Most of them were without property, if they had formerly had property it had already been seized by the Gestapo. This was particularly true of the non-German prisoners. To be sure, in order to help the prisoners I had to bribe the Gestapo political department, the adjutant's office, the leading doctors in Berlin, and the offices of the RSHA. They assisted me, and in this way it was possible to help the prisoners, for example to obtain releases to prevent the execution of penalties, etc. According to the regulations it was forbidden to recommend any releases. In order to have the necessary funds for this bribing, I set up the illegal workshop in Block 46, and I set it up specifically in Block 46 because there was no danger that the workshop would be discovered. Moreover, I could use particularly endangered prisoners as workers in the workshop and thus protect them. It is of no importance, but, I would like to say it here that the suggestion that these illegal workshops be set up was not mine. The prisoners made the suggestion tome, and it was a good one. Not only did I not receive anything from the prisoners I helped, but I supported them for the first period after their release. I gave them clothing, shoes and food, and even provided for their relatives in some cases. This was however, only possible by my sending packages to my wife who sent them on under another name. Not only for prisoners who were released but also for prisoners in the camp itself, and their relatives, I sent clothing and shoes manufactured in the illegal workshops.
Q Kogon also said that the prisoners gave you presents, pictures, clothing etc., whatever you wanted, is that so?
A If Kogon is referring to the clothing manufactured in the illegal workshop that is correct, but they could't give them to me, because I was the director of these workshops, and I wouldn't bribe myself. No, I did not receive these things for my personal use, but as I said, I had them manufactured for the purpose of bribery in the interest of the prisoners themselves.
I wouldn't be speaking of these unimportant matters now, I am not under indictment for that, but I would like to say I am able to say oven today where I got my suits of clothes I wore in Buchenwald. They were made by Pool in London, Terkelsen made part of them. Lelong in Paris made some of them. Never in my life have I worn silk shirts, but I didn't have my shirts made in Buchenwald. I had enough of them. I got from a shop d'Aheze. As I have said I came to Buchenwald with 8 suits of clothing. They were in very good condition, because as everyone knows English material is very good, and I gave them all away to prisoners, prisoners who had been released. If it were necessary I produce affidavits to show you.
Q Did you receive presents from the prisoners?
A Yes, it is true that I received presents from the prisoners, but these were only presents give me in gratitude, and of no particular value. A person who knows the setup in Buchenwald particularly my collaboration with the illegal camp administration and the committee of political prisoners, will understand that the prisoners made efforts to manifest their gratitude, and I could not have brought myself to refuse to accept such a present, because that would have hurt the donors feelings. These were such things as ashtrays, needlework, etc., and I again gave these presents to other people. I think during my time in Buchenwald I collected something like 180 ashtrays, but I have none of them left today. I gave them all away. It is true that Pieck painted my portrait, and also that of my family, but that has nothing to do with corruption. Pieck who was a member of the illegal camp administration, I helped before I knew what his profession was. Then Horn said the only way Pieck could be used was as a painter. Horn correctly stated that we couldn't even use him to keep the fever charts. Moreover Pieck painted in all his spare time with great pleasure. He had that privilege, and I believe that I did Pieck a favor as a painter, inasmuch as I gave him an opportunity to pursue his profession.
Q.- On page 1204 of the English transcript Kogon called you primarily a man who liked to live a comfortable life; is that so?
A.- I don't know what could have given Kogon that opinion. Kogon cannot judge this because he never worked with me in the hospital. These can only be infounded rumors which small minds let loose in the world. Because I lived in foreign countries and lived two years in Paris, many people have concluded that I like to live a luxurious life because I have different opinions on matters than other people do. At any rate, this much is true, whatever I had the prisoners also had, at least my nurses did. I often ate with my nurses and now and then drank a glass of wine or brandy with them, but my activities for the prisoners meant that not one day of my life was safe. Because Kogon knew this, I do not understand why he made the statements that he did.
Q.- When did you learn about the real circumstances and conditions at Buchenwald?
A.- Right at the beginning of my activities. I have already said that through German, foreign, and Jewish prisoners, I was informed of the true conditions in the camp. It is perhaps well that I had no political persuasions, because in this way I was not attached to any one group in particular and could take the interests of all into consideration. It then became known that is what I thought.
