Defendant Funk also shares special responsibility for the Nazi Slave Labor program. greater detail. Moreover, the French and Soviet Prosecution will submit evidence, showing that Defendant Funk actively participated in the program for the criminal looting of the resources of occupied territories.
MR. THOMAS DODD: May it please the Tribunal, we would like to call as a witness at this time Dr. Franz Blaha.
THE PRESIDENT (To the witness): Is your name Franz Blaha?
THE WITNESS (in Czech): Dr. Franz Blaha
THE PRESIDENT: Will you repeat this oath: I swear by God
THE WITNESS: Is swear by God
THE PRESIDENT: The Almighty and Omniscent
THE WITNESS: The Almighty and Omniscent
THE PRESIDENT: That I will speak the truth, the clear truth
THE WITNESS: That I will speak the truth, the clear truth
THE PRESIDENT: And will withhold
THE WITNESS: And will withhold
THE PRESIDENT: And add nothing.
THE WITNESS: And add nothing.
THE PRESIDENT: You can sit dorm if you wish. QUESTIONS BY MR. DODD:
Q You are Dr. Franz Blaha, a native and a citizen of Czecho Slavakia; are you not?
A (In Czech) Yes reasons I suggest that we conduct this examination in German, although I know your native tongue is Czech; is that right?
A (In Czech) In the interest of the case I am willing to testify in German for the following reasons:
1) For the past seven years, which are the subject of my
2) A large number of special and technical expressions relating
Q Dr. Blaha, by education, training and profession, you are a Doctor of Medicine.
(In German) they occupied Czecho-Slovakia?
Q Were you confined in various prisons between 1939 and 1941? Concentration Camp. January of this year; did you not?
MR. DODD: This affidavit, if it please the Tribunal, bear the Document No. 3249-PS, and I wish to offer it at this time. It is USA Exhibit 663. I feel that we can reduce the extent of this interrogation by approximately three-fourths through the submission of this affidavit, and I should like to read it. It would take much less time to read this affidavit than it would to go through it in question and answer form, for to that extent at least, it covers a large part of what we expect to elicit from this witness.
THE PRESIDENT: Very well.
MR. DODD: I wouldn't have asked to read it if we had had time to have a Russian and French translation, but unfortunately that wasn't possible in the few days we had.
I, FRANZ BLAHA, being duly sworn, depose and state as follows:
"I studied medicine in Prague, Vienna, Strassburg and Paris and received my diploma in 1920. From 1920 to 1926 I was a clinical assistant. In 1926 I became chief physician of the Iglau Hospital in Moravia, Czechoslovakia. I held this position until 1939 when the Germans entered Czechoslovakia and I was seized as a hostage and held a prisoner for cooperating with the Czech government. I was sent as a prisoner to the Dachau Concentration Camp in April 1941 and remained there until the liberation of the camp in April 1945. Until July 1941 I worked in a Punishment Company. After that I was sent to the hospital and subjected to the experiments in typhoid being conducted by Dr. Muermelstadt. After that I was to be made the subject of an experimental operation and only succeeded in avoiding this by admitting that I was a physician. If this had been known before I would have suffered because intellectuals were treated very harshly in the Punishment Company. In October 1941 I was sent to work in the herb plantation and later in the laboratory for processing herbs. In June 1942 I was taken into the hospital as a surgeon. Shortly afterwards I was directed to conduct a stomach operation on 20 healthy prisoners. Because I would not do this I was put in the autopsy room where I stayed until April 1945. while there I performed approximately 7,000 autopsies. In all 12,000 autopsies were performed under my direction. prisoners were performed. These were for the instruction of the SS medical students and doctors and included operations on the stomach, gall bladder, spleen and throat. These were performed by students and doctors of only two years training although they were very dangerous and difficult. Ordinarily they would not have been done except by surgeons with at least four years surgical practice. Many prisoners died on the operating table and many others from later complications.
