I declare on oath that my statement is true and that it was made for the purpose of being submitted as evidence before the Military Tribunal No. II at the Palace of Justice in Nuremberg, Germany.
"1. In May 1933 I became acquainted with Milch through my activity as colleague of the commissioner for special duty Bolle in the Reich Comm 1419-a issary for aviation, Berlin where I had been transferred from the German transport pilot school.
I had to deal with a great number of denunciations of leading personalities of German aviation. Milch had already assigned several of these persons to serve in the Reich Commissary for aviation and later the Reich Ministry for aviation, some of them in leading positions. They were experts, mostly nonnational socialists, who, as it could be seen from the denunciation received expressed more or less openly their opposition to Hitler and his program. The incorporation of the Luftwaffe into the Wehrmacht, regarded as necessary by me as a non-national socialist, as well as an extensive exclusion of Party influence on German aviation succeeded, before the Party could take any effective counter-action from Munich.
"This development was only possible with the approval and assistance of Milch who then and later protected numerous men of Gorman aviation, partly without their knowing it.
"When the commissioner for special duty Bolle, who was continually in contact with the Munich Party Offices, got to know, what kind of "colleague" he had been assigned when he got me, I was immediately discharged. Confidentially informed about the dangerousness of my situation, I informed Milch about the most important facts of my activity with Bolle. Whilst most of my friends, on whom, as I had believed, I could rely, deserted me, it was Milch who immediately supported me and caused commissioner for special duty Bolle to be relieved.
"I myself received an order not to speak about the incidents which had then occured in the Reich Commisary for aviation, became an officer of the reserve in tie Luftwaffe and started to work for the German air transport company to which I belonged until the collapse in spring 1945.
"The rejection of the invasion of national socialistic tendencies into the German air transport company which I succeeded obtaining with the support of the Directors especially of director von Gablenz, again met with Milch's full approval, even though he admitted that only confidentially.
1420-a "2.) I remember very well an affair in dispute in 1942, about the presentation of the pilots badge to a higher SS leader (I believe it was Heydrick) which at first was refused by the Chief of the personnel office of the Luftwaffe, and later on had to be presented on account of the pressure applied by Himmler, where I was sent with a letter of the personnel office to the Prinz Albrechtstr.
During the time I waited for the reply I was approached by an SS-Leader whom I did not know, he pointed to the window at the building of the Reich Ministry for aviation and said: "We are going to clean out,this reactionary hole over there too, and that radically, already today we knew that sabotage is being committed and when we start to rub the guilty out we will start at the top." When General von Gablenz during a conference later on talked to me about Hitler and called him only "the madman" I reported him the incident with the SS leader and warned him urgently not to make careless statements. On this occasion I also asked him to warn Milch, and I suppose that he did so. I discussed this with him, because earlier Gablenz had told me about the bitter anger of Milch and his strong criticism of Hitler.
"The answer which I received from Gablenz incidentally, was a moving one. It was more or less the following, "Let them get me and put me against the wall. That would still be the most honorable end. Suicide would be cowardly and to go over to the enemy is an impossibility for a German officer. Therefore, what remains?"
"3.) With regard to the statement that the German air transport company was the core of the later established Luftwaffe, I can only say from my own knowledge that the men of the German air transport company, mostly the older generation, were, even in 1939, the most unmilitary thing one could imagine. During the maneuvers, in which we as reservists had to participate every year, we were the horror of all commanders and N.C.O.'s. We were export fliers, that is true, but our drill and shooting was very bad. The core of the Luftwaffe was developed in other places and separated itself immediately after its establishment from the German air transport company which was much too civilian for military taste.
1421 a "4.) From the first to the last day of the Third Reich I refused successfully to become a party member neither was this recommended to me by the defendant at any time."
"Signature: Dr. Walter von Mueller."
"The above signature made by Dr. Walter von Mueller, residing in Benigsen am Deister, before pastor B. Berg is herewith certified as being correct."
"(Stamp) Bennigsen, 1 February 1947, Lutheran-Protestant Vicarage, near Hannover." "Signature: B. Berg." (Stamp) Luther-Protestant Parish, Saint Martin at Bennigsen."
