While the Indians took away the scalps of enemies who had died in battle, other natives cut off the heads of their enemies who had died in battle and brought them back to their priests. The priests then kept these heads as trophies, and they shrunk them. That is to say, by heating them, they were shrunk to such an extent that they only assumed the size of a big apple or a big pear.
From SS Obersturmfuehrer Dr. Mueller, we were given an order at the time to prepare such shrunken skulls for the first time in Europe and we had to do that through the descriptions of a traveller who had observed these ceremonies with the savage tribes. The preparation was carried out in such a manner that the back of the skull was cut open and all the soft parts, the muscle parts, were taken out so that actually only the loose skin was left there. The hairs remained intact and the eyebrows and towards the outside everything remained normal. Now the interior was filled with hot sand for a period of twenty-four hours so that the skin shrunk like leather and the skull became as small as the head of a doll. Then, afterwards, the skull was again sewed up on the back and it was put on a wooden pedestal. Then it was exhibited to members of the SS and the SS men liked to have these things on their writing desk in order to consider themselves important.
Q Was the Dr. Mueller that you just mentioned subordinated to Dr. lolling?
A Dr. Mueller, like every physician in the concentration camp was subordinated to Dr. Lolling.
Q Do you know if these shrunken heads were made at the order of Dr. Lolling?
A I dan not say that. In any case, I can say that he inspected these skulls and that he was very much in favor of it and that he recommended the manufacture of other shrunken skulls and that he immediately ordered a skeleton privately for himself and this was given to him.
Q Herr Ackermann, do you know if frequent visits were made to the camp by various parties to inspect these shrunken skulls on exhibition?
A We had regular visitors in the camp. These visitors came in large groups when any national meeting took place at Weimar and frequently the persons who attended the meeting were invited by the camp commanders to inspect the camp.
Q Were these only SS men or did these parties include other people?
A These groups included all possible people. On some occasion there was some sort of workers' meeting at Weimar and the workers arrived in buses. At least 150 people arrived and they went from Weimar to Buchenwald in three buses. These people were usually shown three things. The first was the so-called canteen, the post-exchange. The canteen for the prisoners had been established outside. It only had one fault and that is nothing could be bought there, except some shoe polish on occasions. The second station where visitors were lead to was the pathological section, because there we had established a big exhibition room. In this exhibition room we had many hundred of drugs on display and the skeletons were displayed there and on a table there were the shrunken heads and on another table there were hundreds of tattoos.
Q Herr Ackermann, I believe the court wants to ask you a question.
BY THE PRESIDENT:
Q You mentioned 150 people who came, I think, from Weimar to Buchenwald, and you called them editors or writers. We didn't get the translation of that word.
A They were workers. They were craftsmen.
BY MR. ROBBINS:
Q Herr Ackermann, were explanatory lectures made to these visitors, and, if so, who made them?
A I was ordered to hold a lecture every time that visitors came.
Q. You, yourself, made these lectures?
A I had to give these lectures by myself because no physician could ever be seen in my department in the morning.
Q Herr Ackermann, can you give us some idea of the total number of people who witnessed these exhibits?
A That is very difficult to give an exact number, but there were months when such visitors almost arrived every day. In some cases individual people came and, above all, there were also members from Wehrmacht. Then there were Air Corps officers who had been awarded the Ritterkreuz, the Knight's Cross, and who, as a reward, were also being shown around the concentration camp.
Q And were school children being brought there?
A You can not say if they were school children, but people between the ages of 14 to 17 were brought into the camp and we assumed that this perhaps was one of the schools which was intended for the new generation.
BY THE PRESIDENT:
Q You mentioned three places where the visitors were taken and you stopped at the second one, which was the exhibit. What was the third place?
A The third place was the so-called operating room of the hospital. It had been newly established and it looked very imposing and the people were lead in there to see. Otherwise, they did not see anything at all of the camp.
BY MR. ROBBINS:
Q Herr Ackermann, how long were you in Nordhausen?
A On the 4th of January, 1944, I came to the camp Dora near Nordhausen.
Q It is a branch camp of Nordhausen, is it?
A No, Nordhausen was not a camp at all. Nordhausen later on became a branch camp of Dora.
Q And what kind of work was being done at Dora?
