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| Opening Speech for the
Prosecution |
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| Colonel Backhouse
(cont.) |
introduce the
accused to you. They divide themselves into two classes, and the first group
are S. S, who were at Auschwitz as well as at Belsen. No. 1 is Josef Kramer,
who was Kommandant at Auschwitz and subsequently Kommandant at Belsen. He
joined the S.S. as a volunteer and has been a concentration camp guard all his
service at one camp or another, gradually going up. No. 2, Dr. Klein, is a
Rumanian who joined the Waffen S.S. voluntarily in June, 1943. He was a
recruiting doctor in Cracow for a time and from December, 1943, onwards, he has
been in concentration camps. First of all he was in Auschwitz, and you will
hear from several witnesses that he took part usually in the selection of
victims for the gas chamber — he makes no secret of it and admits it
freely. He came to Belsen in the middle of February and his own story is that
he was only in the camp three days before the British arrived. That does not
agree with the evidence of other witnesses. He realized the conditions and what
view any honest people would take finding that camp, and he will tell you that
he told Kramer that the British, on their arrival, if they had any sense, would
put himself and Kramer against the wall and shoot them.
No. 3,
Weingartner, was a Blockführer of one of the women's camps at Auschwitz,
and had some 1000 women under him. At Belsen he again became a
Blockführer. No. 4, Kraft, was an S.S. guard at Auschwitz and again at
Belsen where he looked after the bread and ration store. No 5, Hoessler, was a
Lagerführer at Auschwitz, which really means the head S.S. man under the
Kommandant in the camp. He joined the S.S. as a volunteer in January, 1933, and
had served in concentration camps during the whole of the Nazi regime. He was
in charge of the women’s camp under Kramer, and after he left Auschwitz he
went to another camp called Dora, and from there he came to Belsen where he
became Lagerführer of No. 2 Camp. No. 6, Bormann, was in charge of the
clothing store first of all and later of the working parties at Auschwitz, and
you will hear how she took part both in the amusement of setting dogs on women
and in the selections for the gas chamber. When she came to Belsen she was in
charge of the pig-sty, where she continued her course of conduct. No. 7,
Volkenrath, regularly took part in the selections for the gas chamber at
Auschwitz, and she inflicted many personal cruelties on people. When she came
to Belsen she was placed in charge of all S.S. women as the head woman in the
camp by Kramer. You will hear again of her many cruelties at Belsen. No. 8,
Ehlert, was an S.S. guard. She claims to be a conscript to the S. S. which she
joined on 15th November, 1940. After a career in various concentration camps
she eventually arrived in Belsen, after a spell first of all at Auschwitz. She
was the second in command of the women, and, like so many others, considers the
conditions there were a shame and |
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| Page 28 |
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