I autopsied all of these bodies. The doctors who supervised these . operations were Lang, Muermelstadt, Wolter, Ramsauer and Nahr. Standartenfuehrer Dr. Lolling frequently witnessed these operations. experiments carried on there with human victims.. These persons were never volunteers but were forced to submit to such acts. Malaria experiments on about 1,200 people were conducted by Dr. Klaus Schilling between 1941 and 1945. Schilling was personally asked by Himmler to conduct these experiments. The victims were either bitten by mosquitoes or given injections of malaria sporozoits taken from mosquitoes. Different kinds of treatment were applied including Quinine, pyrifer, neosalvarsan, antipyrin, pyramidon and a drug called 2516 Bohring. I autopsied bodies of people who died from these malaria experiments. 30 to 40 died from the malaria itself. 300 to 400 died later from diseases which were fatal because of the physical condition resulting from the malaria attacks. In addition there were deaths resulting from poisoning due to overdoses of neosalvarsen and pyramidon. Dr. Schilling was present at the time of my autopsies on the bodies of his patients. Dr. Sigismund Rascher to determine the effects of changing air pressure. As many as 25 persons were put at one time Into a specially constructed van in which pressure could be increased or decreased as required. The purpose was to find out the effects of high altitude and of rapid descents by parachutists. I have seen the people lying unconscious on the floor of the van through a window in the van.
Most of the prisoners used died from these experiments from internal hemmorrhages of the lungs or brain. The rest coughed blood when taken out. It was my job to take the bodies out and to send the internal organs to Munich for study as soon as they were found to be dead. About 400 to 500 prisoners were experimented on. Those not dead were sent to invalid blocks and liquidated shortly afterwards. Only a few escaped.
"Rescher also conducted experiments on the effect of cold water on humans. This was done to find a way for reviving aviators who had failed into the ocean. The subject was placed in ice cold water and kept there until he was unconscious. Blood was taken from his neck and tested each time his body temperature dropped one degree. This drop was determined by a rectal thermometer. Urine was also periodically tested. Some men lasted as long as 24 to 38 hours. The lowest body temperature reached was 19 degrees C, but most men died at 25 degrees C, or 26 degree C. When the men were removed from the ice water attempts were made to revive them by artificial warmth from the sun, from hot water, from electro-therapy or by animal warmth. For this last experiment prostitutes were used and the body of the unconscious man was placed between the bodies of two women. Himmler was present at one such experiment. I could see him from one of the windows in the street between the blocks. I have personally been present at some of these cold water experiments when Rascher was absent and I have seen notes and diagrams on them in Rascher's laboratory. About 300 persons wereused in these experiments. The majority died. Of those who lived, many were mentally deranged. Those not killed were sent to invalid blocks and were killed just as were the victims of the air pressure experiments. I only know two who survived - a Jogoslav and a Pole, both of whom are mental cases.
"Liver puncture experiments were performed by Dr. Brachtl on healthy people and on people who had diseases of the stomach and gall bladder. For this purpose a needle was jabbed into the liver of a person and a small piece of the liver was extracted. No anaesthetic was used. The experiment is very painful and often had serious results as the stomach or large blood vessels were often punctured resulting in hemmorrage.
Many persons died of these tests for which Polish, Russian, Czech and German prisoners were employed.
Altogether these experiments were conducted on about 175 people.
"Phlegmone experiments were conducted by Dr. Schuetz, Dr. Babor, Dr. Wieselwetter and Professor Lauer. 40 healthy men were used at a time of which 20 were given intra-muscular and 20 intravenous injections of pus from diseased persons. All treatment was forbidden for three days by which time serious inflammation and in many cases general blood poisoning had occurred. Then each group was divided again into groups of 10. Half were given chemical treatment with liquid and special pills every 10 minutes for 24 hours. The rest were treated with sulfamamide and surgery. In some cases all of the limbs were amputated. My autopsy also showed that the chemical treatment had been harmful and had even caused perforations of the stomach wall. For these experiments, Polish, Czech and Dutch priests were ordinarily used. Fain was intense in such experiments. Most of the 600 to 800 persons who were used finally died. Most of the others became permanent invalids and were later killed.
"In the fall of 1944 there were 60 to 80 persons who were subjected to salt water experiments. They were locked in a room and for five days given nothing to eat but salt water. During this time their urine, blood and excrement were tested. None of these prisoners died, possibly because they received smuggled food from other prisoners. Hungarians and Gypsies were used for these experiments.
"It was common practice to remove the skin from dead prisoners. I was commanded to do this on many occasions. Dr. Rascher and Dr. Wolter in particular asked for this human skin from human backs and chests. It was chemically treated and placed in the sun to dry. After that it was cut into various sizes for use as saddles, riding breeches, gloves, house slippers and ladies' handbags. Tattoed skin was especially valued by SS men. Russians, Poles and other inmates were used in this way, but it was forbidden to cut out the skin of a German. This skin had to be from healthy prisoners and free from defects. Sometimes we did not have enough bodies with good skin and Rascher would say, "All right, you will get the bodies."
The next day we would receive 20 to 30 bodies of young people.
