Documentation from the trial of Ludwig Hahn, Kommandeure der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD (Kds-SIPO and SD Headquarters) in Warsaw, 1944, on the charge of murder of Jews, held in the Hamburg Regional Court, November 1961-June 1962

Documentation from the trial of Ludwig Hahn, Kommandeure der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD (Kds-SIPO and SD Headquarters) in Warsaw, 1944, on the charge of murder of Jews, held in the Hamburg Regional Court, November 1961-June 1962 Two documents (sent from Poland) from the office of "E.K.-Sicherheitspolizei, Kampfgruppe Reinefarth" [E.K.= Einsatzkommando], written in Warsaw on 21 and 22/08/1944, signed by Timm [SS-Hauptsturmfuehrer (captain)] containing reports on the suppression of the Warsaw Uprising; authenticity of the documents confirmed; Accompanying commentaries from 1961 containing a list of names (not defined by author or date) of 17 members of the "Sonderkommando IV E des RSHA beim KdS und SD-Warschau" (special command of the Reich Security Head Office at the commander of the security police and the security services); Instructive letter from Dr. Hanns von Krannholz, a historian who researched the Warsaw Uprising, on the actions of the EK, mentioning of Nikolaus and Spilker or Spielker (pp.2-20); Testimony (04/12/1961) of Felix Eisenstadt, born 1912; in the Polish Army since 08/1939; in the Warsaw Ghetto from 02/1940 until 06/1943; detention in the Pawiak prison from 02/1943 until his transfer to an internment camp in Vittel/ France in 07/1943; deportation to Auschwitz and escape to Switzerland in April/ May 1944; in July 1944 transcript of his book "Die Judenausrottung in Polen - Augenzeugenberichte" Geneve 1945; witness of shootings in the ghetto by Klaustermeyer, Becker and Orf, and of executions in the prison by SS man Burkel [or Birkel] (pp.21-23); List of 24 SS men who "worked" in the Warsaw Ghetto and in the camp of Poniatowa: names and commentaries by a Jewish survivor (pp.25-28); Testimony (17/10/1961) of Paul Schwarzwald, born 1914, criminal assistant in the office of the KdS Warsaw from 11/1939 till 11/1942; detailed to a partisan operation in Baranowicze/ Belarus in 02/1943 (pp. 30-33); statement that he was used as a guard in an action in the ghetto of Slutsk/ Belarus (pp.29-32); Testimony (04/01/1962) of Josef Conzen, born 1911, businessman in Warsaw from 03/1943 till 07/1944, characterization of Klaustermeyer (pp.33-35); Testimony (18/12/1961) of Moses Muschel, born 1919; never in Warsaw (p. 36); Testimony (09/01/1962) of Heinrich Komitau, born 1902, in the Warsaw Ghetto 1940-1943; escape from the Ghetto with the aid of his Aryan brother-in-law Piotr Gruschewski, hidden in Polaniez/ Poland (pp.37f); Testimony (12/01/1962) of Friedrich Kofler, born 1907; never in Warsaw, but acquainted with Heimbaecher, a member of the Waffen-SS, who acted for the Gestapo as informer about the Polish resistance (pp.39-40); Affidavit of Beniek (Benjamin) Eichner, born 1925; in the Warsaw Ghetto since 1940; selected for work in the Raumkommando in 07/1942, witness of shootings by SS-Rottenfuehrer (corporal) Dirks, Blecher [Bloesche], Klastermeier [Klaustermeyer] and Brandt; detailed report on sadistic killings by Hermann Hoefle; escape from the train to Treblinka (pp.43-45); Testimony (19/01/1962) of Robert Isaak Schmusch, born 1917; car mechanic for the Gestapo in the Warsaw Ghetto 1940-1943; witness of the shooting of Winograd through Scharfuehrer (staff sergeant) Bindenaki, the shooting of Kramer and Eliasch through Scharfuehrer Wilk ordered by Scharfuehrer Schilling; further witnesses of these events: Fraenkel, Saul and Jokel Celnik; witness of the cruelties of the dog handlers Horf and Hund; warned by Scharfuehrer Kraemer, the Celniks, Marek, Schaje, David Edelstein, his wife and Schmusch evaded the liquidation of the work unit and escaped from he Ghetto; Marek and Edelstein were killed during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, Edelstein's wife was shot in the Pawiak prison; further members of the work unit: Moses