Documents from the trial conducted in Landesgericht (regional court) in Klagenfurt, Salzburg and Vienna against members of the HSSPF Lublin: Documentation of the trial, volume 15; Testimonies by Austrian and German perpetrators and Jewish survivors, 1961

Documents from the trial conducted in Landesgericht (regional court) in Klagenfurt, Salzburg and Vienna against members of the HSSPF Lublin: Documentation of the trial, volume 15; Testimonies by Austrian and German perpetrators and Jewish survivors, 1961 Letters (1961) of the investigating judge from the Landesgericht Salzburg (regional court) to various magistrate courts in Germany requesting legal assistance in the criminal proceedings against Hermann Hoefle; the letters contain an account of the suspicion, its factual foundation, and Hoefle's vindication, as well as requests for hearings of the witnesses Wladek Frajman, Gertrud Weitze, Dr.Friedrich Hassler, Heinz Auerswald, Georg Werk, Hubert Paul Becker, Hans Antze, Hans-Heinz Otto Paul Queitsch, Kalman Jankowsky, Walter Otto Willi Stamm, and Hermann Warmbier; Formal accompanying letters of various German magistrate courts who examined the witnesses and sent their testimonies to the Landesgericht Salzburg (regional court); Testimony (27/10/1961) of Rabbi David Spiro (pp.3-17) David Spiro, born 1901, rabbi in Warsaw since 1936; at urgent request of Czerniakow member of the Judenrat (Jewish council); contacts with liaison officers of the Gestapo: - Mende, no homicides as far as Spiro knows (p.4); - Brandt, supervisor of the Judenrat (p.4), decisively involved in the assemblage and deportation of 75 000 Jews during "Aktion Reinhard"; report on his cruelties, on his killing three members of the Judenrat (Lichtenbaum, Stolzmann, Wielikowski) during the destruction of the Ghetto ("Stroop-Aktion", p.13); - Auerswald, commissioner of the Ghetto; Jews, having left the Ghetto for food, were imprisoned and sentenced to death; setting an example Auerswald ordered the execution of 15 convicts, aged 14-17, and made it public (pp.4-7); - Klostermeyer [Klaustermeyer], SS man, shot Jews arbitrarily or to fill a certain number (p.12); Report on arbitrary acts of violence by Germans not known by name (pp.7f, 13); mentioning Schymon Bebe who died of injuries so caused; on the beginning of the deportations in summer 1942 (p.9); Lejkin, Jewish commander of the Ghetto police, saved Spiro from deportation (pp.10f); later Spiro was transported to Lublin and to the camp of Budzyn, commanded by Feix, later by Tauscher (p.14); Feix was a "cruel animal": on his orders, Bauchwitz was hanged on the basis of slander; a Jew, who had hidden gold, was tortured for hours and trampled to death by Ukranians (pp.14f); when three Jews fled once, 30 Jews were tortured by Ukrainians (p.16); according to witnesses (e.g. Moshe Wolberg), Feix tortured and shot Jews, e.g. Dr.Pupke (pp.16f); Two testimonies (25/10/1961) of Dr. med. Edward Reicher (pp.18-37;see pp.101-119 in document 7060808; the latter is the most extensive one of Reicher's testimonies; all the facts mentioned are also contained in this document on pp.205-217); 1) Edward Reicher, born 1900, fled from the Lodz ghetto to Warsaw in 04/1940, in the Ghetto 10/1940 - 01/1943; fled and hid in the Aryan part of Warsaw until the Warsaw Polish Uprising; he then hid near Warsaw until set free by Russian troops (p.18); as a practicing physician, he heard and saw much in the Ghetto; - Remarks on Hoefle: in Warsaw with his crew until 12 or 15/09/1942 (p.19); on his orders, his crew of 18 men prompted the Ukranians to bring the Jews to the meeting point, ca.10000 per day; the transports were headed by Hoefle's crew, accompanied by Jewish police, Ukranian soldiers, Gestapo, and SS men not belonging to Hoefle's crew (pp.27f); Reicher cured Hoefle and two of his officers; - Names of some of the crew: Slany or Slani, Hantke, perhaps Hohenwarter, Waldemar (first name) (p.28), Michalsen (p.29); Hoefle talked about the "cleaning" of certain streets; according to witnesses, Hoefle got daily orders from Berlin [probably Lublin]; in order to set up an x-ray institute for the SS, Hoefle took a Jewish radiologist and a Jewish technician to Lublin with their equipment, later both Jews were shot (p.29); Hoefle did not talk about Treblinka, but one of his officers told Reicher, that Jews were killed there (p.30); - Reports according to witnesses: on the arbitrary killing of Jews (p.21), mentioning of Klaustermeyer (p.23); on the killing of Jews caught outside the Ghetto looking for food; mentioning that Frankenstein [nickname] excelled in tracing Jews; Auerswald, usually well thought of, published the names of persecuted Jews (p.22); Rudnianski, officer of the Jewish police, tried in vain to save a 19-year-old girl (pp.22f); mentioning of Vaders, a corruptible German contact man, and First, a Jewish contact man, who was shot 12/1942 or 01/1943 (p.25); 2) Written statement by Dr. Edward Reicher (pp.205-217) dermatologist and venereologist, in the Warsaw Ghetto 04/1940 - 25/01/1943; - Beginning of the deportations on 22/07/1942; Reicher knew of Czerniakow's suicide, that deportations meant death; and hid in the Ghetto; detailed report on the hiding-place, known to Edward Lichtenbaum, son of Marek Lichtenbaum, last chairman of the Judenrat (pp.205-208); - Curing Hoefle and some of his officers; hearing that Hoefle was an envoy of Himmler, sent to destroy the Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto; detailed report on the luxuriously furnished house provided for Hoefle and his crew of 18 officers; convinced that he was leader of the command post, chair of the crew meeting daily and discussing details of the deportations; the leaders of the Jewish police, Szerynski and Lejkin, had to report there; both shot as traitors by the Jewish fighting organization ZOB (pp.208f); - Seeing Hoefle’s crew shooting Jews, smashing their heads with rifle butts; chests full of gold coming from Treblinka; knowing from the Polish underground press that Jews were gassed, robbed and burnt there; that some of Hoefle’s crew took valuables from deported Jews before the formal registration; that Kohn and Heller were shot by Slany; that Marek Lichtenbaum, Gustaw Wielikowski and Sztolcman, members of the Judenrat, had to tell the Jews about the last selection in Mila street; that Hoefle’s letters of safe conduct were ignored by Hantke; seeing Hantke torturing Meszulem Abramzon and Joanna, a maid of Hoefle’s; knowing from the officers that Hoefle ordered killings and was responsible for the deportation of 350000 Jews to Treblinka; remembering the names of Hoefle’s officers: Slany, Hantke and Hohenwarter (pp.209-214); - Details about the clearing of the houses, e.g. the killing of physician Dr.Goldlust and Leon, the pocket of the Mila, the transfer of Jews to the meeting-place - among them Dr.Janusz Korczak - their loading into fright trains; detailed characterization of Hoefle (pp.214-217); Testimony (24/10/1961) of Ted Aron Back, born 1927, in the Ghetto since in 10 or 11/1940; his father worked for Toebbens, substituted by Jahn, a brutal Volksdeutscher (ethnic German) with Jewish accent; hidden outside the Ghetto since 03/1943 Back (p.38); asked about killings before the deportations, report on - the imprisonment and shooting of his uncle in 11/1939 because of his boycott of German goods after the Novemberpogrom; - shooting of 100 mostly Polish persons were as hostages (reason forgotten) in 11 or 12/1939 (p.39f); - several 100 people - among them Grabowski, Wilner and his father - were fetched and shot in the street by the Gestapo in 1940 (p.40f); - Deportation in 1942 carried out by SS men from Lublin: Michelsohn, Hantke, Brandt, Dr.Horn, Konrad; liquidation of the Jewish snitches of the Gestapo by the SS (p.45); the employees of Toebbens, incl. Back and his father, got out of the Mila Pocket; Oberst Richter from Dresden or Leipzig, who had a shop for ironware in order to help Jews, went into the Mila Pocket with Aron Flint and tried to get people out for the armaments industry, but on Brandt's orders they were deported to Treblinka; Back's mother and brother perished there (witness: Aron Flint; according to witnesses, Blesche [Bloesche] and Klaustermeyer excelled in arbitrarily killing Jews; the name of Auerswald, was no longer heard when the deportations began (pp.44-48); - After the deportations, on 11/11/1942, Hantke came from Lublin and - assisted by 20 policemen from Warsaw - sent 800-1000 people