. NMT02-T0621
Volume II · Page 621
insignia of the aircraft nor even the pilots themselves as we did not take them prisoners.
Q. Were there any SD units around where you were?
A. In Rechlin itself, no, but my chief, Petersen, and I myself learned later on that we were supervised by the SD service. Q. You say that in your position you would have heard complaints from any of the workers, of whom you had four to five thousand of whom approximately two thousand were made up of concentration camp workers, prisoners of war, and foreign workers. You never got a single complaint from any of those people, is that right?
A. No. I can only confirm that repeatedly the foreign workers gave expressions of their gratitude for having this liaison office, which consisted of a sergeant, and for the additional supplies which they thus got from the Stalag. Strictly speaking, we would have been forbidden to enter the concentration camp compound because it was part of Oranienburg, and Oranienburg was an SS agency.
Q. So you never were inside, were you, in the concentration camp?
A. I went repeatedly there. I myself attended the hospital hours. That is to say, I looked at the ill people before they saw the doctor and I asked the doctor afterwards if he needed anything, and thereupon I got the medical supplies from the airfield and for that purpose I was able to do this because I was supported by the order of the GL.
Q. The Generalluftzeugmeister was able to arrange it so you could go into the camp and look around?
A. On the basis of the order where it was my duty to look after the people that they should be well-treated and well-looked after and therefore, I was admitted into their compound.
Q. And the compound was under the jurisdiction of the SS who had jurisdiction over* * *.
A. (Interrupting) Yes. That was under the jurisdiction of the SS.
Q. And they had jurisdiction over all of the concentration camps?
A. I didn't know that but all I know is that they came from Oranienburg and that the regulations concerning that compound came from Oranienburg.
Q. You knew that Himmler was head of the SS?
A. I heard about that in 1945.
Q. In 1945 you found out that Himmler was the Reich Leader SS?
A. Yes.