Mysliborski, Vogel, Mowschowic, Leschinski, Nudelmann (father and son), Adam, Tito (father and son), Zahn, Weinstein (pp.50-61); Testimony (23/10/1961) of Chaim Fuksman, born 1906, in the Warsaw Ghetto 1940 - 05/1943; deported to Majdanek, Auschwitz; Gross-Rosen, Buchenwald, Oranienburg; liberated by the British Army 09/05/1945; detailed report on shootings by Brandt, Hahn, Koerber and Klaustermeyer (pp.63-68); Testimony (02/11/1961) of Lewi Zlocisty, born 1918, in Warsaw and the Ghetto 1939 - 1943; Jewish policeman from 1941 until 08/1942, then hidden in the Ghetto; deported to Bergen-Belsen 07/1943; transferred to Magdeburg 04/1945; liberated by the US Army (pp. 69-71); Testimony (02/11/1961) of Miriam Mendrzycki, nee Szer, born 1917; in Warsaw since 1939, in the Ghetto until its liquidation, then hidden by Czaplinski, a Polish family in Pruszkow near Warsaw; set free by the Russians in 1945; witness of the shooting of the families Lindenfeld and Rudnianski through SS man Gaipel [Geibel], the selection and liquidation of Jews by SS man Scholz; heard of the raping and shooting of young women through SS man Dyrks (pp.72-75); Testimony (03/12/1961) of Dawid Ackermann, born 1891; in the Warsaw Ghetto until the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising; he fled, was caught and detained in Pawiak prison until the Warsaw Polish Uprising; liberated by Poles, hidden in Bowinow forest until lset free by the Red Army; heard of the death of his wife from the Jewish prisoner Fronenberg, a plumber; while in prison witness of selections, shootings of Jews betrayed by the Gestapo's Jewish persons of trust (pp.76-79); Table (29/05/1948) set up by Josef Skorzynski, a member of the Main Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Poland, containing the number of death sentences (and pardons) on Poles from 04/03/1944 till 22/05/1944; information based on public announcements signed by Geibel, the SS- and police leader of Warsaw (p.80); Table (25/01/1962) from: Biuletyn glownej komisji badania zbrodni hitlerowskich w Polsce, Band VI, Warschau 1951, pp.83-97; the table provides data on sites and dates of mass executions in Warsaw from 1939 -1944 incl. the number of bodies or the weight of disinterred ashes (pp.61-87); Three reports from Paul Otto Geibel, born 1898, SS- and police leader in the district of Warsaw at the time of the Warsaw Polish Uprising; then, after the destruction of Warsaw, SS-Brigadefuehrer und Generalmajor der Polizei (brigadier general): 1) Written report (Warsaw 31/01/1948) concerning the Warsaw Polish Uprising; structured but probably incomplete; at first not clear whether Geibel is subject or object of the statements; containing explanations of responsibilities of various leaders (SS, order police, security police), the number of men in various units and their armament; detailed report on the beginning of the Uprising (01/08/1944), on the fights 02/08/ - 17/08/1944, on the involvement of Dr. [Ludwig] Hahn (commander of the security police), General [Rainer] Stahel, Dr. [Ludwig] Fischer (governor of Warsaw), SS-Obergruppenfuehrer (lieutenant general) Bach [Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski], Hoeherer SS- und Polizeifuehrer [Heinz] Reinefarth, Himmler (pp.88-101); 2) German translation of a Polish protocol of the hearings of Geibel in Oct./ Nov. 1948 in Warsaw: Geibel was member of the NSDAP since 1931, of the SS since 1938; SS- and police leader in Warsaw from 03/1944 [until 01/02/1945]; report on rumors of and preparations for a Polish uprising, its beginning, the number of persons fighting against the Poles, orders by Himmler, various events witnessed by Waclaw Przybysz, Zuzanna Misiurska, Marian Jackowski, Bronislaw Polak; mentioning of the Brigade Kaminski, the Kampfgruppe Rohr; report on a discussion with Himmler, Generalmajor (major general) of the Waffen-SS Rode, Generalleutnant (lieutenant general) of the police Schmelcher and Geibel concerning Hitler's wish to completely wipe out Warsaw; on Geibel's award after the destruction of Warsaw (pp.110-132); 3) Handwritten report from 05/12/1948 on the