THE PRESIDENT: Dr. Fritz, did you purposely skip No, 22? You gave Exhibit Nos. 21 and then Exhibit No. 23. DR. FRITZ: Your Honor, I think I made a mistake. In this case I offer Bartl's affidavit, that is Fendler Document No. 20 as Exhibit Fendler No. 22.
THE PRESIDENT: Very well. What page is that? DR. FRITZ: Pages 64 - 65. These affidavits show that Fendler while he was a member of the SD, supported and helped prosecute people, even Jews, so that these affidavits bear out his statement on the witness stand that he did not participate in and didn't possibly give orders for executions in the East and that he kept away from them, Finally, I point out that a number of those affidavits which I already submitted on Saturday also-contain statements concerning the conduct of the defendant Fendler, and again I would like the Tribunal to take note of these statements contained in the affidavits. With this I have submitted all the documents contained in the document Book No. I of Fendler's and this for the time being concludes my case for the defendant Fendler. I should like, Your Honor, to submit a few further documents at a later date, for which I still an waiting at the present time.
THE PRESIDENT: You may submit them when you are able to Set them into your hands.
DB. FRITZ: Thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: The defendant von Radetzky will be taken to the witness box.
THE PRESIDENT: The defendant von Salt sky will be taken to the witness stand. follows:
JUDGE DIXON: Defendant, raise your right hand and repeat the oath after me. 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.
TEE PRESIDENT: You may proceed, please.
DR. RATZ: Dr. Ratz for the defendant von Radetzky.
BY DR. RATZ:
A My name is Waldemar von Radetzky. I was born on 3 May 1910 in Moscow. My father came from Riga, and my mother came from Bremen. Our family had emigrated to the Baltic States in 1730 Q. Where did you spend your childhood? Black Sea, and in Riga. The First World War surprised us when we were in Moscow where we escaped deportation to Siberia as Germans but our stay in Moscow was restricted, while relatives of mine were actually deported to Siberia. In 1918 we succeeded in escaping to my ancestral city Riga. Moscow had already been occupied by the Bolshevists. My father had died in the meantime. city of Riga? bourgeois we lost everything. Many of us went to prison, were deported or shot.
THE PRESIDENT: You say "Many of us were deported or shot"?
THE WITNESS: By that I mean the Germans who lived in the Baltic the population.
BY DR, RAZZ: later? groops who drove out the Bolshevists and Latvia became a newly established State. The new State could only build up its existence from the arailable resources and these were largely in German hands. I must briefly discuss the historical development of the Baltic States and I would like the Tribunal to be patient for a few minutes while I do so. That is, the situation as regards the States as they are today, Estonia, and Latvia. At the beginning of the Thirteenth Century the then Livonia was populated and colonized by Germans and at that time in those centuries, the Germans emigrated to this country, and they administered the country under German, Swedish, Danish, Russian and Polish sovereignty, all according to the developments even though they were never more than six percent of the total population. I say and I emphasize this because only this shows my personal attitude towards other national groups with whom we always lived together, end we supplemented each other in many respects. The first translation of the Bible, the first grammar, all churches and public institutions, were erected by the Germans. The rest of the population was admitted to the State University just as the Germans were and during the three last centuries we also had to suffer from the Russian domination. This was especially the case when Bismarck declared in 1882 that Germany was not interested in the Baltic States, and from 1890 a ruthless Russification took place which affected everybody. There were only Russian schools from then on, a Russian administration, although the percentage of the Russian population was minimal, because Latvians, Estonians populated the country. Only the World War put an end to this development, and after the post-war chaos in my home country, the independent States of Estonia and Latvia were created.
of these countries?