to camps in Lublin, shot a flying Jew in the neck; Back could flee when Toebbens fetched back some of his people (p.41-44); during the operation on 18/01/1943 deportation of 2000 - 3000 Jews; Back could hide (p.48); was released by Czerwonykamien, the driver of Rottenfuehrer (SS corporal) Dor; Dor and SS man Novak were concerned with value registration (p.49); - When the companies of Toebbens and Schulz were transferred to Poniatowa and Trawniki in 02/1943, their Jewish workers started to hide (p.49); Schulz protected many Jews by employing them in his company, even untrained ones, e.g. two dozen rabbis (p.50); in 03/1943, Kejzman, a friend of Back's father, hid him, his father and 10 or 12 others in his works outside the Ghetto; Kejzman's wife went to Israel, Czerwonykamien, his brother-in-law, to Sweden (p.39); - On the 3rd day of the "Stroop-Aktion" (suppression of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising), the employees of Toebbens and Schulz were taken away from the Ghetto; Jews working at the value registration and not hiding, were brought to a camp in Lublin led by Mohwinkel, a son-in-law of Globocnik's (pp.50f); in Lublin Back and his father met Frank; Frank, Blank and a Jewish woman were the only survivors of the later liquidation of camp Lublin (pp.51f); - Back and others were brought to Poniatowa and placed in a hall together with 5000 or 6000 others; according to reports from the Jewish staff, 18000 Russian prisoners of war were housed there and liquidated, excluding volunteers in the Vlasov Army (Russian army fighting on the German side) (p.52); thanks to Kejzman, Back and his father returned to Lublin, witnessed the hanging of a Dutchman by an SS man (not Tumann but Dolph, p.53); later in Radom, Back met: - SS- and police leader Dr. Betscher [Böttcher], after the war executed by Poland, - SS-Sturmbannfuehrer [Josef Wilhelm] Blum, his deputy, sentenced to life imprisonment by Poland, - SS-Untersturmfuehrer Kafka or Kaffka, boss of the Ukrainians, sentenced to life imprisonment by Poland, and - SS-Hauptsturmfuehrer (name unknown, father of 6 children), who was never caught (pp.53f); Testimony (24/10/1961) of Majloch Gajstman, born 1903, in the Ghetto in the building of the German Firma Hermann Brauer, a laundry which worked for the Wehrmacht (German Armed Forces) and employed 200 Jews (p.56); - Report on arbitrary shootings by SS men: Klaustermeyer, Bloesche, Becker and a fourth one; Klaustermeyer and Bloesche came nearly every day and shot wantonly between 30 and 50 Jews; when they were coming, people fled and hid (pp.56f); - Detailed report on the deportations in summer 1942 by groups of 200 SS men; Gajstman registered with the Kommando Konrad, responsible for the acquisition of values; he did not see killings by Konrad, but heard of some; first their relatives and later the Jewish policemen themselves were deported to Treblinka (pp.58f); - After the deportations, Gajstman and others hid in the ruins; detailed report on atrocities against children and hidden people; 90% of the SS men involved were Ukrainians (p.60); Gajstman registered with SS Ober- or Hauptsturmfuehrer Feix, who needed 360 precision mechanics for an aircraft factory in the camp Budzyn; report on inhumane treatment of those transported to various camps (p.61); report on atrocities committed by Feix, e.g. he ordered women and girls to undress and set dogs on them (p.62); report on the torture and killing of prisoner Bitter, the shooting of Professor Pupke, and other atrocities (p.63); - Doubts in the reliability of Gajstman's memory by Staatsanwalt (prosecutor) Dr.Kloeckner (p.64); Testimony (18/10/1961) of Mordecha Markusfeld, born 1921, lived in the Warsaw Ghetto (p.85); asked about killings in the Ghetto, he remembers only the name of Frankenstein who, according to witnesses, once shot and hurt Siedlecki, a greengrocer (pp.65f); - Asked about the deportations in summer 1942, Markusfeld mentions that they were carried out by Ukrainians, Latvians, and Lithuanians under guidance of SS men; he was hidden, betrayed and caught, and had to work in a Kohlenkommando (a gang working with coals), until transported to Lublin in 04/1943; report on inhumane treatment of the transported, many of whom tried to