einsatzgruppen





"The Einsatzgruppen Case"

MILITARY TRIBUNAL II

Case No. 9



Extracts from the Testimony of Defendant Nosske(2)





DIRECT EXAMINATION

[Tr. pp. 3493-6]

DR. HOFFMANN (counsel for defendant Nosske) : I now return to your activity. You were then in charge of a department in this office, and what was the size of this department?

DEFENDANT NOSSKE: The department consisted of four people besides myself, one co-worker, one registrar, and two stenographers.

Q. And what was your task in detail?

A. My task was to deal with reports which had been sent us

2. Complete testimony is recorded in mimeographed transcript, 4, 8, 9 December 47, pp. 3424-3687.

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by the main office about partisan reconnaissance, activity and counter-measures, and to evaluate these reports, and to compile them clearly and concisely. Particular care had to be taken that the organizational form of the partisan groups was recognized, their tactics had to be established, the means with which they worked, and so forth, in order to inform the field agencies dealing with partisan reconnaissance how partisan activity was develop- ing in the whole eastern territory.

Q. Did you have to combine any executive power with this activity?

A. No. Executive power could not arise out of this purely receptive activity. Furthermore, no directives were even prepared in this particular department. Directives could only be issued through the ordinary channel of command in existence, that was only through the office chief, the Chief of the Security Police, or Himmler himself.

PRESIDING JUDGE MUSMANNO: Dr. Hoffmann, was it his office which prepared the operational reports, his office?

DR. HOFFMANN: Yes, as the witness says, but only those concerning partisan activity, whereas reports concerning shootings, based on the Hitler order we know of, went to Eichmann who was in charge of Jewish affairs.

PRESIDING JUDGE MUMANNO: But the operational reports covered all activities. Activities against partisans, activities against Jews, activity against saboteurs, everything?

DR. HOFFMANN: Yes, and perhaps the witness can comment on this again.

DEFENDANT NOSSKE: Your Honor, these activity reports which were issued in the Reich Security Main Office are to be distinguished from those which bear the title "Reports from Soviet Russia". These reports, about two hundred, which also are the subject of the indictment here were issued between June [1941] and about the end of April 1942. These reports contained everything, partisan warfare as well as Jewish actions and all the activities taking place in the occupied eastern territories reported by the Einsatzgruppen. These reports only appeared as top secret matters. In the spring, the basic change occurred; from this time on reports were not issued concerning Soviet Russia, but the new reports were called "Reports from the Occupied Eastern Territories". Already the name shows that there was a basic difference in these reports, and these new reports, which are also available here in the Document Center but which have not been introduced in evidence, contain these reports from the occupied eastern territories.

PRESIDING JUDGE MUSMANNO: But who actually made up the

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reports in that office, the reports that have been introduced here in the document books?

DEFENDANT NOSSKE: The reports which have been submitted in evidence here by the prosecution were issued by department IV A1. That is a subdepartment of office IV in the Reich Security Main Office. The people concerned are known, the man in charge was Lindow, and his collaborators were Dr. Knobloch and Fumy.

Q. And who?

A. Fumy and Dr. Knobloch.

Q. Then these three men are the ones who actually prepared the reports which we have here as evidence, Lindow, Knobloch, and Fumy?

A. That is correct.

DR. HOFFMANN: But until when, Witness?

A. These reports of events from U.S.S.R. came to a stop at the end of April 1942. The last copies bear number about 194 or 196. The reports from the occupied eastern territories which were issued after that, and only weekly, bear new numbers which begin with one.

PRESIDING JUDGE MUSMANNO: Then, do I understand that the modus operandi was for these three men, either acting separately or collectively, to receive the reports from the field and then to combine them and issue them as reports from Berlin?

A. Yes, that is correct.

DR. HOFFMANN: But, Herr Nosske, that was not your activity, was it?

A. I had nothing to do with reports that have been submitted here as evidence by the prosecution. They had been concluded at a time before I joined the office.

