Documents from the process in regional courts (Landesgericht) in Klagenfurt, Salzburg and Vienna against members of the HSSPF Lublin: Documentation of the trial, volume 19; Testimonies by Austrian and German perpetrators and Jewish survivors, 1961 - 1962

Documents from the process in regional courts (Landesgericht) in Klagenfurt, Salzburg and Vienna against members of the HSSPF Lublin: Documentation of the trial, volume 19; Testimonies by Austrian and German perpetrators and Jewish survivors, 1961 - 1962 Letter (24/01/1962) of the Leitender Oberstaatsanwalt (leading senior prosecutor) to the Landesgericht (regional court) in Salzburg concerning Hoefle's presence on 19/04/1943 in the Warsaw Ghetto; mentioning the witnesses Eisner and Wilfried Graner (p.6) Testimony (23/01/1962) of Kurt Nicolaus, 51 years old; used in the office of the KdS and SD (security services) in Warsaw, 04/1940 until fall 1944; the commanders were Meisinger, Mueller and Dr. Hahn; the office knew of the clearing of the Ghetto, of the special staff and the deportations, but not what happened in Sobibor, Majdanek or Treblinka (pp.12f); Affidavit (15/01/1962) of Moshe (Moses) Zylberberg concerning the homicides of Hermann Hoefle and Globocznik in the hospital and orphanage in Lublin, at the meeting point and in the Ghetto of Warsaw (p.15); Letter (1962) from the investigating judge at the Landesgericht Salzburg (regional court) to various courts or magistrates in Austria and Germany requesting legal assistance in the criminal proceedings against Hermann Hoefle; the letter contains an account of the suspicion, its factual foundation, and Hoefle's vindication, as well as requests for hearings of the witnesses Mordecha Markusfeld, Guenther Temme, Erich Ernst Carl Mueller, Wladek Frajman, Leopold Schum, Hiecyslaw Tobias, Majloch Gaijstman, Franz Schattmann, Heinrich Gley, Franz Suchomel, Georg Wippern, Dr. Joseph Wulf, Hubert Paul Becker, Georg Werk, Arnold Oels, Rosa Appel, Walter Appel, Siegmund Deutsch, Anika Engel, Rudolf Engel, Edith Krischmann, Fritz Kueri, Selma Ludwan, Robert Paul de Majo, Alecanda Schaerf, Hersch Wenkart, Stein Ruth Wenkart (married Marcovi), Klara Wenkart and Emilie Wolf (pp.19-27 and passim); Testimony (23/01/1062) of Guenter Temme, 61 years old, SS-Sturmbannfuehrer (major) occupied with horses, belonging to the staff of a Waffen SS squadron supporting the police in Lodz and Warsaw; transferred to Munich in 1940, to the Eastern front in 1942, wounded, deployed in the Waffen SS in Germany; Temme knew Globocnik and Dr. Hahn, but nothing of the clearing of the ghettos in Warsaw or Lublin, nor of the deportations and the involvement of Hoefle and Dr.Hahn (pp.30f and 33f); Testimony (18/01/1962) of Wladek Frajman, 42 years old, in the Warsaw Ghetto until May 1943, worked in Majdanek and in a munitions dump; he knows the names of Brand, Klostermeier [Klaustermeyer], Plescher [Bloesche], Obermeier, SS-Fuehrer (leader) Globocnik, Frankenstein (nickname) and Helmut Pohl; Frajman considers Hoefle's statements as downright lies; he reports on the clearing of the Ghetto, the beginning of the deportations, the fate of the deported in Treblinka, and the shootings of disabled persons (pp.45-48); Testimony (03/01/1962)of Erich Ernst Karl Mueller, 58 years old; in Warsaw as SS-Sturmscharfuehrer (sergeant major), 01/10/1939 until the suppression of the Warsaw Polish Uprising in 1944; employed in the intelligence service of the security police; report on the deportations of uninformed volunteers in the autumn of 1942 (led by von Sammern-Frankenegg) and on the violent liquidation of the Ghetto in April 1943 (executed by a special command from Lublin); in his view it was impossible that a co-worker of Globocnik believed in a peaceful resettlement of the Jews (pp.63f); Testimony (15/01/1962) of Leopold