They would have been shot in the back or struck on the head so that the skin would be uninjured. Also we frequently got requests for the skulls or skeletons of prisoners. In those cases we boiled the skull or the body. Then the soft parts were removed and the bones were bleached and dried and reassambled. In the case of skulls it was important to have a good set of teeth. When we got an order for skulls from Oranienburg the SS men would say, "We will try to ret you some with good teeth." So it was dangerous to have a rood skin or good teeth.
"Transports arrived frequently in Dachau from Studthof, Belsen, Auschwitz; Mauthausen another camps. Many of these were 10 to 14 days on the way without water or food. On one transport which arrived in November, 1942, I found evidence of cannibalism. The living persons had eaten the flesh from the dead bodies. Another transport arrived from Compiegne in France. Professor Limousin of Clermont Ferrand who was later my assistant toldme that there had been 2,000 persons on this transport when it started. There was food available but no water. 800 died on the way and were thrown out.
were dead on the train. Of the remainder most died shortly after arrival. I investigated this transport because the International Red Cross complained, and the SS men wanted a report that the deaths had been caused by fighting and rioting on the way; I dissected a number of bodies and found that they had died from suffocation, and lack of water. It was mid-summer and one-hundred and twenty people had been packed into each car. These were made up of people who were sick, or for some reason incapable of working. We called them Himmelfahrt Commandos. About one-hundred or one-hundred and twenty were ordered each week to go to the shower baths. There four people gave injections of phenol evipan, or benzine, which soon caused death. After 1943 these invalids were sent to other camps for liquidation. I know that they were killed because I saw the records, and they were marked with a cross, and the date that they left, which was the way that deaths were ordinarily recorded. This was shown on both the card index and the records in the town of Dachau. One thousand to three thousand went away every three months so there were about five thousand sent to death in 1945, and the same in 1945. In April 1945 a Jewish transport was loaded at Dachau, and was left standing on the railroad siding The station was destroyed by bombing, and they could not leave. So they were just left there to die from starvation. They were not allowed to get off. When the camp was liberated they were all dead. in the camp. The gas chamber was completed in 1944, and I was called by Dr. Rascher to examine the first victims. Of the eight or nine persons in the chamber, there were three still alive, and the remainder appeared to be dead. Their eyes were red and their faces were swollen. Many prisoners were later killed in this way. Afterwards they were removed to the crematorium where I had to examine their teeth for gold. Teeth containing gold were extracted. Many prisoners who were sick were killed by injections while in hospital. Some prisoners killed in the hospital came through to the autopsy room with no name, or number on the tag, which was usually tied to their big toe.
Instead the tag said "Do not dissect." healthy, but had died from injections. Sometimes prisoners were killed only because they had dysentery, or vomited, and gave the nurses too much trouble. Mental patients were liquidated by being led to the gas chamber, and injected there, or shot. Shooting was a common method of execution. Prisoners could be shot just outside the crematorium and carried in. I have seen people pushed into the ovens while they were still breathing, and making sounds, although if they were too much alive they were usually hit on the head first. the victims, or supervised such examinations are as follows: In 1942 there were five thousand to six thousand Russians held in a separate camp inside Dachau. They were taken on foot to the Military Rifle Range near the camp in groups of five hundred or six hundred, and shot. These groups left the camp about three times a week. At night they would bring them back in carts drawn by prisoners, and we would examine them. Moosburg. I knew a few of the boys in the hospital. I examined them after they were shot outside the crematory. In September 1944 a group of ninety four high ranking Russians were shot, including two military doctors who had been working with me in the hospital. I examined their bodies. In April 1945, a number of prominent people were shot who had been kept in the bunker. They included two French Generals, whose names I cannot remember, but I recognized them from their uniform. I examined them after they were shot. In 1944 and 1945 a number of women were killed by hanging, shooting, and injections. I examined them and found that in certain cases they were pregnant. In 1945 just before the camp was liberated all "Nacht and Nebel" prisoners were executed. These were prisoners who were forbidden to have any contact with the outside world. They were kept in a special enclosure, and were allowed no mail. There were thirty or forty, many of whom were sick. These were carried to the crematory on stretchers. I examined them and found they had all been shot in the neck.