Q. Do you know what the reason was for this new kind of reporting?

A. As my predecessor had told me, it was for the reason that the manner of reporting until then had been most unreliable, incorrect, and inaccurate. I myself personally learned from Fumy at a later date that these two people, Dr. Knobloch and Fumy, were so much overworked and had to work under such bad conditions that it can easily be explained why these reports were so inaccurate. Therefore, the evaluation of the reports later on was not only transferred to this one particular office but was distributed to a number of individual departments.

***************

CROSS EXAMINATION

***************

(Tr. pp. 3615-3618]

MR. WALTON: In your direct examination you said you first

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went to a school in the suburbs of Berlin, and then you were called for duty in the Reich Security Main Office. What were you first told that you would have to do when you reported to the Reich Security Main Office? That is all I want to know.

DEFENDANT NOSSKE: I reported to office I, of the Reich Security Main Office and they told me there that no decision had been arrived at as to what use I was to be put to.

Q. Then you went ahead, and you said that you were ordered to be an inspector of some kind for a few months, or a few weeks, and after that, after you were relieved of this duty as an auditor or inspector. Then what were you assigned to do?

A. The expressions which you used are such that I must correct them, Mr. Prosecutor. Please do not mind if I do so. I was not an inspector. I was an examiner in examinations; that was a temporary job because they had nothing to do for me, and it was customary that they take practical experienced people to take part as examiners; they had to put questions in examinations.

Q. And after you had finished this task, you were relieved from it. What did you next do?

A. Then they told me in office I, "Now you go over to office chief IV, and report to him." I did so.

Q. What did you do? What duties were you assigned to in office IV?

A. They put me in charge of department IV-D-5. Q. What did the department IV-D-5 concern itself with?

A. This was a small department which dealt with the evaluation of the reports about partisans in the eastern area.

Q. All right, then one of your duties in IV-D-5 was a review, a consolidation, and distribution of operational situation reports from U.S.S.R., wasn't it?

A. No. That is another question which I cannot answer in this form. They had nothing to do with distribution. I merely got the reports which were competent for my department. They were distributed by the main office.

Q. How often would these reports reach the Reich Security Main Office from each of the four Einsatzgruppen?

A. Very irregularly, but currently.

Q. Well, give us some approximate date? Every two weeks, every three weeks, every two months?

A. Such reports? Every day.

Q. All right. How often would your committee of your command staff meet for discussions and consolidation of these reports?

A. The conference took place once a week, but then not the reports from the East were discussed, but we read through those

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excerpts which had been written by various departments about the messages from the East, and to which these departments made contributions. Every one came in there with the sheets, which had already been prepared, as a contribution.

Q. Do you know Dr. Knobloch, K-n-o-b-l-o-e-h?

A. Yes.

Q. Did you know Friedrich Rang, R-a-n-g?

A. Oh, yes.

Q. Did you know Kurt Lindow, L-i-n-d-o-w?

A. Yes.

Q. Did you collaborate with him in these reports?

A. Not with Lindow. During my time Lindow didn't have any idea about this. He sent reports, but how it was handled at my time Lindow didn't know. Rang was chief of a different group which had nothing to do with Russia. That was Rang, but he didn't know anything about these matters. I stayed with him in Mondorf, and I stayed with him in the same cell when I was interrogated by the British, and he always said he knew nothing about these matters. After I was relieved from my office he may have participated in these editorial meetings, I don't know, but about what happened during my time Rang didn't know anything, and he didn't work with me.

MR. WALTON: All right. At this time the prosecution in refutation of this statement which has been made by the witness, that one Friedrich Rang knew nothing about his activity and didn't attend any meetings of his command staff, should like to offer into evidence Document NO-5153, which will become Prosecution Exhibit 189, and which is an affidavit of the witness Friedrich Rang, and respectfully submit that a basis has been laid for the introduction of this affidavit.

PRESIDING JUDGE MUSMANNO: Is the affiant alive?

MR. WALTON: Yes. Well, I'll say, I think, yes, he was the last time I heard from him which was some time after he signed the affidavit.

***************

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Trials of War Criminals Before the Nurenberg Military Tribunals Under Control Council Law No. 10, Volume IV, Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office. pp. 113 - 117


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Electric Zen
Ken Lewis
December 28, 1998
Rev. 1.0