NMT01-T753
Volume I · Page 753
When in 1942 the Ahnenerbe became a department of the personal staff of the Reich Leader SS, Professor Wuest became department chief. He was thus made responsible for all matters of administration and personnel, which had hitherto been the responsibility of the Reich Business Manager. Himmler personally made it quite clear to Sievers that he was not to interfere in scientific affairs.
In this connection I mention briefly the Ahnenerbe diary which it was Sievers' duty, as Reich Business Manager, to write up. By express order of Himmler, all departments of the Reich Leader SS had to keep diaries. They were a hobby-horse of Himmler's, and failure to comply with this order would have had very unpleasant consequences for the person responsible. Sievers who was frequently away from Berlin used to dictate the diary entries on his return. I know that the entries would not always have been able to stand close examination — they were inaccurate in parts and sometimes fabricated. Sievers insisted upon keeping the diary ostensibly correct, so as not to offend Himmler. The reasons for this will be explained by a later part of my statement. Sievers also mentioned to me the collection of Jewish-Bolshevik skulls, which was planned by Professor Hirt of Strasbourg.
Document NO-085, Prosecution Exhibit 175 regarding the collection of Jewish skeletons has been submitted to me. With the exception of the last paragraph which begins with the words "For the preservation * * *", the report was — as far as I remember — drafted by Dr. Bruno Beger who had come from the SS Race and Settlement Main Office (RuSHA). * I first saw the report in the autumn of 1941. The report had already been circulated in all possible offices and one copy had also been sent to the Ahnenerbe. The reason why the report had also been sent to the Ahnenerbe are unknown to me; in any case, Sievers showed me this proposal with all signs of horror and defined it as a hybrid outgrowth of the propaganda which at that time used to describe the eastern nations as "subhuman." The report itself was filed away, as it did not concern us, or passed on to the chief of the Ahnenerbe, Professor Wuest, as it was really a "scientific" matter. One day Sievers told me that Himmler had mentioned this matter in a private conversation — I believe it was in connection with Professor Hirt — and ordered the document to be submitted after obtaining an opinion from Professor Hirt. Hirt then added the last paragraph. With this addition the report was forwarded to the personal staff of the Reich Leader SS and to Dr. Rudolf Brandt.
With regard to the Document NO-087, Prosecution Exhibit 181, as shown to me, I can state: the letter to the Reich Security Main Office bears the dictation reference S2/Ha. According to this, the letter was not dictated by Sievers himself, but — as I remember — by Dr.
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*See Case 8, United States vs. Ulrich Grelfelt, et al. in vols. IV and V.
