Q. Witness, do you know the term "executive power"?
A. I can't remember this term at the moment.
Q. As supply officer did you have anything to do with this term?
A. No.
Q. Did you have anything to do with tactical affairs?
MR. FENSTERMACHER: Your Honor, I object to that as being without the scope of cross examination.
THE PRESIDENT: At the risk of ....I would rather do it the other way. The objection will be overruled. You may proceed. Limit it as much as possible though.
BY DR. MUELLER-TORGOW:
Q. You said you only had to do with supply tasks?
A. Yes, and at the end with the evacuation of Greece. There can be different opinions as to whether that was a tactical event or not.
Q. Therefore, you did not have anything to do with tasks concerning executive powers nor tactical matters?
A. No.
DR. MUELLER-TORGOW: I have no further questions.
THE PRESIDENT: I take it there's no further questioning on behalf of either the defense or the prosecution?
MR. FENSTERMACHER: I have no further questions, Your Honor.
THE PRESIDENT: The witness may be excused.
DR. MUELLER-TORGOW: With the permission of the Tribunal, I now call the next witness. Joachim Lange.
MR. FENSTERMACHER: If your Honor pleases, I don't want to be technical but the twenty-four hour rule has not been observed as far as regards the notification of this witness. I waive any objection that I might have, Your Honor.
THE PRESIDENT: The witness may be called. I think counsel should guard against my breach of this rule though in the future so that we may not be embarrassed by this question being raised later.
DR. MUELLER-TORGOW: Your Honor, I think this matter has cropped up before, when the Prosecution knows for some time that this witness would be brought in the case of General Relay. The applications first go to the prosecution and then they go to the Tribunal.
MR. FENSTERMACHER: In that regard, your Honor, I should like to point out that we receive many applications on the part of the defense for witnesses. We approve those as a matter of course that the witness will be brought here and they may interrogate him. Of course, we have no idea. no knowledge of which of those many witnesses who are brought here will be called to the witness stand. It is with respect to their being put on the witness stand that the twenty-four hour rule is to be observed.
DR. MUELLER-TORGOW: Your Honor, I would like to add that on the first day of the Felmy case I announced this witness.
MR. FENSTERMACHER: I don't want to seen to be argumentative, but I have no knowledge that I can recall that this witness was to have been called, but, as I say, I waive any right - my rights in that regard
THE PRESIDENT: If this witness gave notice, which the record will show whether he did or did not, that will satisfy the situation. You may proceed, under the circumstances.
JOACHIM LANGE, a witness, took the stand and testified as follows:
THE PRESIDENT: The witness will raise his right hand and be sworn.
I swear by God, the Almighty and Omniscient, that I will speak the pure truth and will withhold and add nothing.
(The witness repeated the oath.)
You may be seated.
DIRECT EXAMINATION BY DR. MUELLER-TORGOW:
Q. Witness, would you please tell the Tribunal your full name?
A. Joachim Lange.
Q. When were you born?
A. On the 27th of April, 1901.
Q. Where were you born?
A. In Jeschewo.
Q. Where is that?
A. In the District of Schwitz.
Q. Where?
A. Formerly West Prussia:
Q. Where do you live now?
A. Munsterlager, Lueneburgerstrasse 13, Hanover.
Q. And what is your profession?
A. Priest.
Q. Witness, please describe quite briefly your military employments during the last war as a soldier and as a priest?
A. On the 15th of August, 1939, I was drafted. I was in the antiaircraft during the first years of the war. Since the 5th of February 1942, I was an Army chaplain.
Q. What does that mean? Army Chaplain?
A. As a chaplain, I was concerned with the spiritual needs of the Wehrmacht. Since the 10th of March, 1942, I was hospital chaplain in Salonika with the field hospital detachment 3602. Later on, since the 1st of April, 1942, until the 1st of April, 1943, I was divisional chaplain for the 117th Light Infantry Division which was in Greece on the Pelopones.