That is what I wanted to submit to you today, Your Honors.
THE PRESIDENT: Does this finish the presentation of documents by the defense?
DR. BERGOLD: There could be some more; they're on their way now. One of these is on its way, that is, and I hope to be able to get them in either today or tomorrow. There are just a few of them. It would take, perhaps, several minutes to read them.
THE PRESIDENT: At any rate, this is all that is ready right now?
DR. BERGOLD: That's right, Your Honor. There is only the witness, General Verwald, missing. He's the only one that is missing, Your Honor.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, the Tribunal is informed that he is on his way to Nurnberg from the plane where he was in the British Zone, and possibly will arrive tonight, and if not, tomorrow. Meanwhile, Judge Musmanno would like to make an inquiry of Mr. Denney as to certain facts concerning prisoners of war in the United States.
DR. BERGOLD: May it please your Honors, one second please. I have not received yet, the following: The record concerning the second examination of Speer, and von Roedor, of Neurath, and then of course, there's still the examination of Admiral Raeder, which is still missing, which Mr. Denney promised me. We only want to submit it for the record.
MR. DENNEY: So far as Neurath and Speer are concerned, Your Honor, I am in the same position that Dr. Bergold is; I haven't seen them either.
JUDGE MUSMANNO: I thought they had been submitted to you. I'll contact Dr. Foster and see that you get them this afternoon.
MR. DENNEY: So far as the one of Admiral Raeder is concerned, if Your Honors recall, there was some question about that; and Dr. Bergold and I were able to work out a satisfactory arrangement, based on some English notes which we had from the first interrogation of Admiral Raeder. He has examined them; and approved them in German, into which I had them translated. We have had them stenciled and I have a sufficient number of English and German copies to deliver them to Dr. Bergold this afternoon, and also to deliver copies to the Court.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, as soon as the transcript of the Neurath and Speer examination is available, we will have them placed in the record as a part of the official transcript, and properly paged.
DR. BERGOLD: Yes, Your Honor.
JUDGE MUSMANNO: Mr. Denney, Dr. Bergold has introduced in evidence, an excerpt from General Marshall's masterful and brilliant report on the conduct of the war, from July 1, 1943 to June 30, 1945, which refers particularly to the use of prisoners of war in the United States. The Tribunal will, of course, take judicial notice of the report and its authenticity in every respect. Also, the fact, as the report states, that the prisoners were treated in accordance with the Geneva Prisoners of War Convention, ratified by the United States on January 16, 1932. For purposes of further elucidation, in view of the fact that the use of prisoners of war has become an issue in this case,we would like, if you can, to submit such data as you can on the manner in which the labors and energies of prisoners of war in the United States were utilized.
MR. DENNEY: I might say, Your Honor, that from my own experience in the war, first as a -- well, it probably best dates from the time I was transferred to the Department of the Judge advocate General from the Signal Corps, and I attended a school at the University of Michigan which was conducted for all Judge Advocate General officers. At that time part of the course -- a subject course which lasted, I believe, an hour a day for a month -- was specifically concerned with matters of this kind, the rules of land warfare. And of necessity, at that time, they took up in detail the Geneva and Hague Conventions.
I am familiar with the directives that came from the Office of the Secretary of War during the time in which we had prisoners in the United States, and those directives stated that the prisoners should not be used in any tasks that had to do with the war economy. On the installations at which I was stationed, I know that their duties consisted in shoveling snow, doing KP, working as waiters in mess halls. In many instances they were sent to work on farms, in some cases under contract labor, in which case the prisoners were paid the 80 cents a day which is provided for by the convention. There was an additional payment made to the Government, which had to do with attempting not to undersell the local labor market too much. The additional amount which was paid was considered by the Government as compensation for the people that they had taking care of these people. This money was also used, in part, to furnish things for the prisoners at their camps.
JUDGE MUSMANNO: Was it in that manner that the sum referred to in this excerpt, $35,196,000 -- if that is correct -- was accumulated?
MR. DENNEY: I believe in that manner, and also in salaries saved, which would have had to be paid had civilians been used to perform the tasks which these prisoners of war did. I imagine, in addition, in that figure there is also included the work which was performed by the so-called Italian Service Battalions.
