20 Dec. 45
3) Poles from the Government General,
15,000; 4) convicts from the Eastern Territories, 10,000; 5) former
Polish officers, 17,000; 6) from Warsaw (Poles), 400,000; 7) continued
arrivals from France approximately 15,000 to 20,000.
"Most of the prisoners are already on the way and will be
received into the concentration camps within the next few days."
This intensive drive for manpower
to some extent interfered with the program which WVHA had already
undertaken to exterminate certain classes of individuals in the camps. I
offer a photostatic copy of a letter from WVHA, dated 27 April 1943, our
Document 1933-PS. It is Exhibit Number USA-459. The letter is addressed
to a number of concentration camp commanders, is signed by Glücks
SS Brigade Führer and Major General of the Waffen-SS. I read the
letter:
"The Reichsführer SS and Chief
of the German Police has decided after consultation, that in the
future only mentally sick prisoners may be selected for action 14-F-13
by the medical commissions appointed for this purpose.
"All other prisoners incapable of working (tubercular cases,
bedridden cripples, et cetera) are to be basically excepted
from this action. Bedridden prisoners are to be drafted for suitable
work which they can perform in bed.
"The order of the Reichsführer SS is to be obeyed strictly
in the future.
"Therefore requests for fuel for this purpose are unnecessary."
The action "14-F-13" is not defined in the letter, but it is
perfectly apparent what it means. Every human being, bedridden,
crippled, no matter what his physical condition, from whom any work at
all could be extracted was to be excepted from the action. Only the
insane, from whom nothing could be expected, were to suffer the action.
What could the action be? It is perfectly apparent. The action was
extermination.
The SS, however, was to some extent enabled to achieve both goals: that
of increased production and of elimination of undesirables. The Tribunal
will recall the agreement between Minister of Justice Thierack and
Himmler on September 18, 1942, our Document 654-PS, which was read in
evidence by Mr. Dodd as Exhibit Number USA-218. I am not going to quote
again from that document but will remind the Tribunal that the agreement
provided for the delivery of anti-social elements after the execution of
their sentences to the Reichsführer SS to be worked to death.
The conditions under which such persons worked in the camps were well
calculated to lead to their death. Those conditions were