At the beginning of my activities, as I have already said, Buchenwald was under the control of a certain category of habitual criminals and informers who were continuously in disharmony with the SS and Gestapo. It is not correct to believe that all the prisoners wearing the green triangle were habitual criminals. The majority of them had received previous penalties for minor crimes, Mostly they were skilled laborers, and that was one of the main reasons why Himmler, as chief of the German Police, started the habitual criminal actions, in order that he might have available a supply of skilled laborers. These prisoners were sharply differentiated from the group of habitual criminals who worked with the SS and were sharply opposed by them.
They gave great support to me in my struggle against the professional criminals who were cooperating with the SS. I helped these men just the way I helped the political German and foreign prisoners. With the help of this specialized category of professional criminals, most of whom had committed crimes before Hitler's time and were locked up for it, the traitors and informers tried to exterminate the German and foreign political prisoners and also the Jews.
I assert that without this system of informers, the concentration camps would not have become what we later learned they were. They were those who gave the concentration camps their characteristic features. This I know from conversations with inmates, who were much more clever and intelligent than myself and who had much more experience in life than I had. They told me that scientists, judges, ministers, high state official, priests, artists and authors, in short everyone who were the red triangle and because some who wore the green triangle were in no way professional criminals they were forced to live in the company of persons whom every civilized state would have kept behind bars and isolated. This led to conditions in the camp which only a person who actually experienced them can correctly evaluate. Men who had been the back-bone of society and of the state in their countries, suddenly found themselves crowded together in narrow confinement surrounded by sadistic criminals, criminals who worked in collaboration with the most inferior members of the SS, namely these concentration camp SS men, a negative selection from the Waffen SS, whom the Waffen SS itself had rejected. These Political prisoners, to give them a collective name, in this state of terrible necessity formed their own laws in order to save themselves. The executive power was put in the hands of a few selected men with whom I again collaborated. To these alone must thanks be given that the rule of the informers and traitors in Buchenwald was broken.
Despite the fact that conditions in Buchenwald were still bad enough, nevertheless the political prisoners did succeed in saving the lives of thousands of valuable persons. In this murderous struggle between SS and informers on the one hand and the German and foreigner political prisoners on the other, the means according to which this fight was to be conducted were prescribed to the latter in advance, so to speak. In addition to this activity of the SS in using professional criminals, there was the system of Capos, block trustees, and foremen. I must point out an error which is associated with the word capo, which I noticed in the course of the examination. The opinion is apparently still prevelant that a Capo had to collaborate with the informers and the SS, but that is incorrect. The leader of a work commando was always called the Capo. The struggle of the illegal camp administration directed toward getting as many of their men into the position of Capo as possible; this could be done only if the SS did not know the orientation of this Capo. I and the illegal camp management always endeavored to get these men an appointment for the job of Capo. This was not always easy, because the Capo's power was considerable, and the SS, of course, wanted only the persons it approved of to occupy this position. Unfortunately, by the middle of 1942 most of the positions of Capo were occupied by these malodorous professional criminals and informers but we finally succeeded in eliminating most of them. I know many Capos who did the most prodigious and amazing things for their comrades in order to alleviate their fate. Many belonged to the underground or illegal camp administration. If the Capos belonged to the above-mentioned category of professional criminals used by the SS in order systematically to exterminate the Jews and political prisoners, then their activities led in great measure to the concentration camps becoming an extermination camp for political prisoners and Jews.
Q.- Who ordered the release of prisoners?
A.- The R.S.H.A.
Q.- What were the prerequisites for a prisoner's release from a concentration camp?