destruction of the city of Warsaw (pp.102-109); Three documents concerning witness Aron Kaufman [compare Document 7187941 pp.263-265] 1) Letter (16/01/1962) of the consul general of the Federal Republic of Germany in New York to the Landgericht (regional court) in Hamburg doubting the credibility of witness Aron Kaufman (pp.133f); 2) Testimony (15/01/1962) of Aron Kaufmann, born 1901; in the Warsaw Ghetto in 1942, then allegedly in a Dulag (transit camp) outside the Ghetto; report on alleged cruelties of various SS men, e.g. Klaustermeyer (pp. 135-138); 3) Copy of his affidavit from 18/01/1962 in New York, containing a report on his alleged experiences in the Warsaw Ghetto (pp.139-141); Testimony (12/01/1962) of Herman Artman, born 1915; in Krasnik/ Lublin 1939-1942, in the Warsaw Ghetto until the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising; report on cruelties in the Ghetto; mentioning of Konrad from the value registration, of Rachel Hochrad and her siblings whom he helped; detailed report on the beginning of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, his participation as paramedic; on the Jews' hiding in bunkers, their being wounded, killed or deported; lively report on the transportation to Treblinka, the selection and transfer of the employable Jews to Majdanek, their degradation and humiliation, executions by hanging at the gallows; transfer of Artman to Auschwitz-Birkenau, then to Mauthausen, Ebensee, Gussen I near Linz; finally liberated by the US in May 1945 (pp.142-154); Testimony (07/12/1961) of José Tabaschnik, 52 years old; in the Warsaw Ghetto until the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising; detention in Pawiak prison in May 1943 (pp.155f); Testimony (02/01/1962) of Michael Janczak; drafted into the Reservepolizeibataillon 61, in Posen 1939-1942, in the office of the SS and police leader of Lublin 1942-1944, employed as instructor of foreign volunteers in Trawniki (led by Streibel) and Lublin; as guard commander in the work camp of Poniatowa (led by Hering), as protector of objects in Radom; from January 1945 withdrawal to West Germany; mentioning deserters from the German Army who tried to hide in the Ghetto; in response to allegations, statement that he was not used for executions but had to guard the Ghetto; denial that he was awarded in Nov 1944 (pp. 158-166); Testimony (04/01/1962) of Friedrich Fietz, born 1914; member of the security police, 1939 drafted into the Reservepolizeibataillon 61, transferred to Warsaw in 01/1942, used as instructor and protector of objects; went to the Polizeibataillon 25, trained Russian prisoners of war for the SS in Trawniki and Lublin until the end of 1943; guard of the empty ghetto in Warsaw and several empty camps until the Russians' approach; in response to allegations, statement that he heard of shootings in Trawniki and Poniatowa, no remembrance of persons or names (pp.167-173); Testimony of Zygmunt Warman, 42 years old; part of a protocol of the main hearing of Ludwig Fischer and others in Warsaw on 24/01/1947; (compare Document 7060808, pp.120f); - Information on anti-Jewish acts, e.g. house searches, forced labor, establishment of a Judenrat (Jewish council) and a ghetto; marking of Jews, their shops etc with the star of David, mentioning of lawyer Berenson, dismissal of Jewish civil servants, prohibition of general schools; informal and official confiscation of property; details on the gradual setup of the ghetto (pp.174-184); - At request of Rosenblat, member of the Jewish council since 02/1940, employed as solicitor; details on the organization of the Ghetto ordered by Generalgouverneur Frank respectively Gouverneur [Dr. Ludwig] Fischer; administration of the Ghetto by [Heinz] Auerswald; poor living conditions, no job opportunities, lack of hygiene, high mortality rate in the Ghetto; outbreak of typhoid fever, burial in mass graves, bodies in the streets; obligation of the Jewish community to bury the dead; informal and official forced labor; insufficient nutrition, sadistic reactions of Germans to hungry people; growing requirement