Question About DR Konrad Morgen

[ihoyos]

Any info about what happen with this guy, and any photo of him will be apreciate.
Thanks.

[Warren Thompson]

If you're asking about SS Judge Konrad Morgen ... he survived the war and was a witness for the prosecution at several post-war trials (IMT at Nuremberg and later at the US Army trials at Dachau).

[David Thompson]

Dr. jur. Morgen's testimony at the IMT trial can be seen on this thread:

http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic. ... 96&start=0

[Andreas]

David
Thanks a lot for posting the scans. That was a very illuminating, and bizzare read.

Andreas

[Warren Thompson]

It would be interesting to know what Morgen knew, and when he knew it, about the Final Solution -- and what he thought about it.

[michael mills]

David Thompson wrote:

Dr. jur. Morgen's testimony at the IMT trial can be seen on this thread:

http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic. ... 96&start=0

And Andreas responded:

David
Thanks a lot for posting the scans. That was a very illuminating, and bizzare read.

I trust you both read through Dr Morgen's testimony very carefully. You will have noted the following statement by him on 8 August 1946:

THE PRESIDENT: Which is the witness talking about when he talks about extermination camps? Which are you talking about? Which do you call extermination camps?
HERR PELCKMANN: Please answer the question, Witness.
MORGEN: By extermination camps I mean those which were established exclusively for the extermination of human beings with the use of technical means, such as gas.
THE PRESIDENT: Which were they?
MORGEN: Yesterday I described the four camps of the Kriminalkommissar Wirth and referred to the Camp Auschwitz. By "Extermination Camp Auschwitz" I did not mean the concentration camp. It did not exist there. I meant a separate extermination camp near Auschwitz, called "Monowitz."
THE PRESIDENT: What were the other ones?
MORGEN: I do not know of any other extermination camps.

Note that he states that the extermination camp near Auschwitz was at "Monowitz", not at Birkenau.

There was in fact a camp at Monowitz, but it was a work camp associated with the Buna plant, and is not normally classed as an extermination camp.

No doubt Morgen's nomination of Monowitz as the extermination camp will be written off as just a slip of the tongue, a mistake.

But it is remarkable how many slips of the tongue these key witnesses seem to be making. Remember Mme Vaillant-Couturier's 700,000 Hungarian Jews?

[xcalibur]

David Thompson wrote:

Dr. jur. Morgen's testimony at the IMT trial can be seen on this thread:

http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic. ... 96&start=0

And Andreas responded:

David
Thanks a lot for posting the scans. That was a very illuminating, and bizzare read.

I trust you both read through Dr Morgen's testimony very carefully. You will have noted the following statement by him on 8 August 1946:

THE PRESIDENT: Which is the witness talking about when he talks about extermination camps? Which are you talking about? Which do you call extermination camps?
HERR PELCKMANN: Please answer the question, Witness.
MORGEN: By extermination camps I mean those which were established exclusively for the extermination of human beings with the use of technical means, such as gas.
THE PRESIDENT: Which were they?
MORGEN: Yesterday I described the four camps of the Kriminalkommissar Wirth and referred to the Camp Auschwitz. By "Extermination Camp Auschwitz" I did not mean the concentration camp. It did not exist there. I meant a separate extermination camp near Auschwitz, called "Monowitz."
THE PRESIDENT: What were the other ones?
MORGEN: I do not know of any other extermination camps.

Note that he states that the extermination camp near Auschwitz was at "Monowitz", not at Birkenau.

There was in fact a camp at Monowitz, but it was a work camp associated with the Buna plant, and is not normally classed as an extermination camp.

No doubt Morgen's nomination of Monowitz as the extermination camp will be written off as just a slip of the tongue, a mistake.

But it is remarkable how many slips of the tongue these key witnesses seem to be making. Remember Mme Vaillant-Couturier's 700,000 Hungarian Jews?

No, we've not forgotten, particularly after your over-the-top attempt to paint it as something other than it was.

[Andreas]

David Thompson wrote:

Dr. jur. Morgen's testimony at the IMT trial can be seen on this thread:

http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic. ... 96&start=0

And Andreas responded:

David
Thanks a lot for posting the scans. That was a very illuminating, and bizzare read.

I trust you both read through Dr Morgen's testimony very carefully. You will have noted the following statement by him on 8 August 1946:

Your trust is misplaced in my case. I referred to the scans, not the link. If I had referred to the link, I would have written 'link', not 'scans', since I do believe that communication is in general greatly enhanced by referring to words that describe the object in question when talking about them.

[Konstan]

in "The Cruel Hunters"-French MacLean writes that Konrad Morgen also tried putting a stop to the Dirlewanger SK. Apparently he was such a thorn in the side of some high ranking SS men that he was subsequently dropped in rank transfered to the Eastern front and served for a while in SS-Wiking (btw he could also speak 5 languages, very nice use of resources). Himmler eventually reversed the move and Morgen was made SS Judge. He seems like quite an interesting man, and had the courage to stand up for what he felt was right, during a time when such things were not common

ihoyos- here is a picture of him sometime after the war.

[Warren Thompson]

Unfortunately, the photo won' t open.

[ihoyos]

Thanks for the photo.
and Thanks to this forum about the info of this , guy. Today still very contradictory opinions about him, that feelings keep alive the interest in this kind of topics.

[David Thompson]

I found some additional information on Dr. jur. Morgen's corruption investigations which may add to the knowledge of readers interested in this topic. Here are two excerpts from the IMT testimony of SS-Oberfuehrer Dr. jur. Guenther Reinecke, the deputy chief of the SS Court system, and Dr. Morgen's superior. Reinecke's testimony as a defense witness for the SS was given on 6-7 Aug 1946, and appears in vol. 20 of the IMT proceedings, on-line starting at:

http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/imt/proc/08-06-46.htm

I had trouble with the pagination of this particular volume on the Avalon site, so the readers have my apology in advance.

HERR PELCKMANN: You have already mentioned, Witness, that the legal authorities began prosecuting crimes committed in concentration camps in 1943. When in 1943?

REINECKE: In the second half of 1943 the legal authorities, while following up a case of corruption in which the former camp commander Koch was involved, came upon clues to crimes leading to other camps. It was from that moment that the legal authorities became active.

HERR PELCKMANN: How was it that the legal authorities became active so late?

REINECKE: So-called legal officers were attached to concentration camps for purposes of supervision. These legal officers, who were the instruments of the appointing authority concerned, had the duty of writing so-called reports of evidence, if crimes of any sort occurred, and of submitting such reports to the courts so that they might take over the prosecution of the crimes.

HERR PELCKMANN: One intermediate question ...

THE PRESIDENT: Dr. Pelckmann, I don't think he gave an answer to your question at all. Your question was: How was it that it was so late as the second half of 1943 that these investigating commissions began to become active? He did not answer that question at all.

HERR PELCKMANN: Your Lordship, the witness has not yet finished. I was just going to put an intermediate question, and in his further explanations the matter will become quite clear.

[Turning to the witness.] I want to pat an intermediate question, Witness. Were these legal officers subordinated to you, to the head office "SS Courts", or to the SS legal authorities, or to whom were they subordinated? Can you give names?

REINECKE: The legal officers were not subordinates of the legal authorities, but they were officials of the chief justice making the investigations.

HERR PELCKMANN: Who was that in the case of the concentration camps?

REINECKE: In the case of concentration camps it was Oswald Pohl, who was already mentioned yesterday.

HERR PELCKMANN: Now, will you please continue with the answer to the question, why did the legal authorities learn of these atrocities at so late a stage?

REINECKE: The reason was that earlier the legal authorities had not had any suspicions, owing to the fact that these legal officers, during the years until 1943, were continuously handing in such reports of evidence to the courts. These reports of evidence were very detailed. In cases of unnatural death of detainees, they contained photographs of the place of the crime, medical reports, evidence by detainees and guards. These reports were so detailed that the suspicion that other crimes could be committed behind the backs of the legal officers could not arise.

These reports of evidence which were submitted led in every case to the trial and sentencing of the criminal, and such sentences were pronounced throughout all the years.

HERR PELCKMANN: Might not the reports of evidence have been forged, and might not the actual facts have been covered up in that way?

REINECKE: In part this was the case. I just said that during the second half of 1943 we began investigations in the camp at Buchenwald. Already in 1941 we had carried out such an investigation in Buchenwald, which, however, had no result. During the later investigation, in 1943, it was in fact discovered that in 1941 the commander, Koch, had used forged reports, coached witnesses, and forged medical reports which had deceived the investigating judges. We then conducted investigations in other camps, where we found that these reports of evidence had been in order.

HERR PELCKMANN: Now, will you please describe briefly what further steps the SS legal authorities took with regard to these crimes in concentration camps?

REINECKE: The clues in the camp at Buchenwald were manifold and they led to many camps. The matter became more complex from month to month. It was evident that the investigating organs of the legal authorities had been utterly unsuitable for the task of conducting a purely criminal investigation of this sort, because the legal authorities, in view of their character as a military legal instrument, lacked a fundamental basis, namely, an authority capable of carrying out criminal prosecutions.

For that reason, judges were quickly given short training courses in criminal proceedings, and at the same time, in collaboration with the Reich Security Main Office, experts from the Reich Criminal Police Department were made available for the investigation of these crimes.

Such commissions were detailed to many camps and they worked continuously until the collapse. The head office "SS Courts" created a special court which had almost exclusively the task of trying these cases involving crimes committed in concentration camps. In the head office "SS Courts," which was the leading office of the legal authorities, a special head department was created which carried out the over-all direction of the investigations in concentration camps and which was to take over the task ordinarily discharged by the public prosecutor.

HERR PELCKMANN: Now, briefly summarized, what was the outcome of the fight of the SS jurisdiction against crime in concentration camps?

REINECKE: Altogether, approximately 800 cases were investigated; 400 of these 800 cases were brought to trial, and 200 out of those 400 ended with sentences by the court. Among the cases investigated were proceedings against five commanders of concentration camps; proceedings against two commanders were completed and ended with a sentence of death by shooting.

HERR PELCKMANN: Were any difficulties put in the way of your commissions conducting these investigations?

REINECKE: Very considerable difficulties were put in the way of these commissions. These difficulties originated with Pohl, who was using every means in his power to prevent the investigating commissions from penetrating to the real sources of these crimes. In that way, the legal authorities, being unable to make rapid progress and being compelled to break up piecemeal the secrecy surrounding the evidence, were forced to work together with detainees. In almost every camp in which such a commission was at work, confidential agents were recruited from among the detainees who submitted material to the investigating judges. But it was very difficult to persuade these detainees to co-operate, because they' feared that they would be killed if their activities were discovered.

HERR PELCKMANN: But could you not easily have removed these obstacles by reporting, for instance, to Himmler? Pohl, as far as I know, was directly subordinate to Himmler, so that Himmler could have given him the necessary orders?

REINECKE: Oh no, this man Pohl did not proceed as clumsily as that. Outwardly he pretended to welcome and support with all means the investigating work of the head office "SS Courts." And that was how he represented the matter to Himmler, after we had drawn Himmler's attention to Pohl's somewhat doubtful role. In reality, Pohl sabotaged with all the means of his tremendously powerful position the investigations we were making and worked hand in glove with the detainees and the criminal commanders, as we proved on the basis of evidence. In 1941, to mention one outstanding example, when our first investigation in the Buchenwald Concentration Camp failed, as I have described, Pohl wrote a letter to the camp commander Koch, which I have read myself, and which contained the following:

"I shall use all the power of my position to protect you if some unemployed lawyer should again stretch out his greedy hangman's hands toward your clean, immaculate person."

That is how Pohl always worked. He was not only caught in the death machinery of the concentration camps, but he became at the same time the most corrupt person in the whole Reich. Of that we found evidence toward the end of the war through the many proceedings against organizations which he headed in private business. As head of that criminal clique, he actually tried to undermine the system of trustees among the detainees, which he knew might endanger his own person. He had one of our confidential agents in the camp of Sachsenhausen - his name was Rothe - locked up and was trying to elicit, under false pretenses, an order from the Reich Security Main Office, or rather the Reich Criminal Police Department, to have the man hanged publicly before all the detainees of the camp so as to intimidate them and at the same time make the investigation work of the legal authorities impossible. One of our investigating officers heard of this in time and was able to prevent it at the last moment.

HERR PELCKMANN: More slowly please, Witness, much more slowly. These are important statements, and the translation is not simple.

REINECKE: That was how this criminal Pohl worked. The most important support in his fight against the legal authorities was the Führer Order Number 1, regarding secrecy, which was posted in every office of the SS and Police. According to that order, matters which had to be kept secret could only be communicated to the persons immediately concerned, and even those could be told only as much as they absolutely had to know, and even then, only for the period in which they were actively concerned with the particular matters.

Everything in the concentration camps was secret; only with special passes and credentials was it possible to enter them. The work done by the detainees was secret, ostensibly because "V" weapons were being, produced. The other doings of the detainees were secret, ostensibly for reasons of counter intelligence. Correspondence on concentration camps was "secret," and for that reason could not be checked at all. For years Pohl deftly withdrew behind this screen of close secrecy, and he surrendered to the advancing investigation of the legal authorities only step by step whenever on the basis of individual facts he was systematically cornered.

HERR PELCKMANN: Then, Witness, do you believe that with the results you have just described you came near to discovering the real extent of the crimes, as we have learned them from the proceedings here?

