Affidavit concerning Kaltenbrunner's signed orders to send prisoners to the Buchenwald camp

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Authors

Hermann F. J. Pister (Commandant of Buchenwald; Waffen-SS)

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Hermann F. J. Pister

German war criminal (1885-1948)

Image of Hermann F. J. Pister
  • Born: 1885-02-21 (Lübeck)
  • Died: 1948-09-28 (Landsberg Prison)
  • Country of citizenship: German Empire; Nazi Germany; Weimar Republic
  • Occupation: military officer
  • Member of political party: Nazi Party
  • Member of: Schutzstaffel (series ordinal: 29892)
  • Participant in: Pohl Trial (date: 1947-06-27; role: affiant)
  • Significant person: Leo Volk

Date: 01 August 1945

Defendant: Ernst Kaltenbrunner

Total Pages: 1

Language of Text: English

Source of Text: Nazi conspiracy and aggression (Office of United States Chief of Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality. Washington, D.C. : U.S. Government Printing Office, 1946.)

Evidence Code: L-38

Citation: IMT (page 1984)

HLSL Item No.: 451692

Trial Issue

Concentration camp system (administration, forced labor, abuse of inmates)…

Document Summary

Staff Evidence Analyses

L-38: Statement of SS Oberfuehrer Hermann Pister, commanding officer of Buchenwald Concentration Camp from January 1942 to April 1945, made at Fraising 1 August 1945

Freising, August 1, 1945
I, Pister Hermann, SS Oberfuehrer [SS Brigadier General], born February 21, 1885, Commanding Officer of the Concentration Camp Buchenwald, from January 1942 to April 1945, testify as follows
With exception of the mass delivery of prisoners from the concentration camps of the occupied territory all prisoners were sent to the concentration camp Buchenwald by order of the Main Security Office of the Reich Berlin. [Reichssicherheitshau-pamt]
These orders for protective custody (red forms) were in most cases signed with the name "Kaltenbrunner". The few remaining protective custody orders were signed.by "Foerster".
When the war conditions destroyed the contact between the Gestapo Offices and the Main Security Office the individual Gestapo Offices were authorized by the Main Security Office to send in prisoners independently and to have the protective custody orders signed by the executive officer of the command headquarters.
[signed]
Hermann Pister.
This statement has been written by me on 1 page in Freising, Germany, on the 1st of August at 10 a. m. voluntarily and without compulsion. I swear to God the Almighty, to say nothing but the truth, that I shall suppress nothing, and shall add nothing.
[signed]
Hermann Pister.
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