Trial by the district courts in Klagenfurt, Vienna, Salzburg and Linz against members of the HSSPF Lublin, Volume 49; Trial against Dr. Ludwig Hahn, held in the Hamburg Regional Court: Testimonies by perpetrators (including soldiers from Police Battalion 61) and survivors regarding the Warsaw Ghetto, August 1960 - July 1961

Documentation from trials conducted in Landesgericht Klagenfurt (the Klagenfurt District Court), Landesgericht Wien (the Vienna District Court), Landesgericht Salzburg (the Salzburg District Court) and Landesgericht Linz (the Linz District Court) against members of the HSSPF (Höhere SS- und Polizeiführer-Higher SS and Police Leader) Lublin: Documentation of the trial, Volume 49; Documentation of the trial against Dr. Ludwig Hahn, held in the Hamburg Regional Court: Testimonies by perpetrators (including soldiers from Police Battalion 61) and survivors regarding the Warsaw Ghetto, August 1960 - July 1961 Report on the actual state of the investigations by Schuster, state prosecutor, March 1961: - The Warsaw Ghetto and its administration structure - The liquidation of the Jews of Warsaw: deportation and annihilation; "Aktion Reinhard"; detailed description of the "resettlement" operations, the function of the "Judenrat" and hostage-taking to ensure the implementation; the "Aktion" in January 1943; the final liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto in spring 1943 and the forces involved, such as "Stab-SS und Polizeifuehrer", "Waffen-SS", "Ordnungspolizei", "Sicherheitspolizei", Wehrmacht and foreign guard forces; Jewish resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto; the fate of the deported Jews, most of them deported to Treblinka extermination camp - The people and organizations responsible for the annihilation of the Jews of Warsaw: SSPF (SS und Polizeifuehrer) of Lublin, Globocnik; SSPF of Warsaw, Dr. v. Sammern Frankenegg and Juergen Stroop, as well as further members of the office of the SSPF (SS-Sturmbannfuehrer Max Jesuiter, von Belziger, Otto Schnebel, Fritz Rehbein, Karl Kaleske); Franz Conrad, head of the office for valued acquisitions, and other members of this authority; the KdSuSD (Kommandeur der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD) of Warsaw, Dr. Ludwig Hahn, his deputy, Dr. Ernst Kah, and the command deployed in the ghetto Warsaw (USF Karl Brandt, Hauptsturmfuehrer Walter Witossek, Hauptsturmfuehrer Geipel, Heinrich Klaustermeyer, (Gerhard) Mende, KS Knoll, Hauptsturmfuehrer Johannes Boehm, OSF Rudolf Scherer, Adam Hoffmann, Weisinger, Stromberg, Orf, KK Lechner, Hauptscharfuehrer Hundt); Hauptsturmfuehrer and Kriminalrat (criminal counsellor) Walter Stamm and Paul Werner; KDO (commander of the order police) in Warsaw, Rudolf Haring, and his deputy, Major Schoeppe, as well as some officers under the KDO (Major Sternagel, Hauptmann Zisenis, Oberleutnant Otto Diehl, Leutnant Strobel, Hauptmann Adam); the SS-infantry unit, Warsaw, SS-Sturmbannfuehrer Walter Bellwidt; the SS cavalry unit, Warsaw, SS-Sturmbannfuehrer Friedrich; certain Wehrmacht units stationed in Warsaw; German companies in the Warsaw ghetto (25 companies listed); the German employment bureau in Warsaw and the civil administration - The knowledge of the murder of the deported Jews - Further atrocities allegedly committed by members of the SD and by Ludwig Hahn, such as shootings and mass executions (pp. 3-47) Testimony of Hans Heinz Otto Paul Qweitzsch, born 1912 in Berlin, Germany, commander of the security police in Warsaw, October 1939 - October 1943; 20/03/1961 (pp. 48-50) Testimony respectively minutes of interrogations of Otto Willi Walter Stamm, born 1904 in Brunswick, Germany, member of the KdSuSD Warsaw, 1939-1944; 16/03 - -07/07/1961: - The deportations of the Jews from the ghetto Warsaw ("Aktion Reinhardt"), the "resettlement-staff" (Sturmbannfuehrer Hoefle) and the involved persons, such as Dr. Hahn, Hoefle, Hauptsturmfuehrer (Georg) Michalsen, Oberscharfuehrer Walter Witossek and (Karl) Brandt; mentioning the uprising and the counterinsurgency under Brigadefuehrer (Juergen) Stroop; the shooting of hostages as a reprisal, ordered by Brigadefuehrer Walter Bierkamp, Krakow, and Dr. Hahn (pp. 51-55) - His professional career, his different operating sites, his activities