If Your Honors recall, shortly after the surrender in North Africa, in 1943; May, there were a great number of Italian prisoners which came to America.
Following the armistice with the Bogdolia Government, some time in August or September of 1943, the Italian prisoners who were then in America in substantial numbers were given an opportunity to volunteer for service in so-called service battalions. They, of course, could not, under the terms of the Geneva Convention, be made to re-enter conflict against their former allies, Germany or Japan; however, they could perform work which they did do. They were the same uniform that our soldiers did, with the exception of the fact that the buttons with the crest were taken off. They wore no insignia of branch; they wore no piping on their hats; and they wore no "US" on the right collar. On their sleeve they wore a green brassard with the word "Italy" in white letters. There were substantial numbers of those battalions in the States, and I would think that that would be included in that report as well.
THE PRESIDENT: What type of work did these battalions do?
MR. DENNEY: So far as I know, Your Honor, they did the same sort of work that the other prisoners did. I mm not well informed as to their activities.
THE PRESIDENT: Does that include such activities as road building, road clearing?
MR. DENNEY: About that, Your Honor, I can't say. The one place where I was where they had one of these units was at the University of Michigan, and they lived in the log quadrangle there, on the top floors. They performed work in the kitchen as cooks and KP's and things of that kind.
THE PRESIDENT: You mean they were given quarters in the same building where students are quartered normally in peace times?
MR. DENNEY: Yes, Your Honor.
THE PRESIDENT: I speak from experience, that those are not bad quarters.
MR. DENNEY: I was never allowed to live in them, Your Honor.
JUDGE MUSMANNO: Were prisoners ever used at any time in connection with the manufacture of munitions or military installations?
MR. DENNEY: No, Your Honor. The only place, as I say, where - it sneaks there of employing then on posts, camps, and stations. Those were in places where they had substantial garrisons of troops and where their duties were what are called in the Amy "housekeeping duties".
JUDGE MUSMANNO: In the construction of military installations, wefe they used at any tine, anywhere?
MR. DENNEY: I know of no such case, Your Honor. I do know of one installation where they had some 350 men of the Africa Corps, and their task was primarily cleaning out trees and leveling off hillsides, and so on for the purpose of some development of the country at a later time for recreation purposes.
JUDGE MUSMANNO: Do you know whether at any time, anywhere, in any way, prisoners of war in the United States were used in activities comparable to those which had been testified to here in this trial, that prisoners of war held by Germany were put to?
MR. DENNEY: No, Your Honor. Specifically, with reference to working in ack ack batteries, the question of what work they did completely aside, I know of no such instance.
JUDGE MUSMANNO: Oh well, of course, it is quite obvious a fact, which the Tribunal certainly takes judicial notice of, that they were never used in any way like that.
MR. DENNEY: And particularly with reference, too, to armament factories, to any plants where they were constructing materiel or munitions of any kind or manufacturing the same, to be so used.
THE PRESIDENT: It is also true, is it not, Mr. Denney, that any carson who was not a citizen of the United States was not even remitted within the confines of factories or manufacturing plants engaged in war work?
MR. DENNEY: Yes, Your Honor. There was the same sort of clearance which you would have to have for G-2 in the Army or the Bureau of Naval Intelligence in the Navy. You had to have what amounted to a card from the Adjutant General's Office, and you had a badge and a picture on it, or you couldn't even get near it.
THE PRESIDENT: And citizenship in the United States was a prerequisite to such credentials?
MR. DENNEY: Yes, Your Honor.
JUDGE PHILLIPS: We are all familiar with what the prisoners of war in the United States did during the war but we can't take that as a part of the record here. Couldn't we get an affidavit from the War Department immediately sent here for this record, showing exactly what prisoners of war were required to do in the United States during the war? That would then eliminate all of this and be a matter which is part of the record.
MR. DENNEY: I shall be very glad to include that in this week's teletype to the War Department, Your Honor.
THE PRESIDENT: Perhaps there is a high-ranking American officer in Germany who could furnish that without it having to come from Washington.