A.- Theoretically the following conditions had to be met: working had to have been well done, the orientation had to be National Socialist, conduct had to be good, but practically speaking it was almost impossible to be released from a concentration camp. I believe there was one amnesty otherwise it was almost impossible, although the submission of the conduct reports which the R.S.H.A. prescribed could have made release possible. The prisoner, after serving his sentence in prison, was sent to the concentration camp. It was prescribed that after a quarter of a year a conduct report was to be prepared by the camp commander. The Gestapo office that had sent in the prisoner ordered this conduct report to be prepared by the camp commander. He passed the order on to the head of the protective custody camp, who was to draw up this report on the basis of the prisoner's behavior, work, and accomplishments. For this, of course, it was necessary for him to make inquiries and he gave the subordinate office this job. The subordinate office was called a Rapportfuehrer -- the assistant administrative head of the protective custody camp -- he was a non-commissioned officer. This man in turn went to the so-called block leaders, who were members of the SS who had charge of one or two blocks in which the prisoners were housed. These block leaders turned to the block trustees. The block trustee was a prisoner. Thus it can be understood what enormous power the block trustee had in his hands. Then the information obtained by the block leader was to go back through the same channels to the assistant administrative head, then the administrator of the protective custody camp who was supposed to call the prisoners in and on the basis of this report and on previous reports he would form an opinion whether the pri soner should be released.
That would have been the correct procedure, but of course it was never followed. This I know from personal experience; an altogether primitive thing was the reason for this. The administrative heads of the protective custody camps were altogether simple, primitive people and had an education so slight you would be surprised to hear it. In the camp of Buchenwald the administrative head of the protective camp had the rank of a Major, but in the Waffen SS he would not have had the rank of a corporal. I know this because I was requested to appear by one of these administrative heads in the matter of one of those conduct reports and we talked it over. When the prisoner entered, he took up the documents beginning with the statement of why he had been sentenced to the concentration camp. His previous arrest was also listed there, and the reason for his confinement was a political one. These documents were read through and the sentences that the prisoner had already served for a long time. He then had an attack of rage, hit him and threw him out. The up-shot of this was that the prisoners were afraid to report so that their conduct reports could be gone over, depending on the administrative heat'd mood. The consequence were that the documents that he had not looked at for months and years, he took another look at and said, "This man is another political crook, an opponent of National Socialism", and so the prisoner who previously might have been in an easy condition suddenly found himself in the quarry. The final result was that it might cost him his life to turn up for one of these conduct examinations. That is the whole insight into these conduct reports.
THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal will be in recess until 9:30 o'clock tomorrow morning.
THE MARSHAL: The Tribunal will be in recess until 9:30 o'clock tomorrow morning.
(The Tribunal adjourned until 24 June 1947 at 0930 hours.)
Official Transcript of the American Military Tribunal in the matter of the United States of America against Karl Brandt, et al, defendants, sitting at Nuernberg, Germany, on 24 June 1947, Justice Beals presiding.
THE MARSHAL: The Honorable, the Judges of Military Tribunal I. Military Tribunal I is now in session. God save the United States of America and this honorable Tribunal. There will be order in the court.
THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Marshal, you ascertain if the defendants are all present in court.
THE MARSHAL: May it please Your Honor, all defendants are present in the court.
THE PRESIDENT: The Secretary will note for the record the presence of all the defendants in court.
DR. FLEMMING: Mr. President, the Tribunal inquired yesterday how long counsels would need for the further submission of its evidence. It will last roughly three and one-half to four days until all the supplementary material has been put in.
THE PRESIDENT: Very well, counsel.
MR. HARDY: Your Honor, my understanding is that the defendant Pokorny will call three witnesses here.
THE PRESIDENT: Will counsel for the defendant Pokorny advise us how many witnesses he will call.
DR. HOFFMAN (Counsel for the defendant Pokorny): Mr. President, it is correct that I intend to call three witnesses.
MR. HARDY: How long does the defense counsel anticipate that the testimony of the defendant Pokorny and the testimony of the three witnesses will take?
DR. HOFFMAN: I believe two to two and one-half days.
THE PRESIDENT: Very well.
MR. HARDY: Then at this time we have another day for the defendant Hoven, two and one-half days for the defendant Pokorny, and approximately four days for supplemental evidence.
THE PRESIDENT: As in accordance with the statements of defense counsel.
Counsel for the defendant may proceed.
DR. WALDEMAR HOVEN - Resumed DIRECT EXAMINATION (Continued) BY DR. GAWLIK (Counsel for the defendant Hoven):
Q. Witness, you described yesterday the prerequisites for prisoners' possible release from a concentration camp. Let me ask you how it was possible for you to bring about the release of prisoners.
A. Primarily with the assistance of falsified X-ray pictures and sick records, and then through falsified papers that went through the RSHA.
