Documentation from the trial of Hermann Hoefle held in the Salzburg Regional Court; Testimonies by survivors living in Israel regarding the Sobibor death camp; Statement by Georg Michalsen (SSPF Lublin) regarding the activity of the SSPF Lublin and "Aktion Reinhard", 1963 - 1964

Documentation from the trial of Hermann Hoefle held in the Salzburg Regional Court; Testimonies by survivors living in Israel regarding the Sobibor death camp; Statement by Georg Michalsen (SSPF Lublin) regarding the activity of the SSPF Lublin and "Aktion Reinhard", 1963 - 1964 Requests for testimonies Transcript of a letter by the state prosecutor at the Regional Court in Hamburg regarding the testimony of Benjamin Eichner and the request to ask him about the activities of Dirke, Bernd and Schubert (28/02/1964) pp.6-7 Requests by the Vienna Regional Court to Israeli authorities to gather information about Grete Baumann and to interview Lew Zlocisty, Rachel Auerbach, Jakob Biskubicz (Biskiewicz), Shlomo Sterdinger (Sterdiner, Sterlinger), Josef Herschmann, Mosze Szklarek (Szklarck), Nachman Koren, Berk Freiberg, Jehuda Lerner, Mordechai Goldfarb, Isaac Cukiermann, Chaim Fuksmann, Simcha Bialowicz and Ada Lichtmann; List of accused in the court case against Helmut Pohl and others (pp.122-327) Testimonies Testimony of SS-Hauptsturmführer Georg Michalsen regarding (SS-Unterscharführer) Benedikt Farkas (accused of murder), who was a driver employed by the SSPF in Lublin, Farkas working as a driver during the “Sommeraktion” in the Warsaw ghetto in 1942 (deportation of Jews) under SS-Sturmbannführer Höfle whom he drove frequently from Lublin to Warsaw and back, the possibility of Benedikt Farkas participating in the “Sommeraktion” due to his lack of work (Hamburg 02/03/1964) p.10 Testimonies of Lew Zlocisty, Rachel Auerbach, Jakob Biskubicz, Shlomo Sterdiner (Sterlinger), Yosef Hershman and Mosze Szklarck recorded by the District Magistrate Court of Tel Aviv [Hebrew] (Tel Aviv, 20/10/1963) (4 copies) pp.15-52, 110-121 Testimony of Lew Zlocisty regarding his work as a Jewish order policeman in the Warsaw ghetto from 1941 to 1942, his detainment in the ghetto until approximately 19/02/1943, not remembering any of the SS officials named in the list (Tel Aviv 15/10/1963) [partly in Hebrew handwriting] p.17, 53, 88, 99 Testimony of Rachel Auerbach regarding her detainment in the Warsaw ghetto from its establishment until 09/03/1943 when she escaped to the ‘Aryan’ side of Warsaw, not having met any of the SS officials named in the list personally, Karl Hofbauer (14th), Ragger (24th) and Gustav Wagner (35th) being referents for Jewish affairs at the office of Globocnik (Tel Aviv 15/10/1963) [partly in Hebrew handwriting] p.17, 54, 88, 99 Testimony of Jakob Biskubicz regarding his deportation from Hrubieszow to the Sobibor extermination camp a week after Pentecost 1942 as a 15-year-old boy with his family, his arrival at the extermination camp where SS men shouted at the Jews, abused them and selected some of them (including Jakob Biskubicz and his father) for forced labor (lugging wooden branches, at the train station of Sobibor), hearing Jews being shot in the camp which was situated in a forest, identifying Gustav Wagner (35th, deputy manager of the camp, abusing and shooting Jews of all ages to death, killing a woman holding a child in her arms, attacking women with an axe, murdering his father with Frenzel), the murder of Jews in the extermination camp Sobibor, Reichleitner, the commander of the camp (present during the arrival of deportation trains, ordered the hanging of a Jew who just arrived with a deportation train to Sobibor, attacking women with an axe, killing Jews) (Tel Aviv 16/10/1963) [partly in Hebrew handwriting] pp.18-21, 55-66,.88-92, 99-103 Testimony of Shlomo Sterdiner regarding his detainment in the Warsaw ghetto from October 1942 to April 1943 where he worked in the ‘Werterfassung’ (registration of property) whose commanders were Conrad and SS-Unterscharführer Kutschera (17th) and who lived in the house next to him, Kutschera treating him and his co-workers nicely and giving a Jewish girl some bread, his deportation to the extermination camp Treblinka at the beginning of May 1943 where he had to work as a carpenter under the supervision of Lanz (18th, treaded him mostly well but threatening him with death, getting Sterdiner’s son out of the “death