REINECKE: To the extent to which I know them today, certainly not. And the reason for that is that the legal authorities of the SS and Police dealt with all these crimes as individual crimes, and were unable for long years to detect the system of criminality as it can be recognized today.

When toward the end of 1944 the legal authorities succeeded, on the strength of individual facts, in cornering the criminals Pohl and Grawitz, and also Müller from the Gestapo, who was covering up many of the crimes, it was for the first time that these men referred to orders from above. The investigations which the legal authorities then commenced along a new line collapsed together with the German war machine.

HERR PELCKMANN: Did you then, toward the end of 1944, come near to discovering the actual extent of the crimes, the mass exterminations?

REINECKE: It was clear at the end of 1944 that orders from above must exist, but it was not recognizable even then that they dealt with mass exterminations of a tremendous extent.

HERR PELCKMANN: According to the result of the investigations you have just described, who was responsible for the crimes which were revealed?

REINECKE: Of the highest superiors, Pohl; next to him the former Reich medical officer of the SS and Police, Grawitz; and next to him the Chief of the Gestapo, Miller. Apart from these, the commanders of the concentration camps, members of the commanders' staffs, medical officers in concentration camps, and to a considerable extent, criminal detainees in the concentration camps.

HERR PELCKMANN: Would it therefore be correct to say that without distinction all members of the groups of persons which you have just mentioned participated in the crimes?

REINECKE: No, that is not correct. The investigations which we carried out proved clearly that certain camps were perfectly in order, that not every commander was a criminal, and that many, members of the commanders' staffs and many medical officers knew nothing about the crimes. Above all the guards in the concentration camps had nothing whatever to do with the crimes, because they themselves were unable to gain knowledge of the real happenings within the concentration camps.

HERR PELCKMANN: You have been speaking about the commander at the concentration camp of Buchenwald, Koch. His case has already been mentioned in the course of these proceedings, and the Prosecution at that time alleged, on the basis of testimony given by the detainee Blaha, that Koch had been sentenced for embezzlement and for the murder of three persons whose existence was inconvenient to him. The Prosecution described the case in a way which gave the impression that at that time the SS court had simply ignored the numerous other cases of killings.
Is that correct, as far as you know?

REINECKE: No, that is not correct. The proceedings against Koch were based on a charge of corruption, and on that charge he was sentenced to death. The actual contents of the findings against Koch, that is, the reason for the death sentence imposed on him was the system of murder, a system which Koch invented and applied in many cases. This version of the findings had to be chosen because there was evidence of so many crimes which Koch had committed in the distant past and of which the traces had meanwhile been eliminated, that if it had been possible at all, it would have taken long months and years to clear up these individual cases. It was for that reason that, using the shortest possible means of proof to put a stop to Koch's activities at once, these three cases were taken up as being typical, but he was in fact sentenced for the system of murder in the Buchenwald Concentration Camp.

HERR PELCKMANN: The testimony of this witness on these events is supported by the affidavits SS-65, 64, 66, 67, 68, and 69. No, not 68, 1 listed that by mistake; not 68, but 64 through 67, and 69. These affidavits were deposed by the investigating judge, Dr. Morgen, who was to have appeared here as a witness. Unfortunately, he only arrived at the beginning of July, just before the hearings before the Commission were completed, and I was not able to prepare him for his examination in time. I have submitted his affidavit, however, and the High Tribunal will be able to judge whether it might possibly be necessary to hear Dr. Morgen in person, since his testimony concerns the most important matters.

[Turning to the witness.] What was Himmler's attitude with regard to these investigations?

REINECKE: When the crimes were discovered at Buchenwald, at the end of 1943, Himmler was given a report on the matter at once, and he was throughout kept informed of the progress of the investigations. Himmler displayed very considerable activity, and he himself ordered that the investigations be strictly carried out. Only with his authority was it possible at all to pass the gates of the concentration camps. Then in the middle of 1944, he suddenly issued an order to the contrary. As the highest legal authority, he ordered that the proceedings against Koch should mark the end of all judicial investigations in concentration camps. Koch had been sentenced to death and was to be hanged publicly before the assembled detainees. Pohl was to direct the execution personally and was to address the attending guards with appropriate words. The other perpetrators were to report their crimes voluntarily and in the event of such a voluntary report, he, Himmler, might possibly pardon or reprieve them. Any one who failed to report his crimes could only expect the court's sentence of death. The chief of the head office "SS Courts" protested against this order from Himmler. He did not, however, obtain a final decision from Himmler, though Himmler tolerated the future proceedings.

The head office "SS Courts" at that time intentionally delayed the completion of the case against Koch so as to have an opportunity of extending the investigating activities to other camps, and that was actually achieved. The investigating commissions of the Reich Criminal Police Department, which had already been withdrawn as a result of Himmler's order, resumed their activities, and from the autumn of 1944 the investigations were continued on a broad basis. Authoritative powers, which were necessary in view of Pohl's lasting resistance, were issued by the special judge of the Reichsführer, and could not be ignored even by Pohl.

HERR PELCKMANN: The details of this dramatic exchange between Pohl, Himmler, and the SS legal authorities are also described in Dr. Morgen's affidavits Numbers 65 to 67.

Did you, Witness, in the course of these investigations, learn of measures or orders from Himmler or Hitler for the biological extermination of Jewry?

REINECKE: No. We neither saw such orders at any time, nor did we succeed, in the course of our investigations, in getting hold of them or in gaining knowledge of them in any other way. Such monstrous orders we could not imagine. Himmler had always shown us only an ideal face: cleanliness, decency, fight against crime at all costs. At the end of 1943, on the occasion of a conference, he confirmed these principles to me personally and in detail. That a system of mass extermination should exist was an idea which, under the circumstances, no one could possibly imagine. We found horrifying conditions in the concentration camps, and we learned many things which shocked us, but that idea was never in our minds. Names like Hoess and Eichmann did come up during our investigations and proceedings were, in fact, instituted against both, but at the end of the war they were still in their initial stages. Hoess and Eichmann were to us merely names like Brown or Jones. No one could possibly guess that behind these men the henchmen of a dreadful system of extermination were hiding. Even when, at the end of 1944 and the beginning of 1945, we came near to establishing the actual cause of the crimes committed in concentration camps, namely, that crimes were being carried out by order, this line of defense of Pohl, Miller, and Grawitz still appeared incredible, because if there really had been orders from above carried out by these three persons, then it should have been easy for them to go to Himmler and to demand the exclusion of the legal authorities from these matters.

And so we ourselves, in spite of these painstaking efforts of the investigations, had no clear judicial evidence that mass exterminations; on a large scale - not to mention the biological extermination of Jewry - had been carried out, and we continued, as before, to investigate the crimes from the point of view that they were individual crimes, although they had been carried out to an alarming extent and in alarmingly large numbers.

HERR PELCKMANN: There exists a pamphlet called SS in Dachau, issued by the American CIC, by a Colonel Quinn. Unfortunately I cannot submit it to the Tribunal at this time, because I had to return it. But it is in the library and is generally known. It contains testimony given by an anonymous inmate and signed ...

THE PRESIDENT: You should have taken a copy of the document. You cannot testify or tell us what the document is if you cannot produce it. The fact that it had to go back to the library is no reason why you don't have it. There would have been no objection to your bringing a copy of it.

HERR PELCKMANN: May I try to bring a copy after the recess, Mr. President?

THE PRESIDENT: Yes, if you would like to.

HERR PELCKMANN: It contains a statement by an anonymous ...

THE PRESIDENT: Well, we do not want to know what it contains. We do not accept from you what it contains.

HERR PELCKMANN: In that case, I shall postpone this question. Witness, evidence has been submitted to this Tribunal that in the gas chambers at Auschwitz and other places, millions of Jews were murdered. You, however, discovered in your investigations that individual persons and a small circle of persons committed the crimes which you described. Is it possible, as far as you know, that this comparatively small circle of persons is also responsible for the extermination of these millions?

REINECKE: Investigations of the head office "SS Courts," particularly the final stages of the investigations just before the end of the war, show that individual persons and a small circle of persons are also exclusively responsible for these things. Otherwise, these outrageous things could not possibly have escaped the attention of the legal authorities for so long.

HERR PELCKMANN: Did you, in your conversations with Dr. Morgen, gather any further information which might support this assertion?

REINECKE: Dr. Morgen was a judge before me, who during all the years was attached to the Reich Criminal Police Department in order to carry out investigations in the concentration camps from there. Dr. Morgen has extensive knowledge. I know today that he himself talked with those responsible for these mass exterminations, and he gained a clear insight into all these matters. He can prove that the origin of the extermination of the Jews is not to be found in the SS but in the Chancellery of the Führer.

THE PRESIDENT: Dr. Pelckmann, I understood from you that you put-that you were putting in two affidavits from Dr. Morgen, is that right?

HERR PELCKMANN: Three, Mr. President.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, three-five, if you like; but this witness cannot tell us what Dr. Morgen says. Dr. Morgen must speak for himself from his affidavits.

HERR PELCKMANN: In that case, perhaps I may return to this when I submit the affidavits.
[Turning to the witness.] It is alleged by the Prosecution that these acts could not have been deeds of individuals, but that the logical application of the Party Program regarding the Jewish question had to lead to these crimes at Auschwitz. What can you say to that from your own knowledge and experience of the fight against these crimes?

REINECKE: I have already said that Himmler always showed the SS only his ideal face, and these ideals were considered by the SS as the expression of the Party Program. Hitler's order for the biological extermination of Jewry, as I know it today, is an absolute ...

THE PRESIDENT: He said that over and over again about Himmler showing his ideal face to the SS. He said it before, you know. He should not have to say it more than once.

HERR PELCKMANN: May I ask him, Mr. President, what his attitude is on the allegation of the Prosecution that the extermination of Jews in Auschwitz was considered by members of the SS as a logical outcome of the principles which the SS had learned?

THE PRESIDENT: How can he give evidence about that? He can tell us what he saw and what he did. He hasn't told us yet whether he has ever been in the concentration camps.

* * * * * * * * * *

THE TRIBUNAL (Mr. Biddle): Witness, I want to ask you a few questions about the investigation of the camps. You said your investigation began in 1943. What time in the year 1943 did your investigation begin of the concentration camps?

REINECKE: Your Lordship, that was during the second half of 1943, as far as I can recollect, either in June or July.

THE TRIBUNAL (Mr. Biddle): It lasted for a little under two years until the end of the war, I suppose.

REINECKE: Yes.

477

7 Aug. 46

THE TRIBUNAL (Mr. Biddle): How many camps did you investigate?

REINECKE: It began in Buchenwald Camp, and thereafter investigating commissions were sent to every camp which had attracted suspicion.

THE TRIBUNAL (Mr. Biddle): Witness, listen very carefully and answer the questions. All I asked you was how many camps did you investigate?

REINECKE: In all, investigations were made in 7 to 10 camps, but I cannot give you the exact figure at the moment. It varied from time to time.

THE TRIBUNAL (Mr. Biddle): You mean 7 to 10 in, all, altogether 7 to 10?

REINECKE: Yes, that is what I meant.

THE TRIBUNAL (Mr. Biddle): Did that include labor training camps also?

REINECKE: By the 7 to 10 camps I mean the "Stammlager" (parent camps), that is the concentration camps themselves, and from there the investigation spread from the parent camp where the commission was stationed to the labor camps.

THE TRIBUNAL (Mr. Biddle): And that included Auschwitz and Dachau?

REINECKE: In both these concentration camps there were investigation commissions.

THE TRIBUNAL (Mr. Biddle): And Treblinka?

REINECKE: Not in Treblinka, Your Lordship.

THE TRIBUNAL (Mr. Biddle): Did you investigate any camps outside of Germany?

REINECKE: Yes, for instance we had a commission in the Concentration Camp Hertogenbosch in Holland, and there proceedings were instituted against a camp commander, which ended in long terms of imprisonment.

THE TRIBUNAL (Mr. Biddle): How many investigators were you using at any one time?

REINECKE: The total of investigating officials may have varied from 30 o 50 people, the majority of whom were not taken from the legal authorities but were experts from the Reich Security Main Office and from the Criminal Police.

THE TRIBUNAL (Mr. Biddle): No, I do not want - now, how many cases did you recommend for court action?

478

7 Aug. 46

REINECKE: Proceedings which ended with a sentence amounted to 200 up to the end of the war; that is to say, 200 sentences were passed which were actually carried out.

THE TRIBUNAL (Mr. Biddle): Again I did not ask you that, Witness; I said, how many cases did you recommend for action. You made recommendations, did you not?

REINECKE: Altogether 800 cases, 800 proceedings were instituted in the course of the investigations.

THE TRIBUNAL (Mr. Biddle): Where did you send your reports? Did you send them directly to the courts?

REINECKE: When the investigation was completed and when the case was ready for prosecution, the reports from the investigating commissions went, together with the judge's order to prosecute, to the court itself, which would then hold the actual trial and pronounce sentence.

THE TRIBUNAL (Mr. Biddle): And where did copies of the reports go? Did a copy go to the Minister of the Interior?

REINECKE: No, that I consider out of the question.

THE TRIBUNAL (Mr. Biddle): You mean the Minister of the Interior was not concerned with any of this?