BY JUDGE SEBRING:
Q. Just a moment. Witness, can you say at this time how many releases you were instrumental in bringing about from Buchenwald Concentration Camp as a result of that procedure?
A. Approximately 150. I cannot give you the exact number. It was rather more than less.
JUDGE SEBRING: Thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: Proceed, counsel.
DR. GAWLIK: Mr. President, in substantiation of the defendant's statement regarding how releases were effectuated, I direct your attention to the document I had put in, in the Hoven Document 13, Exhibit No. 10, the affidavit by Philip Dirk, Baron van Pallandt van Eerde. Turn to page 46, No. 7, in which Dirk says: "I was released on his recommendation, although, in fact, I was not sick."
In further substantiation of these statements I put in Hoven Document No. 14. This will be Hoven Exhibit 12. This is an affidavit by van der Laan, page 49 to 52. Under No. 9 on page 50 it says: "It is extremely probable that these releases were only granted owing to the false particulars which Dr. W. Hoven had forwarded to the authorities in Berlin whose duty it was to grant these petitions for release."
Paragraph 10 states: "These acts by Dr. Waldemar Hoven rendered an invaluable service to the large numbers of Dutch hostages."
Paragraph 11: "If these released hostages had been examined by another German doctor, the fraud would certainly have been discovered and the consequences for Dr. Waldemar Hoven would have been serious."
Then in Number 13 it describes the way in which he himself was released: "Dr. Waldemar Hoven visited me the same day and without making any examination whatever promised me that he would try to have my liberty restored to me. Later, an X-ray photograph of my thorax was taken and, as I myself saw, no irregularity whatever was found. About a week later I was released. This event could only have happened as a result of incorrect information given by Dr. Waldemar Hoven, who had perhaps sent an X-ray photograph of a patient suffering from tuberculosis of the lungs to Berlin."
BY DR. GAWLIK:
Q What was the quality of the medical care in the concentration camp Buchenwald while you were there? I put to you in this connection what Roemhild testified to, who stated that the hospital was always overcrowded and that the equipment in the hospital was most inadequate. This is page 1639 of the English transcript.
A That is incorrect. At my time, at any rate, the hospital was very well equipped, although the SS does not deserve credit for that. Without exaggeration, I can say that during the year 1941 to 43, we had more and better medicines and drugs than many civilian hospitals. When ordering medicines I always ordered thrice the necessary amount because our quota was always lower than what we asked for. At my time, at any rate, there was always enough medicine. Since I followed the same policy in the SS hospital I took a large amount of medicine that was not needed at all in the SS hospital and transferred it to the prisoners' hospital. We had the hospital enlarged and in an illegal fashion had beds brought in and showers built. With considerable difficulties I also brought it about that two additional hospital buildings were built. The number of convalescents, or out patients, which was 100 when I took over was raised by me to 600. In the individual barracks I put in so-called louse guards who had nothing to do but to see to it that the prisoners were deloused; also these men were to take any sick calls from his barracks and in this way I eliminated the black trusty from any interest in this matter. I have also told you that I used prisoners contrary to explicit orders. We had all the equipment and instruments necessary for surgery. The emergency ward was open day and night. Then, as I have already said, the Jewish station was opened up again and took care of ambulatory patients, moreover, if necessary I sent sick patients to Jena for specialized attention.
Q Mr. President, in substantiation of these statements I put in Document Hoven No. 17? which will be Exhibit 13. This is an affid avit by Gerhard Schiedlausky, page 56.
This is an excerpt from Prosecution Document No. NO-508, which was Exhibit 135, in Tribunal Four. This is an affidavit from 7 August 1945. Schiedlausky was the successor of Dr. Hoven and stated there: "My activities began in Buchenwald on or about 15-18 October 1943." Let me recall to the Court's attenion that it was at this time that the witness was arrested by the Gestapo. "When I took over my office, the existing facilities for treatment in the inmates hospital were adequate to operate it." And in the last sentence: "In the hospital there were altogether 5 barracks available for taking in patients."
Roemhild has testified here that the inmates applied to you for treatment and instead they were killed. This is page 1639 of the English transcript. Is that so?