From 1941 on the camp was more and more overcrowded. In 1943 the hospital for prisoners was already overcrowded, and in 1944 and in 1945 it was impossible to maintain any sort of sanitary condition. Rooms that held three hundred or four hundred persons in 1942 were filled with one thousand in 1943, and in the first quarter of 1945, already two thousand or more of the rooms could not be cleaned because they were too crowded, and there were no cleaning materials. No baths were available for months at a time. Latrine facilities were completely inadequate. Medicine was almost non-existent. But I found after the camp was liberated that there was plenty of medicine in the SS hospital for all the camp, if it had been given to us for use. hours at a time. Sometimes they stood there from morning until night. It did not matter whether this was in the winter, or in the summer. This occurred all through 1943 , 1944 and the first quarter of 1945. I could see these formations from the window of the autopsy room. Many of the people who had to stand in the cold in this way became ill from pneumonia and died. I had several acquaintances who were killed in this manner during 1944 and 1945. In October 1944 --"
THE PRESIDENT: Too fast, sir. Yes.
MR. DODD: "In October 1944, a transport of Hungarians brought spotted fever into the camp, and an epidemic began. I examined many of the corpses from this transport, and reported the situation to Dr. Hintermayer, but was forbidden on penalty of being shot to mention that there was an epidemic in the camp. No preventive measures were taken at all. New healthy arrivals were put into blocks where an epidemic was already present. Also infected persons were put into these blocks. So the thirtieth Block, for instance, died out completely three times. Only at Christmas when the epidemic spread into the SS camp was a quarantine established. Nevertheless, transports continued to arrive.
one hundred deaths caused by typhus a day. In all we had twenty eight thousand cases, and fifteen thousand deaths. In addition to those that died from the disease, my autopsies showed that many deaths were caused solely by malnutrition. Such deaths occurred in all the years from 1941 to 1945. They were mostly Italians, Russians and Frenchmen. These were just starved to death. At the time of death they weighed fifty to sixty pounds. Autopsies showed that their internal organs had often shrunk to one-third of their normal size.
The facts stated above are true: This declaration is made by me voluntarily, and without compulsion: After reading over the statement I have signed and executed the same at Nurnberg, Germany, this 9th day of January, 1946.
(signed) Dr. Franz Blaha." Subscribed and sworn to before 2nd Lt. Daniel F. Margolies.
(resumed) Q Dr. Blaha, will you state whether or not visitors came to the camp of Dachau while you were there?
A Many visitors came to our camp from different places, or towns, but for a few times it happened that we didn't see these visitors in camps, but in previous meetings.
Almost every day there was a visit, or groups, and other such groups.
Even policemen , SS and Army preists came
THE PRESIDENT: Will you pause a little so as to give the interpreter time for his words to go through, do you understand?
THE WITNESS: Yes. Also a few public speakers appeared there. They made inspections month by month, and a general inspector of the Inspectors Concentration Camps made a general inspection. Then the inspector of the medical station made a visit. Also Dr. Lolling, and other personalities.
MR. DODD: The President of the Tribunal suggests you pause, and it would be helpful if you paused in the making of your answers so the interpreters can complete their interpretation.
THE WITNESS: Yes. Q Are you able to state how long these visits lasted on an average? A That depended on what sort of visits were being made. That is, in general thirty minutes to an hour, sometimes.
Sometimes three hours. Q Were there prominent government people who visited the camp at any time while you were there? A When I was there many government personalities came to the camp. Heinrich experiments.
I was present myself at that time. Other personalities also were there.
I myself there had seen three ministers of state, and of Q Do you remember the names of any of these prominent government people, or do you remember more particularly whom any of them were?
A Yes. Besides Himmler, Warlimont, Gauleiter Wagner, Gauleiter Giesler, Q There were people whom you have just named that took tours in the camp while you were there?
A In general the tours were so arranged that the visitors were first taken to the kitchen, and then to the laundry; then to the hospital, and in Dr. Schilling, and to the experimental station of Dr. Rascher, and then they continued the visits to a few barracks; particularly those of the Germans, where German political prisoners were kept.
Occasionally, also, the chapel and the barracks for German priests.
Occasionally, these introduced.
It was so arranged that first of all a professional criminal was introduced to the group as a murderer.
Then, secondly, the Mayor of Vienna, Mr. Schmitz, was presented to the group, and than a high officer; Q Did I understand you to name Ernst Kaltenbrunner as one of those visitors there, or not?
A Yes, Kaltenbrunner was also present. He was there at the Bane time as General Daluege.
That was, I believe, in the year 1943. I was particularly interested in Daluege after Heydrich's death, and he became Q Did you see Kaltenbrunner there yourself?
A Yes. He was pointed out to me. I had previously not seen him. Q I understood you to name Frick as one of those whom you saw there? A Yes, he was, in the year of 1944, the first part, or first half of 1944.
