2 Jan. 46
"If a transport consisted of too many
'K' prisoners, instead of losing time for the 'measurement' they were
exterminated by gas sent into the shower room instead of water."
I now pass to another subject, namely: "The Gestapo was responsible
for establishing and classifying concentration camps and for committing
racial and political undesirables to concentration and annihilation
camps for slave labor and mass murder."
The Tribunal has already received evidence concerning the
responsibility of the Gestapo for the administration of concentration
camps and the authority of the Gestapo for taking persons into
protective custody to be carried out in the State concentration camps.
The Gestapo also issued orders establishing concentration camps,
transforming prisoner-of-war camps into concentration camps as
internment camps, changing labor camps into concentration camps, setting
up special sections for female prisoners, and so forth.
The Chief of the Security Police and SD ordered the classification of
concentration camps according to the seriousness of the accusation and
the chances for reforming the prisoners, from the Nazi viewpoint. I now
refer to Documents 1063(a)-PS and 1063(b)-PS in the second volume,
Exhibit Number USA-492. The concentration camps were classified as Class
I, II, or III. Class I was for the least serious prisoners, and Class
III was for the most serious. Now this Document 1063(a)-PS is signed by
Heydrich and it is dated the 2d of January 1941. I quote from the
beginning with the word "subject," quoting:
"Subject: Classification of the
concentration camps.
"The Reichsführer SS and Chief of the German Police has
given his approval to classify the concentration camps into various
categories, which take into account the personality of the prisoner as
well as the degree of his harmfulness to the State. Accordingly, the
concentration camps will be classified into the following categories:
"Category I — for all prisoners charged with minor offenses
only and definitely qualified for correction; also for special cases
and solitary confinement — Camps Dachau, Sachsenhausen, and
Auschwitz I. The latter also applies in part to Category II.
"Category Ia — for all old prisoners conditionally
qualified for work who could still be used in the medicinal herb
gardens — Camp Dachau.
"Category II — for prisoners charged with major offenses
but still qualified for re-education and correction — camps
Buchenwald, Flossenbürg, Neuengamme, Auschwitz II.
"Category III — for prisoners under most serious charges,
also for those who have been convicted previously for criminal