Q. You belonged to the divisional staff?
A. Yes.
Q. And where was this staff at the time?
A. The divisional staff was stationed at the end near Corinthia.
Q. What was your sphere of work as divisional chaplain of the 117th Light Infantry Division?
A. To begin with, to care for the spiritual needs of the Wehrmacht in the division, and, furthermore, to care for the spiritual needs of those units who had no divisional chaplain. Since I was the only divisional chaplain on the Pelopones for a long time, and since there were approximately three divisions with war strength, during occasional visits in Summer, 1943, to Veccina with General Felmy, I was officially asked to take over the whole Pelopones area and to care for the spiritual needs of the troops there and to hold services.
Q. Were you often officially on trips in the Pelopones?
A. I was traveling almost the whole time. In the Pelopones, there is scarcely one town and very few villages which I did not know.
Q. On these trips did you hear anything about the band position in the Pelopones? Did you hear anything about this or didn't you hear anything about this?
A. In 1942, I came to Greece. At that time it was still relatively peaceful in Greece. As far as I remember, the unrest started around Autumn-Summer 1943 and reached its climax in Spring, 1944. Sabotage acts were carried out against the railways, bridges were blown up, supply units were victims of surprise attacks and were shot up, individual cars were attacked, trains were shot at, and terror acts were also carried out against the Greek civilian population, who were often terrorized by the bands and felt to be threatened and terrorized, often asked the occupation troops for help.
I know of cases in which Greek civilians were kidnapped by the bands and I saw personally, while I was a prisoner of the bands, that even women and children were taken away by the bands into the mountains and detained.
Q. Did the German occupation troops, according to your experience, look after peace and order in the Pelopones or did they provoke these band attacks?
A. The Last thing you said, certainly not. The provocations were, as far as I could observe this and I haven't heard of anything to the contrary - these provocations were exclusively made by the bands who, every time, as far as I can remember, started the matter.
Q. Yes. Well, then, what was the attitude of the individual soldier to reprisal measures? You saw quite a lot in the Pelopones and you talked a lot to soldiers and officers about this. What was the attitude of the troops?
MR. FENSTERMACHER: If Your Honor please, I submit that counsel should not lead the witness by telling him that he went around and talked to the troops about these things. He should ask the witness if that's what he did, first.
THE PRESIDENT: Sustained. It's leading.
DR. MUELLER-TORGOW: Excuse me. The witness said himself that he went around a lot and that is why I formulated the question in this way.
THE PRESIDENT: Proceed. Avoid putting the proposed answer into the witnesses mouth.
BY DR. MUELLER-TORGOW:
Q. Did you talk with officers and soldiers about reprisal measures?
A. Frequently.
Q. And what did the officers and soldiers tell you about reprisal measures?
A. I was able to observe, and it is also quite understandable from a psychological point of view, that after every fresh attack in which sixty, sometimes even seventy, comrades were suddenly murdered, the excitement among the troops rose considerably. Therefore, it is very understandable that the soldiers thought it justified for reprisal measures to be carried out.
Q. Did you also talk with members of the Greek civilian population?
A. Yes.
Q. Do you speak Greek?
A. I have studied ancient Greek and also some modern Greek.
Q. You could make yourself understood?
A. Yes, I know enough to make myself understood.
Q. Well, then, would you please answer the question.
A. Now and again I spoke with the Greek civilian population about this question and I received the impression from these conversations that the Greek civilian population.......
MR. FENSTERMACHER: If Your Honor please, the witness is testifying as to certain conclusions which he has reached. I think he should limit himself to testifying just to facts what he saw and what he heard.
THE PRESIDENT: Sustained.
BY DR. MUELLER-TORGOW:
Q. What did the Greeks tell you about this subject?
A. They told me that they would be very glad if the German troops left Greece again but, at the moment, they realized that the German occupation was the lesser evil compared with an occupation of the Pelopones by the bands.
Q. Who was the divisional commander of the 117th Light Infantry Division?
A. At that time, the divisional commander was General von Le Suire.
Q. And how was General Le Suire regarded by the officers of the staff to which you belonged and what opinion did the officers of the division have about him as a leader of troops as far as you know? How was he judged?