after the war and his family situation - Description of the department IV (Gestapo): the staff, the "Judenreferat" (department related to Jews), its staff and its responsibilities - Reprisal actions and the shooting of hostages, ordered by the BdS (commander of the security police), and the naming of the hostages; Walther Bierkamp mentioned as particularly rigorous; clarification of certain points, such as cases of resistance, drumhead court martials and death sentences, especially the question, if there were shootings without sentences - The Warsaw uprising and counterinsurgency in 1944 - The "resettlement-action" in 1942: the transfer of staff (inter alia Obersturmfuehrer or Hauptsturmfuehrer Witossek, Brandt and Klaustermeyer), Stamm's knowledge about the fate of the deported Jews and his alleged negative attitude towards the extermination of the Jews - Information about different names respectively persons, as far as known by Stamm - Arbitrary shooting of Jews in the ghetto by members of the "Judenreferat"; the "Aktion Stroop", especially the transfer of staff; the deportation of members of the resistance movement and criminals to concentration camps (Auschwitz and Mauthausen) and the high death rate at the camps (pp. 301-343) File memos regarding the impossibility, dispensability or irrelevance of the examinations of witnesses; 13/03/1961, 05/04/1961 (pp.56-57, 88) Testimonies of Kalman Jankowsky, born 1909 in Gdansk, inmate of the ghetto Warsaw from February 1941 until March or April 1943: Description of the ghetto life, forced labor and atrocities, carried out by Klaustermeyer; deportation to the Treblinka extermination camp in March or April 1943; transfer to the Treblinka labor camp in August 1943; escape in October 1944; 25/08/1960, 15/03/1961 (pp. 59-65) Testimony of Benjamin Gruszka, born 1925 in Berlin, inmate of the ghetto Warsaw since 1940: The atrocities of Obersturmbannfuehrer Klaustermeyer, Brandt and Bloesche (here incorrectly indicated as "Blescher" or "Bloescher"), the shooting of Jews, the burning of their corpses, mass executions, deportations (including his father's deportation), a reprisal for the shooting of an SS-man; Gruszka's activity as a corpse carrier, his escape and participation in a partisan group; 24/03 and 10/05/1961 (pp. 66-69, 127-134) File memos regarding the coincidental meeting between Dr. Hahn and Michalsen; 30/03/1961 (pp. 70-71) Testimony of Dr. Dr. Gerhard Stabenow, witness of the deportation of relatives of the Jewish ghetto-police: The shooting of Jews by the SS-men Hantke, Hoefle and Michalsen, and the mischievous killing of Jews by Brandt and Knoll; speculations regarding the command responsibility related to the "Aktion Reinhardt", mentioning names such as Hoefle, Kaltenbrunner, Dr. Hahn, Dr. Kah and Globocnik; 04/04/1961 (pp. 73-78) Testimony of Abram Sandomir, born 1919 in Warsaw; inmate of the ghetto Warsaw since the end of 1940: Ghetto life and the harassment by SS-members; the arbitrary shooting of Jews by Germans, inter alia Klaustermeyer, Bloesche and Orlicz-Drescher; deportation to the Majdanek concentration camp in 1943; the witness identifies Klaustermeyer and Brandt on photos and distinguishes between Bloesche (called "Blescher") and Frankenstein (called "Dr. Marbuse") as two different persons; 06/04/1961 (pp. 79-83) File memo regarding the statement of Sandomir regarding Bloesche and Frankenstein, correcting his original assertion due to his uncertainty, that these two men could be the same person; 06/04/1961 (p. 84) Testimony of Susanne Bruck, née Eitner, born 1932 in Breslau (Wroclaw), whose father, Dr. Eitner, was shot in Warsaw, 1943; 04/04/1961 (pp. 86-87) Testimonies of Kurt Karl Ludwig Spalding, born 1892 in Marienwerder (West Prussia), police commander in Warsaw, 1942 - 1943, and Hans Karl Sliwka, born 1913 in Bielitz, employed at the KdS in Warsaw, 1939 - 1944; 05-06/04/1961 (pp. 89-90) Testimony of Joseph Matthias Figiel, born 1908 in Gelsenkirchen, police lieutenant in Warsaw, 1941 - 1942, mentioning the shooting of 110 Jewish hostages in Warsaw; 07/04/1961 (pp. 91-92) Testimony of Israel Spiegelstein, born 1916 in Warsaw, member of the Jewish ghetto police in 1941; witness of shootings by SS-men and Ukrainian auxiliaries, mentioning names of