A Yes. In my home country Latvia, we had six of the one-hundred deputies, and a number of ministers, but it could not be prevented that the entire German real estate property was expropriated without compensation, although we had contributed our share in liberating the country from Bolshevism, This expropriation robbed the German community of its material basis, but this didn't prevent-
MR. HOCHWALD: Your Honors, I hate to interrupt the witness-but the witness has been lecturing now about, things which he absolutely can not testify to. All these happenings about which he spoke and which I believe are completely immaterial for the case before the Tribunal, happened either before he was born, or when he was an infant. Everything which he told the Tribunal here may be so or may not be so, but the Prosecution in any case does not want to offer evidence that his information in this respect is incorrect, and the Prosecution thinks it is immaterial in the case before the Tribunal but there are two things: First, the witness can not testify to facts which he has not experienced himself, and, secondly I do not think that what the witness says here is material for the case.
THE PRESIDENT: Dr. Ratz, the big mistake the witness made was that when he began to testify on this subject, he said, I hope that the Tribunal will be patient, but he didn't hope that Mr. Hochwald would be patient. Now there is the big mistake he made. The Tribunal was patient, but Mr. Hochwald was not. So suppose that we have a recess and during that time Mr. Hochwald will get over his impatience, and the witness will resolve to be just a little briefer, and then I think we will all be happy. The Tribunal will be in recess until 1: 45 o'clock.
THE MARSHAL: The Tribunal will be in recess until 1345 hours.
(Recess taken until 1345 hours, 15 December 1947) (The hearing reconvened at 1345 hours, 15 December 1947) THE MARSHAL:
The Tribunal is again in session. BY DR. RATZ: Your Honor, may I be permitted to say something to the objection of the Prosecutor. Of course, while preparing the examination of the defendant I saw to it that the statement would be as concentrated as possible, and does not become too diffused. In the case at issue here it is necessary however in my opinion for the defense of the defendant that he is allowed to make certain statements about his background before 1939 since he was a foreigner until 1939 in Germany and since he comes from a background which is completely different from any type of background prevailing in Germany. But, I shall try to limit myself only to what is necessary.
THE PRESIDENT: You will proceed, Dr. Ratz, BY DR. RATZ: Germans participated in the construction of these Baltic States and you answered this question in part. Now you wanted to say something about the expropriation of property which happened to the Germans?
A Yes. I said that our property was expropriated and that this expropriation robbed the Germans of their material foundation. Nevertheless they cooperated in the welfare of the country because Chauvinistic motives were strange to them. influence on your development?
start from the beginning. My family had furnished for the country officers, farmers, intellectuals and was used to a high level of life. It was a matter of getting back to this level and it was decided, against my early tendencies, for me to become a farmer, that I should become a business man, a career which determined my schooling. I spent the summer in the countryside and during the winter I went to school.
Q What did you do after completing your schooling? managed an export department. Later, after I completed my military service, in the year 1933 I joined an import business as an employee in Riga and became a Prokurist. I succeeded in this firm which dealt with Germany, England, and Czechoslovakia despite difficult economic conditions to help this firm get started. I held this position until 1939 when the resettlement of Germans to Germany took place and when the firm where I was to become a partner in 1940 was dissolved. Furthermore, I worked at the Herder Institute. Riga? lectures of economics at the Herder Institute which was under the direction of the Latvian Ministry of Education. I was requested then to take over the direction of the economic research agency because they needed someone who was trained both in theory and practice. The job of this research agency was to introduce practical tasks to the young students as they had to be performed in the daily business life, in order to base their theoretical knowledge on it.
Q What were your extracurricular interests?
A Sports and art. I was a member of a sport club and liked to sail in the Riga Yacht Club where in the year 1936 I passed an examination as a navigator.
THE PRESIDENT: Dr. Ratz, I think you are commencing to ruffle the sails of Mr. Hochwald again. He is beginning to show a little impatience about this yachting trip. If he could sail with somebody else aboard a yacht I think he would feel much happier than he is right now.
DR. RATZ: I shall come to another more important question, your Honor, right away, but perhaps the defendant may add one other sentence which concerns his extra-curricular interests. and of the Goethe Organization and the Herder Organization.