hut”, beating one of his co-workers to death, killing and executing Jews), a planned uprising of the inmates of the Treblinnka extermination camp in July 1943, v. Hoippen and Lanz torturing a 16 year old German Jew to death because he had hidden a rifle, the killing of 17 Jews suspected of having organized resistance by Lanz, other SS men and Ukrainian forces (Tel Aviv) [partly in Hebrew handwriting] pp.21-23 ,67-72, 92-93, 103-104 Testimony of Mosze Bahir (former Mosze Szklarek) regarding his arrival at the Sobibor extermination camp on May 6th 1942 when he was 14 years old with his mother and his younger brother, identifying Oberscharführer Gustav Wagner (35th, separating mothers from their younger children if they were selected for forced labor, murdering Jews of all ages, killing Abraham Puavi, selecting ‘ill’ Jews to be killed), Unterscharführer Karl Steubel (34th, Wagner’s faithful henchman, involved in the selection of people for forced labor), Obersturmführer or Hauptsturmführer Franz Reichleitner (26th), Oberscharführer Groemer (12th, in charge of the ‘Waldkommando’ (forest division, punitive measures), abusing and killing inmates), Scharfführer or Oberscharführer Helmut Pohl (23rd, was later transferred to the extermination camp Treblinka) and Franz Stangel (33rd, worked at the gas chambers, was later transferred with Wirth to the extermination camp Treblinka), Himmler visiting the Sobibor extermination camp at least twice, the murder of Jews who arrived in the Sobibor extermination camp, being selected for forced labor (cleaning carriages and the ‘Rampe’ at the train station, cutting off the women’s hair before their murder under the supervision of Abraham Puavi, in the German casino), realizing two weeks later the murder of his mother and younger brother, Ukrainian forces, Himmler’s visit to the camp in August 1942, the SS man Paul Groth (had a fierce dog, was a sadist, fell in love with Ruth, one of the two Jewish young women who were forced prostitutes after which he changed his attitude towards Jews by bringing them food for which he was transferred to a different place), Oberscharführer Hermann Michel, Wagner and Steubel being involved in the murder of Ruth (Tel Aviv 18/10/1963) [partly in Hebrew handwriting] pp. 23-26, 73-81, 93-96, 104-107 Testimony of Josef Herschmann regarding his deportation to the Sobibor extermination camp in 1942 at the age of 16, forced labor (sorting property of people who were murdered, taking dead, sick or injured people off the carriages), Wagner being present at the arrival and unloading of Jews deported to Sobibor and abusing them, torturing and murdering Jews, threatening Herschmann, Oberscharführer Groemer (12th, being present at the arrival and unloading of Jews deported to Sobibor, murdering Jews as collective punishment, Reichleitner (26th, commander of the Sobibor extermination camp, being present at the arrival and unloading of Jews deported to Sobibor, ordering the murder of 10 people as collective punishment) (Tel Aviv) [partly in Hebrew handwriting] pp.27-28, 82-86, 97-98, 108-109 Testimony of Nachman Koren regarding his job as a teacher from 1929 until the outbreak of WWII, his detainment in the Lublin ghetto until the end of March 1942, crimes committed by the Gestapo and Globocnik in the Lublin ghetto, identifying Georg Engel (8th) (Jerusalem 11/07/1063) [partly in Hebrew handwriting] pp.149-152 AND p.153 AND pp.168-171 Testimony by Berk Freiberg (07/07/1963) [Hebrew, including handwritten text] pp.176-188 born in Warsaw, 1927; identifies Gustav Wagner, Karl Steubel, Franz Reichleitner; living in Lodz in 1939; fleeing with the family to Warsaw in early 1940; including of the family apartment in the Ghetto; fleeing alone to Turobin in January or February 1942; razzia in Turobin on 14/05/1942, taken to Krasnystaw; deportation to Sobibor on 15/05/1942; working as a cleaner at the barracks of Ukrainian guards; aid by the kapo and comrades; fleeing Sobibor on 14/10/1943; Gustav Wagner - receiving the deported and sending them to gas chambers; in 1943 Wagner beating a woman deported from Holland and shot the man, who tried to defend her; Wagner beating and shooting two camp inmates (one of them called Mordekhay) employed as forced laborers, who were sick and didn't appear to the work, as the witness himself was sick, but not seen by Wagner; in 1943 Wagner shooting the cleaner called Tzudik