AAt Dora work was carried out in an old deserted mine which had been built up and which was on the south part of the Harz mountains. That was located in a chain of mountains called the Kronstein. In there big halls for production were established and from the summer of 1943 on the V-weapons of Germany were manufactured.
Q Do you know why you were transferred from Buchenwald to Dora?
A On the evening of the 3d of January, I was given a telegram and this telegram had approximately the following contents. "The Prisoner Ackermann of the Pathology Section is to be sent and to be transferred to the Camp Dora at once, signed, Kammler." Afterwards I heard through Hauptsturmfuehrer Mr. Blatzer and I was given the fact and the reasons for my transfer in a rather plausible manner. Dr. Blatzer, who had been my superior at Buchenwald for some time had already been transferred as physician to Dora in the fall of 1943. Already in charge, he came to me and said that I should come to him, because he was urgently in need of my assistance and he did not have any trained clerk. I told him that this was completely out of the question and I refused to go there and then the regular physician, at that time Dr. Schiedlausky, told him that he would not release me and that he would have to look for somebody else. Now Dr. Blatzer, as he told me afterwards on the occasions of the visit of Kammler at Dora had stated that he urgently needed this clerk and as a result of this Kammler sent this order which was absolutely intolerable also for the commanders and the camp physician of Buchenwald and that is already shown by the fact that at night I went to bed in the hospital and had a chart with a high fever and that I was living there in bandages and it was stated that I was unable to be transported and then the commanders stated that dead or alive I was to go to Dora and that is an order from Kammler, and if I can not go otherwise, I will have to go on a stretcher.
Then I again took off my bandages and went to Dora.
Q What kind of work were you given to do in Dora?
A In Dora I was the clerk of Hauptsturmfuehrer Dr. Blatzer who was the camp physician there. My activity consisted of taking Dr. Blatzer's place until noon and at noon when he had slept off his drunkenness of the night before, at that time I received the orders for the correspondence with Lolling and with other centralized agencies.
Q Did Dr. Kahr take Dr. Blatzer's place at a certain time?
A Yes, Dr. Blatzer was completely incapable who even went on Dr. Lolling's nerves. He was releaved towards the end of January by the camp physician Dr. Kahr.
Q K-a-h-r?
A Karl Kahr, K-a-h-r.
Q And was it your work at Dora to furnish for the workers who had died?
A Yes. Although we did not have a pathological section my work was to prepare the records for the dead. As a result of this I was able to move around while the engineers and other civilian, and also the prisoners were strictly restricted to a certain sector, and they were not allowed to leave this certain sector.
On the very first day I started to work at Dora I took a walk to the subterranean mines, and perhaps it will give a idea of the size if I say that two freight trains could drive along them next to each other, and next to it there was still a big highway with other railroad installations there.
The misery of the prisoners there in the mines was indescribable. Thousands of prisoners had to work here month after month. They had to work here below the earth. They not only had to work here, but they had to live, eat and sleep here. They lived in a big stone chamber and in there alone there were 3500 prisoners, and they had to sleep there. The bods were always filled. When one shift had to get up, the other shift had to return from work and take their places, and they would go into which was filled with lice. It consisted of an old straw bag which stank terribly, and an old blanket which was suited for horses. The air in the mine was so full of calcium that it was hard to breathe The people had to perform hard work for twelve hours, and with the small amount of food they were given they collapsed for exhaustion during work. Whenever I walked through the mines I always had to step over and walked over the corpses. They were lying just on the way. Many of these prisoners committed suicide by throwing themselves down at the mines or by otherwise committing suicide, or they took a rope and hanged themselves to the next post.
The death rate constantly increased. In February 1945 with 50,000 workers, it amounted to 3500, and in March 1945, I registered in my death book where all the names and places places of birth and all nationalities of the prisoners had been registered-- I listed 5,000 that is to say 10% of all the prisoners there.
In theory, such a camp would have died would have died completely within ten months.
Q Do you know if this camp was subordinated to the WVHA in Berlin?
A After all the letters, at least those from the medical section, and after we had to sent them to D-III, to Lolling repeatedly came for inspections we had to assume that the WVHA, with which we also communicated in economic matters, was the superior organization and agency of this SS institution.