Q Where in the camp did you see him? A I saw him from the hospital window as he was coming to the hospital with Q Do you see the man that you saw there that day by the name of Frick in this Courtroom now?
A Yes. The fourth man in the first row from the witness right. Q I understood you also named Rosenberg as one of those whom you saw there? A I can recall that it was shortly after my arrival in the concentration camp at Dachau that the visit took place.
At that time my German comrade Q Do you see that man in the Courtroom now? A Yes. He is two farther to the left of the man I previously mentioned. Q I also understood you to nameSauckel as one of those who was present in that camp?
A Yes, but that I didn't see him personally myself, I simply heard that Q Was it the general knowledge in camp at that time that the man named Sauckel visited the camp, and particularly the munition plant?
A Yes, that was general knowledge in the camp. Q I understood you to name one of those who visited this camp as Funk? A Yes. He was also present at a visit, and I can remember it was at the Reichenhall.
It was the custom on such occasions when there was a Dachau for a visit.
That was also the case in the matter of Funk. Q Did you personally see Funk there? A No, I didn't see Funk personally, but I simply found out that he was there Q Was that general knowledge in the camp at that time? A Yes, that was general knowledge. We knew that beforehand that he was to Q Were there visits after the end of the year of 1944, or any month of 1945? A There were a few visits, but very few of them, because there was a typhus Q Doctor, you are now a Director of a hospital in Prague, are you not?
A Yes.
MR. DODD: I have no further questions to ask of the witness.
THE PRESIDENT: You are through here. Do any other counsel for the prosecution wish to ask any questions? Colonel Pokrowski? We will adjourn for a ten minute recess.
(A recess was taken from 1525 to 1535).
COL. POKROWSKI: I would like to ask permission to ask this
BY COL. POKROWSKI:
annihilation?
it became more a work camp. But so far as your people are concerned this camp of annihilation; how many internees came originally from the USSR; how many passed through the camp?
A I cannot state that exactly, only approximately. Since uniform.
They had an additional camp and were liquidated in a few months.
In the summer of 1942 those who remained of these brought to Dachau.
There were, I believe, 2000 children from the years of 6 to 17.
They were housed in two special barracks.
THE PRESIDENT: You are going too fast.
BY COL. POKROWSKI:
Q What do you mean when you refer to green freshmen?
A Those were the so-called professional criminals. They machines, plows.
They were made to pull the farm machinery instead of machines.
They were used also in all transport commandos.
Eastern workers were transported to Dachau. Those were the coming in the camp?
resulted in their tuberculosis?
camp?
colleague? Who were those officers? What were the reasons for their execution?
Do you know anything at all about it?
division. That is to say, during each interrogation they were of them and knew them.
I knew those who for weeks simply had to parts of their bodies that had died.
Many succumbed to these methods of interrogations.
The others were then, on orders from the execution of the 40 students.
Can you give us a few details about the execution?
executed. That was in March of 1944.
execution?
A The order for it came from Berlin. We did not discover that there was any justification.
We first saw the bodies only after the execution.
stages of the general plan of annihilation of the people who entered Dachau?
A Yes. That was the case in all executions and in all transport of invalids, as well as in the case of the epidemics. It was easy to see that this was all part of the general plan of extermination, and particularly--and this I must emphasize--the Russian prisoners were always treated the worst of all. internees which were labeled or which were in the category "nacht and nebel," night and fog? Were there many of them? Do you know the reason why they were classified and sent to the concentration camp?
A Many prisoners, the so-called "nacht and nebel", night and fog prisoners, came to the concentration camp, and under this designation there were mostly people from the Western countries of Europe, particularly Frenchmen, Belgians and Dutchmen. these people were shortly before the liberation, on the order of the camp commander, executed, that is, shot in front of the crematory. Among these people, the French and Russians, many of whom had serious cases of typhus and with a temperature of 40 degrees Centigrade, were carried on stretchers to the place of execution. number of the prisoners who died of starvation, Could you tell how bjg that number was, the number of people who died of starvation? or rather suffered of severe malnutrition, and that at least 25 per cent of the population of the camp died as a direct result of starvation. It was called in German "hungertyphus, " hunger typhus. Tuberculosis was the most widely spread disease in the camp which spread for this reason, I mean for the reason of starvation, and it raged and took its most sacrifices among the Russians. that the majority of those who died of starvation and exhaustion was composed of French, Italians, and Russians. How do you account for the fact that those categories of prisoners died more than other people?