15.4.46
A. Yes, in so far as I received all my orders as to the carrying out of that action from the Obersturmführer Eichmann.
Q. Was the administration of concentration camps under the control of the Economic and Administrative Head Office?
A. Yes.
Q. You have said already that you had nothing to do with the R.S.H.A.
A. No.
Q. Please, will you emphasise, therefore, that the Gestapo as such had nothing to do with the administration of the camps or the accommodation, feeding and treatment of the detainees, but that this was exclusively a matter for the Economic and Administrative Head Office?
A. Yes, that is quite correct.
Q. How do you explain it then that you, nevertheless, discussed different questions concerning concentration camps with Müller?
A. The R.S.H.A., or Amt IV, had the executive power for the directing of all detainees into camps, division into the camp grades, 1, 2, 3, and furthermore, the punishments which were to be carried out by the R.S.H.A.
Executions, the accommodation of special detainees, and all questions which might ensue therefrom were also taken care of by the R.S.H.A. or the Amt IV.
Q. When was this Economic and Administrative Head Office created?
A. The Economic and Administrative Head Office existed since 1933 under various names. The Inspectorate of concentration camps was, however, only subordinated to this Economic and Administrative Head Office since the ear 1941.
Q. Then these concentration camps were from the very beginning under the control of this Economic and Administrative Head Office, that is to say, the S.S. and not the State Police?
A. Yes.
Q. You mentioned the name of Dr. Rascher a while ago. Do you know this doctor personally?
A. Yes.
Q. Do you know that Dr. Rascher before beginning his work in Dachau had become a member of the S.S.?
A. No, I know nothing about that. I only know that when I saw him he was in the uniform of an air force medical officer. Later he was supposed to have been taken over into the S.S., but I didn't see him again.
Q. I have no further questions. Thank you very much.
DR. BABEL (Dr. Babel, counsel for the S.S.):
BY DR. BABEL:
Q. Witness, at the beginning of your examination you stated that when you, as ordered, visited the Reichsführer S.S. Himmler, he told you that the carrying out of this order of the Führer was to he left to the S.S. and that it had been instructed accordingly. What is to be understood under this general title S.S.?
A. According to the explanations of the Reichsführer, this could only mean the men guarding the concentration camps. According to the nature of the order only concentration camp crews and not the Waffen S.S. could be concerned with the carrying out of this task.
Q. How many members of the S.S. were there in concentration camps, and which units did they belong to?
A. Toward the end of the war there were approximately 35,000 S.S. men and, in my estimation, approximately 10,000 men from the Army, Air Force, and the Navy, employed at the labour camps for guard duties.
Q. What were the tasks of these guards? As far as I know, the tasks varied. First, there was the actual guarding and then there was a certain amount of administrative work in the actual compounds.
A. Yes, that is correct.