and his father for smuggling food into the camp and giving it to another inmate; Wagner shooting together with Frenzel and Ukrainian guards a group of 20 forced laborers after 2 members of the group had fled; in 1942 Wagner beating and torturing a Jewish inmate before ordering the Ukrainian guard Taras to kill him; Wagner often shooting deported upon arrival; Wagner beating the witness 2 times. Franz Reichleitner - was the camp commander and didn't intervene with the inmates. Karl Steubel - ordering the deported to uncloth and the cleaners to take off the belongings of the murdered in the gas chambers; beating and shooting deported people. Testimony by Simcha Bialowicz (07/07/1963) [Hebrew, including handwritten text] pp.203-209 identifies Groemer and Wagner; arrived to Sobibor on 28/04/1943; attached to the Waldkommando commanded by Groemer, Mueller and Novak and guarded by Ukrainians, sometimes supervised by Wagner; Groemer and Wagner ordering the Waldkommando members to climb half-cut trees that killed them falling; Groemer beating forced laborers for working slowly; Groemer, Wagner and Frenzel poisoning by chlorine in an open space a group of deported from Majdanek; the same and Ukrainian guards ordering about 15 newly deported to load railcars, beating them, 2 were shot by Wagner; the witness injured during the work and transferred to another job, beaten there by Wagner and sent to the "hospital"; employed in the "hospital" as pharmacist sorting drugs brough by the deported, after the previous pharmacist had been murdered; abusing by Wagner and Groemer of the corpse of a deported woman and her living son; the witness wounded by Wagner; witness trying to escape the "hospital" and joining back the Waldkommando in order to get chance for escape, but caught and beaten by Frenzel; the Waldkommando members beaten and shot by Groemer and Ukrainian guards, after some of the Waldkommando had escaped. Testimonies by Ada Lichtman (07/07/1963) [Hebrew, including handwritten text] pp.210-216 arriving to Sobibor in late May 1942; employed at the officers' laundry identifies Groemer, Reichleitner, Wagner, Steubel; Groemer - working in the kitchen, beating and killing newly deported and shooting at the train cars; commanding over the Waldkommando. Reichleitner - commanding over the camp, feared even by Germans; controlling every work and beating people; beating a construction worker with a hammer; executing Jewish Dutch men for planning a revolt, Reichleitner, Frenzel and others forcing the Jewish women to dance; the witness washing the blood spilled uniform following the execution; Reichleitner beating the 12 years old forced laborer Jankele Schmiessner. Wagner - controlling work; shooting people at many occassions, including newly arrived deported and sick forced laborers; smashing children arrived in a winter day; killing the 15-16 years old capo called Birk (?); Wagner, Frenzel, [Rudolf?] Beckmann, Steubel and Gomerski torturing and killing the forced laborer Shaul Shtark from Lublin area; shooting at sick forced laborers "for fun"; killing a Jewish Dutch girl forced laborer; Wagner's clothes always blood spilled; after 2 inmates escaped, Wagner ordering to kill every tenth among laborers torturing them and adding to them a [Jewish?] French woman and her adolescent son, because she tried to defend one of the sentenced. Different attitude to the deported from different countires - Polish deportees murdered immediately; Austrian "well received", younger sent to work in Sawinni Osoba [?] and Krykow [?]. Steubel - killing together with Paul Bredow an Austrian Jewish senior couple upon arrival. Testimonies by Heinrich Chaim Fuksmann regarding his detainment in the Warsaw ghetto until May 1st 1943, his and his family’s escape through the sewage system, their deportation to Lublin from where he and his family were forced by SS men to run to the extermination camp Majdanek (his family was murdered there), being able to identify Helmut Pohl (guardian at the gate, carrying a whip with him all the time and abusing inmates), Franz Eigner (SS- Oberscharführer or SS- Unterscharführer, guardian at the gate, carrying a whip with him all the time and abusing inmates) and SS-Oberscharführer Kutschera (two people carried this name, one of them hitting him with a whip 15 times because he helped another inmate, being present at executions of inmates), who carried whips