A That is entirely impossible because the patients were received by the prisoner nurses without exception, not by me. That alone shows why it can't be true.
Q I now put in Document Hoven No. 2. This will be Hoven Exhibit No. 14. This is Rudolf Gottschalk's affidavit, page 5. Please turn first to page 5. From April 1938 until August 1932 Gottschalk was a political prisoner in Buchenwald. From the end of 1938 on he was employed in the hospital. He was sick bay clerk, laboratory assistant, male nurse, and clerk and was thus in a position to know just about everything that was to be known about the hospital. He also saw the typhus experiments and says about the typhus experiments the following: "I declare that Dr. Hoven was in no way connected with the typhus experiments which were started and the first series carried out during the time of my Buchenwald stay. It was Dr. Ding who was solely responsible for the conduct and execution of these experiments. He once boasted to Hoven in my presence that not even the camp management was in a position to interfere with his plans as regards these experiments."
He further makes statements about the selection as follows: "Originally, the persons who were used for these experiments were selected by the "political department" (Leclair, Serne and Frerichs)", and further "In my time Hoven could hardly be called responsible for the selection, however, the underground movement through the medium of Dr. Hoven tried to gain some influence over the selection and execution, in order to save political internees from being used as human guinea pigs by the SS.
I myself was a member of the underground movement (Walter Kraemer, Karl Peik), and I am able to certify this from my own observations.
"I wish to state that only one transport was sent to the Bernburg gas chambers during the time of my stay in Buchenwald. The selection of these people and the compilation of lists were carried out by the 'political department' i.e. were made at the 'political department'".
Then he makes statements about preventing the transports: "The Bernburg deportation list did not only bear the names of Jews but also those of habitual criminals and political internees. It was a particularly hard blow to us political internees when we found out the names of several of our people who were also on the list. I mention the former Communist Landtag member Albert Kunz, who played a leading role in the underground movement, Erich Loch, who worked in the equipment storeroom and who made a special point of looking after the new arrivals, Rudi Stelzmann and many others whose names have slipped my mind. We political internees considered it our special duty to try everything in our power to save our comrades. We made use of Dr. Hoven as our camp physician. He brought us the list of the death candidates which showed us the intentions of the SS. Furthermore, Dr. Hoven told us that these political internees had been entered on the list at the instigation of Kuschnir-Kuschnarev."
Then he tells how these people were released from transport. On page 8, at the top he makes statements regarding cooperation between the witness and the illegal camp management: "Furthermore I wish to state that Dr. Hoven stood in closest cooperation to the underground movement of which I was also a member under the leadership of Walter Kraemer and Karl Peik.
After the violent death of Walter Kraemer and Karl Peik, Heinrich Weingaertner took over the leadership of the underground movement. At my instigation and with the full approval of Dr. Hoven, he was succeeded by Ernst Busse."
I put this to you to prove what a prominent role the defendant played in the resistance movement in Buchenwald.
The next paragraph discusses the saving of Poles and it is stated that he saved the life of Poles by making false statements as to the statement of health.
On page 9, Gottschalk talks about the medical care in the camp. He says: "Even though from a scientific point of view, Dr. Hoven did not exactly conform to our generally accepted idea of a physician, as a human being he tried his utmost to maintain the highest possible level with regard to sanitary conditions. In comparison with other camps, the sanitary conditions in Buchenwald were exemplary."
Then there are further statements about conditions in Buchenwald. On page 10, last paragraph, he makes statements regarding the defendant's attitude toward the Jews and says that contrary to orders of the SS camp management he treated Jewish patients.
Page 12 contains further statements regarding Hoven's cooperation with the illegal camp management. Here we find the name Dr. Horn for the Czechs and Pieck for the Dutch. This will also prove that the witnesses heard here, Dr. Horn and Pieck, had the necessary knowledge to make the statements that they did regarding the defendant's cooperation with the illegal camp management and the Committee of Political Prisoners.
As further document, I put in Fritz Rieckert's affidavit, Hoven Document 5. This will be Exhibit 15, page 18 to 22. Rieckert also, as you can see from page 18, is a former inmate of Buchenwald; from 26 September 1939 until 26 May 1945 he was a political prisoner. From 29 February 1940 until the liberation he worked in the camp hospital as prisoner clerk in the office. This shows that he has the necessary knowledge about the defendant's character and activities. On page 19 he makes statements about Dr. Horn, at the top of the page, and Pieck and says:
"I consider Horn and Pieck as absolutely credible persons. This knowledge is drawn from my being together with both of them for a duration of many years."