THE PRESIDENT: That pleases Mr. Hochwald much more. BY DR. RATZ: at that time? Socialism, from that moment on when it seized power in Germany, because this did not remain without effect on the countries near Germany, from Estonia down to the Balkans and on the two million Germans living there. A number of countries answered the seizure of power in Germany by measures of suppression against the Germans and these Germans were put in a position of defense which was neither desired nor looked for by them. Germany started to get concerned about its suppressed peoples abroad, but in our country it limited itself to a cultural taking care of the schools and the public institutions. Whatever came to us by way of ideology had to go through the State censorship. Thus, for example, the books "Mein Kampf" and the "Mythos" were forbidden.
Travels to Germany were limited and the contact with the old mother country had become very loose. But, what prejudiced me in favor of this was the "Maxim", the love of ones own country as conditioned by respect for another country, Since I saw a new possibility here of mutual respect and thus a new order of the completely chaotic minority -
THE PRESIDENT: Don't you think, witness, that the exclusion of the book "The Myth" by Rosenberg was of great benefit to everybody? was of great benefit? THE PRESIDENT: Yes, don't you think it was a great benefit, because don't you think it would have added greatly to the chaos?
A Your Honor, I don't think that the effect of this book could have been very great. I later tried to read from it and I didn't understand anything of it. THIS PRESIDENT: Well, that's the reason I say it was of great benefit to keep out a book like that. I haven't yet found anyone who understood it.
A Well, that is why I don't think it was important. In any way, I merely meant to express by that that a number of ideas did not reach us. THE PRESIDENT: Well I assure you you were better of not to get those ideas.
Court No. II, Case No. IX.
THE PRESIDENT: Proceed, please. BY DR. RATZ:
Q Will you then continue with your contacts to National Socialism? religious basis. There was no so-called time of struggle because there was no one against whom to struggle. From abroad too it was tried to bring matters to an extremity when on the instigation of a foreign power an effort was made to disturb the peaceful economic conditions prevailing between Germany and Latvia, in the year 1936, arrests of Germans took place indiscriminately, and during the course of which I was also arrested. After I was released I protested to the Senate, the supreme court of the land in order to achieve my rehabilitation and I was granted this in full measure. In order to conclude this, I never did understand the Fuehrer principle and the race theory, But one thing did result from this development: That was the possibility to do justice to my social conscience on the one hand and my position as merchant on the other. After a lengthy period of co-operation, I took over an office for vocational-guidance and furtherance with the German Community of the country and I made the attempt to extend this and make it into an economic agency.
Q What do you mean by German community? cognized by International Law and had partly autonomous powers.
Q What did you do within the German community, witness? was most important. I helped found a fund with which craftsmen were given a possibility to make a living, and with the help of industrialists whom I knew I founded homes in which families of small workers and employees could find recreation. I can say that this was the happiest time in my life because every day I was able to look into grateful eyes. Thus, when the resettlement to Germany took place I had achieved my economic and social position by my own power.
Court No. II, Case No. IX.
and the Fuehrer principle. See why such a principle, outside of the purely military field, could do any benefit because necessarily it excludes any competition; but as far as the race theory is concerned I grew up in daily contact with other peoples. I saw that without distinction of race or position successes and lack of successes were registered and I explained how a young people in my country registered considerable achievements in the social and cultural spheres even though first by using foreign materials but this was a question of development. In school I had many Jewish comrades because their parents were glad to send them to our school and I used to visit Jewish homes in my own home town. If we had not been as tolerant as we were in our home town we would have long disappeared from there. As the measures of suppression effected each one of us, we tried to overcome them with patience and conviction. I experienced myself what a national intolerance would bring with it and that it always comes from a weakness, not a strength of national selfreliance. gained an insight into motives and conflicts of other races. How do you mean this? cribed to me as such. Due to the free manner of our education at home and the church, the Bible had always been interpreted as national history of the Jewish people. But I not only mixed with socially but also in my business for 50% of my customers were Jewish firms; I often discussed this matter with them. We were all sitting in the same boat. We had the same cares and worries and the State, whose minority we were, had consideration for the Geneva minority protection decrees of Geneva only in as far as it concerned the worship and schooling. As part of a nation they overlooked us; when then from 1936 the expropriation Court No. II, Case No. IX.