REINECKE: We are here concerned with criminal proceedings against members of the SS which, therefore, came under the penal jurisdiction of the SS and, as far as that is concerned, the Ministry of the Interior was not involved.

THE TRIBUNAL (Mr. Biddle): You mean you were only investigating cases that involved the SS?

REINECKE: All cases were investigated which originated in the camps, and these cases referred to SS members and also to Police members, that is to say, members of the Security Police who were brought to trial before the courts.

THE TRIBUNAL (Mr. Biddle): Well now, you have not told us what conditions you found in the camps. You said they were very bad. What were they; what was going on in the camps?

REINECKE: We discovered through our investigations that in the camps there was to some extent a regular system of killing which was in use.

THE TRIBUNAL (Mr. Biddle): And as a result of discovering that there was a regular system of killing you thought there must be an order to that effect, although you never found it, is that right?

REINECKE: Yes, Your Lordship. The fact that an order from above was in existence became known to us at the end of 1944.

479

7 Aug. 46

THE TRIBUNAL (Mr. Biddle): Now, why did you think that there was a regular system of killing? Was it because there were so many killings?

REINECKE: For the reason that there were so many cases, and also because a system of cooperation between the concentration camp commanders with the criminal detainees could be established.

THE TRIBUNAL (Mr. Biddle): That is right. And how many of those 7 to 10 camps, how many commandants, were involved in these killings?

REINECKE: In practice the situation was such that practically every commander was brought under investigation and criminal proceedings were taken against five commanders in all.

THE TRIBUNAL (Mr. Biddle): Five, five out of how many?

REINECKE: Altogether there were 12 commanders of concentration camps, because there were 12 large concentration camps, the so-called "Stamm" (parent) concentration camps.

THE TRIBUNAL (Mr. Biddle): So out of 12 investigated you started proceedings against 5, is that right?

REINECKE: Yes, that is so.

THE TRIBUNAL (Mr. Biddle): Now, you said you thought that the killings must be on a large scale. Did you find any evidence of any of the gas chambers which added to your belief that it might be a large-scale operation? You found some evidence of gas chambers?

REINECKE: The first case in which a gas chamber appeared was the case of Auschwitz. That is the case, Your Lordship, that I have just mentioned here, with reference to the detainee Eleanora Hodis.

THE TRIBUNAL (Mr. Biddle): When was it that you got a report that a gas chamber was being used in Auschwitz? When?

REINECKE: That was at the end of October or the beginning of November 1944.

THE TRIBUNAL (Mr. Biddle): Did you get figures of the numbers of persons who had died in these 10 concentration camps? Did you find out how many persons had died in the different camps? Did you get statistics?

REINECKE: No, Your Lordship, about that we received no information. We had to collect and look for all the material ourselves, but we had no survey.

THE PRESIDENT: Can you remember the names of the five whom you prosecuted, the five commandants?

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REINECKE: They were the Commander of Buchenwald, Koch; the Commander at Lublin,
whose name I cannot remember at the moment; and the Commander of the Hertogenbosch Camp, whose name I just remember, a certain Grunwald. Further investigations were carried out against the Commander of Oranienburg, Loritz, and also against Kaindel, the later commander. The proceedings against him were discontinued, however, because proof was furnished that at the time when Kaindel was camp commander, no killings had occurred.

THE PRESIDENT: Did you prosecute Hoess? H-o-e-s-s?

REINECKE: At the end of 1944 we started proceedings against Hoess, based on the testimony of the detainee in protective custody who has just been mentioned.

THE PRESIDENT: What crime did you charge Hoess with?

REINECKE: May I please make this matter clear. Proceedings against Hoess had not advanced sufficiently to serve an indictment against him. It was still in the process of preliminary investigation. Material had to be collected first.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, you must have arrived at some decision about Hoess, surely. You must have known what crimes you were investigating. What were the crimes you were investigating against Hoess?

REINECKE: In the case of Hoess the crime of murder of unknown persons and unknown numbers of persons detained in the Concentration Camp Auschwitz was investigated.

THE PRESIDENT: Did you say that you never heard of the facts which were stated in Document EC-168, the document in which Himmler said that the number of deaths in the concentration camps must be reduced?

REINECKE: I had never seen that document before. The first time that I saw it was when it was submitted by defendants counsel here, but in the course of investigations, my judges had confirmed to me that instructions of that type were circulated in the camps and were actually observed.

THE PRESIDENT: The document, you remember, said that out of 136,000 persons in concentration camps, 70,000 had died.

REINECKE: I do not know at the moment which document you are referring to.

THE PRESIDENT: EC-168 is the document, and I wanted to know whether in the course of your investigations you found, you ascertained, those facts, namely, that 70,000 out of 136,000 had died?

REINECKE: No, such facts were not ascertained.

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HERR PELCKMANN: I have no questions, Your Lordship, but I should like to be permitted to make a suggestion. This witness until the end of the war was only the deputy chief of the Main Office SS Courts. The chief was a certain Herr Breithaupt, who has since died. In the first place the heads of the commissions reported to this departmental chief, and the SS judges who carried out the investigations in the camps are still alive, and the answer to all these questions which Your Lordship and Mr. Biddle have put, can be given in detail by the witness Morgen.

[David Thompson]

For the purpose of keeping pertinent information in the same thread, here are the extracts from SS defense witness SS-Sturmbannfuehrer Dr. Jur. Konrad Morgen's IMT testimony dealing with his investigations. The extracts are from vol. 20 of the IMT proceedings:

HERR PELCKMANN: How did you come to make investigations in the concentration camps?

MORGEN: At the order of the Reichsfuehrer SS, and due to my special abilities in criminology, I was detailed by the Main Office SS Courts to the Reich Criminal Police Department in Berlin, which was equivalent to a transfer. Shortly after I arrived there, I was given an assignment to investigate a case of corruption in Weimar. The accused was a member of the concentration camp of Weimar-Buchenwald. The investigations soon led to the person of the former Commander Koch and many of his subordinates, and beyond that they affected a number of other concentration camps. When these investigations became more extensive, I received full authority from the Reichsfuehrer SS to engage generally in such investigations in concentration camps.

HERR PELCKMANN: Why was a special power of attorney from the Reichsfuehrer necessary?

MORGEN: For the guards of the concentration camps, the SS and Police courts were competent; that is, in each case the local court in whose district the concentration camp was located. For that reason, because of the limited jurisdiction of its judge, the court was not able to act outside its own district. In these investigations and their extensive ramifications it was important to be able to work in various districts. Besides that, it was necessary to use specialists in criminal investigation, in other words, the Criminal Police. The Criminal Police however could not carry on any investigation directly with the troops, and only by combining juridical and Criminal Police activities was it possible to clear this up, and for this purpose I was given this special power of attorney by the Reichsfuehrer.

HERR PELCKMANN: Now, how extensive did these investigations become? You can be brief because the witness Reinecke answered this point in part.

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MORGEN: I investigated Weimar-Buchenwald, Lublin, Auschwitz, Sachsenhausen, Oranienburg, Hertogenbosch, Krakow; Plaszow, Warsaw, and the Concentration Camp Dachau.
And others were investigated after my time.

HERR PELCKMANN: How many cases did you investigate? How many sentences were passed? How many death sentences?

MORGEN: I investigated about 800 cases, that is, about 800 documents, and one document would affect several cases. About 200 were tried during my activity. Five concentration camp commanders were arrested by me personally. Two were shot after being tried.

HERR PELCKMANN: You had them shot?

MORGEN: Yes. Apart from the commanders, there were numerous other death sentences against Fuehrer and Unterfuehrer.

HERR PELCKMANN: Did you have any opportunity of gaining personal insight into the conditions in concentration camps?

MORGEN: Yes, because I had authority to visit concentration camps. Only a very few persons had this permission. Before beginning an investigation, I examined the concentration camp in question in all its details very closely, inspecting especially those arrangements which seemed particularly important to me. I visited them repeatedly and without notice. I was working mostly in Buchenwald itself for 8 months and have lived there. I was in Dachau for one or two months.

HERR PELCKMANN: Since so many visitors to concentration camps say they were deceived, do you consider it possible that you, too, were a victim of such deceit?

MORGEN: I have just pointed out that I was not a mere visitor to a concentration camp but I had settled down there for a long residence, I might almost say I established myself there. It is almost impossible to be deceived for such a long time. In addition, the commissions from the Reich Criminal Police Department worked under my instructions, and I placed them directly in the concentration camps themselves. I do not mean to say that in spite of these very intensive efforts I was able to learn of all the crimes, but I believe that there was no deception in regard to what I did learn.

HERR PELCKMANN: Did you gain the impression, and at what time, that the concentration camps were places for the extermination of human beings?

MORGEN: I did not gain this impression. A concentration camp is not a place for the extermination of human beings. I must say that my first visit to a concentration camp - I mentioned the first one was Weimar-Buchenwald - was a great surprise to me. The

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camp is situated on wooded heights, with a wonderful view. The installations were clean and freshly painted. There was much lawn and flowers. The prisoners were healthy, normally fed, sun-tanned, working ...

PRESIDENT: When are you speaking of? When are you speaking of?

MORGEN: I am speaking of the beginning of my investigations in July 1943.

HERR PELCKMANN: What crimes did you discover?

MORGEN: Pardon me, I had not - may I continue?

HERR PELCKMANN: Please, be more brief.

MORGEN: The installations of the camp were in good order, especially the hospital. The camp authorities, under the Commander Diester, aimed at providing the prisoners with an existence worthy of human beings. They had regular mail service. They had a large camp library, even books in foreign languages. They had variety shows, motion pictures, sporting contests and even had a brothel. Nearly all the other concentration camps were similar to Buchenwald.

PRESIDENT: What was it they even had?

MORGEN: A brothel.

HERR PELCKMANN: What crimes did you learn about?

MORGEN: As I said before, the investigations were based on a suspicion of corrupt practices. In time however, I was obliged to come to the conclusion that besides those crimes, killings had also occurred.

HERR PELCKMANN: How did you reach the suspicion that killings had occurred?

MORGEN: I learned that the starting point for the corruption was the assignment of Jews to the camps after the action of 1938. I made it a point to learn all the possible facts about this action, and in doing so I found that the majority of the prisoners who were suspected of knowing something about these cases of corruption, had died. This peculiar frequency of killings was noticeable; it struck me because other prisoners who were not in any key positions remained in Buchenwald for years in the best of health, and were still there, so that it was rather remarkable that it was just certain prisoners who might have been possible witnesses who had died. I thereupon examined the files concerning these deceased prisoners. The files themselves offered no clues to suspect illegal killings. The dates of the deaths were years apart and in each case different causes of death were given. But it struck me that the majority of these deceased, prisoners had been put into the camp

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hospital or in arrest shortly before their death. This aroused my suspicion for the first time that in these two places murders of prisoners might possibly have occurred. Thereupon I appointed a special official, whose sole task was to investigate the suspicious circumstances, and follow up the rumors which were circulating about the detention quarters, the so-called "Bunker," regarding this killing of prisoners. This very zealous and able detective had to report again and again that he had not found the faintest clue for my suspicions. After two weeks of completely unsuccessful activity, the detective refused further services and asked me ironically whether I myself believed that such rumors of illegal killing of prisoners could be true. Much later, and only by chance did I hit upon the first clue; it struck me that the names of certain prisoners were listed at the same time in the rolls of the camp prison as well as in those of the hospital. In the prison rolls, for example, it said, "Date of release 9 May, 12 o'clock." In the hospital register, "Patient died 9 May, 9:15 a.m." I said to myself, this prisoner cannot be in the camp prison and at the same time a patient in the hospital. False entries must have been made here. I therefore concentrated my efforts on this and I succeeded in getting behind this system, for it was a system, under Commander Koch.

The prisoners were taken to a secret place and were killed there, mostly in a cell of the camp prison, and sick reports and death certificates were prepared for the files. They were made out so cleverly that any unprejudiced reader of the documents would get the impression that the prisoner concerned had actually been treated and had died of the seri6us illness which was indicated.

HERR PELCKMANN: Then what did you do after learning of these facts?

MORGEN: I found out that the medical officer at Buchenwald, SS Hauptsturmfuehrer Dr. Hoven, was principally responsible and I had him arrested. I informed my investigating commission in the concentration camps, with which we had to deal, of these cunning forgeries and directed their particular attention to investigating systematically whether in other concentration camps such murders had also taken place. We satisfied ourselves at the time of the investigation-and I am speaking of the second half of 1943-that in the Concentration Camps Buchenwald, Sachsenhausen, and Dachau to the best of our knowledge no such killings occurred. In the other concentration camps, however, such cases were found. The persons believed to be guilty were accused, arrested, and charged.

HERR PELCKMANN: Why was this not done earlier?

MORGEN: I have already said that these deceptive measures were so cunningly contrived that it was not possible to discover them earlier. Above all there was no possibility of clearing up the

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matter, and then those things-were always done without witnesses. These cases should at all events have been investigated by the SS courts and they were investigated, for every unnatural death of a prisoner had to be reported by teletype to the central offices. Besides that, the specially sworn-in court officer who was in the camp had to go immediately to the place of the occurrences to question the witnesses; sketches and photographs had to be made of the scene and it was a regulation that an autopsy had to take place in every such case of unnatural death. These reports of unnatural deaths, or of deaths suspected of being unnatural, were sent regularly to the SS and Police court; but as I have already said, these reports were so cunningly contrived and the files were in such good order, that even an expert could not have suspected an illegal killing. Of course, proceedings against members of the concentration camp personnel were frequently instituted, some followed by sentences, even death sentences. But these criminal acts seemed to be within range of the usual army rate of 0.5 percent to 3 percent.