MR. DENNEY: Well, we can perhaps get it from Washington. If we can't, perhaps we can get it from the Office of the Chief of Military Government, or some comparable high-ranking officer here who has knowledge of the facts.
THE PRESIDENT: Very well.
JUDGE MUSMANNO: I think this Tribunal is authorized by the Control Council and by the Ordinance to take judicial notice of established facts. These facts which we have inquired into certainly are public knowledge. I only asked you to sum up, from your own experience, what you knew only to highlight these facts, and I doubt that it is necessary to have any affidavit or any sworn testimony to what is so obviously a fact. However, any testimony which can be submitted for elucidation certainly would be in order.
MR. DENNEY: It might also interest Your Honors to know that the rate of exchange for the mark, for purposes of paying these prisoners of war, was fixed at, I believe, approximately 30 cents.
THE PRESIDENT: We were about to call a witness on that question, Mr. Denney. Thank you. On behalf of the Tribunal, and under the provisions of the Ordinance, the Tribunal will ask Mr. Walter Lichtenstein to be sworn.
ALTER LICHTENSTEIN, a witness, took the stand and testified as follows:
EXAMINATION BY THE PRESIDENT:
Q Will you raise your right hand and solemnly swear that the testimony you are about to give before this Tribunal will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
A I so swear.
THE PRESIDENT: You may be seated.
Q Mr. Lichtenstein, the Tribunal is interested in knowing and having on the record the plan by which German prisoners of war were paid for any work performed by them as prisoners of war. Will you state whether or not you knew these facts, and if so, how it is that you come to know?
A I think I am familiar with the facts. I was, until the 5th of February, Chief of the Financial Institutions Branch of the Finance Division in Berlin, which had charge of the negotiations relating to the payment of the former or resent prisoners of war. I, therefore, in that capacity, saw most of the cables, probably all - I am not certain of that - that passed between OMGUS and Washington in reference to that question.
As Your Honors are aware, the payment of prisoners of war, if I am not mistaken, was 80¢ per day. Certificates were issued to the prisoners for the work they did at that rate per day. There were two types of certificates issued, the certificate of payment, and then there was also -- it was called a certificate of credit. The distinction between the two is the following; the certificates of payment were issued by offices of the United States Army who were duly authorized to issue documents authorizing direct payment to prisoners of war. The certificates of credit were given to prisoners who were working or living in places whore there were no such offices of the United States Army authorized to issue actual certificates of payment. These certificates of credit had to be investigated and examined later on. The prisoners of war, when they came back to Germany, had these certificates of payment, or in a few cases, certificates of credit. There were quite long negotiations. The Geneva Convention fixes somewhat hazily that the rate of exchange that should be paid should be the official rate at the time of the breaking out of war between the two countries in question. The difficulty of fixing that rate in the case of Germany was that there were varying rates of exchange. I am not able to state definitely how many different types of marks there actually were, but there were a great number. There were the ordinary casual marks which were very little used, which officially had a rate of exchange of 40¢ per mark. There was a mark that was used for exchange purposes, which ran into about 20¢ as I recall. There was a tourist mark which was rated at 25¢. So it was extremely difficult to say what, exactly, was the official rate. As Your Honors are also aware, for purposes purely of our own forces, we exchanged marks at 10¢ -- that is, ten marks to the dollar. That, however, was by no means an international exchange, and it was always insisted on that that was not to be regarded at all as anything more than arrangement for the sake of our forces, merely for internal purposes and not for purposes of international exchange whatsoever.
The result was that the negotiation went on between the finance division at OMGUS and the War Department and the Treasury and State Departments in Washington as to what rate of exchange should be fixed, and at first there was general disagreement. I suppose I need not go into the details of those negotiations. The ultimate settlement was a 33-1/3¢ a mark, and we began paying these certificates of payment on the 13th of January through the newly established Laenderzentralbanken in our zone, which are the successors, in a sense, though not the legal successors, of the old Reichsbank branches in our zone, and they had up to the 15th of February of this year, that is, between the 15th of January '47 and 15th of February, '47 we have paid out approximately 100,000 of those certificates of payment, the total amount of which is in the neighborhood of 7 million marks. In addition we have handled, about 85,000 so-called certificates of credit which, as I explained, we are unable to pay on immediately, but which we examine and return to the States for proper authentication, so that they will ultimately also be paid.