also extended to commerce and industry by which every property of minorities was equally effected, we helped each other and the rise of my own firm in these difficult years I do ascribe to this circumstance. I never noticed any trace to support Goebbels' propaganda in what it said about the Jews. position and still you settled in Germany? speech in which he announced that because of the continuous conflicts with ethnic Germans abroad agreements would have to be made once and for all with States in which these Germans were living in order to bring all Germans into one area. After a short time negotiators from Germany arrived and with the aid of the German ambassador they started negotia tions to this effect with the government concerned.
Q Were you in agreement with this resettlement? one else and I didn't want to go to Germany - Germany was strange to me.
Q. But then you did resettle, and even were active in this resettlement?
A. Yes, when the rumor turned out to be the truth, that on the basis of the negotiations between the Soviet Union and Estonia and Latvia the occupation of these countries by the Bolshevists was imminent, I had no other choice, and the more so as thus, my existence now, my firm would be dissolved. Latvia also demanded that with this intended resettlement the minority statute for the Germans would be considered as revoked, since all Germans had to leave the country. I was now asked as a co-worker of the German community to make an account of the economic values, which were to be settled and I did this with a commission in the German Legation.
Q. Was the resettlement then a compulsory one in your opinion?
A. It was not a compulsory one as far as the treaty is concerned which was signed on the 30th of October, 1939, between the two states, for no one was herded into ships by Rifles, but it left us no choice insofar as the treaty of assistance, concluded between the Soviet Union and Latvia, opened the country to Bolshevism, and on the other side the treaty about the resettlement, at the request of the Latvian Government, provided that every German was considered outlawed because he belonged to the German minority. Thus there could be no such thing as German property any longer, apart from all other considerations.
Q. What was your activity during this resettlement?
A. On the basis of my exact knowledge of the economy I had to advise in the restitution of the German property of such firms as estates, companies, insurance, etc., and to see to it that the resettlers would be resettled in Germany with a legal claim and with the prerequisites mentioned in the treaty, to be compensated for the property they had left behind.
Q. How long did you do this work, and when did you yourself resettle?
A. I did this work for about a month. I had to conclude all the business affairs in my firm, and in the middle of November, 1939, I myself resettled, I had been informed that the resettlers who had already left had been housed in various towns, but only temporarily, and as refugees, and that it was necessary to care for them from an economic viewpoint, because the competence of the German Office for the Repatriation of Ethnic Germans, which was responsible for the resettlement, had ceased to be effective at the German border, and no one knew his way around the chaos of the directives which contradicted each other.
Q. Thus, do you think that the Baltic Germans left their country voluntarily, or not?
A. They did not leave voluntarily because they fled from Bolshevism which was approaching, and because of the fact that their fate was decreed by treaties without their being asked about it.
THE PRESIDENT: Where did you go to, Witness? I don't think that you have told us.
THE PRESIDENT: Your Honor, I went to Posen.
THE PRESIDENT: I see. Very well. Did you go there because you chose that place, or did this organization for resettlement indicate where you were to go?
THE WITNESS: Your Honor, it was prescribed exactly who was to go where.
THE PRESIDENT: I see.
THE WITNESS: The population of Riga had to go to Posen. There was no free choice of where one wanted to live.
THE PRESIDENT: Very well.
Q. (By Dr. Ratz) Witness, you said that you resettled to Posen. Can you say on the basis of what directives the Baltic Germans were sent to Posen?
A. I learned about this later, that Himmler, as the Commissar for the Strengthening of Germanism, had issued a certain decree according to which the various people were to be transported on trucks, I was asked to work along in an advisory capacity at a Baltic agency since I had a lot of economic information at my disposal which I had learned in the brief activity at home, and in order to help take care of the economic interests of my fellow Baltics who, like myself, did not know the conditions inside Germany, and to advise them on this.