Schumm, born 1909; he went to the security police, was transferred to Szarmotz in Poland, trained there and assigned to a motor vehicle squadron; in 1943 his unit was transferred to Norway (pp.71f); Testimony (04/01/1962) of Mieczyslaw Tobias, 60 years old, lived in the Warsaw Ghetto, 1940 - 1942, fled, was caught, brought to Treblinka and detained until 10/1943; no hearing of Hoefle's name in connection with the clearing of the Ghetto (pp.86f); Letter from the Amtsgericht (magistrate) Heidenheim to the Landesgericht (regional court) Salzburg concerning witness Franz Schattmann and the latter's notice of readiness to testify in court (pp.97-99); Testimony (23/01/1962) of Heinrich Gley, 60 years old, male nurse and SS-Unterscharfuehrer (sergeant); in 1940 drafted for nursing services in the euthanasia institute in Grafeneck and Sonnenstein near Dresden until 01/1942; used for "Organisation Todt" in Russia; in 07/1942 transferred to Lublin and the extermination camp Belzec, led by SS-Hauptsturmfuehrer (captain) Hering (pp.124f); - Report on the arrival of the deported; no knowledge of Hoefle, nor of his participation in the clearing of the ghettos in Warsaw and Lublin, the transportation, the "Aktion Erntefest", and the pacification of 115 Polish villages; Gley heard of the gassing of the transport personnel of the first trains, of Ukrainian collaborators who guarded the trains, and of Jewish labor battalions who unloaded them; Germans were not involved in these actions; Gley himself supervised Jewish labor battalions; in 09/1943 Belzec was dissolved, Gley was transferred to Poniatowa and from there into the area of Triest, where he was subject to SS-Gruppenfuehrer und Polizeifuehrer (major general and police leader) Globocnik (pp.126f); - Gley knew Franz Hoedl, the driver of SS-Hauptsturmfuehrer (captain) Reichleitner, the commander of Sobibor, who had acted in the euthanasia institute Hadamar near Linz; Gley heard from Hering that Globocnik had two aides in Triest: SS-Sturmbannfueher (majors) Michalsen and Lerche, perhaps identical to Ernst Lerch, he heard the name of Rupp in connection with the extinction of Jews and remembers a SS officer Stangl who may be identical to Stenglica (pp.127f); Testimony (22/01/1962) of Franz Suchomel, 54 years old; leader of various workshops (tailor, shoemaker, carpenter) in Treblinka from 1942 - 10/1943; he knew - the name of Ernst Lerch, adjutant of SS-Obergruppenfuehrer and Polizeigeneral (lieutenant general and police leader) Globocnik; - a certain Stanglica, a co-worker of von Alvensleben (SS- and police leader in Udine), - Globocnik; According to Suchomel, the fact that Jews were gassed in Treblinka and other camps was common knowledge; in his workshops no cruelties occurred, and Globocnik was not cruel in the camp (pp.132f); Result of a hearing (11/01/1962) of Dr. Josef Wulf, 49 years old; asked for the sources of statements in his book "Das Dritte Reich und seine Vollstrecker. Die Liquidation von 500 000 Juden im Ghetto Warschau" (Berlin: Arani-Verlag 1961), he refers to pp. 275-287, to German documents kept in Yad Vashem and printed in the Polish book of Joseph Kermisz: Aktionen und Aussiedlungen, Warschau 1946 (pp.153f, 156f); Testimony (23/01/1962) of Paul Herbert Becker, 74 years old; Generalleutnant der Ordnungspolizei in Krakau, not involved in the deportations from Warsaw or Lublin, nor in "Aktion Erntefest" (Operation Harvest Festival); he heard of "legal relocations", but had no information about the camps Treblinka, Sobibor and Belzec, or the clearing of the Warsaw Ghetto; he knew the SS- and police leader, SS-Gruppenfuehrer (major general) Globocnik, and heard the name of police leader Dr. von Sammern-Frankeneck, but was not involved in political operations of the SS (pp.171f) Testimony (24/01/1962) of Georg Werk, 46 years