A. The officers of the staff, as well as of the division, regarded General Le Suire as a very competent general; as a general who, in a military respect, was able to achieve something.
Q. And did the ordinary soldiers like him or not?
A. The soldiers didn't like him as much because he was well known to be a very strict superior officer.
Court No. V, Case No, VII.
Q. Witness, do you know about the so-called Operation Kalavrita?
A. More from hearsay than from personal experience and knowledge.
Q. And does the same apply to the reprisal measures carried out by Germany?
A. I only know that reprisal measures were carried out by the Germans following this attack in Kalavrita. In what ratio they were carried out I don't know.
Q. Do you remember what the officers of the divisional staff said at that time about these reprisal measures?
MR. FENSTERMACHER: If your Honor please, I think the witness should first be qualified to speak on this matter.
DR. MUELLER-TORGOW: Your Honor, the witness was a member of the divisional staff and, as a result, he was often together with the officers of the staff in messes, etc.
MR. FENSTERMACHER: I don't believe Dr. Mueller-Torgow is competent to say what the activities of the witness were. Pure testimony on the part of counsel is that the witness was in the Casino and talked with officers of the division staff.
DR. MUELLER-TORGOW: Your Honor, the witness himself has stated that he belonged to the divisional staff of the 117th Light Infantry Division.
MR. FENSTERMACHER: If your Honor please, I submit that is not enough for him to say what the officers of the staff thought about the Kalavrita Operation.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, in order to clarify the situation you might interrogate the witness as to what knowledge he has or what he learned from other sources or what information he gained from certain individuals. In that way, you can avoid the hearsay phase of it. I suggest you first qualify the witness along that line. To that extent, the objection will be sustained.
BY DR. MUELLER-TORGOW:
Q. Witness, you said that you belonged to the staff of the 117th Light Infantry Division. Did you meet other officers of this staff and if so when?
A. I met the officers of this staff frequently, every time I went to the mess. We also met outside of the trips which I made.
Q. And then what did the officers of the staff tell you about the Operation Kalavrita?
MR. FENSTERMACHER: If your Honor please, that is complete hearsay. If counsel wants to prove what the officers thought about the Kalavrita Operation, they should be brought here to testify and not this witness.
THE PRESIDENT: The objection will be sustained.
BY DR. MUELLER-TORGOW:
Q. Witness, which connection then did you have with this affair of Kalavrita in your capacity as divisional chaplain?
MR. FENSTERMACHER: If your honor please, the witness has already testified to that, that he knows nothing about this Kalavrita operation of his own knowledge and all he knows is what he heard, and I submit that counsel is bound by his answers.
THE PRESIDENT: He is now asking him what connection or what information he personally had. He may answer that limited question.
DR. MUELLER-TORGOW: Your honor, I wanted to get at something else. I wanted now to ask him what connection he had as divisional chaplain with the affair afterwards.
THE PRESIDENT: You may ask that question.
BY DR. MUELLER-TORGOW:
Q. Well then, did you come into any contact with this affair after the murder of the German soldiers?
A. One day before Christmas 1943, 70 soldiers killed in this attack were to be buried by me. This was in Tripolis and also to be buried were 12 other dead who had been killed traveling from Tripolis to Sparta so that one day before Christmas at this burial in 1943 altogether 82 corpses were buried, as far as I can still remember.
Q. Did you see the bodies of the soldiers killed in Kalavrita?
A. No.
Q. Why not?
A. Because they were already in the coffins.
Q. Did you talk with people who had seen the corpses?
A. The corpses were found by our reconnaissance units near Kalavrita and officers and soldiers of the reconnaissance said they were mutilated.
MR. FENSTERMACHER: The witness is now talking about matters of which he has no personal knowledge. He can't possibly know of his own knowledge where the bodies were found or by what unit.
THE PRESIDENT: Your objection being, I take it, that it is hearsay?
MR. FENSTERMACHER: That is correct, your Honor.