for workers, exploiting, weakening and shooting them; arbitrary killing of Ghetto inmates as a sport; official and private work orders addressed to the Judenrat (pp.184-191); - Report on acts of terrorism: shooting of 53 hostages, because a criminal had wounded a policeman, arresting of 200 hostages, because a member of the resistance was caught having a radio; death penalty for leaving the Ghetto, shooting of people in the street on 17 or 18/04/1941; filming of staged scenes in the Ghetto (pp.191-193); - Report on arrests of members of the Judenrat, the Jewish community and others on 21/07/1942, on the announcement of the deportations at a meeting of the Judenrat on 22/07/1942, including Lejkin (leader of the Jewish police), Brandt (leader of the Judenreferat (Jewish department)) and SS-Sturmbannfuehrer (major) Hoefle (leader of a group of SS officers unknown in the Ghetto); details of the meeting, the directives, the comments and decisions of the Judenrat; Czerniakow"s suicide; arrival of Borthoff with SS men demanding 12000 Jews for deportation on the following day; election of Marek Lichtenbaum as leader of the Judenrat, of Bolzman and attorney Pienskowski as his representatives; comments on the SS staff from Lublin leading the deportations; witness of killings and devastation of homes; ending of the deportations on 08/08/1942: about 300.000 deported, about 30.000 left in the Ghetto; another selection on 17/01/1943; leaving of the Ghetto with the aid of friends in February 1943 (pp.194-201); Testimony (19/01/1962) of David Landau, born 1919; detailed report on shootings by Klaustermeyer and Flescher [Bloesche] who caught inmates with money or flour (pp.204-209); Testimony (24/01/1962) of Gerhard Haehnel, born 1909, policeman, with his company (led by captain Nehlich) in Warsaw since 22/07/1944; detailed report on the beginning of the Warsaw Polish Uprising on 01/08/1944, on shootings of insurgents prompted by a German lieutenant, on the poor discipline, drinking and rapes of the Kaminski people [SS Sturmbrigade led by Bronislav Kaminski]; shootings of civilians in the course of the Uprising; mentioning of Kampfgruppe Reinefahrt, Angriffsgruppe Nord, Korpsgruppe von dem Bach, Kampfgruppe Rohr and Kampfgruppe Reck; statement that his police company was not involved in the fighting, was not ordered to kill the populatiion or to destroy Warsaw; command to his company to prevent people being led to the railway station to escape and join the insurgents (pp.210-218); Statement (04/07/1957) of Marian Krynski, born 1913, concerning Halina Bormann: Halina Bormann, nee Mandelbaum, born 1913, wife of Henryk Bormann, in the Warsaw Ghetto since May 1940, working in the arms factory of Toebbens; hidden outside the Ghetto until the Warsaw Uprising, transfer to the camp Pruszkow near Warsaw, after her release hidden in Wola until January 1945 (pp.219f); Statement (10/07/1957) of Bogdan Serkowski, born 1901, concerning Henryk Bormann: Henryk Bormann, born 1911, in the Warsaw Ghetto since May 1940, working in the Jan Serkowski AG, a factory for metallic products, until the liquidation of the Ghetto, hidden outside the Ghetto until the Warsaw Uprising, brought to the camp Pruszkow near Warsaw; after his escape hidden in Wola until January 1945 (p.221f); Testimony (08/02/1962) of Jacob German, born 1926, in Warsaw until 1943, deported to Maidanek in April 1943, transferred to Skarzysk, set free in Schwerin 02/05/1945; witnessed the killing of his sisters, the deportation of his mother, the shooting of Jews by SS men just for their fun (pp.223-225); Testimony (02/02/1962) of Moshe Zylberberg, 43 years old, group leader at the Judenrat in Lublin; - witness of the shooting of about 80 patients and three nurses in the Jewish hospital in Lublin by the SS men Sturm, Kalich, Marwinkel, Klein and Hoefle ordered by Globocnik; - acquainted with the killing of about 40 children and their nurses in an orphanage of Lublin by the same SS men; - acquainted with the gathering of about 500 Jewish and Polish prisoners of war and the shooting of 300 of them by the SS