20 Dec. 45
deporting them, and confiscating their property;
second, settling racial Germans on the newly acquired land.
The extermination actions conducted by the SS, as to which I have just
introduced evidence, contributed in part to clearing the conquered
territories of persons who were deemed dangerous to the Nazi plan. But
not every undesirable could be liquidated. Mass deportations
accomplished the twin purpose of providing labor and of freeing the land
for German colonists.
Evidence as to the participation of SS agencies in deporting persons to
concentration camps I have already introduced.
The evacuation and resettlement program required the use of further
deporting agencies. I quote from our Document 2163-PS the National
Socialist Year Book for 1941, Exhibit Number USA-444 The passage in
question appears on Page 3 of the translation, Paragraph 5, and at Page
195 of the original. I quote:
"For some time now, the Reichsführer
SS has had at his disposal an office under the management of SS
Obergruppenführer Lorenz, the National German Central Office"
— Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle (VM).
"This office has the task of dealing with national German
questions and of gathering the required proofs. "In addition to
the VM, the Immigration Center Office (EWZ), with the Chief of the
Security Police and the Security Service of the SS (under the
management of SS Obersturmbannführer Dr. Sandberger) and the
Settlement Staff of the Reich Commissioner were created which, in
co-operation with the National Socialist Welfare Organization and the
Reich Railroad Agency, took charge of the migration of national
Germans."
I also offer in
evidence the affidavit of Otto Hoffmann, SS Obergruppenführer and
general of the Waffen-SS and Police, our Document L-49. I offer it as
Exhibit Number USA-473. Hoffmann was Chief of the Main Office for Race
and Settlement in the SS Supreme Command, until 1943. This affidavit was
taken on August 4, 1945, at Freising, Germany. I shall read Paragraph 2
of that affidavit:
"The executive power, in other words
the carrying out of all so-called resettlement actions, that is to
say, sending away of Polish and Jewish settlers and those of
non-German blood from a territory in Poland destined for
Germanization, was in the hands of the Chief of the RSHA (Heydrich,
and later Kaltenbrunner, since the end of 1942). The Chief of the RSHA
also supervised and issued orders to the so-called immigration center,
which classified the Germans living abroad who returned to Germany and
directed them to the individual