THE PRESIDENT: Sustained.
BY MR. MUELLER-TORGOW:
Q. Witness, during your trips to the Pelopennesus, how did you travel? What kind of transportation did you use?
A. I was able to use the trains which ran according to plan as far as one can speak of "running according to plan" because of the danger of the position. I sometimes used armed escort trains because isolated travel was much too dangerous and it was also prohibited by the division because of this danger.
Q. And during these trips, did you ever come into contact with partisans?
A. Mainly, during the attack on the ninth of July 1944 near Chora.
Q. Would you please point this out on the map?
A. It is here. (Indicating on the map.)
Q. In the Southwest part of the Peloponnes?
A. Yes.
Q. Would you please describe this attack?
A. On the first of October, 1943, I was supposed to be transferred as a chaplain, to Army Group F in Belgrade. On the first of October, 1944, I was supposed to be transferred to *elgrade to Army Group F. On the second of June 1944, I returned from my last leave. Until the first of October, 1944, I had four months in which to visit all the troops on the Peloponnes once more before my transfer and to hold services with them. Thereupon, I drew up a plan, a travel plan, according to which it was possible in four months to visit about 50 to 60 thousand soldiers. When I drew up this plan I said to myself that first of all I must go to that place where there was the most danger because at the moment -- if I still had time and If I were lucky-- I would still be able to get there and later on this wouldn't be possible.
On the other hand, regarding the larger troop units, battalions and regiments, and larger units, it was much easier to visit them later on, even if the situation became even more critical. So on my journey to Pylos I went with an armed convoy which was composed of about 11 to 12 trucks and cars and about 70 escorts. I used this convoy which came from Athens and joined it in Tripolis. From Tripolis we went via Kalamata.
Q. Would you please point out this on the map? Perhaps you would point it out on the left map down there, there the Peloponnes is on larger scale.
THE PRESIDENT: For the purposes of the record, it seems to me the witness should indicate the place by some reference to a town or the portion of the country or seacoast or something of that nature. Just to say it is here doesn't help the record any.
BY DR. MUELLER-TORGOW:
Q. Witness, then would you give us exact names of the route taken by this convoy on the left-hand map?
A. The convoy came from Athens down via Tripolis, Kalamata, Pylos. I wanted to go on via Kyparissia back to Athens.
Q. Where did you join it?
A. I came from Corinth as far as Tripolis with the train; then in Tripolis I joined the convoy and went with it first of all as far as Kalamata and then afterwards on to Pylos. Kalamata is in the South of Greece.
THE PRESIDENT: We will take our noon recess at this time.
(A recess was taken until 1330 hours.)
AFTERNOON SESSION (The hearing reconvened at 1330 hours.)
THE MARSHAL: Persons in the Courtroom please take their seats.
The Tribunal is again in session:
BY DR. MUELLER-TORGOW:
Q. Before the luncheon recess, we had stopped when you described the truck convoy which I believe you joined in Kalamata. Will you please briefly recapitulate for us and then continue?
A. I did not join the convoy in Kalamata but in Tripolis.
Q. I See.
A. It was an armed convoy coming from Athens and I believe it had the task to supply some units on the Peloponnes with reinforcements. I joined this convoy in Tripolis. We came to Kalamata, around noon, on the 18th of July, 1944. The men in charge of the convoy was a master sergeant by the name of Guse.
Q. Of what troop unit was he a member if you happen to know that?
A. I am afraid I cannot tell you that with any amount of certainty. In Kalamata, master sergeant Guse told no that he had just received a telephone call, possibly with Pylos. I don't know that for sure, and this telephone conversation had revealed that a clash with the partisans could be anticipated.......
MR. FENSTERMACHER: Your Honor, I object to any testimony regarding a telephone conversation between the sergeant and some undisclosed person as being complete hearsay.
THE PRESIDENT: Sustained.
