Wolff, Karl Friedrich Otto (13.5.1900-7.1984) [SS-Oberstgruppenfűhrer] – NSDAP: 695131 (joined 1931); SS: 14235 (joined 1931); Reichstag deputy (Mitglied des Reichstages) 1933-1945; chief of staff, SS Personal Staff Main Office 1939-1945; Senior SS and Police Commander "Upper Italy West" (HSSPF "Oberitalien West") Feb-Sept 1943; Highest SS and Police Commander "Italy" (HoSSPF "Italien") 23 Sept 1943-8 May 1945; military governor, northern Italy Feb-Oct 1943; commander, 29th SS Grenadier Division "Italienische Nr. 1" Feb-May 1945; {sentenced to 4 years imprisonment 1949 by Hamburg court; arrested by West Germany authorities at his villa at Kempfenhausen on Starnberg Lake 18 Jan 1962 (NYT 23 Jan 1962:8:4); impending trial announced 6 Jul 1964 by West German authorities (NYT 7 Jul 1964:14:6; NYT 12 Jul 1964:18:3); put on trial by a West German court at Munich 13 Jul 1964 on charges of aiding and abetting the murders of 300,000 persons (NYT 14 Jul 1964:11:1; NYT 16 Jul 1964:6:7; NYT 21 Jul 1964:12:7; NYT 15 Sept 1964:6:2; NYT 22 Sept 1964:13:6); convicted and sentenced 30 Sept 1964 by a West German court at Munich, Germany to fifteen years imprisonment and ten years deprivation of civil rights for helping with the mass murders of the Jews of Warsaw while a member of Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler's personal staff on 16 Jul 1942 at Vinnitza (Winniza) by intervening with a State Secretary (Staatssekretär im Reichsverkehrsministerium) to facilitate the deportations to concentration camp (Konzentrationslager - KL) Treblinka (JuNSV Verfahren Lfd.Nr.580; LG München II 640930; BGH 651026) or of war crimes charges arising out of Wolff's service as wartime Senior SS and Police Leader of Italy and Military Commander of Northern Italy, when Wolff sent some 300,000 Jews to the Treblinka death camp (NYT 1 Oct 1964:1:1); released for good behavior in 1971; died at Rosenheim 15 or 17 Jul 1984 (Good Old Days 302-3; Holo Ency 1658-9; Who's Who 343-4; Encyclopedia of the Third Reich p. 1055; Allgemeine-SS p. 24; SS: Roll of Infamy pps. 182-3; ABR-SS; Dienstaltersliste der Schutzstaffel der NSDAP [9 Nov 1944]).}
Extracts From Testimony of Defense Witness Karl Wolff, in Trials of War Criminals Before the Nuernberg Military Tribunals Under Control Council Law No. 10, United States v. Oswald Pohl, et. al. (Case 4: 'Pohl Case') US Government Printing Office, District of Columbia: 1950, Vol. 5: pp. 678-81.
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EXTRACTS FROM TESTIMONY OF DEFENSE WITNESS SS GENERAL KARL WOLFF*
DIRECT EXAMINATION
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DR. SEIDL (counsel for defendant Pohl): Within this trial the so-called "Action Reinhardt" has played a very important part. I now ask you when did you for the first time hear of this "Action Reinhardt." Did Himmler ever discuss this operation with you, or were you not informed by any men of his chief offices of this action ?
WITNESS KARL WOLFF: That the "Action Reinhardt" ever
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* Complete testimony is recorded in mimeographed transcript. 3-5 Jane 1947; pp. 2090-2206.
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existed, and above all under the name of Reinhardt, I have only heard here in Nuernberg. Of the terrible exterminations of Jews, and other exterminations in the camps which was carried out at Lublin and Auschwitz I heard for the first time on 19 March 1945, when I came to Switzerland in order to handle the capitulation negotiations there at the time. At the time I was in Switzerland my Swiss friends gave me Switzerland newspapers, and showed me with horror of the first reports that bore atrocities in that form as carried out in the concentration camp of Lublin, which had been published in the papers. Himmler himself never discussed these things with me and in my opinion he never discussed them with any other Main Office chief or with any other person who was not directly needed as an active collaborator for the execution of this most terrible program of all times. We know the Fuehrer's order which states explicitly and which was issued long years before — that is, I believe, when the plans for the planned Western offensive in 1940 were lost. This order stated that nobody should obtain more knowledge of any important assignment and that be should not be informed of it earlier than was actually required by him to carry out this assignment.