Q Was it a part of your work to open and read all the letters that came in your department?
A Yes. It was so that I received all letters and I also received the secret orders and instructions, because it had been explained to me "You can read everything because, after all you will never leave the concentration camp." And I kept these things with me.
Q Can you give us some idea of the number of percentage of German nationals at Dora?
A There was an exceedingly small number of German nationals at Dora. Ye only had approximatively 600 German nationals at dora and in the branch camps, and the others consisted mainly of Frenchmen, Russians, Czechs, Poles and Dutchmen or other nationalities. We had approximately thirty-two nationalities represented there.
Q Were the prisoners of war worked there?
A We also had prisoners of war. We had Russians and Italians
Q Can you state wether or not the conditions improved under Dr. Kahr?
A Conditions improved considerably under Dr. Kahr. He especially tried to improve the hygienic and sanitation conditions there. This Dr. Kahr did not only distinguish himself by protecting a large number of prisoners from death by enabling us to protect them from the investigations of the Gestapo, ot to save them from a SS Scharfuehrer by having them accept in the hospital even if they were not sick, but he saved the lives of thousands by taking care that through hygienic improvements the epidemic could be prevented, and as it has to be said in public and I would like to say this; that under the SS there were not only pigs, but there were numerous people who were correct and in excess of that there were SS men who became our best friends.
Q You have stated that Kahr took Dr. Blatzer's place?
A Yes.
Q Do you know wether Dr. Kahr was relieved of his position there at Buchenwald?
A Dr. Kahr was relieved from his position and he was transferred as a disciplinary measure after a trial had been started against him because he was politically conspiring with prisoners and because he was disturbing the production of V-weapons at Dora. He was sent into the back camp, to Gross-Rosen from his position at the first camp physician at Dora.
Q From your work at Buchenwald do you know of the transport of workers who were no longer able to work?
A These transports from Dora originated from orders which were issued by Dr. Lolling, the physician in charge of all the concentration camps. These orders came into my hands and they stated for example all persons who are not capable of performing work anymore are to be organized into one transport and their number is to be reported, and in the next few days further directions will be issued. And then several days later a teletype would arrive - one thousand transport of prisoners incapable of working can leave on such and such a date. These prisoners were placed into certain transport groups and they were sent away. In January when I was there, a transport was put together which was sent to Lublin. The destination to which the prisoners were sent was usually told us afterwards from the escort guards, and of the thousand men who came to Lublin in January, only 600 arrived. The remainder died during the journey. The physical condition of these pri soners was already so bad that they were unable to live through such a transport.
Q Do you know if these prisoners were being transported for the purpose of being gassed?
A That was never mentioned in the teletype. However it was clear to us that these were superfluous people who were unable to work anymore and the guards who again returned from the transport told us-- of course, they may not have seen it themselves--"Well, they have already died in Lublin."
Q Herr Ackermann, if it would be more comfortable for you I think you can sit back, It is not necessary to sit close to the microphone.
A Yes.
Q Can you tell us how much sleep the workers at Dora received?
A I sent a memorandum about that to the physician in charge, Dr. Lolling, and it was signed by Dr. Kahr. In this memorandum we proved that the prisoners, as a result of twelve hour work and the long march to and from the work, and long roll call through which they had to stand, usually came into their blocks at 11.30 at night. That was during the day, they arrived from their blocks at 11.30 and there would be given their first warm lunch, and at 12.30 at night, they would only go to bed. In summer time they were again waked up at 2.30 in the morning, so that these people only were able to sleep for 1-1/2 or 2 hours. And this of course resulted in their complete exhaustion. The inferior food alone would not given any explanation for the fact that the corpses of all prisoners only consisted of skin and bones. However, with this exhaustion they were unable to take any food, and if they had been given any food it still would not have been of any use.
Q How far did the workers have to mark to their work?
A These varied according to the individual branch camps. The personnel from Nordhausen who, lived in the Burg Kaserne had a marching route of two hours or 2-1/2 hours.
Q Did the workers have an opportunity to bathe themselves?