BY DR. MUELLER-TORGOW:
A. That we should count on a clash with the partisans, -
Q. Will you please leave the contents of the telephone conversation: and continue?
A. In the afternoon, we left Kalamata and in the evening by dusk we arrived in Pylos. On the way from Kalamata to Pylos, we had not seen any partisans nor had we noticed anything suspicious.
In Pylos, I had a conversation with the company chief stationed there and with the garrison commander concerning the service which I was going to hold in Pylos the next day. We remained there overnight until thy 19th. In the morning around eight o'clock, I held a service in the soldiers' club in Pylos. I had asked Master Sergeant Guse, the man in charge of the convoy, to give us an additional one or two days and let us leave a little later because I wanted to visit some other units who were stationed around Pylos. I intended to held some more services, but he was in a great hurry. On the 19th of July, approximately between 11 and 12 o'clock in the morning, we left.
In Pylos, we had been warned a second time and this time by "V-men" so-called confidential agents who were used by the German troops to gain important information about partisan movements etc. These V-men, confidential agents, had warned us against continuing near Chora we could expect a surprise attack. In the morning we left Pylos.
Although the man in charge of our convoy had been warned and although It had become known that the telephone communications had been disrupted,-the telephone wires had been cut, and the telephone poles had been sawed off on the Pylos--Chora road, -- around noon, we arrived at Pylos. I beg your pardon, we arrived at Chora. Chora is situated approximately ten kilometers away from Pylos.
Q. Will you please show it on the map?
A. It is situated between Pylos and Kalamata. I don't think it will be on the map. It is quite an insignificant little village.
Q. I only want to see, roughly, the district.
A. Approximately here.
Q. Near Pylos?
A. Yes, near Pylos. When we entered the village of Chora, the village was empty all people living there. When passing through the village we couldn't see a single soul. Comrades of mine who, together with me, were in the convoy and were captured together with me, and who are alive today, say that they can remember that when we arrived in the village, the church bells rang.
Q. You yourself did not hear that, did you?
A. I cannot remember having heard it. When we had passed through the village and reached the exit-
Q. May I interrupt? How was this convoy organized and what did it consist of? I believe you said this morning it had ten to twelve vehicles.
A. Yes.
Q. What kind of vehicles were they and in what kind of a vehicle did you ride and can you give us some details?
A. They were mainly trucks. I remember that two, at the most three, sedans were there too. In one of these which formed the end of the convoy, Master Sergeant Guse was riding. In another sedan, there was a Lt. Colonel of the Engineers whose name I have forgotten and from Pylos on I rode in his sedan together with him at the top of the convoy.
Q. That was which vehicle?
A. It was the second vehicle counted front the front and at the very top there was a truck with a group of machine gunners which was under the command of an NCO. That was the first truck. Behind that truck came our car which was the car of the Lt. Colonel, in which I rode. Then followed the other vehicles, The escort was allegedly--I am afraid I cannot tell you this exactly---consisting of about 70 soldiers, armed with machine guns, carbines and hand grenades.
Q. What was the district there like, the district right near Chora?
A. The terrain was especially favorable for such surprise attacks.
It was a small path loading over a mountain pass and there were steep hills, no trees, heaps of rocks and stones, and bushes.
Q. And what was the road like?
A. On this spot, where the surprise attack took place, we had just passed a curve.
To the best of my recollection, this curve led over a bridge. For the people attacked there was no possibility of cover at all. Near the exit of the village, we saw some suspicious civilians. There were some men who when the convoy appeared suddenly disappeared completely from the scene.
Q That is why they seemed suspicious to you, because they disappeared, or why?
A Because they ran away; that's why. The convoy stopped immediately. The lieutenant colonel and I begged the man in charge of the convoy, the master sergeant, not to continue at that moment. We explained that it seemed necessary to us to send a reconnaissance squad ahead, somebody to secure the heights or somebody to fire in case of a surprise attack and protect us in this way.
The master sergeant did not listen to our suggestions. In substance he said about the following: he had for sometime been taking convoys through the most dangerous terrains and on frequent occasions he had been shot at while en route but he had never lost as much as a single life. In this case, also, he relied on his lucky stars. He was prepared to give full gas and he was prepared to pass the difficult area as quickly and as fast as possible.