If nothing at all had been reported to the SS courts from the concentration camps, or if numerous reports had been made, then it would of course have seemed suspicious. But it was a normal average and nobody could suspect that the concentration camps were a hotbed of such dangerous crimes. It was only through my investigation, which as I said was caused by accident, that we received our first insight into the true state of affairs.

HERR PELCKMANN: How did you come onto the track of mass killings? You have just spoken of individual killings.

MORGEN: I found traces of mass destructions also by chance. At the end of 1943, 1 discovered two trails at the same time, one leading to Lublin and the other to Auschwitz.

HERR PELCKMANN: Please describe the Lublin trail first.

MORGEN: One day I received a report from the commander of the Security Police in Lublin. He reported that in a Jewish labor camp in his district a Jewish wedding had taken place. There had been 1,100 invited guests at this wedding

HERR PELCKMANN: Go on witness, a little faster.

MORGEN: As I said before, 1,100 guests participated in this Jewish wedding. What followed was described as quite extraordinary owing to the gluttonous consumption of food and alcoholic drinks. Among these Jews were members of the camp guard, that is to say some SS men, who joined in this revelry. This report only came into my hands in a roundabout way, some months later, due to the fact that the Commander of the Security Police suspected that the circumstances indicated that some criminal acts had occurred. This was my impression as well, and I thought that this

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report would give me a clue to another big case of criminal corruption. With this in mind, I went to Lublin and called at the Security/ Police there, but all they would tell me was that the events happened at a camp of the Deutsche Ausrustungswerke. But nothing was known there. I was told it might possibly be a rather odd and shrouded (this was the actual term used) camp in the vicinity of Lublin. I found out the camp and the commander, who was Kriminalkommissar Wirth.

I asked Wirth whether this report was true or what it meant. To my great astonishment, Wirth admitted it. I asked him why he permitted members of his command to do such things and Wirth then revealed to me that on the Fuehrer's orders he had to carry out the destruction of Jews.

HEIRR PELCKMANN: Please go on, Witness, to describe your investigations.

MORGEN: I asked Wirth what this had to do with the Jewish wedding. Then, Wirth described the method by which he carried out the extermination of Jews, and he said something like this:

"One has to fight the Jews with their own weapons, that is to say "pardon me for using this expression - "one has to cheat them." Wirth staged an enormous deceptive maneuver. He first selected Jews who would, he thought, serve as column leaders, then these Jews brought along other Jews, who worked under them. With that smaller or medium-sized detachment of Jews, he began to build up the extermination camps. He extended this staff of Jews, and with these Jews Wirth himself carried out the extermination of the Jews. Wirth said that he had four extermination camps and that about 5,000 Jews were working at the extermination of Jews and the seizure of Jewish property. In order to win Jews for this business of extermination and plundering of their brethren of race and creed, Wirth gave them every freedom and, so to speak, gave them a financial interest in the spoliation of the dead victims. As a result of this attitude, this sumptuous Jewish wedding had come about.

Then I asked Wirth how he killed Jews with these Jewish agents of his. Wirth described the whole procedure that went off like a film every time. The extermination camps were in the east of the Government General, in big forests or uninhabited wastelands. They were built up like a Potemkin village. The people arriving there had the impression of entering a city or a township. The train drove into a dummy railroad station. After the escorts and the train personnel had left the area, the cars were opened and the Jews got out. They were surrounded by these Jewish labor detachments, and Kriminalkommissar Wirth or one of his representatives made a speech. He said, "Jews, you were brought here to be resettled, but

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before we organize this future Jewish State, you must of course learn how to work. You must learn a new trade. You will be taught that here. Our routine here is, first, every one must take off his clothes so that your clothing can be disinfected, and you can have a bath so that no epidemics will be brought into the camp."

After he had found such calming words for his victims, they started on the road to death. Men and women were separated. At the first place, one had to deliver the hat; at the next one, the coat, collar, shirt, down to the shoes and socks. These places were faked cloakrooms, and the person was given a check at each one so that the people believed that they would get their things back.

The other Jews had to receive the things and hurry up the new arrivals so that they should not have time to think. The whole thing was like an assembly line. After the last stop they reached a big room, and were told that this was the bath. When the last one was in, the doors were shut and the gas was let into the room. As soon as death had set in, the ventilators were started. When the air could be breathed again, the doors were opened, and the Jewish workers removed the bodies. By means of a special procedure which Wirth had invented, they were burned in the open air without the use of fuel.

HERR PELCKMANN: Was Wirth a member of the SS?

MORGEN: No, he was a Kriminalkommissar in Stuttgart.

HERR PELCKMANN: Did you ask Wirth how he arrived at this devilish system?

MORGEN: When Wirth took over the extermination of the Jews, he was already a specialist in mass-destruction of human beings. He had previously carried out the task of getting rid of the incurably insane. By order of the Fuehrer himself, whose order was transmitted through the Chancellery of the Fuehrer, he had, at the beginning of the war, set up a detachment for this purpose, probably composed of a few officials of his, as I believe, the remainder being agents and spies of the Criminal Police.

Wirth very vividly described how he went about carrying out this assignment. He received no aid, no instructions, but had to do it all by himself. He was only given an old empty building in Brandenburg. There he made his first experiments. After much consideration and many individual experiments, he evolved his later system, and then this system was used on a large scale to exterminate the insane.

A commission of doctors previously investigated the files, and those insane who were listed by the asylums as incurable were put on a separate list. Then the asylum concerned was told one day to send these patients to another institution.

From this asylum

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the patient was transferred again, often more than once. Finally he came to Wirth's institution, where he was killed by gas and cremated. This system, which deceived the asylums and made them unknowing accomplices, enabled him with very few assistants to exterminate large numbers of people, and this system Wirth now employed with a few alterations and improvements for the extermination of Jews. He was also given the assignment by the Fuehrer's Chancellery to exterminate the Jews.

HERR PELCKMANN: The statements which Wirth made to you must have surpassed human
imagination. Did you immediately believe Wirth?

MORGEN: At first Wirth's description seemed completely fantastic to me, but in Lublin I saw one of his camps. It was a camp which collected the property or part of the property of his victims. From the piles of things-there were an enormous number of watches piled up-I had to realize that something frightful was going on here. I was shown the valuables. I can say that I never saw so much money at one time, especially foreign money-all kinds of coins, from all over the world. In addition, there was a goldsmelting furnace and really prodigious bars of gold.

I also saw that the headquarters from which Wirth directed his operations was very small and inconspicuous. He had only three or four people working there for him. I spoke to them too.

I saw and watched his couriers arrive. They actually came from Berlin, Tiergartenstrasse, the Fi1hrer's Chancellery, and went back there. I investigated Wirth's mail and I found in it confirmation of all this. Of course, I could not do or see all this on this first visit. I was there frequently. I pursued Wirth up to his death.

HERR PELCKMANN: Did Wirth give you names of people who were connected with this operation?

MORGEN: Not many names were mentioned, for the simple reason that the number of those who participated could be counted, so to speak, on one's fingers. I remember one name: I think the name was Blankenburg, in Berlin.

HERR PELCKMANN: Blankenburg?

MORGEN: Blankenburg, of the Fuehrer's Chancellery.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, we had better adjourn now. We have already been 50 minutes.

[The Tribunal adjourned until 8 August 1946 at 1000 hours.]

* * * * * * * * * *

HERR PELCKMANN: Thank you, Witness. Yesterday you had already begun the description of the so-called extermination camps and the system of the extermination camps, but I should like to go back to conditions in the concentration camps which are to be distinguished from the so-called extermination camps.

You had given a description of the outward impression given by these camps which was extraordinarily pleasing. In order not to give any false impression, will you please describe in general the negative observations which you made.

MORGEN: I was asked whether from my impressions of the concentration camps I gained the idea that they were extermination

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camps. I had to say that I could not get this impression. I did not mean to say that the concentration camps were sanatoria) or a paradise for the prisoners. If they had been that, my investigations would have been senseless. Through these investigations I gained insight into the extremely dark and dismal side of the concentration camps. The concentration camps were establishments which, to put it mildly, were bound to give rise to crimes as a result of the application of a false principle.

When I say the principle was at fault, I mean the following: The prisoner was sent to the concentration camp through the Reich Security Main Office. A political agency decided about his freedom, and its decision was final. Thereby the prisoner was deprived of all legal rights. Once in the concentration camp, it was almost impossible to regain freedom, although at regular intervals the cases were reviewed. The procedure was so complicated that, aside from exceptional instances, the great majority could have no hope. The camp, the Reich Security Main Office, and the agency which had assigned the individual to the camp, had to agree to his release. Only if these three, agencies reached an agreement could a release be effected. Thereby, not only the reason for the arrest was taken into consideration, but through a monstrous order of SS Obergruppenfuehrer Pohl the production side was also important. If a prisoner was needed in the camp because he was a good man, even though all conditions for release existed, he could not be released. The concentration camps were surrounded by a sphere of secrecy. The, prisoner was not allowed any free contact with the public.

* * * * * * * * * *

HERR PELCKMANN: Witness, what were the further negative observations which you made? Please be brief on this point as the Court wishes.

MORGEN: The prisoner could not contact the public freely, and so his observations were not made known to the public. By this isolation in the concentration camp he was practically under the sway of the camp. This meant that he had to fear that at any time crimes could be committed against him. I did not have the impression from these facts that their purpose was to produce a system of crimes; but, of necessity, individual crimes were bound to result from these conditions.

HERR PELCKMANN: Witness, the events and the atrocities and the mass exterminations in the concentration camps are precisely what was charged against the SS. Please describe how these crimes are to be classified in three categories, and what these crimes have to do with the total planning of the SS. According to your information, I distinguish between atrocities caused by conditions beyond control, atrocities caused by supreme orders, and atrocities caused by individual criminal acts.

MORGEN: To a great extent the horrible conditions at times prevailing in some concentration camps did not arise from deliberate planning, but developed from circumstances which in my opinion must be called force majeure, that is to say, evils for which the local camp leaders were not responsible. I am thinking of the outbreak of epidemics. At irregular intervals many concentration camps were visited by typhoid fever, typhus, and other sicknesses caused especially by the arrival of prisoners from the Eastern areas in the concentration camps.

Although everything humanly possible was done to prevent these epidemics and to combat them, the death rate which resulted was extremely high. Another evil which may be considered as force majeure was the fluctuating numbers of new

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arrivals and the insufficient billets. Many camps were overcrowded. The prisoners arrived in a weakened condition because, due to air raids, the transports were under way longer than expected. Towards the end of the war, there was a general collapse of the transportation system.

Supplies could not be carried out to the necessary extent; chemical and pharmaceutical factories had been systematically bombed, and all the necessary medicines were lacking. To top all, the evacuations from the East further burdened the camps and crowded them in an unbearable manner.

HERR PELCKMANN: That is enough on this point. Will you go on to the second point, the supreme orders?

MORGEN: As supreme orders I consider the mass extermination of human beings which has already been described, not in the concentration camps but in separate extermination places. There were also execution orders of the Reich Security Main Office against individuals and groups of persons. The third point deals with the majority of individual crimes of which I said ...

THE PRESIDENT: Which is the witness talking about when he talks about extermination camps? Which are you talking about? Which do you call extermination camps?

HERR PELCKMANN: Please answer the question, Witness.

MORGEN: By extermination camps I mean those which were established exclusively for the extermination of human beings with the use of technical means, such as gas.

THE PRESIDENT: Which were they?

MORGEN: Yesterday I described the four camps of the Kriminalkommissar Wirth and referred to the Camp Auschwitz. By "Extermination Camp Auschwitz" I did not mean the concentration camp. It did not exist there. I meant a separate extermination camp near Auschwitz, called "Monowitz."

THE PRESIDENT: What were the other ones?

MORGEN: I do not know of any other extermination camps.

HERR PELCKMANN: You were speaking of atrocities on the basis of individual acts of a criminal nature. Please continue.

MORGEN: One must distinguish between the types of perpetrators. There were even killings of one prisoner by another, for example, because of revenge. If a prisoner had escaped, then during the search, because one did not know where the prisoner was hiding-perhaps in the camp itself-the whole camp had to line up on the parade grounds. That often lasted for hours and sometimes a whole day. The prisoners were tired and hungry, and the long wait, standing sometimes in the cold or rain, excited them

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very much, so that when the prisoner was recaptured, the other prisoners, out of revenge for his having brought this upon them, beat him to death when the opportunity presented itself.

There were many cases in which prisoners who had the impression that one among them was a spy, attempted to kill this prisoner in self-defense. There were cases where individual prisoners, due to physical weakness, could not keep pace with the others as regards work and who, on top of it, aroused the disgust of the other prisoners by bad behavior, for instance, by stealing bread or similar acts. If one considers that a large part of the prisoners were professional criminals who had already been sentenced before, it seems plausible that these people killed such fellow prisoners. This was done in many ways.

HERR PELCKMANN: You need not explain that at the moment, we will come back to it later. But will you describe another type of perpetrator?