men Marwinkel, Klein, Sturm and Dolp; - witness of shooting old or weak people and children by the SS men Sturm, Kalich, Hantke, Marwinkel, Klein, Hoefle and Barteschko while herding Jews towards the meeting point; rescue of Zylberberg from deportation by a German railroad official (pp.226-229); Note (09/03/1962) of the leading prosecutor of the Landgericht (regional court) in Hamburg concerning Kurt Engels: Kurt Engels, born 1915, employed in the office of the KdS Warsaw; according to his statement, working in the department of fighting against foreign military intelligence services; wounded in the Warsaw Polish Uprising; suicide in a prison in Hamburg awaiting his trial (p.230); Letter (25/02/1962) from Hermann Adler to the leading prosecutor of the Landgericht (regional court) in Hamburg report on his tasks as member of a Jewish resistance group in Warsaw from 02/1942 until 10/1943; on their support from Germans (e.g. police inspector Kersten) for the procurement of secure jobs, forged documents and weapons, their transportation and distribution; on his awareness of everything that concerned the Ghetto as confirmed by Joel Brand in the trial of Eichmann (pp.231f); Type-written excerpt from the Verordnungsblatt fuer das Generalgouvernement, Krakow 01/11/1942 (ordinance gazette for the General Government) containing the Polizeiverordnung ueber die Bildung von Judenwohnbezirken in Warschau und Krakau (police ordinance for the establishment of residential areas for Jews in the districts of Warsaw and Krakow) (pp.233-235); Type-written excerpt from the Krakauer Zeitung, Reichsausgabe, 21/01/1941, containing a report from Warsaw on the inauguration of Auerswald, as commissioner of the Ghetto, and [Max] Bischoff, as leader of the Transferstelle (German control station for economic transfers between the Ghetto and the outside world), through Dr. Hummel on behalf of the Gouverneur; thanks to SS-Standartenfuehrer (colonel) Schoen for establishing the Ghetto; characterization of the tasks of the Transferstelle (pp.236f); Type-written excerpt from the Deutsche Zeitung im Ostland, Riga 18/08/1941, with the announcement of labor conscription and various prohibitions for Jews in Riga (pp.237f); Type-written excerpt from the Krakauer Zeitung, Reichsausgabe, Warsaw 14/05/1941, with the administrative instruction from Dr. Fischer (leader of the dirstrict of Warsaw) concerning the inauguration of lawyer Auerswald as commissioner of the Warsaw Ghetto (pp.238f); "The Warsaw Ghetto": type-written excerpt from the Neue Zuercher Zeitung based on a message of United Press Stockholm from 28/12/1942; reference to a report in the Swedish newspaper "Dagens Nyheter" based on Jewish and Polish sources: Report on the establishment and closure of the Ghetto, its poor provision of food forcing the inmates to smuggling, the rising mortality of the inmates, and the deportations; mentioning that the deportations and the fate of the deported Jews were kept secret by the Germans (pp.240f); "The Fate of the Jews in Poland": type-written excerpt from the Neue Zuercher Zeitung without information on sources (mentioning of the Polish news agency "pat" in London in the text) and without date (according to the text, after the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising): General remarks on Hitler's intention to extinct the Jews and on Goebbels' confirmation of the realization of Hitler's plans, on the difficulties of getting reliable information especially on numbers of Jews in the Ghetto or passing through it, on the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, on the liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto and all the small ghettos of Krasnik, Zaklikow, Lublin, Zavichost, Biala Podlaska, Jedrezejow, Lukow, Sokolow and Rawa Ruska; mentioning of a rumor that Jews were suffocated in special rooms in the camp of Treblinka (pp.242-244); Letter by Wanda Drewnowska to the leading prosecutor at the Landgericht (regional court) Hamburg (15/11/1961) referring to the confiscation of her house [in Warsaw] (p.245; compare Document 7060808, p.280).