2 Jan. 46
THE PRESIDENT: You will have the opportunity of
cross-examining any witness who is called this afternoon or tomorrow, at
a later date — a date which will be convenient to yourself. And in
addition, with reference to any or all evidence such as is now being
presented by counsel for the United States, you will have full
opportunity at a future date of dealing with that evidence in any way
that it seems right to you to do.
DR. KAUFFMANN: Yes. May I just say one word more. The misunderstanding
under which I am laboring is clearly due to the fact that I was of the
opinion that witnesses were to be heard, whereas I now learn that
evidence, a greater amount of it, is to be put forward. However, as I
hear that the Tribunal is also admitting the evidence in its entirety I
shall, of course, have to submit to this decision.
LT. COMDR. HARRIS: Kaltenbrunner carried out the responsibilities as
Chief of the Security Police and SD to the satisfaction of Himmler and
Hitler, for on 9 December 1944, according to the Befehlsblatt of
the Security Police and SD, Number 51, Page 361, our Document 2770-PS,
he received, as Chief of the Security Police and SD, the decoration
known as the Knight's Cross of the War Merit with Crossed Swords, one of
the highest military decorations. By that time Kaltenbrunner had been
promoted to the high rank of SS Obergruppenführer and General of
the Police.
I invite the attention of the Tribunal to the organization chart
entitled, "The Position of Kaltenbrunner and the Gestapo and SD in
the German Police System," Exhibit Number USA-493. As Chief of the
Security Police and SD, Kaltenbrunner was the head of the Gestapo, the
Kripo and the SD, and of the RSHA which was a department of the SS, and
the Reich Ministry of the Interior. He was in charge of the regional
offices of the Gestapo, the SD, and the Kripo within Germany, and of the
Einsatz groups and Einsatzkommandos in the occupied territories.
Directly under Kaltenbrunner were the chiefs of the main offices of the
RSHA including Amt III (the SD within Germany), Amt IV (the Gestapo),
Amt V (the Kripo), and Amt VI (foreign intelligence).
I offer Document 2939-PS as exhibit next in order, Exhibit Number
USA-513. This is the affidavit of Walter Schellenberg, who was chief of
Amt VI of the RSHA from the autumn of 1941 to the end of the war. I am
going to read a very small portion of this affidavit, beginning with the
sixth sentence of the first paragraph:
"On or about 25 January 1943, I went
together with Kaltenbrunner to Himmler's headquarters at Lötzen
in East Prussia. All of the Amt chiefs of the RSHA were present at
this meeting, and Himmler informed us that Kaltenbrunner was to be
appointed Chief of the Security Police and SD (RSHA)