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JUDGE PHILLIPS: Taking it for granted that Himmler gave the order for the extermination of these people in the concentration camps, through what channels and through what executives would these orders ordinarily have been carried out?
WITNESS KARL WOLFF: I don't know if I can start from the point of a normal form, your Honor, as your Honor mentioned, because the order itself is so abnormal and so inhuman that I believe it is a false conclusion, but in order to answer the question of your Honor, I would like to point out that the Reich Leader SS would have discussed it with the chief of the Security Police normally, and the technical details of execution would have been agreed upon between them, and then this terrible secret would have been limited to a minimum, that is, the circle of persons participating in this terrible program.
Q. Wouldn't you assume that the Inspectorate of the Concentration Camps would know something about it?
A. It is very difficult to answer this question in an off-hand manner. If I am correctly informed, I know from newspapers which I have seen in the meantime that Himmler would have informed the commanders of the concentration camps, Hoess of Auschwitz, and Globocnik of Lublin, that he would have told them to come and see him, and he personally would have given them this assignment. He would have made the worst threats to them in case they did not keep this official secret.
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Q. Well, if the WVHA had charge of the allocation of all the labor in the concentration camps, which you say is true, and the economic administration of the inmates; don't you think that if the evidence is true that over 3,000,000 people were exterminated, that that would make a difference so great that they would have to know something about it in order to properly allocate the labor?
A. Your Honor, please consider that I have the greatest interest in achieving a complete verification, not only in the interest of the noncriminal part of the SS, of our innocence, but also of our guilt. But I know —
Q. This Tribunal wants to find the truth, that is all. That is what we are trying to do right now, to find the truth about this.
A. Yes. I can only say that in my conviction and as far as my knowledge goes the Reich Leader SS probably — and I can only assume that, in order to give my conviction to the best of my knowledge and belief — the Reich Leader SS would not have discussed the details with the Inspectorate of the Concentration Camps. Whether and at what period of time the Inspectorate of the Concentration Camps in the course of the execution might have obtained knowledge of these problems, that of course, I cannot judge myself because at that period of time I was not there anymore, but was already in Italy.
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PRESIDING JUDGE TOMS: Witness, when did you go to Italy?
WITNESS KARL WOLFF: On 9 September 1943, after I bad been sick for 6 months before, and as I already stated during the Milch* trial, I was operated on at Hohenlychen, Karlsbad, Bad Gastein, and I was convalescing there.
Q. Were you a member of the circle of Himmler's friends?
A. Yes. Or to express it more clearly in cases where Himmler was prevented from attending, I personally participated in the monthly conferences of the industrial circle of friends of the Reich Leader and I repeatedly, or let us say often, attended these conferences as his representative, or representative deputy of the Reich Leader SS, and I attended the dinners.
Q. Well, never mind, that is going too far afield. Did you hear the speech of Himmler at Poznan?
A. No. I did not hear that speech.
Q. Did you hear the speech at Poznan in October 1943 ?
A. No. Because at that time I was already in Italy.
Q. Yes, and you didn't hear about it in Italy?
A. No. This speech was not distributed to the leaders who were at the front.
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* Defendant in case of U.S. vs. Erhard Milch. vol. II.
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Q. Well, did you ever hear about Russians and Poles, who were not Jews, being exterminated and killed, did you ever hear about that?
A. No. I have never heard anything about extermination. I know that in the cases of combatting partisans, and in cases of attempts at life harsh measures were taken and people would be shot, but what your Honor is probably referring to is systematic and planned extermination.
Q. Exactly, exactly. Did you ever hear about that?
A. No.
Q. This is the first time?
A. Please?
Q. This is the first you ever heard about it?
A. After the capitulation I was reproached with that, and I was asked about it, and that is when I heard it for the first time.
Q. Oh? Do you believe it happened?
A. That the extermination actually took place?
Q. Yes.
A. I have no proof of the fact. However, I fear that extermination was carried out on a large scale.
Q. You are inclined to believe it then; you don't think it is propaganda?
A. No. I regret to have to confirm to you that today I am of the opinion that exterminations were actually carried out without our knowledge.
Q. Have you any idea of the extent of the exterminations?
A. No. I have heard of figures from two to twenty millions according to the papers which brought the news. In my experience I have never found anyone, even my interrogators or judges who could give me an exact figure. However, I would be very grateful to your Honor if on this occasion you could give me the exact number.
PRESIDING JUDGE TOMS: There were so many that no one could count them. No one knows how many, but all of the evidence points to several million at least.
WITNESS KARL WOLFF: I am very grateful to your Honor for the information which you have just given me.
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