culprits (Hantke, Klaustermeyer, Brandt, Blescher [=Bloesche], Frankenstein, Hofmann); documentary report as an attachment to the testimony, drafted by J.Heideker, a journalist, to the information of the witness in September 1945, depicting the daily life in the Warsaw ghetto, the hunger, the dying on the streets, the abuse and killing of Jews at the checkpoint, the deportations, the uprising, its counterinsurgency and the final liquidation of the ghetto; 13/04/1961 (pp. 93-106) Testimony of Szolek Szafran, born 1930 in Warsaw, witness of deportations and the shooting of Jews, especially by Klaustermeyer, Bloesche ("Blecher") and Marlek (?); 13/04/1961 (pp. 106-109) Testimony of Josef Wiener, born 1910 in Lodz; 13/04/1961 (p. 110) Report on an official journey for the examination of witnesses, giving account on, inter alia, the interrogation of Figiel and the proceeding against him and others for the shooting of 110 hostages in Warsaw as well as the house search at Klaustermeyer's apartment; 13/04/1961 (pp. 112-113) Letters from the World Jewish Congress, New York, to the criminal department in Hamburg, Germany, regarding the naming of eyewitnesses of the liquidation of the ghetto Warsaw and the murder (especially shooting) of Jews, particularly the participation of Hantke, Hahn, Hoefle, Mende, Auerswald, Vaters, Brandt, Klaustermeyer and Michalsen; 12/04-01/05/1961 (pp. 115-119,125) Letters from the leading chief prosecutor in Hamburg, Dr. Kloeckner, regarding the obtaining of significant documents; 03/05/1961 (pp. 121-124) Testimonies of Dr. Ernst Kah, born 1899 in Baden-Baden, Germany, member of the SD since 1938, deployment in Warsaw within a task force (later KdSuSD) from autumn 1939 until December 1943, since then head of the SD in Breslau (Wroclaw) until the end of the war; 15/05 and 13/071961: - The structure and personnel of the department as well as the activity of the SD (intelligence and news service), denying any executive action; mentioning the confiscation of a Jewish fur business ("Apfelbaum"); characterization of Dr. Hahn - Arbitrary shootings of Jews in the ghetto by SS-men, mentioning names in this regard, such as Brandt, Knoll, Stabenow and Stamm (to whom the shootings were reported); disclaiming the knowledge about the shooting of Jews in the basement of the KdS; - The liquidation of the ghetto, mentioning Hoefle as the leader of the commando; the implementation of the operation by the Jewish ghetto police; the "Aktion Stroop" in April / May 1943 and the deportation of Jews; reporting on the notice of the gassing of the Jews; explaining the background of the executions of hostages; mentioning Hauptsturmfuehrer Nicolaus, who helped Jews to emigrate with the aid of false passports (pp. 137-160, 419-422) Testimony of Curt Georg Paul Roehrig, born 1883 in Woldenberg, Germany, associate of a textile factory in Warsaw; giving account of the corruption of the Toebbens company and the Jewish police; 16/05/1961 (pp.161-164) Testimony of Rudolf August Bauch, born 1888 in Muelbitz, Germany, since 1941 employee at "Toebbens" in the Warsaw ghetto: The situation in the ghetto, the fact that Jews spied for the SS, mentioning the function of Obersturmfuehrer Brandt; the liquidation of the ghetto (summer 1942), implemented by the Jewish ghetto police as well as Ukrainian and Latvian auxiliary forces; shootings during the deportations; the transfer of the factory to Poniatowa (including the Jewish workers) in the beginning of 1943 (negotiated with Globocnik); the liquidation of the camp in Poniatowa and the execution of 1400 Jewish workers, November 1943, the burning of the corpses two weeks later and the cruel murder of the Jewish executors; the killing of the Jewish ghetto police and their families; reference to further witnesses; 17/05/1961 (pp. 165-176) - Testimony of Walter Erich Wilhelm Werner, born 1911 in Retzin, at the department of the KdS in Warsaw until June 1943, member of the economic department of the SD, witness of the abuse and gathering of Jews in the Warsaw ghetto, and testimony of Dr. Stabenow regarding the shooting of the inmates of the Stawki-hospital by Brandt and Knoll, July 1942, the arbitrary shooting of Jews in the Warsaw ghetto by members of the Gestapo and the information about these