MORGEN: Now I come to killings committed by members of the camp against prisoners and by prisoners against fellow prisoners. To give a specific example I should like to describe the case of the commander of the Concentration Camp Buchenwald, Koch, who was legally tried and executed. The following individual case happened. A prisoner who was an old Party member was sent to the Concentration Camp Buchenwald. As one of the old guard he had obtained a job as Kurdirektor. He misused this position to force Polish household employees under threat of dismissal to commit perverted actions with him, although he himself was very syphilitic. This man was sentenced to a long term of penal servitude by a regular court and after that sent to the concentration camp. Koch found his files, considered the sentence an error, and thinking himself authorized to correct this error of justice, had the prisoner put to death. Another case of an entirely different sort is the following: Koch believed that a certain little Jewish prisoner, who had marked physical peculiarities, was following him to his various offices in the various camps. In superstitious fear of bad luck, he one day gave instructions to have this prisoner killed. Another case: Koch believed that his criminal activity, or certain personal relationships, were known to some prisoners. In order to protect himself, he had them killed.

HERR PELCKMANN: How were these killings made possible, and how could the other inmates of the camp know about them?

MORGEN: The procedure was very simple. The prisoners in question were called, without being given reasons, and had to report at the gate of the camp. That was nothing striking, because almost every hour prisoners were picked up there for questioning,

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for removal to other camps, and so forth. These prisoners, without the other prisoners becoming aware of it, came to the so-called Kommandantur prison, which was outside the camp. There they were held for a few days, often one or two weeks, and then the jailer had them killed, mostly in the form of a sham inoculation; actually, they were given an injection of phenol into the arteries.

Another possibility of secret killing was the occasional transfer to the hospital. The doctor simply stated that a man needed treatment. He brings him in and after some time he puts him into a single room and kills him there. In all these cases the record showed that the prisoner in question had died of such and such a normal illness.

Another case: The prisoner was assigned to a detail of hard work, generally the so-called "quarry detail." The Kapo of this detail is given a hint and makes the life of the prisoner more and more unbearable by making him work incessantly and vexing him in every respect. Then the day arrives when the prisoner loses patience and in order to escape, this torture, breaks through the. cordon of sentries, whereupon the guard, whether he wants to or not, has to shoot him. These different forms of killing varied from case to case. By that very fact they were outwardly, unrecognizable, because they took place in secret places by various methods at various times. This presupposed that the commander who did this, like Koch here, relied on certain men who were absolutely devoted to him and who had key positions, such as the doctor here, who was arrested, the overseer, who was also arrested-and who committed suicide right after-and upon the aid of Kapos who were devoted to him and who co-operated with him. Where this co-operation was not possible, such excesses and crimes could not occur.

HERR PELCKMANN: Did you find such cases and such camps?

MORGEN: Yes. I have already mentioned the result of our investigations. Since the majority of the camps was set up during the war with new personnel and in the old camps the personnel in key positions was replaced by new people, this co-operation could no longer take place.

HERR PELCKMANN: Would it be wrong to assume that all camps and all camp commanders and all camp doctors acted in the way you have just described?

MORGEN: According to my exhaustive investigations, I can only say that this assumption would be completely wrong. I really met commanders who did everything humanly possible for their prisoners. I met doctors whose every effort was to help sick prisoners and to prevent further sickness.

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HERR PELCKMANN: We will go back to the mass exterminations, one case of which you described. You spoke of Kriminalkommissar Wirth, who was not a member of the SS and whose staff did not consist of SS men. Why was Wirth given the assignment?

MORGEN: I have already mentioned that Wirth was Kriminalkommissar with the Criminal Police in Stuttgart. He was Kommissar for the investigation of capital crimes, particularly murder. He had quite a reputation in discovering clues, and before the seizure of power lie became known to the general public for unscrupulous methods of investigation which even led to a discussion in the Wurttemberg Landtag (Diet). This man was now used in order to cover up the traces of these mass killings. It was thought that on the basis of his previous professional experience this man was unscrupulous enough to do this job, and that was true.

HERR PELCKMANN: You mentioned the Jewish prisoners who aided in the killings.

What became of these people?

MORGEN: Wirth told me that at the end of the actions he would have these prisoners shot and in doing so, would despoil them of the profits which he had allowed them to make. He did not do this all at once, but by means of, the deceptive methods already described he lured and segregated the prisoners and then killed them individually.

HERR PELCKMANN: Did you hear from Wirth the name Hoess?

MORGEN: Yes. Wirth called him his untalented disciple.

HERR PELCKMANN: Why?

MORGEN: In contrast to Wirth, Hoess used in principle entirely different methods. I would best describe them when we come to the subject of Auschwitz.

HERR PELCKMANN: Was the name Eichmann mentioned at that time?

MORGEN: I cannot remember that the name Eichmann was mentioned at that time, but later I heard of it, too.

HERR PELCKMANN: How did you come on the trail which led to Auschwitz?

MORGEN: I got a clue by a remark of Wirth himself. Now I had only to find a reason to institute investigations in Auschwitz itself. I beg to bear in mind that my assignment was limited; I had to investigate crimes of corruption and crimes committed in connection with them.

THE PRESIDENT: Dr. Pelckmann, didn't he explain how he came to investigate Auschwitz yesterday?

HERR PELCKMANN: No, it was something entirely different, Your Lordship.

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MORGEN: Yesterday I spoke only of Lublin and Wirth. I said I received information about Hoess and wanted to try to get into the camp and needed a reason. I found this reason very soon.
The Protectorate Police had heard about the smuggling of gold in the Protectorate. The traces led to Berlin. The customs officials for Berlin-Brandenburg had found out persons who were on the staff of the Concentration Camp Auschwitz, and had turned over the proceedings to the SS and Police Court in Berlin. I learned of it there and I took charge of these proceedings-they dealt with enormous gold smuggling-and shortly thereafter went to Auschwitz.

HERR PELCKMANN: Then you were in Auschwitz proper?

MORGEN: Yes, I went to Auschwitz, and before I started with the investigation itself ...

THE PRESIDENT: When did you go there?

MORGEN: I cannot give the date exactly, but it must have been the end of 1943 or the beginning of 1944.

HERR PELCKMANN: The method of extermination there was probably similar to the one you described yesterday?

MORGEN: I thoroughly investigated the entire stretch of territory and studied the layout and installations. The prisoners arrived on a side track in closed transport cars and were unloaded there by Jewish prisoners. Then they were segregated into able-bodied and disabled, and here already the methods of Hoess and Wirth differ. The separation of the disabled was done in a fairly simple way. Next to the place of the unloading there were several trucks and the doctor gave the arrivals the choice to use these trucks. He said that only sick, old persons and women with children, were allowed to use them. Thereupon these persons swarmed toward the transportation prepared for their use, and then he needed only to hold back the prisoners that he did not want to send to destruction. These trucks drove off, but they did not drive to the Concentration Camp Auschwitz, but in another direction to the Extermination Camp Monowitz, which was a few kilometers away. This extermination camp consisted of a number of crematories which were not recognizable as such from the outside. They could have been taken for large bathing establishments, and that is what they told the prisoners. These crematories were surrounded by a barbed wire fence and were guarded from the inside by the Jewish labor details which I have already mentioned. The new arrivals were led into a large dressing room and told to take their clothing off. When this was done ...

HERR PELCKMANN: Is that not what you described yesterday?

MORGEN: Of course.

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HERR PELCKMANN: What precautions were taken to keep these things absolutely secret?

MORGEN: The prisoners who marched off to the concentration camp had no inkling of where the other prisoners were taken. The Extermination Camp Monowitz lay far away from the concentration camp. It was situated on an extensive industrial site and was not recognizable as such and everywhere on the horizon there were smoking chimneys. The camp itself was guarded on the outside by special troops of men from the Baltic, Estonians, Lithuanians, Latvians, and also Ukrainians. The entire technical arrangement was almost exclusively in the hands of the prisoners who were assigned for this job and they were only supervised each time by an Unterfuehrer. The actual killing was done by another Unterfuehrer who let the gas into this room. Thus the number of those who knew about these things was extremely limited. This circle had to take a special oath...

THE PRESIDENT: Were these Unterfuehrer in the SS?

MORGEN: They wore SS uniforms.

THE PRESIDENT: Didn't you take the trouble to ascertain whether they were proper members of the SS?

MORGEN: I said that they were people from the Eastern territories.

THE PRESIDENT: I do not care what you have already said. What I asked you was, didn't you take the trouble to ascertain whether they were members of the SS?

MORGEN: I beg your pardon, Your Lordship. I do not understand your question. They could not be members of the General SS. As far as I could learn, they were volunteers and draftees who had been recruited ' in the Baltic countries where they had carried out security tasks, and who were then somehow especially selected and sent to Auschwitz and Monowitz. These were special troops, who had only this particular task and no other. They were completely outside of the Waffen-SS ...

THE PRESIDENT: I didn't ask you if they were in the Waffen SS. Did you ask questions as to why they were put into SS uniforms?

MORGEN: No, I did not ask that question. It seemed incomprehensible to me. It is probably due to the fact that the commander of the Concentration Camp Auschwitz ...

THE PRESIDENT: Wait a minute. You said, as I understand it, that you considered it incomprehensible why they wore the SS uniforms. Didn't you say that?

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MORGEN: Yes.

THE PRESIDENT: Were there no officers of the SS there at all?

MORGEN: One officer, the commander of this company, I believe a Hauptsturmfuehrer Hartenstein, or something like that.

THE PRESIDENT: Why didn't you ask him why these men were put into SS uniforms?

MORGEN: The extermination camp was under the direction of SS Standartenfuehrer Hoess. Hoess was commander of the Concentration Camp Auschwitz, and also of the extermination camp, Monowitz. Around Auschwitz were a number of labor camps and I have already said ...

THE PRESIDENT: I didn't ask you where. What I am asking you is why you didn't ask these two SS men why they put these men into SS uniforms?

MORGEN: I assumed that this was done for camouflage reasons so that this extermination camp would not be distinguished outwardly from the other labor camps and the concentration camp itself. As a soldier it was incomprehensible to me that this damage to the reputation of the SS was tolerated as it had nothing to do .with this extermination.

THE PRESIDENT: You yourself were a high SS officer, were you not?

MORGEN: I was Sturmbannfuehrer of the Waffen-SS.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, what I am asking you is this: why, in those circumstances, you made no inquiry about it, and why you didn't ask these high SS officers there, "What is the meaning of these men being put into SS uniforms?"

MORGEN: I did not understand the question.

THE PRESIDENT: Go on.

HERR PELCKMANN: Witness, I should like to ask you the question myself. Why did you not ask the higher SS leaders whom you met there why these people were working in SS uniforms?

MORGEN: I said ' that I had the impression that this was clone for reasons of camouflage so that the camp would not be distinguished from the other camps through the use of different uniforms.

HERR. PELCKMANN: This explanation which you gave yourself is the reason why you did not question the officers, is that true?

MORGEN: At any rate I cannot remember having asked the officers about it. I did not speak to any officers except to the commander, Hoess, and the commander of the guards of the extermination camp.

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HERR PELCKMANN: Have you described everything which ...

THE PRESIDENT: Go on.

HERR PELCKMANN: Have you said everything in answer to the question as to how secrecy was secured?

MORGEN: Another important point may perhaps be mentioned. Certain Jewish prisoners with connections abroad were selected and were made to write letters abroad telling how well-off they were in Auschwitz, so that the public got the impression that these well-known people were alive and could write that they were doing well.

HERR PELCKMANN: Thank you. Now, Witness, under normal circumstances what would
you have had to do after you had learned of all these terrible things?

MORGEN: Under normal circumstances I would have had to have Kriminalkommissar Wirth and Commander Hoess arrested and charged with murder.

HERR PELCKMANN: Did you do that?

MORGEN: No.

HERR PELCKMANN: Why not?

MORGEN: The answer is already entailed in the question. The circumstances prevailing in Germany during the war were no longer normal in the sense of State legal guarantees. Besides, the following must be considered: I was not simply a judge, but I was a judge of military penal justice. No court-martial in the world could bring the Supreme Commander, let alone the head of the State, to court.

HERR PELCKMANN: Please do not discuss problems of law, but tell us why you did not do what you realized you should have done?

MORGEN: I beg your pardon; I was saying that it was not possible for me as Obersturmbannfuehrer to arrest Hitler, who, as I saw it, was the instigator of these orders.

HERR PELCKMANN: Then what did you do?

MORGEN: On the basis of this insight, I realized that something had to be done immediately to put an end to this action. Hitler had to be induced to withdraw his orders. Under the circumstances, this could be done only by Himmler as Minister of the Interior and Minister of the Police. I thought at that time that I must endeavor to approach Himmler through the heads of the departments and make it clear to him, by explaining the effects of this system, that through these methods the State was being led straight into an abyss. Therefore I approached my immediate superior, the chief of the Criminal Police, SS Obergruppenfuehrer Nebe; then I turned to

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the chief of the Main Office SS Courts, SS Obergruppenfuehrer Breithaupt. I also approached Kaltenbrunner and the chief of the Gestapo, Gruppenfuehrer Muller, and Obergruppenfuehrer Pohl of the Economic and Administrative Main Office, and the Reichsarzt, Gruppenfuehrer Dr. Grawitz. But aside from taking these necessary steps, I saw a practical way open to me by way of justice; that is, by removing from this system of destruction the leaders and important elements through the means offered by the system itself. I could not do this with regard to the killings ordered by the head of the State, but I could do it for killings outside of this order, or against this order, or for other serious crimes. For that reason, I deliberately started proceedings against these men, and this would have led to a shake-up of this system and its final collapse. But these activities had another far-reaching effect in the near future, for through the big concentration camp trials against Commander Koch, of whom I spoke earlier, and against the head of the political section at Auschwitz-Kriminalsekretaer Untersturmfuehrer Grabner, whom I charged with murder in 2,000 cases outside of this extermination action - the whole affair of these killings had to be brought to trial.