When the first car with the machine gunners and the N.C.O. had passed the second road bend we were fired at. This was a strong fire from all sides without our being able to see the enemy. The convoy was stopped immediately. Where the men in the convoy were still alive they took up their arms and went under cover. The only cover which we could find during this surprise attack were our cars.
The lieutenant colonel asked me, "Where are these people shooting from?" I showed him a hill slope which seemed particularly suspicious to me. The lieutenant colonel took hold of his machine pistol, his driver and his carbine and a fourth passenger had a light machine gun which he put into position, and thus they tried as best they could in this terrain, which was unfavorable for us, to open counter fire.
Soon after that the N.C.O. appeared who had been in charge of the machine gunners on the first truck. He held a weapon in his right hand and shouted, "Everybody is dead at the front. Machine gun to the front," I can!t today tell you how long the skirmish lasted -- possibly an hour.
Q How did the men look who attacked you?
A During this skirmish we had no chance of seeing them but afterwards in captivity I had a chance to look at them thoroughly. They had no unified uniform.
Q Would you please continue now?
A When I realized that this skirmish had no chance of success for us and that the convey was lost I did near the car behind which I had crouched for such a long time, Along a rising slope, possibly about 10 meters distant from this car, was an undergrowth and that's where I hid. It was summer and I was wearing a green tropical uniform and thus I was well camouflaged in this green undergrowth. Thus hidden I waited for the end of this skirmish.
Q Approximately how long did you remain in this hiding place?
A That's difficult to answer today, taking into consideration tho excitement which held me at the time. It might have been a question of several minutes.
Q And what did you do then?
A Then I heard the shouts of the attacking partisans come nearer and nearer. Finally it was so close that I could almost understand tho commando shouts and the individual words. I heard that something which night have been a gun was dragged back and forth somewhere quite close to me and put up in position. Suddenly I heard a strange rustling which caused me to look up very cautiously. I did not want to be found. To my intense horror I saw that the whole of the slope was a sea of flames which was creeping closer to me. How this had come about I don't know.
I jumped out from my hiding place in this undergrowth and crept over the pass, tried to proceed towards the valley and to escape towards a little riverlet down below. I had to pass a large plain, a large meadow, which was completely open and in full view. There were no bushes there. There I encountered the first wounded. They called for help.
Together with one of my comrades who was slightly wounded, I carried the wounded down below.
Q Had the fire ceased in the meantime?
A No, shooting and firing went on. Even today I am surprised that we were not fired at, and were not hit. Down below near the riverlet we had as best as we could, I had on me a knapsack and in the knapsack I had some medical supplies, bandages, dressings and elasteplast. I supplied the wounded with dressings and then stayed near them. If now in retrospect I recall the events I might have had the chance to escape even then, but I believed that it was my duty as a parson not to leave the wounded.
How long we remained in this hiding place I cannot tell you, possibly 20 minutes. Then we were found by the partisans who were really the population of the village who participated in the fighting. Suddenly there stood over me a partisan with a machine pistol which he held in position. Before that I had enough time to reflect that now it would be my task to somehow try to save the wounded and that I in my capacity as a chaplain might be able to do that.
Part of the uniform of a German divisional chaplain was a cross which he were around his neck on a chain and this cross was tucked between the second and third buttonhole inside the jacket and only taken out during services. I took it out immediately and explained to the people that I was a divisional chaplain, a German priest.
Another partisan stopped the first one who threatened me with a machine pistol from shooting me. Then I was undressed, not only down to my undershirt, even right down to the skin. My glasses were taken away from me. My golden watch was stolen. My wedding ring was taken off my finger and then I got rags from them, dirty horrible rags.
Q What were they?
A They were a very short pair of pants smeared all over with blood of corpses. Afterwards it got torn during the march through the mountains. Apart from that, apart from this pair of short pants, my feet and the rest of my body was completely bare.