flee (p.67f); - Report on his transport to camp Budzyn, commanded by Feix who shot Dr.Pupke; all prisoners had to deliver money, gold and jewels (pp.70f); report on shootings and tortures by Feix; shooting of Gewuerzmann, a well-known boxer; mentioning of Stockmann (p.72); Feix ordered the shooting of three Jews in Polish uniforms, was betrayed by their German master and finally replaced (pp.71, 73, 76); his successor (name unknown) was nice (p.73); regarding the events in the camp, Markusfeld names Bines and Szlama as witnesses (p.75); Bines can testify that Feix ordered Jews to dig out young trees with their teeth and shot them, if they did not manage to do this (p.76); - Report on transfers to various camps and gangs of workers, until set free by the American Army on 01/04/1945 (pp.73f); Testimony (18/10/1961) of Wladek Frajman, born 1919, in the Warsaw Ghetto until spring 1943; worked together with 150 Jewish tailors in a workshop, led by Obermueller, a German officer (p.79); caught after the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, Frajman was transferred to Majdanek, Skarzysko and Tschenstochau until set free by the Russians (p.84); - Report on the arbitrary killing of Jewish inmates of the Ghetto by Klostermeier [Klaustermeyer], Blescher [Bloesche] and Frankenstein [nickname] who used dumdum bullets (pp,80-82); Frajman hid when the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising began (19/04/1943); caught and brought to the meeting-point, he saw on 23/04/1943, how Wielikowski and Szereszewski, members of the Judenrat, and Sperling or Schmerling (a Jewish policeman) and his son were shot in the neck by SS men, incl. Hantke (pp.82-84); already in 1940, his father's house was confiscated for the Sicherheitspolizei (security police) led by Brandt; Klostermeier [Klaustermeyer] and Blescher [Bloesche] were members of this office, Frankenstein was not (p.84-86); - Report on the deportation in 10 or 12/1942: all 50000 Jews of the Ghetto were herded together in the so-called Mila Pocket; Obermueller, who was always decent and fair, succeeded in getting back his workers (pp.86f); Frajman knew about the so-called little deportation from 01/1942, but does not give a detailed report (p.87f); witnesses named by Frajman: Schenck and his brother, who were employed by the SS, and Celnik (p.89); Testimony (18/10/1961) of Max Jesuiter; the first part of the record got lost; its contents were reconstructed from memory and notes of the interrogator; personal data of Max Jesuiter as in file 1854; - Jesuiter stresses that not he but SS-Standartenfuehrer (colonel) [Otto] Schnebel was Stabsfuehrer (leader of the staff) in the office of the SS- and police leader; he performed Schnebel's functions without formal appointment; first the office was in Palais Bruehl where Moder and Wiegand resided, then in the Aleja Roz; Jesuiter had to defend the building during the Warsaw Polish Uprising, since Geibel had gone to the Kommandeur der Ordnungspolizei (commander of the order police); the Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle (Welfare Office for Ethnic Germans) and the office of the Reichskommissar fuer die Festigung des deutschen Volkstums (strengthening of German Nationhood) were located in the same building; leaders were SS-Sturmbannfuehrer (lieutenant colonel) Diehl and SS-Standarten- or Sturmbannfuehrer (colonel or lieutenant colonel) Herbert; no clear answer to the question, if the SS-Standortverwaltung (base administration) was in the same building;.Jesuiter did not know Gunther Schmidt, although Schmidt committed suicide in the street (pp.90-93); - Asked for members of the staff, naming of von Eupen, adjutant of Moder and Wiegand; his successor Kaleske, adjutant of Stroop, perhaps already of von Sammern; Kaleske's successor Bauer, adjutant of Geibel, perhaps already of Kutschera; the commanders of the police responsible for order or security were independent of the SS- and police leader; only Stroop had complete command authority during the suppression of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising; tensions between Stroop and Dr. Hahn (pp.93-95); - Report that von Sammern and Globocnik were involved with a trust concerning the transfer of workers to arms