It was to be expected that the perpetrators would refer to higher orders also for these individual crimes. This occurred; thereupon the SS jurisdiction, on the basis of the material which I supplied, approached the highest government chiefs and officially asked, "Did you order these killings? Is the legal fact of murder no longer valid for you? What general orders are there concerning these killings?" Then the supreme State leadership would either have to admit its mistakes and thereby bring the culprits definitely under our jurisdiction also with regard to the mass exterminations, or else an open break would have to result through the abrogation of the entire judicial system. If I may anticipate, on account of the trial in Weimar against Koch and Grabner, this problem became acute as I had foreseen; the proceedings were suspended and the SS jurisdiction put these questions, which I mentioned before, publicly and officially to the Reich Security Main Office. For this very purpose a judge was sent there, who had the task of investigating all sections of the Reich Security Main Office, to see whether such orders were in existence. As I heard, the result was negative. Thereupon an attempt was made to take direct steps against Hoess, but in the meantime the front had advanced, Auschwitz was occupied and the judge who had, been sent there had to stop at the beginning of his fruitless investigations, and in January 1945 complete disorganization set in which made further legal prosecution impossible. If I may go, back, the immediate effects of the judicial investigation were that in all concentration camps the killing of prisoners by so-called "euthanasia" stopped immediately, because no, doctor could feel sure that he would not be arrested from one moment to the next.

Everybody

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bore in mind the example that was set by the case of the doctor of Buchenwald. I am convinced that through this intervention and action the lives of thousands of prisoners were saved. The killing system was severely shaken; for it is noteworthy that on my second visit to Lublin, shortly after I first approached Kriminalkommissar Wirth, I did not find him there. I learned that in the meantime Wirth had suddenly received orders to completely destroy all his extermination camps. He had gone to Istria with his entire command, and was guarding streets there, and while doing so he was killed in May 1944. When I heard that Wirth and his command had left Lublin I immediately flew there in order to find out whether he was merely transferring his field of activity and would continue elsewhere, but that was not so.

HERR PELCKMANN: Witness, were. you in danger of your life in all these investigations?

MORGEN: It was clear that the discovery of these horrible crimes was extremely unpleasant to those responsible for them. I knew that a human life meant nothing to these people and that they were ready for anything. As proof, I may cite the following: after I had arrested Grabner, the chief of the political section in Auschwitz, and the investigating commission ...

THE PRESIDENT: You aren't forgetting that you said you were going to take 45 minutes with this witness, are you, Herr Pelckmann?

HERR PELCKMANN: No, Your Lordship, I have not forgotten, and I regret exceedingly that it is taking longer than I expected, but I believe that I owe the Tribunal this explanation of the facts.

THE PRESIDENT: It seems of very little importance whether this man was in danger of his life or not.

HERR PELCKMANN: From the point of view of the defense, Your Lordship, I am of a different opinion, since for the conditions and possibilities of opposing this system, and for Number 1 of the ruling of the Court of 13 March, or rather Number 2, compulsion and orders are of decisive importance.

THE PRESIDENT: Go on, Herr Pelckmann. The Tribunal does not think it is important.

MORGEN: May I say one more sentence on that subject: the investigating commission of the Reich Criminal Police Department at Auschwitz was quartered in wooden hutments, and after it had worked with success for some time, unknown persons at night destroyed the hutments by fire with all the documents. The investigations in Auschwitz were interrupted and made difficult for a long time.

You may see from that how ruthless was the opposition

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to us. I, myself, received enough warnings and threats, but whether I was actually in danger of my life I cannot say.

HERR PELCKMANN: Did the directing personnel of the Concentration Camp Auschwitz in any way justify the assumption that they knew of these exterminations? I emphasize again-if I understood you correctly the Concentration Camp Auschwitz, with its many labor camps, had nothing to do with the extermination camp and was separate from it?

MORGEN: As I have already said, Hoess was simultaneously commander of Auschwitz and Monowitz; he is to be considered the chief of the personnel, aside from the one leader of the Monowitz troops. I dealt only with these two, and these two knew about it.

HERR PELCKMANN: Did you speak to the doctor of the Concentration Camp Auschwitz?

MORGEN: Yes. When I arrived, the doctor showed me the mortality figures at the time he took over. He pointed out with a gleam in his eye how since his transfer to Auschwitz these huge figures had dropped precipitately through extensive hygienic measures and changes. In this connection he came to talk about Grabner. Grabner had expected him to kill pregnant Polish women. The doctor had refused since it was irreconcilable with his professional duties.

Thereupon Grabner had reproached him for not realizing the importance of his, Grabner's, tasks. The doctor did not give in and a quarrel arose which was carried on before the commander, and neither Hoess nor Grawitz said anything. Thus the doctor, at the time when I met him by accident, was in a distressed frame of mind and said "What shall I do?" I said to him "What you have done so far, absolute refusal, is quite in order, and tomorrow I will arrest Grabner."

THE PRESIDENT: What does this have to do with the SS unless the doctor was in the SS; perhaps he was.

HERR PELCKMANN: It is well known that the doctors were SS doctors, and the witness is describing how an SS doctor in this Concentration Camp Auschwitz opposed the suggestion of Grabner. He is describing that as a typical case.

THE PRESIDENT: Herr Pelckmann, the Tribunal thinks you have been quite long enough over this witness. You are going into matters too much in detail.

HERR PELCKMANN: You said previously that you had reported to the various agencies and named three of them, I believe. Please describe how Nebe reacted. What was Breithaupt's attitude? What did Kaltenbrunner and Muller say? What was Pohl's attitude, and how did the Reich Physician Grawitz react?

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MORGEN: First I reported to my immediate superior, SS Gruppenfuehrer Nebe, as chief of the RKPA. Nebe was an extremely taciturn man, but I could see that his hair stood on end when I made my report. He was absolutely silent. Then he said that I must immediately report this matter to Kaltenbrunner. The chief of the Hauptamt SS Courts, Obergruppenfuehrer Breithaupt, also became very much excited. He said that he would immediately go to see Himmler and report this to him and try to have a personal interview with Himmler arranged for me. The Reich Physician also did not know what to say. Obergruppenfuehrer Pohl, however, took another attitude. Previously, or about the same time, I had had the commander of the Concentration Camp Hertogenbosch arrested, who had caused the death of 10 women through punitive measures. When I reported this to Pohl he said these were trifles. He said, "What do the lives of 10 women matter in view of the thousands of German women dying every night in the air raids?"

HERR PELCKMANN: Please be more brief on the others.

MORGEN: After I had already reported to Obergruppenfuehrer Kaltenbrunner about the actual corruption crimes, the deadly crimes which I discovered about 6 months later, a conversation took place in the presence of Nebe, Kaltenbrunner, and Muller. This discussion was extraordinarily one-sided. Kaltenbrunner and Nebe were absolutely silent while Muller, white with rage, was infuriated with me and did not give me a chance to get in a word. When I looked at him calmly, he suddenly jumped up and rushed out of the room and left me alone, while the other two gentlemen turned away from me. In the afternoon I went to see Muller again and personally told him my point of view once again, but Muller was still absolutely against it.

HERR PELCKMANN: Very well, did you ...

THE PRESIDENT: What was the date of this conversation with Kaltenbrunner?

MORGEN: That was immediately after the charge was raised against Grabner. I assume in July or August 1944.

HERR PELCKMANN: Did you report these things to other circles of the SS?

MORGEN: No. I wanted to inform and win over those people, who really had something to say, to my point of view. Nothing else counted. Besides that, I was bound by Basic Order Number 1, concerning secrecy on State affairs, and could only approach the chiefs of the main offices personally. Any mistake I would have made in contacting other offices would have had serious results for me and would have given my enemies a pretext for protracting the investigation.

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* * * * * * * * * *

DR. MERKEL: Witness, if I understood you correctly, the crimes of Kriminalkommissar Wirth in Lublin were discovered because of a report of the Security Police in Lublin.

MORGEN: Yes.

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DR. MERKEL: Did the Security Police in Lublin participate in these crimes in any way?

MORGEN: No. As I saw it that was not the case.

DR. MERKEL: The witness Best stated that the camps at Treblinka and Maidanek were under the supervision of the Security Police. Is that correct?

MORGEN: I know nothing about that. Wirth explained that he had four extermination camps. I believe the name Treblinka was mentioned in that connection.

DR. MERKEL: According to your conviction, this camp as well was under Wirth?

MORGEN: I assumed that.

DR. MERKEL: Did you wish to execute an order of the SS Court to arrest Eichmann?

MORGEN: I asked the SS Court at Berlin to investigate Eichmann on the basis of my report. The SS Court in Berlin thereupon submitted to the chief of the Reich Security Main Office, SS Obergruppenfuehrer Kaltenbrunner, in his capacity as highest judge, a warrant to arrest Eichmann.

Dr. Bachmann reported to me that on the submission of this matter rather dramatic incidents took place.

Kaltenbrunner immediately called in Muller, and now the judge was told that an arrest was in no event to be considered, for Eichmann was carrying out a special secret task of utmost importance entrusted to him by the Fuehrer.

DR. MERKEL: When was that?

MORGEN: That was in the middle of 1944.

DR. MERKEL: Thank you, I have no further questions to put to this witness.

DR. GAWLIK: Your Lordship, may I be permitted to put a few questions, please?

THE PRESIDENT: Yes.

DR. GAWLIK: Witness, you spoke about orders of the Reich Security Main Office. From which offices of the Reich Security Main Office did these orders come?

MORGEN: Do you mean the orders for the mass extermination?

DR. GAWLIK: Yes.

MORGEN: I stated that the SS jurisdiction ...

DR. GAWLIK: Answer the question briefly, please. Which offices issued these orders?

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MORGEN: I said that the investigating judge could not establish the origin of such orders to my knowledge.

DR. GAWLIK: You spoke of the orders of the Reich Security Main Office, did you not?

MORGEN: I said that the accused Koch and Grabner, in answering for their killings, referred to, orders of the Reich Security Main Office and maintained that these orders had to be destroyed as soon as they were received. That was purely an assertion and therefore this statement had to be investigated.

DR. GAWLIK: Did you ascertain that the Offices III, VI, and VII were in any way participating in these measures?

MORGEN: I have already testified that Wirths undertaking directly. . .

DR. GAWLIK: Can you answer this question with a "yes" or "no"?

MORGEN: I could not determine that.

DR. GAWLIK: Thank you. I have no further questions to the witness.

[David Thompson]

Here are some biographical sketches of people mentioned by Dr. jur. Morgen in his testimony:

Blankenburg, Werner (?-1957) – deputy Chief Administrative Officer, Chancellery of the Fuehrer of the NSDAP (Oberdienstleiter, Kanzlei des Fűhrers der NSDAP) (under SS-Oberfuehrer Viktor Brack); used code-name "Brenner", participated in making the decisions as to who would be killed in the euthanasia program (Aktion T-4) (Nazi Mass Murder 24; Friedlander 67)]

Breithaupt, Franz (8.12.1880-29.4.1945) [SS-Obergruppenführer und General der Waffen-SS] – NSDAP-Nr.: 602663 (joined 1932); SS-Nr.: 39719; WWI veteran; chief of the SS Courts Main Office (Chef Hauptamt SS-Gericht) {killed in an auto accident or murdered at Bach 29 Apr 1945 (Dienstaltersliste der Schutzstaffel der NSDAP [9 Nov 1944]; Axis Biographical Research, SS und Deutschen Polizei [SS and German Police], http://www.geocities.com/~orion47/SS-PO ... lizei.html; Axis Biographical Research, Georges Croisier and Ken McCanliss, Allgemeine-SS and Polizei General Officer Casualty Listing, http://www.geocities.com/orion47.geo/CR ... alties.htm).}

Graebner (Gräbner), Maximilian (2.10.1905-1947 or 1948) [SS-Untersturmfűhrer] -- b. Wien (Austria); NSDAP-Nr.: none; SS-Nr.: 15847; chief, political section, concentration camp (Konzentrationslager - KL) Auschwitz 1940-1943; sentenced to 12 years imprisonment by SS court in 1944 {arrested 8 Aug 1945 by Austrian police (NYT 9 Aug 1945:14:4); extradited to Poland; put on trial 24 Nov 1947 by the Polish Supreme People's Court at Cracow ("the Oswiecim trial") along with 41 other members of the KL Auschwitz staff and administration on charges of mistreatment and mass murder of allied nationals; convicted 22 Dec 1947 and sentenced to death by hanging; executed 12 Dec 1947 (Camp Men pps. 89, 287; Auschwitz Chronicles p. 812) or 28 Jan 1948 (Marcus Wendel and Dean Robson "Third Reich Factbook - Auschwitz Trial", http://www.skalman.nu/third-reich/warcr ... chwitz.htm; Marcus Wendel and Dean Robson, "Third Reich Factbook - SS personnel serving at Auschwitz", http://www.skalman.nu/third-reich/ss-camp-auschwitz.htm).}