Then he talks about the defendant's activities in Block 46. He speaks of the sending of lice and says that:
"I know that Dr. Hoven had a shipment of lice exterminated because they were infected with spotted fever. At that time Dr. Hoven said to us prisoners, 'Now they have gone crazy.' At the same time Dr. Hoven expressed the apprehension that a typhus epidemic might break out as a consequence of such experiments."
Then he says what Hoven did when he went to Block 46 and tells about the illegal workshops, the shoemaker, the tailor, etc. He also says that it was Hoven's endeavor to accommodate endangered prisoners, particularly Jews, in Block 46. Jews were particularly safe in Block 46 because, as he says on page 19:
"The SS could enter Block 46 only with the permission of the camp doctor."
He then speaks, on page 20, of his cooperation with the illegal camp management:
"I know that Dr. Hoven collaborated in the closest way with the German Communist party section and other illegal groups inside the Buchenwald camp."
He also describes an actual incident:
"In a memorial service for Thaelmann and Breitscheidt the SS Camp Command had carried out numerous arrests on account of the holding of this commemoration.
During this investigation which was carried out by the SS Dr. Hoven had maintained a connection between the individual accused prisoners and had thus exposed himself to the serious danger of getting shot. In connection with Dr. Hoven's activities, Busse said to me and to some other prisoners of the hospital, 'Waldemar--' that means Hoven '--is crazy; you could almost think he was one of our men.'" Page 21, at the top he speaks of the defendant's cooperation with foreign prisoners:
"I know furthermore that Dr. Hoven also closely collaborated with Pieck and Dr. Horn. Pieck was the representative of the Dutch. Dr. Horn represented the interests of the Czech prisoners. After the liberation of the representatives of the Dutch Communist Party Pieck worked in the International Camp Committee."
He then goes on talking about Hoven's help to the prisoners:
"Furthermore, Dr. Hoven frequently sheltered in his hospital prisoners which were in danger, by providing a false diagnosis; especially he took in those who were supposed to be sent away, in order to save them by doing so."
Further down:
"It is known to me that Dr. Hoven prevented extermination transports; the details, however, I do not know exactly." He also speaks about saving Poles and others, page 21.
And he concludes his whole affidavit on page 22, the last sentence:
"Quite generally I can say that Dr. Hoven had done much to alleviate the prisoners' fate."
How long were you first camp doctor in Buchenwald?
A. June 1942 to 12 September 1943.
Q. In what way was your activity in Buchenwald brought to a conclusion?
A. I was arrested.
Q. Who arrested you?
A. Dr. Morgen.
Q. Who was Dr. Morgen.
A. He was a Gestapo agent who had Himmler's particular confidence, and on Himmler's orders was carrying out investigations in the camp to realize the plans that Himmler intended in the Buchenwald camp.
Q. How do you know this?
A. From conversations with Dr. Morgen.
Q. Precisely what program or plan Himmler was following in the camp, and what Dr. Morgen, the Gestapo agent, had to do with this program - this Dr. Morgen acting on Himmler's explicit orders - can be seen from Hoven Document 10 which will become Exhibit 16, page 36. This is an excerpt from a document put in in Case IV as Document NO 2331, it having received the exhibit number 517 in Case IV. This is an affidavit by Gerhard Wiebeck. He was an investigator of the Main Office of the SS Court and he says:
"The concentration camp organization was, according to my experience, a system that is a system intended for the mass extermination of human life, the terrorizing of groups of political opponents and for deterring purposes. In my opinion the mixing of the political prisoners with criminals served the purpose of preventing the political prisoners from starting any opposition whatsoever. The whole system was characterized by the absolute lack of any rights on the side of the prisoners, the behavior of the SS Fuehrer assigned to the concentration camps, and the secrecy surrounding the concentration camps. By far the largest number of all killings, especially the mass extermination of human life, the ill-treatments, the third degree interrogations, the giving up of people to hunger and starvation, the experiments and other things had been ordered by the highest government offices headed by Hitler and Himmler himself."
