. NMT02-T0595
Volume II · Page 595
THE INTERPRETER:
"The, middle or the end of June" is what the witness said, but he is not sure about it.
RE-CROSS-EXAMINATION
MR. KING: Now, Witness, with respect to this construction at Kaufering, can you tell me when that was initiated?
A. In May of 1944 it must have begun, the beginning of May.
Q. And that was also true of the other fighter factories that you were to construct under the Hitler order?
A. Perhaps two weeks later the construction in Muehldorf began; the construction in Vaihingen that I mentioned before was already under way, and I took it over. The construction in the Rhineland started considerably later, it could have been perhaps at the end of June; Prague came along much later.
Q. Now, you say that you were at Kaufering on two separate occasions. Did you have any opportunity to —
A. (Interposing) I was in Kaufering three times. Do you want to know when? In May 1944; at the beginning of January 1945; and then once more just before the capitulation, perhaps two or three weeks before the capitulation.
Q. Do you recall anything about the conditions at Kaufering; that is, the conditions of labor?
A. I only saw the construction site. When I was in Munich, Niebermann, who was responsible for construction, told me that the Hungarian Jews were poorly clothed and poorly fed in part. I then told the competent SS man, whose name I no longer recall — but he was there in Munich, in Niebermann's office — and I pointed out to him that this was the responsibility of the SS and he should see to it that these men were decently clothed.
Q. Witness, do you recall any reports of deaths of Hungarian Jews on the project?
A. Roughly, in October, our physicians told us that the fatalities in Kaufering were higher than normal. I then commissioned that physician to take up negotiations with the SS to improve conditions. I should like to say explicitly that the Todt Organization was forbidden to enter the camps. The physician tried to send medicines to the camp, and was successful. I can remember a date, namely, one on which I was operated on — that is why I remember it — in November, at which time the physician told me that he had succeeded in bringing these bad hygienic conditions to an end after considerable effort. I remember the date because it coincided with a sickness of my own.