So if you add the two together, we have handled about up to the l3th February, about 185,000 of these cases, and where we have paid out, we have paid out at the rate of 33-1/3¢ a mark which is approximately a fair average of what the mark was before the war. We arrived at the figure of 33-1/3¢ on the basis of the present purchasing power of the mark on the legal market. We did not, of course, take into account the purchasing power of the mark on the black market, but purely on the basis of what the legal price rate in general is as compared with an OPA legal price rate in the United States.
Q Then to summarize, all prisoners of war were paid at the rate prescribed by the Geneva Convention?
A That is correct, sir, as far as my information goes.
CROSS EXAMINATION BY DR. BERGOLD:
Q Mr. Witness, do you know that the United States of America, or through the United States of America, a large number of prisoners of war were in the hands of the American Army and that they were given to the French Government?
A I do not know that from personal knowledge, but purely from what I have read in the newspapers.
Q Do you know from your conversations and conferences in Berlin if the work of these prisoners of war who were with the French Government is being paid?
A I do not know that from any personal knowledge.
DR. BERGOLD: May it please Your Honors, you will be interested to know I have a son who is 22. He had been a prisoner of war with the Americans. He had been captured at St. Nazaire and he was then captured by the French. He had to work, but he did not receive any payment, because the French could not or did not pay anything to all those prisoners of war, and that applies to all German prisoners of who were returned to the United States zone -- from France, that is.
THE PRESIDENT: That applies to what?
DR. BERGOLD: That applies to all the prisoners of war who were given to the French Government by the American forces after the end of the war.
THE WITNESS: Your Honor, May I say that that, of course would not -- we naturally, if I may be allowed to say this, would not be likely to give our certificates of payment for work rendered to the French Government.
THE PRESIDENT: Obviously. We are attempting to find out the truth about the point which you have raised, not what did the French do with prisoners of war, but what did the United States do with prisoners of war.
DR. BERGOLD: May I add one thing, Your Honor? I did not submit the report by Gen. Marshall with respect to this payment. It does not play an important part in this trial. It plays not a important part, but I submitted it because it says in that report that the value of the work in military installations amounted to so and so much, so that I can deduce from that that these prisoners of war actually were at the military installations. That is the point which I am trying to prove, and not as to the payment.
JUDGE MUSMANNO: You heard the explanation given by Mr. Denney, that when they worked on military installations that they were employed as waiter and as cooks and housekeepers.
MR. PENNEY: If Your Honor please --
DR. BERGOlD: I don't think that this is a sufficient explanation. This does not refer to work in the house or as waiters.
MR. DENNEY: Obviously, if Dr. Bergold isn't willing to take the statement, I will certainly get a statement from the War Department about it. Having some vague familiarity with the United States Army regulations and War Department circulars, having spent six years in it -- the term "military installation" as used in that connection in Gen. Marshall's report is to cover the standard phrase in tho Army, "posts, camps, garrisons, and stations, and I shall get a statement from the War Department to that effect. I will be very glad to submit it, I thought perhaps we could save some time this way.
DR. BERGOLD: Very well, Your Honors; thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, will somebody take bearings now and see where we are on the sea of litigation? We are waiting for the witness Jorwald?
DR. BERGOLD: Yes, Your Honor.
THE PRESIDENT: Very well. Let's start waiting, then. We will reassemble tomorrow at 9:30 and see what happens.
(A recces was taken until 0930 hours 4 March 1947)
Official transcript of the American Military Tribunal in the matter of the United States of America against Erhard Milch, defendant, sitting at Nuernberg, Germany, on 4 March 1947, 1350-1650 hours, Justice Toms presiding.
THE MARSHAL: Persons in the courtroom will please find their seats. The Honorable, the Judges of Military Tribunal 2. Military Tribunal 2 is now in session. God save the United States of America and this honorable Tribunal. There will be order in the court.
THE PRESIDENT: You may proceed, Dr. Bergold.