Grawitz, Prof. Dr. med. Ernst-Robert (1899-1945) [SS-Obergruppenführer und General der Waffen-SS] – chief physician for the SS and Police (Reichsarzt SS und Polizei); head of the German Red Cross {committed suicide at Berlin by blowing up himself, his wife and family with a hand grenade 20 Apr 1945 (Last Battle p. 386) or 24 Apr (Axis Biographical Research, SS und Deutschen Polizei [SS and German Police], http://www.geocities.com/~orion47/SS-PO ... lizei.html) or in May 1945 (Holo Ency p. 600; Hoehne p. 655; SS: Roll of Infamy pps. 56-57).}

Hartjenstein, Friedrich "Fritz" (3.7.1905-20.10.1954) [SS-Obersturmbannführer] -- NSDAP-Nr.: none; SS-Nr.: 327350; service, concentration camp (Konzentrationslager - KL) Sachsenhausen 1938; service, KL Niedernhagen 1939; 3rd SS Division "Totenkopf" 1941-1942; commandant, KL Auschwitz II (Birkenau death camp) 1942-1944; commandant, KL Natzweiler slave labor camp in Alsace 1944; commandant, KL Flossenbuerg (Flossenbürg) {arrested and put on trial by a British military tribunal at Wuppertal for complicity in the executions at Natzweiler of four captured British female SOC operatives in the French resistance; convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment 1 Jun 1946 (LT 3 Jun 1946:4e); put on trial by another British military tribunal at Wuppertal for complicity in the hanging of an RAF pilot POW at KL Natzweiler in summer 1944; convicted and sentenced to death by firing squad 5 Jun 1946 (LT 6 Jun 1946:4e); extradited to France; put on trial by a French military tribunal for war crimes arising out of the mass murder of prisoners at KL Natzweiler; convicted and sentenced to death; died of a heart attack in a French prison at Metz 20 Oct 1954 while awaiting execution (Rueckerl Inv 126; Soldiers of Destruction 327n; Camp Men p. 100; SS: Roll of Infamy p. 63; Marcus Wendel and Dean Robson, "Third Reich Factbook - Natzweiler Trial", http://www.skalman.nu/third-reich/warcr ... weiler.htm).}

Hoess, Rudolf Franz Ferdinand (25.11.1900-15.4.1947) [SS-Obersturmbannfűhrer] -- b. Baden-Baden; WWI veteran; NSDAP-Nr.: unk.; SS-Nr.: 193616; service, concentration camp (Konzentrationslager - KL) Dachau 1934-1938; service, KL Sachsenhausen 1938-1940; commandant, KL Auschwitz 1940-1943; chief of Department D I Concentration Camp Administration Central Office of the SS Economics and Administration Main Office (Chef Amt D I, SS-Wirtschafts-Verwaltungshauptamt - SS-WVHA); service, KL Oranienburg 1943-May 1945 {arrested by British security police 16 Mar 1946 (NYT 17 Mar 1946:31:4; NYT 20 Mar 1946:3:5); extradition to Poland and impending trial announced 17 Nov 1946 (NYT 18 Nov 1946:7:4); put on trial 11 Mar 1947 by the Polish War Crimes Tribunal at Warsaw (NYT 12 Mar 1947:6:2; NYT 31 Mar 1947:7:4; LT 12 Mar 1947:3d); sentenced to death by hanging for war crimes by Poland 2 Apr 1947 (NYT 3 Apr 1947:14:5; LT 3 Apr 1947:3e); executed at Auschwitz 15 Apr 1947 (NYT 13 Apr 1947:29:6; NYT 16 Apr 1947:12:4; LT 16 Apr 1947:3e) (Camp Men pps. 112, 287; Death Dealer pps. 19, 197; Encyclopedia of the Third Reich p. 444; SS: Roll of Infamy p. 77; ABR-SS).}

Hoven, Dr. med. Waldemar (10.2.1903-2.6.1948) [SS-Hauptsturmfűhrer] -- SS: 244534; camp physician, concentration camp (Konzentrationslager - KL) Buchenwald 1939-1940 {arrested by Allied troops 9 Jun 1945 at Bad Kreuznach (LT 11 Jun 1945:3:b); put on trial by an American military tribunal at Frankfort-am-Main in the "Medical Case" 9 Dec 1946 (NYT 9 Dec 1946:8:6; NYT 10 Dec 1946:9:1; NYT 11 Dec 1946:25:3; NYT 18 Dec 1946:24:4; NYT 11 Jan 1947:2:4; NYT 7 Mar 1947:5:7; convicted 19 Aug 1947 (NYT 20 Aug 1947:1:6) sentenced to death by hanging 20 Aug 1947 (NYT 21 Aug 1947:3:8; LT 21 Aug 1947:3d); application for writ of habeas corpus denied by US Supreme Court on 4-4 vote with 1 abstention 24 May 1948 (334 U.S. 826); executed at Landsberg-am-Lech prison 2 Jun 1948 (Snyder Ency p. 69; Camp Men pps. 115, 287; Buchenwald Report p. 63n; Dienstaltersliste der Waffen-SS [1 Jul 1944]).}

Kaltenbrunner, Dr. jur. Ernst (4.10.1903-16.10.1946) [SS-Obergruppenfűhrer und General der Waffen-SS und Polizei] -- NSDAP: 300179; SS: 13039; Senior SS and Police Commander "Donau" (HSSPF "Donau") at Vienna 11 Sept 1938-31 Jan 1943; Chief of the Reich Security Main Office, the German Security Police and Security Service (RSHA, Sipo und SD) 30 Jan 1943-May 1945; Reichstag deputy {arrested by American troops 9 or 10 May at Aussee (Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression, Vol. II, p. 1083) or 15 May 1945 (NYT 16 May 1945:8:1); war crimes extradition sought by Austria 3 Dec 1945 (NYT 5 Dec 1945:12:2); preliminary International Military Tribunal (IMT) proceedings at Nueremberg (LT 21 Sept 1945:4f; LT 29 Sept 1945:4f; LT 27 Oct 1945:3d; LT 29 Oct 1945:4e; LT 30 Oct 1945:3d); trial opened 19 Nov 1945 (LT 20 Nov 1945:4b; LT 21 Nov 1945:4a; LT 22 Nov 1945:4a; LT 23 Nov 1945:4f; LT 24 Nov 1945:4a; LT 26 Nov 1945:4f; LT 27 Nov 1945:4a; LT 28 Nov 1945:4a; LT 29 Nov 1945:4a; LT 30 Nov 1945:4f; LT 1 Dec 1945:4a; LT 3 Dec 1945:4c; LT 4 Dec 1945:4a; LT 5 Dec 1945:4c & 8a; LT 6 Dec 1945:4g; LT 7 Dec 1945:3c; LT 8 Dec 1945:4d; LT 11 Dec 1945:4a; LT 12 Dec 1945:4d; NYT 13 Dec 1945:4g; LT 14 Dec 1945:4g; LT 15 Dec 1945:4g; LT 18 Dec 1945:4g; LT 19 Dec 1945:4e; LT 21 Dec 1945:4f; LT 3 Jan 1946:4a; LT 4 Jan 1946:4g; LT 5 Jan 1946:4e; LT 8 Jan 1946:4g; LT 9 Jan 1946:4f; LT 10 Jan 1946:4f; LT 11 Jan 1946:4g; LT 12 Jan 1946:4d; LT 15 Jan 1946:4g; LT 16 Jan 1946:4d; LT 17 Jan 1946:4d; LT 18 Jan 1946:4g; LT 19 Jan 1946:2c & 4d; LT 22 Jan 1946:3e; LT 24 Jan 1946:4e; LT 25 Jan 1946:3f; LT 26 Jan 1946:3d; LT 29 Jan 1946:3e; LT 30 Jan 1946:3c; LT 31 Jan 1946:4c; LT 1 Feb 1946:3e; LT 2 Feb 1946:2c; LT 5 Feb 1946:3c; LT 6 Feb 1946:3e; LT 8 Feb 1946:4e; LT 9 Feb 1946:4g; LT 11 Feb 1946:3e; LT 12 Feb 1946:3e; LT 13 Feb 1946:3d; LT 14 Feb 1946:3e; LT 15 Feb 1946:4g; LT 16 Feb 1946:3d; LT 20 Feb 1946:3e; LT 23 Feb 1946:3e; LT 25 Feb 1946:3c; LT 26 Feb 1946:3e; LT 27 Feb 1946:3e; LT 28 Feb 1946:3d; LT 2 Mar 1946:3e; LT 5 Mar 1946:3c & 4g; LT 6 Mar 1946:3d;LT 7 Mar 1946:3d; LT 8 Mar 1946:4b; LT 9 Mar 1946:4d; LT 12 Mar 1946:3e; LT 13 Mar 1946:3d; LT 14 Mar 1946:3c; LT 14 Mar 1946:4e; LT 15 Mar 1946:4f; LT 16 Mar 1946:4f; LT 18 Mar 1946:4g; LT 19 Mar 1946:4g; LT 20 Mar 1946:4f; LT 21 Mar 1946:4g; LT 22 Mar 1946:4f; LT 23 Mar 1946:4d; LT 26 Mar 1946:4e; LT 27 Mar 1946:3c; LT 28 Mar 1946:4f; LT 29 Mar 1946:4d; LT 30 Mar 1946:4f; LT 1 Apr 1946:3c; LT 2 Apr 1946:4f; LT 3 Apr 1946:4d; LT 4 Apr 1946:4f; LT 5 Apr 1946:4d; LT 6 Apr 1946:4g; LT 8 Apr 1946:4e; LT 9 Apr 1946:4g; LT 10 Apr 1946:4g; LT 11 Apr 1946:4g; LT 12 Apr 1946:4e; LT 13 Apr 1946:3e; LT 14 Apr 1946:3d; LT 16 Apr 1946:3c; LT 17 Apr 1946:3f; LT 18 Apr 1946:4f; LT 20 Apr 1946:3e; LT 24 Apr 1946:3e; LT 25 Apr 1946:3c; LT 26 Apr 1946:3c; LT 27 Apr 1946:3d; LT 30 Apr 1946:3e; LT 1 May 1946:4g; LT 2 May 1946:4e; LT 3 May 1946:4e; LT 4 May 1946:4e; LT 7 May 1946:3c; LT 8 May 1946:3d; LT 9 May 1946:3e; LT 10 May 1946:3e; LT 11 May 1946:3c; LT 13 May 1946:3c; LT 14 May 1946:4g; LT 15 May 1946:3c; LT 16 May 1946:4g; LT 17 May 1946:3f; LT 18 May 1946:3e; LT 21 May 1946:4c; LT 23 May 1946:3e; LT 24 May 1946:3c; LT 25 May 1946:3c; LT 28 May 1946:3c; LT 29 May 1946:3d; LT 30 May 1946:3d; LT 31 May 1946:3e; LT 1 Jun 1946:3e; LT 3 Jun 1946:3e; LT 4 Jun 1946:4e; LT 5 Jun 1946:3e; LT 6 Jun 1946:4e; LT 7 Jun 1946:5e; LT 10 Jun 1946:3e; LT 11 Jun 1946:3e; LT 12 Jun 1946:3f; LT 13 Jun 1946:3d; LT 14 Jun 1946:3c; LT 15 Jun 1946:3d; LT 18 Jun 1946:4d; LT 19 Jun 1946:3e; LT 20 Jun 1946:4e; LT 21 Jun 1946:4g; LT 22 Jun 1946:4g; LT 24 Jun 1944:4e; LT 25 Jun 1946:3e; LT 26 Jun 1946:3e; LT 27 Jun 1946:3c; LT 28 Jun 1946:3f; LT 29 Jun 1946:4c; LT 1 Jul 1946:3d; LT 2 Jul 1946:3c; LT 3 Jul 1946:3e; LT 4 Jul 1946:3d; LT 5 Jul 1946:3e; LT 6 Jul 1946:4e; LT 9 Jul 1946:3d; LT 10 Jul 1946:3d; LT 11 Jul 1946:3e; LT 12 Jul 1946:3c; LT 16 Jul 1946:3e; LT 17 Jul 1946:3d; LT 18 Jul 1946:3d; LT 19 Jul 1946:3d; LT 20 Jul 1946:3d; LT 23 Jul 1946:3c; LT 24 Jul 1946:3e; LT 25 Jul 1946:3d; LT 26 Jul 1946:3c; LT 27 Jul 1946:3b & 4a; LT 29 Jul 1946:4f; LT 30 Jul 1946:3c; LT 31 Jul 1946:3d; LT 1 Aug 1946:4e; LT 2 Aug 1946:4e; LT 3 Aug 1946:3d; LT 5 Aug 1946:3c; LT 6 Aug 1946:3e; LT 7 Aug 1946:4e; LT 9 Aug 1946:4c; LT 10 Aug 1946:4g; LT 12 Aug 1946:3e; LT 13 Aug 1946:3e; LT 15 Aug 1946:3d; LT 16 Aug 1946:4d; LT 17 Aug 1946:3d; LT 19 Aug 1946:3c; LT 20 Aug 1946:3c; LT 21 Aug 1946:3e; LT 22 Aug 1946:3e; LT 23 Aug 1946:3c; LT 24 Aug 1946:3e; LT 26 Aug 1946:3d; LT 27 Aug 1946:3d; LT 28 Aug 1946:3d; LT 29 Aug 1946:4d; LT 30 Aug 1946:4c; LT 31 Aug 1946:4e; LT 2 Sept 1946:4g; LT 13 Sept 1946:3e; LT 17 Sept 1946:4c; LT 18 Sept 1946:4f; LT 26 Sept 1946:4c; LT 28 Sept 1946:4f; LT 30 Sept 1946:4d; judgment delivered 30 Sept 1946 (LT 1 Oct 1946:3a & 6a; LT 2 Oct 1946:2a; sentenced by International Military Tribunal to death by hanging for war crimes 1 Oct 1946 (LT 2 Oct 1946:4a); international reaction (LT 3 Oct 1946:4a; LT 4 Oct 1946:4d; LT 5 Oct 1946:4c; LT 7 Oct 1946:4f); appeals for clemency rejected by the Allied Control Council 10 Oct 1946 (LT 11 Oct 1946:4c); executions expected (LT 14 Oct 1946:4b); executions carried out 16 Oct 1946 (LT 16 Oct 1946:4e; LT 17 Oct 1946:5a & 6d; LT 18 Oct 1946:4e; LT 19 Oct 1946:4f; LT 23 Oct 1946:4g; LT 25 Oct 1946:4f). (Encyclopedia of the Third Reich pps. 487-8; SS: Roll of Infamy p. 84; ABR-SS; Dienstaltersliste der Schutzstaffel der NSDAP [19 Nov 1944])
The International Military Tribunal found Kaltenbrunner not guilty of conspiracy, but convicted him of war crimes and crimes against humanity:

"He joined the Austrian Nazi Party and the SS in 1932. In 1935 he became leader of the SS in Austria. After the Anschluss he was appointed Austrian State Secretary for Security and, when this position was abolished in 1941, he was made Higher SS and Police Leader. On 30 January 1943, he was appointed Chief of the Security Police and SD and head of the Reich Security Head Office (RSHA), a position which had been held by Heydrich until his assassination in June 1942. He held the rank of Obergruppenfuehrer in the SS.

Crimes against Peace

As leader of the SS in Austria Kaltenbrunner was active in the Nazi intrigue against the Schuschnigg Government. On the night of 11 March 1938, after Goering had ordered Austrian National Socialists to seize control of the Austrian Government, 500 Austrian SS men under Kaltenbrunner's command surrounded the Federal Chancellery and a special detachment under the command of his adjutant entered the Federal Chancellery while Seyss-Inquart was negotiating with President Miklas. But there is no evidence connecting Kaltenbrunner with plans to wage aggressive war on any other front. The Anschluss, although it was an aggressive act, is not charged as an aggressive war, and the evidence against Kaltenbrunner under Count One does not, in the opinion of the Tribunal, show his direct participation in any plan to wage such a war.

War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity

When he became Chief of the Security Police and SD and head of the RSHA on 30 January 1943, Kaltenbrunner took charge of an organization which included the main offices of the Gestapo, the SD, and the Criminal Police. As Chief of the RSHA, Kaltenbrunner had authority to order protective custody to and release from concentration camps. Orders to this effect were normally sent over his signature. Kaltenbrunner was aware of conditions in concentration camps. He had undoubtedly visited Mauthausen, and witnesses testified that he had seen prisoners killed by the various methods of execution, hanging, shooting in the back of the neck, and gassing, as part of a demonstration. Kaltenbrunner himself ordered the execution of prisoners in those camps and his office was used to transmit to the camps execution orders which originated in Himmler's office. At the end of the war Kaltenbrunner participated in the arrangements for the evacuation of inmates of concentration camps, and the liquidation of many of them, to prevent them from being liberated by the Allied armies.

During the period in which Kaltenbrunner was head of the RSHA, it was engaged in a widespread program of War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity. These crimes included the mistreatment and murder of prisoners of war. Einsatzkommandos operating under the control of the Gestapo were engaged in the screening of Soviet prisoners of war. Jews, commissars, and others who were thought to be ideologically hostile to the Nazi system were reported to the RSHA, which had them transferred to a concentration camp and murdered. An RSHA order issued during Kaltenbrunner's regime established the "Bullet Decree," under which certain escaped prisoners of war who were recaptured were taken to Mauthausen and shot. The order for the execution of Commando troops was extended by the Gestapo to include parachutists while Kaltenbrunner was chief of the RSHA. An order signed by Kaltenbrunner instructed the Police not to interfere with attacks on bailed-out Allied fliers. In December 1944 Kaltenbrunner participated in the murder of one of the French generals held as a prisoner of war.

During the period in which Kaltenbrunner was head of the RSHA, the Gestapo and SD in occupied territories continued the murder and ill-treatment of the population, using methods which included torture and confinement in concentration camps, usually under orders to which Kaltenbrunner's name was signed.

The Gestapo was responsible for enforcing a rigid labor discipline on the slave laborers and Kaltenbrunner established a seriesof labor reformatory camps for this purpose. When, the SS embarked on a slave labor program of its own, the Gestapo was used to obtain the needed workers by sending laborers to concentration camps.

The RSHA played a leading part in the "final solution" of the Jewish question by the extermination of the Jews. A special section under the Amt IV of the RSHA was established to supervise this program. Under its direction approximately 6 million Jews were murdered, of which 2 million were killed by Einsatzgruppen and other units of the Security Police. Kaltenbrunner had been informed of the activities of these Einsatzgruppen when he was a Higher SS and Police Leader, and they continued to function after he had become Chief of the RSHA.

The murder of approximately 4 million Jews in concentration camps has heretofore been described. This part of the program was also under the supervision of the RSHA when Kaltenbrunner was head of that organization, and special missions of the RSHA scoured the occupied territories and the various Axis satellites arranging for the deportation of Jews to these extermination institutions. Kaltenbrunner was informed of these activities. A letter which he wrote on 30 June 1944 described the shipment to Vienna of 12,000 Jews for that purpose and directed that all who could not work would have to be kept in readiness for "special action," which meant murder. Kaltenbrunner denied his signature to this letter, as he did on a very large number of orders on which his name was stamped or typed, and in a few instances, written. It is inconceivable that in matters of such importance his signature could have appeared so many times without his authority.

Kaltenbrunner has claimed that when he took office as Chief of the Security Police and SD and as head of the RSHA he did so pursuant to an understanding with Himmler under which he was to confine his activities to matter involving foreign intelligence and not to assume overall control over the activities of the RSHA. He claims that the criminal program had been started before his assumption of office; that he seldom knew what was going on; and that when he was informed he did what he could to stop them. It is true that he showed a special interest in matters involving foreign intelligence. But he exercised control over the activities of the RSHA, was aware of the crimes it was committing, and was an active participant in many of them."

(The Avalon Project at the Yale Law School: Nuremberg Trial Proceedings Vol. 22 - Tuesday, 1 October 1946, pps. 535-7; http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/imt/proc/10-01-46.htm).}

Koch, Karl Otto (1897-1945) [SS-Standartenführer] -- commandant, concentration camp (Konzentrationslager – KL) Columbia Haus 1935-1936; commandant, KL Sachsenhausen 1936-1937; commandant, KL Esterwegen 1937; commandant, KL Buchenwald 1937-1941; commandant, KL Majdanek 1941-1942 {hanged by the SS on 26 April 1945 for racketeering, insubordination and murder (The Camp Men p. 129; SS: Roll of Infamy p. 95).}

Mueller (Müller), Heinrich (28.4.1900-1945?) [SS-Gruppenführer] -- NSDAP: 4583199; SS: 107043; chief, Reich Security Main Office Department IV German Secret State Police (RSHA Amt IV Geheime Staatspolizei – Gestapo) {disappeared 29 Apr 1945; reportedly killed by Soviet forces in battle for Berlin and buried 17 May 1945; exhumed corpse could not be identified 1 Oct 1963 (NYT 2 Oct 1963:3:6; Who's Who pps. 212-3; Snyder p. 234; Encyclopedia of the Third Reich pps. 606-7; SS: Roll of Infamy p. 121); arrest warrant for war crimes issued 7 Jan 1961 and thereafter sought by West Germany (NYT 28 Feb 1965:VI:27:1); reportedly seen working as a tourist guide at Salvador in eastern Brazil 1 Apr 1967 (NYT 2 Apr 1967:78:5); 2 Israelis held by West German police in Munich for breaking into the apartment of Mueller's widow 6 Nov 1967 (NYT 7 Nov 1967:6:3; NYT 21 Nov 1967:8:3); reportedly living in a suburb of Natal in northeastern Brazil 31 Dec 1967 (NYT 1 Jan 1968:31:4).(Dienstaltersliste der Schutzstaffel der NSDAP [9 Nov 1944]).}

Nebe, Arthur (1894-1945) [SS-Obergruppenführer or SS-Gruppenführer] -- commander, Action Group B (Einsatzgruppe B) Jun 1941-Nov 1941; chief, Reich Security Main Office Department V Criminal Police (RSHA Amt V [Kriminalpolizei – Kripo]) {anti-Hitler conspirator; went into hiding 24 Jul 1944, following the unsuccessful assassination plot against Adolf Hitler; betrayed by a jealous female friend and arrested Nov 1944; hanged by SS 2 March 1945 (SS: Roll of Infamy pps. 124-5; Field Men p. 92) or 3 Apr 1945 (Holo Ency 1042-3; Hoehne 607).}

Pohl, Oswald (30.6.1892-7.6.1951) [SS-Obergruppenfűhrer und General der Waffen-SS] – NSDAP: 30842; SS: 147614; WWI service as naval officer; assigned to Free Corps (Freikorps) Brigade von Löwenfeld combatting insurgents in Upper Silesia and the Ruhr region; chief of section IV on the staff of the Reichsfűhrer-SS and chif of administration in the SS Main Office (Chef der Abteilung IV im Stab Reichsführer-SS & Chef des Verwaltungsamt in SS-Hauptamt) 1 Feb 1934; Ministerial Director, Reich Interior Ministry (Ministerialdirektor in Reichsministerium des Innern) Jun 1939-8 May 1945; chief, SS-WVHA/SS Economic & Administrative Main Office (Chef SS-Wirtschafts- und Verwaltungshauptamt) 1 Feb 1942-8 May 1945 {arrested 27 May 1947 while working as a farm laborer under the name "Ludwig Gniss" by British special investigators near Bremen (LT 29 May 1946:3d); indicted 13 Jan 1947 by an American military tribunal at Nuremberg in the "WVHA case" (NYT 14 Jan 1947:17:6); put on trial on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity arising out of his administration of concentration camps and the use of slave labor while serving as chief of the SS Economic and Administrative Main Office and administrator of the sprawling SS wartime industrial empire; and also charged with being a member of a criminal investigation – the General SS (Allgemeine-SS) (NYT 15 Jul 1948:12:5); convicted and sentenced to death by hanging 3 Nov 1947 (NYT 4 Nov 1947:12:1; LT 4 Nov 1947:3g); clemency refused 31 Jan 1951 by General Thomas T. Handy, US armed forces commander in Europe (NYT 1 Feb 1951:1:2); executed 7 Jun 1951 at Landsberg-am-Lech prison (NYT 7 Jun 1951:1:7; LT 8 Jun 1951:6d; Encyclopedia of the Third Reich p. 711; Auschwitz Chronicles p. 820; SS: Roll of Infamy p. 133; Dienstaltersliste der Schutzstaffel der NSDAP [9 Nov 1944]; Third Reich Historical Forum, "Landsberg Executions," http://www.thirdreichforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=23517).}

Wirth, Christian (1885-1944) [SS-Sturmbannführer] -- commandant, concentration camp (Konzentrationslager – KL) Belzec 1941-1942 {reported KIA by partisans in ambush near Fiume 26 May 1944 (SS: Roll of Infamy p. 178; Camp Men p. 259).}

[David Thompson]

KevinP -- I'm going to transfer your post

I hope I may use this topic for some further questions about Konrad Morgen. I'm doing research for an article in which he is one of the subjects.

- Unfortunately I wasn’t been able yet to obtain his personal SS file. Could someone help me with a copy of that (if there aren't too many pages)? In return I can provide a copy of his denazification trials.

- According to Heinz Höhne (The Order of the Death's Head, 1967) and others Himmler ordered Morgen in April 1944 to restrain his cases against concentration camp staff, with the exception of the Koch-case. Does someone know the source of this? Did Himmler give a verbal or written order? Remarkable is that Morgen, according to Laurence Rees (Auschwitz, 2005), still worked on the Rudolf Höss-case in October 1944. At that time he questioned Eleonore Hodys, Höss his mistress.

- In 1942 Morgen was send to serve on the front lines in the Wiking Division, according to Höhne and others as punishment for insubordination. Doe someone know the source of this? Was it a official punishment and what was his rank and occupation in Wiking? Did he serve in a penal unit or was he still subordinated to the SS-Gericht?

Any help is very much appreciated! Of course I’ve already found all topics about Morgen on this forum, but I’m still interested in any other information, especially biographical facts, about this person.

from this H&WC thread ( http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=47036 ) over to the SS&P section, where the readers may have more helpful information.

The new thread I started with your post is:

"Dr. Konrad Morgen bio details" at
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic. ... 8&t=160885