A Originally in the mine for a period of months we did not have any water at all. The prisoners were completely covered with this dust and they were full of dust, and they unable to wash themselves. The prisoners had to help themselves; in that they had to use their urine in order to wash their faces. Later on the camp was established and there also certain showers were installed, and they were able to take one bath there per week. However, a large number of prisoners did not avail themselves of this opportunity because the bath was simultaneously connected with the danger that one could catch lice there. Finally, Dr. Kahr managed to have some few delousing facilities there and then regularly he carried out some delousing procedure. However, these things were not really very effective because, for example, the big branch camp Ellerich, according to a letter from the physician there, did not have any opportunity for three to four months to exchange shirts Although we could repeatedly approach the camp administration, and wrote to Berlin, that very form of delousing was necessary when the people could not change their shirts for a month, and we were told the soldiers at the front are to be given first priority.
We did not have any clothing available. The coldest winter the persons had to go barefooted, and we had to wear wooden shoes, and that is the way they had to go to work, and they had to stand at roll call for hours.
Q What acts of the workers were punished as sabotage, and what was the punishment?
AAt Dora there was a certain camp of the Gestapo, which at the same time was the Counter Intelligence Organization for the armament factory. The Director of this Counter Intelligence group was Obersharfuehrer Sanders. Sanders attempted to leave or to create an impression on Himmler that he was very efficient. For example, whenever some Russians took a piece of wire so that they could tie together their wooden shoes, so they would not lose them, he immediately had the Russians up for sabotage, for sabotaging the production of V-weapons. The smallest taking of material was considered a sabotage, and it was punished by hanging. At a later period of time, Sanders began to hang all these political people in the camp, or by gassing them for having sabotaged armaments, and then after the evacuation of the camp the political prisoners who were located in bunkers were killed off, being shot in the neck.
THE PRESIDENT: I believe the translator wishes to make a correction in the record.
THE INTERPRETER: Tho correction is that the noon meal was not given to the prisoners until 11:30 at night, not at noon.
MR. ROBBINS: I suggest that be read into the German transcript also.
THE WITNESS: In that connection the only thing is that was only one meal he ever received.
MR. ROBBINS: Did you learn of an order - -
THE PRESIDENT: Just a second. While we are on that point. What did this meal consist of?
THE WITNESS: This meal consisted of some sort of soup, onion soup, and there was either some kind of cabbage leaves in it which had partly decayed, or there was some potatoes swimming around in the soup, but in any case, it was a soup which was put together with some other things, and sometimes its contents could not be defined at all.
BY MR. ROBBINS:
Q What did you receive for a breakfast and for a lunch?
A The so-called breakfast consisted of approximately what we were served in Nurnberg this morning, but were given a cup of coffee without sugar or milk, and a piece of bread in the morning. That was the same way that we received a cup of coffee, and that it was just about as fresh a one as at Nurnberg, it was brewed black, and it was warm, but aside from that it had nothing to do with coffee. Of course it was an extreme rudeness to serve something of that sort to a former concentration camp prisoner. It is true we would be served something like this, but to be served such a brew at Nurnberg I would not have believed. However, I do assume that the Tribunal know just as little about this thing as the WVHA know just how badly the prisoners were treated. To come back to the breakfast, it was a black coffee which only was coffee by name, and then for the entire day we only received one piece bread, and this was a piece very undefinable in its size. Originally it was only one-thirds of a loaf of bread, and then it became one-fifth of a loaf. I can only say that on Christmas of 1939 at Buchenwald as a particular Christmas gift we received one loaf of broad. That was three times the regular size. That was the most beautiful Christmas gift which I ever received. It was almost unbelievable for us, that we would be given a whole loaf of bread, and then that we divided it up for ourselves, that is on Christmas Eve, and that we would have a loaf and not one-third of a loaf of bread. On Christmas Eve you can imagine what that bread meant in the concentration camp. The noon meal consisted of soup, and then in addition to that we had a so-called supper. This originally consisted of one piece of sausage, and then the sausage came to an end that we were to eat, and then we were given a Viking salad.