occurrences passed to Dr. Kah, Dr. Hahn and Kriminalrat Stamm; 17-18/05/1961 (pp. 177-182) Testimony of Hellmuth Clemens Siegfried Husung, born 1899 in Koenigsberg, Prussia, service at the KdS in Warsaw from March until August 1941; mentioning names of KdS-members; 18/05/1961 (pp. 183-187) Minutes of the interrogations of Georg Michalsen, former SS-Hauptsturmfuehrer and SS-Sturmbannfuehrer, participant in the deportation of Jews from the ghetto Warsaw (member of the so-called "Umsiedlungsstab"), mentioning the other participants, such as SS-Sturmbannfuehrer Hermann Hoefle (leader of the operation), SS-Obersturmbannfuehrer Claasen, SS-Untersturmbannfuehrer Meyerhofer and others; further participation in the deportation of Jews from Bialystok; reporting on the organization of the Belzec, Sobibor and Treblinka camps: (Christian) Wirth as the chief of staff, immediately under SSPF Globocnik; Oberhauser as Wirth's adjutant; 07/03 - 07/05/1961 (pp. 190-196) Minutes of the interrogations of the accused Dr. Ludwig Hahn; 01/06-10/07/1961: - His different operating sites, his professional career, his activities after the war and his family situation; commander of the SiPo and SD in Warsaw from August 1941 until August 1944 - The structure of Dr. Hahn's department: Dr. Kah as Hahn's deputy, his adjutants, characterization of Dr. Stabenow, description of the "Judenreferat" (department relating to Jews), list of branch offices; prisons (especially the "Pawiak"-prison), death sentences and executions; combat against the Polish resistance movement - The ghetto Warsaw and the operation in summer 1942, led by Sammern-Frankenegg, SSPF Warsaw; the establishment of an office for valued acquisitions; the detachment of some Gestapo-men from Hahn's department for the operation, inter alia Brandt; Hahn's knowledge about the fate of the Jews (extermination), his alleged reluctant attitude towards the violent measures against the Jews and his statement that he had not been at the ghetto during the deportations; Himmler's immediate responsibility for the deportation of the Jews from Warsaw to the Treblinka extermination camp - Reprisal actions, ordered by the SSPF; victims of the execution chosen by Hahn's department; reprisal actions implemented by relation of one to ten (for one killed German ten Polish citizens were shot), but the numerical proportion was much higher - Statements of members of Hahn's department to the arbitrary shootings of Jews (Hahn claims that the shootings happened without his knowledge); the attempted liquidation of the Warsaw ghetto in January 1943; the "operation Stroop" and the involvement of Hahn's department (pp. 198-251) - Hahn's adjutants - Hahn's participation in the planning of the deportation of the Jews from Poland, the suppression of the ghetto uprising and the liquidation of Jewish undercover informants (Hahn claims not to remember) - Drumhead court martials, death sentences, the Warsaw uprising and counterinsurgency and the order from Berlin to liquidate the Polish population and to destroy Warsaw completely (pp. 384-399) Letters from Dr. Hanns v. Krannhals, Lueneburg, regarding - the Warsaw uprising (August until October 1944), Dr. Ludwig Hahn and the involvement of the SiPo in the fight against the uprising, mentioning the Polish home Army ("Armia Krajowa" = AK); including two attachments: a testimony, recorded in October 1944, and minutes of a meeting of SS-Gruppenfuehrer Heydrich, Reich minister and SS-Gruppenfuehrer Seyss-Inquart, higher SS and Police leaders, members if the SiPo and SD and others regarding the "resettlement" of Jews and Polish citizens to the Generalgouvernement, January 1940; 15/06/1961 (pp. 253-270) - the reference to Dr. Hahn and Dr. Kah in a Polish magazine in the context of the trial against Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem; 24/06/1961 (pp.271-273) - investigationwise relevant literature, especially a report written by Leon Wanat; 09/07/1961 (pp. 378-382) Testimonies of Werner Weitze, former adjutant of Dr. Hahn in Warszaw during the liquidation of the Warsaw ghetto; stating that the ghetto was under the SSPF Warsaw as well as the "resettlement actions" in 1942 and 1943; the authorities of the SSPF (SS and police leader) and the BdS (commander of the security