Trial by the district courts in Klagenfurt, Vienna, Salzburg and Linz against members of the HSSPF Lublin, volume 22: protocol of the investigation of Franz Josef Eigner, 1962 - 1965

Documentation from a trial conducted in Landesgericht Klagenfurt (the Klagenfurt District Court), Landesgericht Salzburg (the Salzburg District Court) and Landesgericht Wien (the Vienna District Court) against members of the HSSPF (Hoehere SS- und Polizeifuehrer-Higher SS and Police Leader) Lublin; Documentation of the trial, volume 22; protocol of the investigation of Franz Josef Eigner, 1962 - 1965 Documentation from a trial conducted against Austrian war criminals, most of whom participated in "Aktion Reinhardt": - Investigation against Hermann Hoefle started in Landesgericht Linz (the Linz District Court) in 1947 (Vg8 6771/47); - Main part of the investigation conducted by Landesgericht Salzburg (the Salzburg District Court) from 1956 (11a Vr 1382/56) and Landesgericht Wien (the Vienna District Court) from 1962 (27c Vr 852/62); - Final investigation conducted by Landesgericht Klagenfurt (the Klagenfurt District Court), 1962-1971 (25 Vr 3123/71); - Transfer of the files to the various courts and emendation of the signatures, as well as commencement of various other trials against other Austrian war criminals during the investigation; - Copying of the documents at Landesgericht Klagenfurt and transfer of the copies to Yad Vashem. The overall arrangement of the files includes three kinds of volumes: - General volumes containing general administrational information regarding the trial, indexes and collections; - Appendix volumes containing statements and information from trials dealing with similar cases from Germany, mostly from Hamburg; - Main volumes containing documentation, statements and correspondence from the trial. This file is part of a General Volume; it contains statements by Franz Josef Eigner, born 16 February 1907, a resident of Hermagor, who was a member of the Waffen SS and worked in garages in Cracow, Lublin and Trieste as a driver and organizer of the garage. Statement from 11 April 1962: - Information regarding his army service and his work; claim that he does not know anything about the murder of Jews, and that only after the war did he find out what happened to the Jews; responsibility only for the cars in his garage. Statement from 13 February 1964: - Reiteration of his claim that he did not know anything about the murder of Jews; - Admission that he knew that Jews were sent to special camps; assertion that he was not allowed to enter these camps, and that these camps had their own garages; - Report that once, when he had to collect a car needing repair from the Belzec camp, he wasn’t allowed to enter the camp, and the car was moved out of the camp by Jews; - Statement that the guards in a camp built near Lublin were Latvians; they were referred to as Russian and Ukrainian guards of German origin or Askari (local soldiers serving in a colonial army). - Little information provided regarding the drivers in guard units (names mentioned: Hartung, Pflaume, Franz Schuhmacher, Wolf, Benedikt Farkas and Petritz); - Employment of four Jewish laborers from a camp in Lublin in the garage by the defendant; later permission given to them to live in a hut next to the garage, and to move around without wearing the yellow badge; three of their names: Gellert from Lublin, Pommeraniez from Lublin and Piper from Lemberg; - Claim that in Trieste there was no persecution of Jews; - Report that Italian workers denounced another worker named Vittorio Vinzi who was Jewish. Statement from 03 May 1965: - Statement that the four Jewish laborers came from the Lipowa camp; information from these Jews that Karl Heinrich Mohwinkel beat Jews in the camp; admission that he knew that the Jews were murdered in camps; - Report of a drive to Berlin with Odilo Globocnik, Wippern and Czichotzki to bring some suitcases to the Reichsbank; information from Alois Rzepa later that these suitcases contained the property of murdered Jews; - Admission that trucks from his garage were used to transport Jews and their property; - Report that the Ukrainians told him about cruelties against Jews; - Description of the execution of more than 30 prisoners by the SS in a little Polish town, which he witnessed together with Globocnik and two others; - Reports that drivers from his unit participated in the evacuation of the Warsaw Ghetto; Hermann Hoefle photographed the evacuation and gave albums of these photographs as presents to the participants. Names mentioned: Winkler Benedikt Farkas Hermann Hoefle Reinhold Mohrenschildt Ernst Lerch Alois Alois Rzepa Karl Wukobits Rudolf Schleissner Walter Wanker Lothar Seltmann Karl Rupp Josef Reich Sepp Nemec Karl Hofbauer Othmar Egger Irmfried Eberl Franz Stanglica Viktor Knorr Karl Helletsberger Odilo Globocnik Streibel Hackenhold Karlo Jankowitsch Neri Kaucic Arthuro Trioli N. Boettcher Lemke Veith Bertl Thomas Petritz Kopainig Zucht Fichna Maubach Lissy Meierhofer Hanelt