This was some sort of raw vegetable of an inferior quality, and ninety percent of the camp inmates, despite their hunger, were unable to eat this Viking salad, because from the hospital inmates had been warning people of eating of this garbage, because regularly they had been suffering from dissentary, and later complications. Later on they became sick whenever they would eat it there, therefore, it was unfit to eat. It was very good only in order to cleanse our mouths as a mouthwash. Then we received these pieces of bread, and in addition we received one piece of synthetic margarine, but of course, it was of very low nutritious value, so other than that we received nothing, On one occasion at Buchenwald we did not receive anything at all for a week, because it was alleged that a pig had been stolen, which, of course, the commandant had stolen himself.
Q Well, there were still some prisoners who were able to obtain some additional food?
A That is correct, there were prisoners in the administration, in the orderly room who had an opportunity to organize something for themselves. However, you must not forget that it was a small number of prisoners who had this opportunity. It hardly amounted to one percent of the entire camp personnel, and that ninety-nine -percent of those had to suffer from hunger, and that is why they died, even if same of then were beatened, or shot, or gassed. In 1944 we received 1,500 Jews from Budapest. These Jews were somewhat too soft and they were not strong enough for the hard conditions in the camp. In January not a single one of the Jews was alive, although not a single one of them was shot or beatened, but it was they all died from exhaustion.
Q Was there a crematorium at Dora?
A Yes, Dora also had a crematorium. Originally the corpses were sent to Buchenwald. However, this became too difficult. It was too embarrassing when drunk SS drivers lost half of the corpses along the way, and people who went to church in the morning looked at the corpses lying in the stree dead, or stumble over them, and that is the reason why we were furnished with cur own crematorium.
However, within a short period of time that was already insufficient, and then we had to start digging big trenches where by day and night the corpses were burned.
Q You say the corpses were burned in an open fire?
A Yes, there were so many corpses that the capacity of both the crematorium stoves were insufficient, because every day trucks came and unloaded like sand when put in the place constructed, after which the lid was taken off of there, and hundreds of corpses fell down to the ground. We would have been unable to burn these corpses in stoves for ten years.
Q Did you get any idea how far the stench from the open fires could then be detected?
A It is not, of course, very far. It could be smelled to Salza, which was located several kilometers away, and all the people claimed that the smell of corpses could be detected right at Salza, and sometimes parts of dust were carried by the air. In many cases the fire could be seen by and up to the camp of Nordhausen. Of course, the flames went very high up into the air, and in many cases the population did not like the smell very much.
Q Do you know whether Kammler was in Dora very often?
A Kammler visited Dora very frequently. I can claim that because my camp physician immediately had to put on his beautiful uniform, and he had to bow and scrape, and I was an office clerk, and I can say I always went out of my way to get away when high officials who came in the place, or when Kammler arrived. On one occasion I had very bad experience. A very high official arrived at the pathological section at Buchenwald, and the idea was that they came just the moment that I was a prisoner wearing a white overcoat, and he came in with a "Heil Hitler" and introduced himself with all his medals on. All I could answer him was, "Prisoner No. 5975," and then this high official asked for my name, and he said, "Well, you are the Ackerman I know."
Very well, after all I discovered that he had been seated next to me at some banquet. Than he told the commandant, "this is a very dangerous of National Socialism. He has written the worst articles against us, but anyway I always liked to read then." I would have lost my life if the commandant had not been a reasonable man. Then he said, "now I know that you are this pig, Ackermann, but in any case I still like to read your articles."
THE MARSHAL: Tribunal 2 is again in session.
BY MR. ROBBINS:
Q. Herr Ackermann, you have told us that you made out the death certificates in Dora-- the workers who died. Will you tell us whether you usually put down the true cause of death? Give us the circumstances in that connection.
A. In Dora, yes; but not in Buchenwald.
Q. What did you usually put down as the cause of death?
A. In Buchenwald the proceedings were that the doctor who was present at the autopsy dictated to me what I had to write down. And it happened frequently that somebody came in from the bunker whose skull had been bust open, who had obviously died, therefore, by force. And when I asked what he died of, the doctor would dictate, with an ironical glance at me, "heart disease," or "tuberculosis of the lungs" Originally, we put down "collapse" in many cases because that was really the cause in the cases of people who collapsed on the roll call. For instance, from exhaustion. There was never a roll call when the order was not given: "Stretcher bearer, to the gate." And then the corpses would be collected which were lying about in the parade ground. They had collapsed from sheer exhaustion during the roll call and the collapse was the actual medical cause of death. But then an order came from Berlin: one must not mention collapse as a cause of death; that is a swindle. Then the doctors would dictate different causes of deaths. Even when the man had been beaten to death. The same thing applied to death-by-shooting. It was an unwritten law that somebody who had been shot while trying to escape, or shot at while trying to escape --even if the wound was comparatively small-- on the same day he had to die from that shot wound. There were people whose legs had just been scratched a little by a wound, and they would have been able to carry on, but on the same day they had to be reported dead-from-shooting. The man was killed by an injection, but the report had to be made that he died from the shot wound. Whereas in reality he died by the injection given by Dr. Eissel, or some other camp doctor.