factories in Jablonka; regarding the deportations, participation in one meeting of von Sammern, Hoefle, SS men from Lublin who advised von Sammern; perhaps Globocnik, Michalsen, Auerswald (but not Hahn, nor Konrad, leader of the value registration), perhaps commanders of the Waffen-SS, e.g. Sturmbannfuehrer (major) Bellwidt, and the police in Warsaw; the topic was the procedure of the deportations (pp.95-100); - Knowledge of rumors, that the deported were killed; that Hahn, ordered by von Sammern, provided men for the clearing of the Ghetto; that von Sammern was authorized by Kaltenbrunner; that Hoefle executed the commands of both, Globocnik and von Sammern; that matters of importance were discussed by telephone, that all SS- and police leaders in Warsaw were appointed by Himmler (pp.101-106); - Statement that Oberst (colonel) Montua was commander of the Ordnungspolizei (regular police force); knowledge of the Judenrat, of Czerniakow's suicide; hearing of the "Endloesung der Judenfrage" (Final Solution to the Jewish Problem) when Stroop came to Warsaw; interpreting the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising as a Jewish action against Jewish collaborators, e.g. Fuerst, a member of the Judenrat (pp.107-109); - Report on the beginning of the Stroop action; on tensions between Stroop, who hated Jews, and the other leaders; on details of the action and Stroop's dictation of reports to Himmler and on his language use (pp.109-115); - Report on Globocnik's influence, Michalsen's plans and Stroops intentions; on Himmler's order to act "with extreme hardness"; on Stroops's command authority and his daily reports (pp.116-119); - Report on shootings - ordered perhaps by Dr.Hahn, perhaps by SS-Gruppenfuehrer (major general) Sporrenberg - as retaliation for assassinations; once Hahn refused a shooting without a drumhead trial; perhaps therefore Stroop appealed against him to Kaltenbrunner; on shootings of 100 hostages ordered by SS- and police leader Kutschera (pp.119-122); - Report on the Warsaw Polish Uprising when he, ordered by Geibel, led the defense of the office; on his transfer to Sochaczew and Geibel's delegation to Bach-Zelewski, on Geibel's powers, on his own ignorance concerning the execution of Poles near the cadet school (pp.122-125); Testimony (27/12/1961) of Gertrud Weitze, nee Schauer, 41 years old, typist for the Kommandeur der Sicherheitspolizei (commander of the security police) in Warsaw, in department III Sicherheitsdienst (security services) which did not play a leading role in the reduction of the Ghetto and the deportations (pp.137-143); Letter of the Landesgericht (regional court) Salzburg to the Landgericht Hamburg requesting to find out the abode of Wilfried Graner, SS-Oberscharfuehrer (technical sergeant) in the office of Dr.Hahn, but to forgo his interrogation (pp.152f) Testimony (14/12/1961) of Abram Sandomir, 42 years old, in pre-trial detention because of customs offence; detailed report on the beginning of the deportation, 18/04/1943, and his transport to Majdanek (commanded by Tummann) and Auschwitz; he knew Hoefle, Dr.Hahn and Dr.Brand (pp.157-159); Testimony (20/12/1961) of Heinz Auerswald, 53 years old, commissioner for the Jewish residential area of Warsaw 05/1941 - 1942; when a SS command came into the Ghetto in July 1942 in order to deport the Jews, he consulted governor Fischer and SS- and police leader von Sammern-Frankeneck: hearing that it was a secret command, he requested his dismissal and was transferred to Ostrow; he did not know Hoefle or witness the deportations, but remembers that Czerzniakow told him that the Judenrat was ordered to daily compile a certain number of Jews for the deportations (pp.171-173); Protocoll (03/11/1961) by the Landgericht (regional court) in Hamburg of an identity parade of 10 prisoners (among them Hantke, Klostermeyer [Klaustermeyer], Michalsen) before witness Hoffenberg (pp.193f); Sketch of a part of the Warsaw Ghetto (Nowolipie/ Leszno) by witness Hoffenberg (p.195); Testimony (23/07/1961) of Mieczyslaw (Mosze) Konski in Tel Aviv, born 1908, in the Warsaw Ghetto until 1943, deported to Majdanek, Auschwitz, Buchenwald, Bergen-Belsen, Theresienstadt; set free by the Russian Army on 09/05/1945; personal descriptions