DR. BERGOLD: May it please the Court, I now submit as Exhibit 52 the record of the interrogation of the witnesses Neurath and Speer of 19 February 1947. I world ask you to make it a part of the record of this case.
THE PRESIDENT: This transcript -- this exhibit -- will be incorporated in the regular transcript of testimony taken in the case and the pages will be consecutively numbered, or rather, be re-numbered to conform to the current paging of the testimony taken.
DR. BERGOLD: I shall now ask Mr. Denney to submit what he has to submit. I have nothing to submit myself. I have a few supplements but they are not at my disposal yet in English.
THE PRESIDENT: The transcript just introduced in evidence contains the interrogation of the witnesses Neurath, Speer, and also Raeder?
DR. BERGOLD: No, it does not.
THE PRESIDENT: Just Neurath and Speer?
DR. BERGOLD : Yes. I have now been given by Mr. Denney the record of the Raeder interrogation. I would also ask that be incorporated if I could obtain the English translation.
I submit to the Court this Protocol and ask to handle this in the same manner as the Protocol Speer and Neurath.
THE PRESIDENT: This will be incorporated in the same exhibit as the testimony of Neurath and Speer.
1433(a) INTERROGATION OF A D M I R A L R A E D E R 1 February 1947 Dr. Bergold:
"Were you present at the conference of the 23rd of May the new Reich Chancellery when the famous Schmund records were established?
Mr. Denney: Can we have the year?
Raeder: Five days later there were records taken on this conference.
Judge Musmanno: Mr. Denney asked a question. Let's have everything.
Raeder: 1939.
Judge Musmanno: What month?
Raeder: 23 May. All these dates are in my interrogation and known to my lawyer. Dr. Bergold is cognizant of that fact.
Dr. Borgold: I have only a few questions to this protocol, the record of Schmund. It has been noted that Field Marshal Goering was present. Was he actually present?
Raeder: I cannot say that today. It is very probable that he was there but in the protocol Schmund prepared the list of people present. Whether he was actually there, I think it is very likely, but I cannot say for sure.
Dr. Bergold: Did you hear the end of the meeting? Hilch went up to the Fuehrer and asked him whether he would not be allowed to make a report to Goering because he was a substitute for Goering.
Raeder: I cannot recollect that Milch was there at all. Whether he was there or not is entirely unknown to me.
Dr. Bergold: In this protocol at the end there is laid down as a matter of principle and this basic principle reads as follows: first, nobody shall participate or nobody must participate who is not to be in the know. Nobody has to learn more than he has to know. At what time has the person concerned to know at the latest.
Nobody must learn anything any sooner than he has to know it. Do you know that those principles are contained in the so-called basic Fuehrer order?
Raeder: I only know that on this occasion those principles were laid down. They were mentioned and I know that Hitler, as well as people like Himmler himself, has followed those principles strictly. It is clear from those facts that so many people knew nothing of facts which did not concern them directly. Hitler and Himmler were masters in this art and they demanded from all other persons that they on their part adhere to this principle closely.
Dr. Bergold: Isn't this a fault of your memory? Milch thinks that the Fuehrer only said nobody must say anything about this meeting. The gentlemen present must not even discuss it amongst themselves.
Mr. Denney: If your Honor please, I certainly want to allow Dr. Bergold every latitude but now he is putting to the witness what Milch says today. He first asked the witness concerning the meeting and concerning his recollection. Now the witness has given his answer and I submit that the witness' answer should stand, and not that Dr. Bergold should state what Filch tells him today. It is his recollection what happened almost 8 years ago.
Dr. Bergold: The witness was mistaken in his first answer. I must have the possibility to ask him whether he is not mistaken, whether there was not another utterance made at . that time. I am prepared to drop the word Milch.
Judge Husmanno: Dr. Bergold will be permitted to ask the witness to search his memory but he may not indicate to the witness what Milch is saying today. Dr. Bergold may direct the witness' attention to any pertinent incident or episode because we understand that when eight years have passed, it is possible for the witness to overlook something. Dr. Bergold may be him to recall by referring to some specific episode, but he may not tell him what Milch is saying today.