Q. What was usually given as the cause of death for the prisoners whose skulls had been beaten in?
A. Heart failure, blood disturbances, TB, liver diseases -- or anything; just as the man felt that day.
Q. You said that you knew that Kammler was at Dora very often. Do you know whether other people came with him?
A. Kammler, as a rule, came accompanied by a whole staff of people. Otherwise, also, important people used to call at Dora in order to see how the --They would be announced by telephone. It would say, "Kammler arrives in a quarter of an hour." And the camp doctor would stand ready to receive him, and the camp commandant would put on his best uniform and when Kammler came people would drink until two o'clock in the morning. "Please look after my wife," the commandant would say. "She doesn't like sleeping alone; and stay there until I come back." And that lasted usually until three or four in the morning.
Q. Do you know the names or the positions held by those who visited Dora with Kammler?
A. I cannot give you a very precise statement here but we did know that the building staff, it was, of the WVHA, under which the camp was. We also wrote direct letters to the WVHA on several subjects which were concerned with building and construction. I recall, for instance, that in as late as Spring, 1945, that is to say, the beginning of March, they wrote letters in order to get timber to the camp. We wrote to the WVHA because the building manager there told us the best thing would be to apply to the central office there. "You will get it earlier that way."
Q. Do you recall what Amtsgruppe in the WVHA you had contact with?
A. Mainly, the medical department to Department D-III, the doctor in charge there, who was in connection with Dr. Lolling. We also wrote to different departments, but with the best of intentions, I can not recall what departments they were.
Q. Do you know whether Dr. Blatzer, Dr. Kahr, and Dr. Kahr's successor reported to Kammler on the conditions of workers in Dora?
A. Yes. Not only did we write to Dr. Lolling, but we wrote frequently and repeatedly to Kammler: so-called monthly reports and quarterly reports. In those reports we pointed out that hygienic and medical conditions in the camp, food conditions, were catastrophic. And in particular we pointed out that the purpose of inmate labor would be damaged if the inmates would fall ill by necessity after a short time, would become unable to work. And, therefore, we requested that additional food should be supplied, conditions should be improved, and hours of work should be shortened. These reports went regularly to Kammler. I typed them myself. And the camp doctor, Dr. Kahr, would sign them.
Q. Did these reports indicate that the death rate in Dora was unusually high?
A. The reports were most instructive. We made graphical charts which showed clearly how death rates would increase as a consequence, and how it would be possible to improve conditions.
Q. Do you know whether copies of these reports went out from your office to other persons, persons other than Kammler?
A. At this moment I do not recall, but we wrote to all sorts of offices in order to achieve improvements in the camp.
Q. You do not recall any particular office that you wrote to in that connection?
A. Today, after so long a time, I can no longer say. There were letters to the WVHA, as a sort of channel address, and underneath we would quote certain departments who should receive our letters. But what departments they were-- I can no longer say precisely because for two years now we have been trying to forget everything which we went through for so many years.
Q. Herr Ackermann, you have said that you saw, that you have seen the correspondence that went through the office in which you were working. Do you remember seeing the term "14-F-13" in any of this correspondence?
A. Yes. Secret orders arrived one day which said, "In the next time an action 14-F-13 will occur. A secret list has to be drawn up and given to the doctors in charge of Oranienburg, and names and numbers of the inmates concerned must be given. The transports must be proposed in the near future. New orders must be given." I asked my doctor at that time at Dora, Dr. Kahr, what nonsense 14-F-13 would stand for. "Why don't people say immediately: People will be gassed?" He told me, this means the insane people. "What shall we do with our people?"