of the murderer Hantke and of Brandt, who was responsible for the deportation and extinction of many thousand Jews; report an a selection by Brandt in the works of Toebbens; detailed report on a shooting by Hantke(pp.196-199); Testimony (23/08/1961) of Beniek Eichner in Kiriat Chaim, born 1925, in Warsaw from the beginning of 1942 until 04/1943; fled, was in the camps of Landsdorf and Czerniowka, fled again, was hidden and finally set free by the Russians in summer 1944; he knew Brandt, his shootings and his involvement in the deportations; Brandt was often accompanied by Klaustermauer [Klaustermeyer] and Bloesche, known in the Ghetto as professional murderers; personal descriptions of Brandt, Klaustermeyer and Bloesche (pp.200-203); Testimony (23/11/1961) of Simon Goldberg to the General Consulate of the FRG in Montreal, born 1908, lived in Warsaw until 1939, fled, returned on 05/07/1942, in the Ghetto until the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, 19/04/1943, fled again; witnessed the beginning of the deportations on 22/07/1942); saw Hahn and Michalsen passing in a car and shooting an old man on 31/07/1942; praises Kurt Roehrig, who saved Jews by employing them in his factory; details about the cleaning of the Ghetto, the killing of Szpidbaum; names Globotschnik, Hahn, Auerswald, Michalsen and Hoefle as the most important SS men in the Ghetto; details about the beginning of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (pp.218-221); Letter of the Landesgericht Salzburg (regional court) to the Landeskriminalamt (regional police investigation office) of Hessia in Wiesbaden asking for the interrogation reports about the SS men Lothar Hoffmann, Georg Werk and Heinrich Biegelmeyer (p.222); Testimony (15/12/1961) of Hans Antze, 52 years old, worked in Warsaw as member of the “Ruestungskommando” (armor command) from spring 1940 to spring 1943; the command had to control the arms factories in Warsaw incl. the factories of Toebbens and Schultz in the Ghetto; therefore Oberst (colonel) Freter, the commander of the armor command, was associated with the SS offices; Jews working for Toebbens and Schulz were not deported; both firms protected Jews by employing additional workers; detailed report on the loading of Jews into fright trains (pp.225-227); Testimony (15/12/1961) of Hans-Heinz Qweitzsch, 49 years old, criminal assistant and case worker in the office of the commander of the security police in Warsaw from 1939 until mid-1943; knowledge that von Sammern-Frankeneck was replaced by Stroop for the cleaning of the Ghetto (pp.245-247); Testimony (15/12/1961) of Kalman Jankowsky, 52 years old, in the Warsaw Ghetto from 1941 till shortly before the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, deported to Treblinka, used as "Goldjude" until the Warsaw Polish Uprising on 02/08/1943 [1944], transferred to the concentration camp Treblinka, fled in 10/1944; details about the selections in Warsaw, the treatment of Jews at the meeting point, their loading into fright trains and transport to Treblinka; the clearing of the Ghetto was under the command of SS- and police leader SS-Ober- or Hauptsturmfuehrer (first lieutenant or captain) Konrad or Conrad; more SS men attended the clearing (pp.257-260); Testimony (15/12/1961) of Walter Stamm, 57 years old, Kriminalrat (criminal councilor) in department IV, i.e. security police, of the commander of the security police and the SD (security service); in some areas the office was subject to the SS- and police leader of Warsaw, SS-Gruppenfuehrer (major general) Dr.von Sammern-Frankeneck; first the clearing of the Ghetto was led by von Sammern, then by SS-Gruppenfuehrer Stroop; it was carried out by a command from Lublin, whose leader must have been Hoefle; according to witnesses, the ways of clearing the Ghetto were rough and cruel; Stamm does not know, if Hoefle was involved in shootings (pp.271-273); Testimony (16/12/1961) of Hermann Warmbier, born 1904; he probably [one page of the document is missing] worked for the security police; he does not know Spernberg (Sporrenberg), the SS- and police commander of Lublin, but has seen Michalsen, who represented Hoefle, and knew Odilo Globocnik, the SS- and police leader of Lublin (pp.273-275).