Documents from the process in the Regional Courts (Landesgericht) in Klagenfurt, Salzburg and Vienna against members of the HSSPF Lublin: Documentation of the trial, volume 14; Testimonies by Austrian and German perpetrators and Jewish survivors, 1961

Documents from the process in the Regional Courts (Landesgericht) in Klagenfurt, Salzburg and Vienna against members of the HSSPF Lublin: Documentation of the trial, volume 14; Testimonies by Austrian and German perpetrators and Jewish survivors, 1961 Letters (1961), one translated into French, from the investigating judge at the Landesgericht Salzburg (regional court) to various magistrate courts in Germany (and to a court in Paris) requesting legal assistance in the criminal proceedings against Hermann Hoefle and others; the letters contain an account of the suspicion, its factual foundation, and Hoefle's vindication, as well as requests for hearings of the witnesses Karl Orf, Georg Wippern, Dr. F. Gombinski, Hugo Hampel, Gustav Muenzberger, Franz Suchomel, Josef Wlodawski, Konrad Rheindorf, Walter Hess, Ottmar Strobel, Hans Dietrich Gruenwald, Walter Bellwidt, Mordecha Markusfeld, Aron Flint, Artur Ernst Hubert Potratz, Johann Daniel Menssen, Eugen Schweizer and Dr. Konrad Gallen; Forms and formal accompanying letters of various German magistrate courts which examined the witnesses and sent their testimonies to the Landesgericht Salzburg (regional court); Testimony (03/11/1961) of Sam Henry Hoffenberg (pp.4-75; compare his testimony in Document 7188907, pp.254-261 in French and pp.271-283 translated into German): - Hoffenberg, born 1912; from March to April 1940 work for the Judenrat (Jewish Council), in spring 1941 for a Jewish relief agency (leader: Lindner), later for the firm of Toebbens in Warsaw and Poniatowa, situated opposite the firm of Schulz; his first wife, Rosa Cemach lived in Warsaw until 03/1943, could escape to Vittel in France (pp.4-7) - Wave of arrests in 1939; arbitrary arrests and shootings in 10/1940 (incl. Hoffenberg’s mother and uncle), motivated by a secret transmitter belonging to a Jew named Kot who shot a member of the Gestapo (secret state police) when caught and fled; by order of Czerniakow, Rosenblatt conducted all negotiations with the Gestapo; details about the German attitudes toward and Jewish life in the ghetto; about “actions” by Brandt and his men from April 1942 until the deportations, when Jews were shot at night, among them Lindner from the Jewish relief agency, the bakers Blajman and Rotszyld; about the Jewish police led by Ganzweich, Kohn and Heller, the latter were shot before or during the deportations; about shootings by the German police, e.g. by Frankenstein [probably Bloesche] (pp.8-16); - Information on the office in Zelaznastreet, the basis of Brandt, Klostermeier [Klaustermeyer] who shot a woman in the works of Toebbens, Blescher [Bloesche], Mende, Nimitz, Orf, Eynert and SS-Oberscharfuehrer Hantke who led all actions at the Umschlagplatz (meeting-point); information on the location of the meeting-point: near the works of Toebbens and near the Jewish job center, where Aronson gave out the job cards (pp.17-22); - Hoffenberg did not know Hoefle, heard from Mr Toebbens that he was deputy of Globocnik; is sure that Hoefle knew about killings and maltreatment of Jews; even civilians, e.g. Jahn and Bauch in the works of Toebbens, hit people; is sure that Hoefle knew about Treblinka and the destruction of Jews (pp.23-24); - Details about the "Mila pocket", the selection ending the deportations, when all Jews incl. the employees of Toebbens and Schulz had to gather; ca 900 Jews returned to Toebbens; Hoffenberg did not see Michalsen or Hantke during the selections; details about a room filled with hundreds of corpses every day during the “action”and about the deportation of a hospital (pp.25-30); - Report on Bauch, an employee of Toebbens, who shot a worker of Toebbens, used to hit, was responsible for the deportation of 120 children, tried to catch Elperin and others, who escaped when the camp of Poniatowa was liquidated; collected photos of the camp (Toebbens made a film about Poniatowa); intervention of Bauch and Toebbens when Jews, needed in the factory, were caught; report on Ernst Jahn, another employee of Toebbens who was a brutal Volksdeutscher (ethnic German) speaking Polish and Yiddish (pp.30-34); - Report on preparations for the destruction of Poniatowa, on terrorist shootings e.g. of the cook Gruenewald by [Heinrich] Gley or Hantke; mentioning members of the camp staff: Schubert, Backhaus, Schneider, Wallerang, Bartetschko and SS-Oberscharfuehrer (technical sergeant) Schmidt; report on von Schulten alias Birmes, the man of Globocniks confidence, who arbitrarily shot Jews in the Ghetto; he came in March 1943, when Toebbens transferred the Jewish armament works from Warsaw to Lublin; thanks to Globocnik and von Schulten, Toebbens' works were safe from deportation; first forced transfer of Jews to Poniatowa on 10/03/1943, on request of Toebbens and Birmes supported by the German Army; second transfer on 06/04/1943; Birmes tried to deliver Hoffenberg to the Gestapo, but he could flee; mentioning of Koenigl, a Jewish informer of the Gestapo from Lemberg (pp.34-38); - Report on selections in the Pawiak Prison and the Mila Pocket, on shootings in the factories e.g. by Mohrmann, one of the directors; on the selection in the Mila Pocket, the last big "action"; Gestapo men, e.g. Klaustermeyer, were always in the Ghetto shooting and terrorizing people; information on the structure of the Ghetto, the location of the command post (residence of Brandt and the Gestapo); Toebbens and Bauch often went to the command post from 15/09/1942 to 04/1943; help of Stehmann, a partner of Toebbens, to save Hoffenberg's relatives (pp.39-47); - Blecher [Bloesche], Orff and Einert came together with Klaustermeyer into the Ghetto; on 18/01/1943, during the selections of the Jews of the factory, Klaustermeyer shot an old woman; Radunski and Kirschenbaum, leaders of the Zionist movement, asked to be taken out of a closed area of resistance of mid-January; Unterfeldwebel (sub-sergeant) Meyer, one of the ordinary German soldiers who often helped Jews, got them and some others out (pp.48-52); - Report on Poniatowa, the site of "murderer Hantke"; on Toebbens' role regarding the deportations to Poniatowa; on the transfer of Jews, 06/04/1943; on Bartetschko who was not in the Ghetto then; on the confusion in the Ghetto, the hiding of many Jews, the suicide of the Jewish engineer Einhorn; on the transport, the fate of Jews from Opole in the camp, the various groups of Jews, the living conditions in the camp, the Jews' reasons for staying instead of fleeing; on Hantke, the leader of the camp, and on the staff of SS men Schubert, Backhaus and perhaps Wallerang (pp.53-59); - Hoffenberg returned to the Ghetto; report on the beginning of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, the clearing and burning of houses; on Michalsen who fetched the Jews and led them to the meeting point; on the treatment of Jews still in Warsaw, their beating by police officer Steinhager, shootings by Klaustermeyer; on the herding together of Jews at the meeting point and their abuse; on shootings by Ukrainians, another selection by SS-Untersturmfuehrer (second lieutenant) Konrad before the last transport to Poniatowa (pp.60-66); - Reconstruction of the number of Jews in Poniatowa; report on the bad living conditions in the camp, the ill-treatment and killing of Jews, e.g. by Alexander, an employee of Toebbens, by Hering, Hantke and Gley; on the construction of big trenches near the railway entrance; on changes in Toebbens' work; mentioning of Ms Sandzer, a survivor, now living in France; on the liquidation of the camp on 3 or 4/11/1943; Birmes presented Hoffenberg to the Gestapo on 04/11/1943 (pp.67-70); - Discussion of SS men on whom Hoffenberg had reported earlier: Wippern, Hoefle, Hering, Schwarzenbacher who represented Hering in Poniatowa or led the Ukrainians, Brandt, Wallerang, Mende, Gley, Hantke, Schunbert, Schmidt, Schneider, Backhaus, Orff, Gross; mentioning the construction of a room for gassing, of Gley's torturing a Jew, of the incineration of deceased persons outside the camp of Poniatowa (pp.71-74); Testimony (21/12/1961) of Karl Orf, 49 years old, member of the Waffen SS, division Wicking; no service in Lublin (pp.77f); Testimony (14/12/1961) of Wilhelm Hirt, 52 years old, no member of the SS but, as criminal assistent, ranking as SS-Unterscharfuehrer (sergeant); employed in the anteroom of the adjutancy of Johannes Mueller, the commander of the security police; not involved in deportations, service only in Warsaw (pp.89-91); Testimony (20/12/1961) of Hugo Hampel, 49 years old; in the SD (security service) in Warsaw from 01/01/1943 until 1945; leader of the Referat fuer Volkstumsfragen (department for ethnic policy); not involved in the clearing of the Ghetto or the deportations (pp.112-114); Testimony (13/12/1961) of Konrad Rheindorf, leader of the police regiment no.25, in the area of Lublin, 02/1943 - 07/1944; representative of Globocnik regarding his tasks as Ordnungspolizei and Hermann Hoefle (pp.162-163); Testimony (14/12/1961) of Walter Hess, 53 years old, Kriminalkommissar (detective superintendent) and leader of the department of spying defense of the Kommandeur der Sicherheitspolizei und des Sicherheitsdienstes (commander of the security police and the security services) for the district of Lublin 04/1940 - 07/1944; in Cholm/ district of Lublin, 01/10/1943 - 20/07/1944 (pp.173-175); Testimony (20/12/1961) of Ottmar Strobel, 52 years old; called up he joined the police in 1939; stationed in Garwolin near Warsaw from 09/1942 - 07/1943 (pp.185f); Testimony (22/12/1961) of Hans Dietrich Gruenwald, 63 years old, commander of the Ordnungspolizei with office in Krakau, 08/1943 - 03/1944; meeting of Sporrenberg and Globocnik but cursorily (pp.195-197); Testimony (5/12/1961) of Hans Dietrich Bellwidt, 61 years old, professional soldier and Obersturmbannfuehrer (lieutenant colonel) of the Waffen-SS, in Lublin, 01/1941 - 06/1941, then in Warsaw; order by von Sammern-Frankenegg to provide his men for the "evacuating" of the ghetto in 05/1943 due to resistance there; General Stroop declared to assume control over the whole action; Bellwidt's men, but not he himself, were involved in it (pp.207-211 and 220-223); Testimony (14/12/1961) of Kurt Franz, 47 years old, in pre-trial detention, in Belzec as Scharfuehrer (staff sergeant) of the Waffen-SS, 02-10/1942; in Treblinka as SS-Oberscharfuehrer (technical sergeant) and SS-Untersturmfuehrer (second lieutenant), 11/1942 - 08/1943; leader of a Ukrainian unit of 80 guards; access to the camp with the signature of Globocnik and accompanied by Christian Wirth, the inspector of the Sonderkommando (special command) (pp.252f); Testimony (14/12/1961) of August Niete, 53 years old, in pre-trial detention; in Treblinka as SS-Unterscharfuehrer (sergeant) from summer 1942 to fall 1943 (pp.254f); Letter (19/12/1961) of a lawyer from Hamburg to the German Consulate in New York with critical comments on the following affidavit of witness Aron Kaufman (pp.257-262; compare Document 7060837 pp.133-141): - Copy of an affidavit of witness Aron Kaufmann from 28/11/1961 in New York containing a report on his capture and transfer to the "Dulag", i.e. Durchgangslager (transit camp), in the "Aryan" part of Warsaw; leader was Sachsenhausen, a Gestapo agent; report on Hoeffele [Hoefle], the leader of the deportations, who often came together with Klaustermeyer, Brandt, Bloesche and Krauser, who selected women and was seen in the camp together with Eichmann; report on a camp Rembertow (pp.263-265); Testimony (21/12/1961) of Artur Ernst Hubert Potratz, 55 years old, in Warsaw as staff manager of the Kommandeur der Sicherheitspolizei und des Sicherheitsdienstes (commander of the security police and the security services), 01/1941 - 01/1944 (p.267f); Testimony (21/12/1961) of Johann Daniel Menssen, born 1903; report on his career as criminal clerk in Krakow and Warsaw in the office of Pruszkow, led by Bienert and later by himself; SS-Sturmscharfuehrer (sergeant major), but no member of the SS; leader of the office in Minsk-Mazowiewski; administrator of the criminal police in Warsaw until the Warsaw Polish Uprising in 1944; leader of an office in Posen and later in Berlin, entrusted with the care for Polish criminal clerks; in 02/1945 transfer to Duisburg; report on the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1942 (according to witnesses) and on department 4 of the security police (pp.284-288); Testimony (20/12/1961) of Eugen Schweizer, 53 years old, in Warsaw as Polizeioberinspektor (chief inspector of the police) and SS-Hauptsturmfuehrer (captain), 05/01/1940 - 08/1944; report on his knowledge of the clearing of the Ghetto and of Treblinka; mentioning that Dr.Hahn delegated an SS-Untersturmfuehrer (second lieutenant) and six men, commanded by SS-Untersturmfuehrer Brandt, the Judenreferent (expert for Jewish questions) (pp.301-303); Letter (19/12/1961) of Simon Wiesenthal from the Juedisches Dokumentationszentrum (Jewish documentation center) in Vienna to the Landesgericht (regional court) in Salzburg with information on Franz Stangl, born 1908, who participated in Aktion Reinhard, was arrested in 1947, fled, and is now living in Damascus (p.314); Testimony (27/12/1961) of Konrad Gallen, 61 years old, Hauptmann (captain) at the OKW-Verbindungsstelle (liaison office of the Armed Forces High Command) in Lublin and Warsaw, 1942 - 1943; no involvement of his office in the clearing of the Ghetto; knowing of SS-Obersturmbannfuehrer (lieutenant colonel) Dr. Hahn, leader of the security police in Warsaw, but nothing of his actions (pp.315f).