old; SS-Untersturmfuehrer (second lieutenant) in the service area of the KdS and the SD (security services) in the district of Lublin, 04/1940 - 03/1945; he did not see SS-Sturmbannfuehrer (major) Hoefle, but knew he belonged to the office in Lublin; Werk was active in the intelligence services and concerned with cultural matters; he saw Majdanek but refuses to talk about his experiences there; he knew that Globocnik used Ukrainians for the deportations, that he sent several SS-leaders from Lublin to Warsaw, but cannot imagine that he abstained from his command authority; Werk thinks the SS-leaders had advisory functions or recruited workers; no knowledge of the clearing of the Ghetto, the cruelties or executions of Jews, the "Pazifikationsaktion" [euphemism for the destruction of Polish villages and the expelling or extinction of their inhabitants] or the "Aktion Erntefest" (Operation Harvest Festival) (pp.185-188); Testimony (25/01/1962) of Arnold Oels, born 1908; member of the Waffen SS, but dismissed in 1940 when he refused to enlist for further four and a half years; conscripted to work in the administration of a foundation charged with the implementation of the euthanasia program (pp.198-200); Supplement (18/11/1960) to the testimony of Lothar Hoffmann (pp.145-149; the same text is contained in DOK 7188484 pp.145-149; see the summary there); Testimony (11/01/1961, continued 24/01/1962 see pp.185-188) of witness Georg Werk, born 1915, SS-Unterscharfuehrer (sergeant) of the Waffen SS, employed in the office of the KdS in Lublin from spring 1940 - 20/03/1944; leaders of the office of the SD (security services) were - Dr. Buchard, - SS-Hauptsturmfuehrer (captain) Stoecker and - Biegelmeyer; There was no Jewish department in the SD; Jewish matters were treated in the department of ethnicity; regarding this department, he knew Dr. Sturm, a friend of Gestapo commissioner Worthoff, and KdS Johannes Mueller who roared at him when, at the request of vicar general Daubinsky, he visited an arrested Jesuit (pp.218-222); Werk was ordered to participate in mass executions in Majdanek and gives a detailed report on them; the truck to the camp was driven by Pressl; Biegelmeyer and Gestapo leader Liska were involved in the executions as were all members of Werk's office; he heard of similar executions in Lublin and Biala-Podaska (pp.222-227); Testimony (28/01/1961) of Ewald Heinrich Biegelmeyer, born 1911; employed in the SD (security services) in various places; SS-Hauptsturmfuehrer (captain) and leader of the foreign intelligence services until transferred to Lublin as leader of the SD for the whole area; the four departments of the SD were led by Gehrmann, Bohlmann, Huebner and Dr.Storm (his successors: Arndt and Vaeth); co-workers were Werk, Gegenwart, Frommeyer, Hackel, Krause (an ethnic German), Miller, Krueger, Pressel, Hoch, and two translaters, both named Bojda; at approach of the Russian army, he was ordered by Dr. Puetz to incorporate a Ukrainian unit of 400 men (in lieu of Weichelt) and brought them to Austria (pp.228-231); He knew of executions in Majdanek; but did not participate and tried to prevent the participation of his co-workers; he is reproached with statements of Werk [see above] and others regarding his involvement in the mass executions (pp.231-234); Testimony of Biegelmeyer (prisoner on remand) continued on 30/01/1961: - Hearing of the plan to kill even the Jews working in German enterprises he went to Ohlendorf with a co-worker, probably Kirsch, but Ohlendorf said he had no influence; Biegelmeyer had to participate in the meetings at the commander's, Johannes Mueller; "Jews" were no topic there; he heard the expression "Aktion Reinhard", knew that Majdanek was an extermination camp, and noticed the smoking chimneys shown to him by Dr.Sturm or the driver Pressl (pp.235f); - Asked about the involvement of SS-Hauptsturmfuehrer (captain) Krueger and Obersturmfuehrer (first lieutenant) Bohlmann, both leaders of satellite stations, he faught against the merging of security police and SD (security services) but in vain; further leaders of satellite stations were Urmoneit, Gegenwarth and Zehetner; when asked, if he contributed to the initiation of an examination procedure against the KdS Johannes Mueller, he reports that he heard from Gaertner, a Jewish employee of his office, that Mueller was corruptible, and that he talked about him with SS-Sturmbannfuehrer (major) Liska; during an interview with the Befehlshaber der Sicherheitspolizei (superior commander of the security police) Bierkamp in Krakow, Liska criticised Mueller and mentioned his lack of backbone against Globocnik (pp.236-240); Testimony of Biegelmeyer continued on 31/01/1961: Asked, if Mueller was too compliant with Globocnik, Biegelmeyer reports on the relationship of both and of Globocnik's reputation with Himmler; on his own strained personal relationship to Globocnik and Hauptsturmfuehrer (captain) Mohrenschildt, his close co-worker, on his request to be transferred and his consultation with Ohlendorf (pp.241-244); Reproached with his letter to SS-Hauptsturmfuehrer (captain) Wilhelm Gast, suggesting Globocnik's positive relationship to him, Biegelmeyer reports on a resettlement action of Ukrainians (led by Globocnik), carried out and protected by his SD men and rewarded by Globocnik with gasoline for the private car of SS-Hauptsturmfuehrer (captain) Krueger (pp.244-245); Testimony (12/01/1962) of Rudolf Engel, born 1909, arrested in 1938, transferred to Oppole on 26/02/1941; he knows the names of Brunner and Eichmann; on 01/05/1941 transfer to the ghetto of Demling [later in the text: Demlin, Demblin], to Szendochau, set free by the Russians on 16/01/1945; witness of various cruelties of SS men but no knowledge, if Hoefle was involved (pp.263-265); Testimony (04/01/1962) of Ruth Marcovici, nee Stein (alias Wenkart), born 1938 in Vienna; together with her uncle Hersch Wenkart and her aunt Klara Wenkart evacuated to Opole, transported to Deplin and Czestochowa, and set free by the Russians on 16/01/1945; according to her age at the time, she does not remember names or persons accused (pp.266f); Testimony (04/01/1962) of Selma Ludwan, nee Adler, born 1905, deported from Vienna to Opole in 1941; flight, return to Vienna living in a hiding place; no homicides in Opole (pp.268f); Testimony (03/01/1962) of Anka Engel, nee Rosenzweig, born 1922 in Demblin, transported to Opole, where she met her later husband Rudolf Engel, and Czestochowa; set free by the Russians; family members were killed in various camps (pp.270f); Testimony (03/01/1962) of Siegmund Deutsch, born 1896, arrested in Vienna in 02/1941, transported to Zhitomir, Oppole and Deplin, flight and return to Vienna (pp.272f); Testimony (03/01/1962) of Rosa Appel, nee Reschnik, born 1922 in Deplin, transferred from the ghetto to the camp Deplin in 07/1942, to Czestochowa in 07/1944, in the camp until 1945 (pp.274f); Testimony (03/01/1962) of Robert Paul de Mayo, born 1905 in Vienna, arrested in 1941, transported to Oppole, Deblin and Czestochowa, set free by the Russians; he did not know Hoefle, but saw Eichmann, SS-Untersturmfuehrer (second lieutenant) Gross or Grassberger and leader [?] Brunner (pp.276f); Testimony (03/01/1962) of Walter Appel, born 1905 in Vienna, arrested in 1941, transported to Oppole, Deplin and Czestochowa, set free by the Russians just when a special command of Armenians was ready to shoot the inmates of the camp (pp.278f); Testimony (03/01/1962) of Emilie Wolf, born 1906 in Vienna, transported to Opole with her husband Hans Wolf in 1941, flight across Warsaw, stopped in Drohobycz (pp.280-282).