and dogs with them, his whole family being murdered in Majdanek, his deportation from Majdanek (forced labor, carrying stones from A to B for no reason) via the concentration and extermination camps Auschwitz, Groß-Rosen, Buchenwald, Dachau to Oranienburg and from there via Mecklenburg to Schwerin where he was liberated in a forest on May 8th 1945, (Haifa 24/07/1963) pp.234-240 AND pp.259-260 AND pp.268-269 AND pp.277-278 Testimony by Mordechai Goldfarb regarding his life in Piaski near Lublin until 1941 from where he was taken by the Nazis for six weeks to the (at that time) forced labor camp Belzec, his work as a house painter for the German police forces until October 22nd 1942 when he was deported (until Trawiak by foot, then by railway) with other Jews to the Sobibor extermination camp (physical abuse, there was food) where he stayed until October 14th 1943, the process of the murder of Jews in the Sobibor extermination camp, being able to identify Franz Stangl (Staengl, responsible for the arrival of deportation trains), Gustav Wagner (superior, giving orders to shoot Jews, murdering Jews, abusing Goldfarb) as well as remembering the names of SS-Oberscharführer Bauer, SS-Oberscharführer Bollaender, SS-Scharführer Gomerski and SS-Oberscharführer Frenzel (Wagner’s deputy, responsible for the arrival of deportation trains), a revolt in the Ghetto planned by Dutch Jews who were shot on behalf of Gustav Wagner after he found out about their plans (Haifa 24/07/1963) [partly in Hebrew handwriting] pp.241-247 AND pp.261-263 AND pp.270-272 AND pp.279-281 AND pp.287-288 AND pp.292-293 AND pp.297-298 Testimony by Yehuda Lerner regarding his life in the Warsaw ghetto from the establishment of the ghetto until July 22nd 1942, his imprisonment in the Sobibor extermination camp for 4-5 weeks, being able to identify Gustav Wagner (head of the cam), remembering Frenzel (present at his arrival in Sobibor), forced labor in the camp, the escape of 40-45 inmates into the forests on October 14th 1943 (Haifa 24/07/1963) [partly in Hebrew handwriting] pp.248-251 AND p.264 AND p.273 AND p.282 AND p.289 AND p.294 AND p.299 Testimony by Isaac Cukiermann regarding his membership of the central committee of the HeHalutz movement in Warsaw, his escape with Jewish children deported from Germany to Poland to the East, his return to Warsaw in spring 1940 and his travels through towns of occupied Poland to intensify Jewish underground activities, being the commander of the Fighting Jewish Organization, receiving information about the murder of Jews in Vilna, the murder of Jews in the extermination camps Sobibor and Belzec, listing Ada Fisher-Lichmann, Yitzhak Lichtmann, Simha Bialowicz, Abraham Margalit, Ber Freiberg, Jakob Biskovicz and Eliyahu Liebermann as witness able to give testimony about the crimes committed in the Sobibor extermination camp, the murder of the Jews of Warsaw (liquidation of the ghetto) as part of the “Einsatz Reinhard” (Aktion Reinhardt), listing Roman Fische, Abraham Lebenbaum and Ben-Dov Rosenbrock as able to give testimony about the Aktion Reinhardt, the revolt of Jews in the Treblinka extermination camp on August 2nd 1943, listing Jakob Jarnik, Eugeniusz Torobsen and Arye Kodelik as survivors of the Treblinka extermination camp, the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, recommending to interview Ludwiga Fischer (Haifa 20/10/1963) [partly in Hebrew handwriting] pp.252-258 AND pp.265-267 AND pp.274-276 AND pp.283-285 AND pp.289-291 AND pp.294-296 AND pp.299-301 List of Jewish victims Benjamin Eichner p.5 Lew Zlocisty p.15 p.88 Rachel Auerbach p.15 p.88 Jakob Biskubicz p.15 pp.88-92 p.290 Shlomo Sterdiner (Sterlinger) p.15 pp.92-93 Yosef Hershman p.15 pp.97-98 Mosze Bahir (Szklarck) p.15 pp.93-96 Abraham Puavi p.95 Nachman Koren p.151 pp.154-158 pp.168-171 Berk Freiberg pp.176-188 pp.189-193 p.290 Simcha Bieliwicz pp.203-209 p.290 Ada (Fisher) Lichtman pp.210-216 p.290 Heinrich Chaim Fuksmann pp.234-240 pp.259-260 pp.268-269 pp.277-278 Mordechai Goldfarb pp.287-288 Yitzhak Lichtmann p.290 Abraham Margalit p.290 Eliyahu Liebermann p.290 Roman Fische p.290 Abraham Lebenbaum p.290 Ben-Dov Rosenbrock p.290 Jakob Jarnik p.290 Eugeniusz Torobsen p.291 Arye Kodelik p.291 Ludwiga Fischer p.291 CORRESPONDENCE, NOTES AND FORMAL DOCUMENTS REGARDING THE CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS pp.3-5, pp.11-12, p.14, p.87