police) as well as potential conflicts between them; witnessing Hahn's several visits at the Warsaw ghetto during the "actions" in 1942 and 1943; reporting on the Warsaw uprising in August 1944; 26/06/1961 (pp. 275-284, 286) Testimony of Erich Ernst Karl Mueller, in Warsaw during the liquidation of the Warsaw ghetto: - Dr. Hahn's visit at the Warsaw ghetto during the liquidation of the ghetto in spring 1943, accompanied by (Helmut Friedrich) Orf and (Herbert Bernhard) Hundt - The transfer of the department from Warsaw to Sochaczew - The Warsaw uprising, the murder of Poles and the destruction of Warsaw - The Warsaw ghetto and the "resettlement actions", within the competences of the SSPF, respectively the liquidation of the ghetto and the deportation of the Jews to Treblinka; the uprising and counterinsurgency; the execution of Jews; the disclosure of hidden Jews for a reward by Poles after the liquidation of the ghetto; Dr. Hahn's order to kill the remaining Jewish undercover informants; 27/06/1961 (pp. 285-299) Testimony of Stefan Dudelzak (former first name: Schulim), born 1914 in Nowe Miasto, Poland, resident of Warsaw and ghetto inmate from 1940 until 1943: The SD-department in the ghetto; mentioning Brandt, Mende and Klaustermeyer; describing the inhumane behavior of Klaustermeyer, especially daily shootings of Jews; Dudelzak's imprisonment and subsequent deportation to Vittel, France; 09/06/1961 (pp. 345-349) Testimony of Sol Liber, inmate of the Warsaw ghetto from 1940 until April 1943 and witness of the liquidation of the ghetto: Report on Blescher (=Bloesche) and Klaustermeyer's hunt for Jews, naming two Jews which were shot by Bloesche and Klaustermeyer for no reason (Moris Jammer and Monek Grynberg); 22/06/1961 (pp. 351-353) Testimony of Moshe Zylberberg, resident of Lublin during the German occupation and witness of several atrocities: Report on different actions, inter alia the deportation of about ten thousands of Jews, mentioning the shooting of Zylberberg's friend (Szapiro) by SS-Oberscharfuehrer Hantke; Zylberberg's escape from Lublin to the Warsaw ghetto in spring 1942; the recognition of Hantke; the shootings of Jews by Hantke and Klaustermeyer; Zylberberg's deportation to the Budzyn concentration camp; the atrocities by the camp commander, the SS-officer Feix; 27/06/1961 (pp. 354-358) Testimony of Franz Schattmann, born 1913 in Znojmo, Czechoslovakia, former SS-member, sent to Warsaw in January 1943, regarding his experiences in Poland (no context to the proceeding); 14/06/1961 (pp. 361-368) Testimony of Dr. Edward Reicher, born 1900 in Lodz, Poland, during the German occupation in Lodz, Warsaw and surroundings, regarding his experiences in the Warsaw ghetto and his knowledge about Sturmbannfuehrer Hoefle: The deportation staff, the department responsible for the implementation of the deportations, and its leader, Sturmbannfuehrer Hoefle; Hoefle's brutal methods and his character; 10/09/1948 (pp. 373-376); including an accompanying letter from the prosecutor of Salzburg; June 1961 (pp. 370 - 371) Minutes of the interrogations of the accused Heinrich Klaustermeyer, in Warsaw from summer 1941 until 1944 as a member of the KdS; 12-14/07/1961: - His professional career, his activity at the KdS, his activities after the war and his family situation - His activity at the "Judenreferat", further members of the "Judenreferat ", his means of transportation in the ghetto (information about the rickshaws) - The deportations at the Warsaw ghetto in 1942 from Klaustermeyer's perspective - The ghetto uprising and the liquidation of the ghetto; Klaustermeyer's denial of his knowledge about these incidents - The detection of hidden Jews after the liquidation of the ghetto - The Warsaw uprising, the execution of Poles - Klaustermeyer's unproven assertion to have been sentenced to three months in prison due to his alleged loyal attitude towards Poles in 1944 - Confrontation with testimonies incriminating Klaustermeyer; Klaustermeyer denies the verisimilitude of these evidences and claims that he never shot any human being (pp. 400-418) Correspondence and notes, inter alia regarding the request of the leading prosecutor for suspension of arrest on conditions for Ludwig Hahn and Walter Stamm and; 14-18/07/1961 (pp. 424-430)