Q. was this agency an institution of the Party or of the State?
A. No, this advisory gency was founded by the r esettlers themselves, On the part of the State there were very many organizations who were all competent for us in some way, and we were only able to find cur way through them very slowly. Because of these many various agencies, an agency for the Baltics was not provided, and apart from a few Reich agencies, they put obstacles in its way.
Q. Witness, will you please tell the Tribunal what jobs t is advisory agency had in detail.
A. The jobs were as follows: A thorough investigation of the economic problems of the resettlers had not been possible in the homeland because time was short. This was done subsequently. The second job was that of getting hold of the property of the resettlers, that is about more than fifty shiploads of cattle and all sorts of property, machines, to help them in transporting this matter, and to see that they were recompensated for any damage for which the Reich was responsible. As the third job I must list the address register; as the fourth, a general human advisory council, and finally the protection of the funds of the German Association in Estonia and Latvia and of the cultural property we had brought along.
Q. what was the personnel composition of this agency; were there any Reich Germans in it?
A. No Reich German participated, and it was composed of businessmen, industrialists, craftsmen and employees who had already worked on this resettlement problem in the homeland.
Q. How were you received in the new home?
A. while the Office for the Repatriation of Ethnic Germans had done everything in order to relieve the fate of the homeless people, the competent district leader received us with a speech in which he told us that he would drive our ideas of mastery out of us and he would teach us National Socialism, which he didn't achieve though in the sense in which he indicated, but he enlightened us in good time, and thus conditioned our actions by what he said.
Q. Did you expect such a reception personally?
A. In no sense. I developed a conflict under which many decent Germans suffered; on the one hand, tohelp the old Fatherland in its most serious war, and, on the other hand, to have to refuse its ideology in most essential points.
Q. Did these events change your attitude towards National Socialism?
A. It confirmed my opinion that good and decent people want more things, the more I saw, that there were enough people of my own circle and old National Socialists, drew the same conclusion. But this resulted in the fact that I became self-absorbed, especially when I established the fact that neither I nor myself could change anything in the matters as they existed.
THE PRESIDENT: That answer is a little involved, Dr. Ratz. Could he state it more succinctly? Your question was very relevant. The answer seemed to have rambled somewhat. If he could put that a little more briefly and a little more objectively.
Q. (By Dr. Ratz) Witness, you heard what my question said.
It said whether through the events which you experienced at the time the resettlement was accomplished your attitude towards National Socialism changed any?
A. Well, it changed in a very essential point. I was able to see how that there was no concern about individual phenomenon within the people but that everything had to be brought on a common denominator which, in my opinion at the time, had to bring about a lower and not a higher level.
THE PRESIDENT: Would you say that your conclusion was that National Socialism was not genuinely and sincerely interested in the individual but was interested more in an ideological program involving munbers which did not effect or did not concern itself with the individual?
THE WITNESS: Yes, Your Honor. The general policy of making everything uniform in all variations had the final goal of making everything equal, and this was completely incomprehensible to me, which I had not expected.
THE PRESIDENT: Proceed, please.
BY DR. RATZ:
Q. You said before that you could not change anything in the development as it existed and that, therefore, you became introverted to a largo degree. Could you work undistrubed in your advisory agency?
A. No, In the middle of December, 1939, Himmler made an appearance in Poson in order to inspect his agencies. He was immediately informed about the existence of our own advisory agency. He decreed its dissolution. The head of this department for the repatriation of ethnic Germans who was escorting him - succeeded in having this decree revoked by suggesting that he would take over this advisory agency in its entirety, and I must frankly admit, we had to be grateful and happy about this at the moment, because this solution helped many people for now their material interests could be taken care of to an even greater extent, by the fellow-country men
Q. Did the fact that this agency was taken over into the Office for the Repatriation of Ethnic Germans change anything in the character of your activity or the type of the agency?
