. Malinowski was deported to the ill-famed concentration camp in Oswiecim, southern Poland. Last June he and a companion made a break for freedom. His friend was caught and shot, but the doctor managed to reach the Hungarin border, and with the help of the Polish underground, arrived in the Middle East and now London.]
Comment: Jan Malinowski escaped in June 1942, but was not aware of gas chambers and has only a garbled account of what might be phenol lethal injections.
Text
PRISONERS USED FOR GUINEA PIGS BY NAZIS, SAYS DOCTOR WHO FLED
[Editor's Note: This is the story of a Polish physician, who since March, 1940, edited an underground newspaper in Warsaw and was arrested in December, 1941 and has just succeeded in escaping to England. Dr. Malinowski was deported to the ill-famed concentration camp in Oswiecim, southern Poland. Last June he and a companion made a break for freedom. His friend was caught and shot, but the doctor managed to reach the Hungarin border, and with the help of the Polish underground, arrived in the Middle East and now London.]
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Jan Karski's visit to Belzec
Source: Story of a Secret State by Jan Karski, pp339 - 353, pub. 1944 Riverside Press
Comment: Another version of his visit
Text:
To Die in Agony
A few days after my second visit to the Warsaw ghetto, the Bund leader was to arrange an opportunity for me to see the Jewish death camp.
The camp was located near the town of Belzec about one hundred miles east of Warsaw and was well-known all over Poland from the tales of horror that were circulated about it. The common report was that every Jew who reached it, without exception, was doomed to death. The Bund leader had never been in it but had the most detailed information in its operation.
Comment: Another version of his visit
Text:
To Die in Agony
A few days after my second visit to the Warsaw ghetto, the Bund leader was to arrange an opportunity for me to see the Jewish death camp.
The camp was located near the town of Belzec about one hundred miles east of Warsaw and was well-known all over Poland from the tales of horror that were circulated about it. The common report was that every Jew who reached it, without exception, was doomed to death. The Bund leader had never been in it but had the most detailed information in its operation.
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