Did Morgen pursue this goal of Himmler in his investigations in Buchenwald?
A. Yes.
Q. Why were you arrested by Morgen?
A. There were two reasons for this, first, the factual reasons, and secondly, the reasons alleged by the Gestapo. The real reason was that it was generally suspected that I was working in collaboration with the prisoners, but the reason given for my arrest was that I had killed an SS-Hauptscharfuehrer who was involved in the Koch affair. I had nothing to do with this man Koehler, who was the man killed. Investigations were undertaken with the help of the criminal court clinic in Jena and it was proved without question that Koehler died a natural death. In the course of the investigations of this alleged murder Dr. Morgen hit on the idea, which was very humane for the Gestapo, to inject acid gastric juices from the dead man Koehler into the bodies of Russian prisoners. Since there were no reactions from this injection, because the man had not been poisoned, the prisoners did not die. Finally, when this did not avail him in his accusations of me, he accused me of being instrumental in Kuschnir-Kuschnarev's death and used two informers against me who were known as Jew slaughterers, namely, Freudemann and May.
Q. I understood you to say the following, witness. The real reason was the suspicion that you were opposing the goal that Morgen and Himmler were pursuing, namely, the extermination of the political prisoners. That's the reason, isn't it?
A. Yes.
Q. In support of this statement by the defendant I draw the Tribunal's attention to the affidavit put in by Reinhold Schittenhelm, Document No. 4, Exhibit No. 3, on page 16, where I ask you to look at the statements under No. 2:
"In the summer of 1943 a transport of Jews to Auschwitz was supposed to take place. As far as I remember, the number of Jews amounted to approximately eight hundred to one thousand. I do not know who ordered the transfer. The Jews were already assembled for roll call. It was the general topic of conversation in the camp that Dr. Hoven had prevented this transportation of Jews. I know this particularly from the Jewish workmen who were laying the floor in the Gustloff Werk.
Moreover, it was generally talked about in the camp that Dr. Hoven would soon be one of us because he had prevented the transportation of the Jews.
"Shortly after that Dr. Hoven was arrested by the Secret State Police in September 1943."
This man is a French citizen who was an inmate in Buchenwald.
What was the result of the investigation of you?
A. In September 1944 there was a trial before the highest SS police court. In the course of the trial it turned up that Koch accused me of cooperating with the prisoners. Then the trial was quashed for the time being so that a political trial could be instigated against me. All political trials had the same outcome. I was taken to Buchenwald as a prisoner where I stayed until the American Army liberated the camp. A few days previously I had been released and offered service in the Wehrmacht; the political developments permitted no further course.
Q Where were you after your arrest?
A. I was taken to the Kreuznach prisoners camp.
Q. No, I mean after you were arrested by Gestapo agent Morgan?
A. I was under Gestapo arrest for one year. Then on 12 September 1944 I returned to Buchenwald as a prisoner.
Q. After your release from Gestapo arrest and from arrest in the concentration camp what were your activities then?
A. I went to the main dressing station in Weimar as a doctor until 11 April 1945.
Q. What happened then?
A. On this day I went to visit the former prisoners whom I had known five kilometers from the camp. I was captured by the Americans. I was put on a tank. The prisoners, who were riding around with the American soldiers in jeeps, saw this and reported it in Buchenwald. Then the Jewish prisoner, August Cohn, came and spoke with the commander and received permission to take me back to Buchenwald. In the meantime the SS there had been arrested by the Americans. On Cohn's request and on the request of the foreign prisoners I was taken as a guest of the concentration camp to Block 50. Two days later I was separated from the SS and put in an officers barracks.
DR. GAWLIK: Thank you. No further questions.
THE PRESIDENT: Are there any questions to be propounded to this witness by defense counsel?
DR. SERVATIUS: Servatius for Karl Brandt.
BY DR. SERVATIUS:
Q. Did you know Professor Brandt or did you see Professor Brandt in the camp?
A. I never saw Professor Brandt in Buchenwald nor before this trial had I seen him anywhere.
Q. Do you know from other sources whether he was ever in the camp?
A. I can only speak of the time when I was in Buchenwald until until September 1943.