A. No, it regained an advisory agency, had no powers, whatsoever and merely received a new designation. It was as follows: Office for the Repatriation of Ethnic Germsns, Advising Resettlers in the District of Poson. I no longer was the representative of this agency for advising resettlers, since the reorganization was carried out according to German models I received a per diem salary of 12 marks and continued to recieve this salary until the end of the war uninterruptedly, even after I was put on an emergency war status for the RSHA. I had no contract. Everything continued as before, apart from the 1 letterhead which was of good use to us, and apart from the fact that in March of the coming year when I reported to the Army this was answered by deferring mo, against which I protested without success.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, did they pay you even when you weren't working at that job?
THE WITNESS: Yes, Your Honor; until the end of the war.
THE PRESIDENT: What did they do, just forget you were on the payroll and continue to pay you even though you weren't working?
THE WITNESS: No, Your Honor, in this emergency war status there are two types. The first type of emergency war service was with a position and one was without a position. The Emergency war service with a position includes the full salary, but on the service without a position, or without a contract, the agency with whom I worked thus far had to continue my salary.
I personally was always interested in not changing my emergency war status with the RSHA, into the other type, because this would have been equivalent to the position of an employee, and I would have had no prospect of ever getting out of this emergency war status.
THE PRESIDENT: Very well.
Q. (BY Dr. Ratz) Witness, if I understood you correctly, you said that your emergency war orders to the RSHA was a service without contract. This would mean then that your contract thus far with the resettlers agency continued?
A. Yes.
Q. And thus this is the reason that this agency continued to pay your salary until the end of the war, is that right?
A. Yes, Beyond that, during the time of my furlough, I had to work in this agency, and I always worked there again.
Exhibit 139, page 39 of the German text, page 22 of the English.
MR. HORLICIK-HOCHWALD: Your Honors, this document starts on page 22 of the English.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, thank you.
DR. RATZ: It says there: SS Untersturmfuehrer von Radetzky was admitted to the SS Schutzstaffel by the Reichsfuehrer SS personally at the occasion of his visit in Posen on the 12th or 13th of December, and was promoted to SS Untersturmfuehrer.
MR. HORLICK-HOCHWALD: Your Honors, the quote is on page 26 under the heading of page 4 of the original.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, I see it now. BY DR. RATZ: the dissolution of this Advisory Agency for Baltic Germans. After, however, the Director of the Office for the Repatriation for Ethnic Germans had incorporated this agency into his office, Himmler gave the order to take the employees of this advisory agency into the SS and at the same time to express a recognition of the services already rendered for the resettling work. These negotiations were supposed to have lasted for two whole days while Himmler was in Posen, since in any case he did not want to see this advisory agency. That's how I suddenly got into the SS. I neither made an application for admission nor was I asked about it.
Q Could you at that time object to being taken into the SS?
Q How did you get into uniform? put in uniform. At this occasion I heard the expression "wearer of the uniform" for the first time. I was told I was to consider myself as such and that I would incur no obligation.
At this occasion I wore the uniform for the first time. oath for the SS or did you obligate yourself to do any duty for the SS? such obligations or myself nor did I take an oath. I did not have to show any so-called proof of my Aryan descent, did not have to ask for any marriage permission, did not have to leave the church, did not have to join the Lebensborn, did not have to pay any membership fees and never attended a rally of the SS. Therefore, I, could never assume, on my part, that my membership in the SS was anything but a nominal one. since the conditions for such a membership were not met. circumstance to be especially careful, since I never contested a formal membership. This would be absurd, but I don't see why I should be called to account today for obligations which to avoid I never had the rights to.
Q Witness, I come to a new point: When did you come to Schmiedeberg? old homeland, where I was employed for the subsequent resettlement of the Baltics, when I had come back frommy furlough, an order by the school for Border Police in Pretzsch called no to duty, and I had to comply with this order within 24 hours. This was in the middle of May. about your mission?