. NMT02-T0622
Volume II · Page 622
Q. I have no more questions.
JUDGE MUSMANNO: Witness, you mean you did not know, before 1945, of the power Himmler had in the SS?
A. No, your Honor. Particularly in the testing station we did not discuss that nor did we receive many reports there. The attitude of my chief — I may perhaps say here, of the GL himself — it was known what their attitude was towards the Party. We ourselves were under the Gauleiter of Mecklenburg who supervised us. Therefore, we went to no trouble to look into other matters.
PRESIDING JUDGE Toms: This testing station was in Germany, wasn't it?
A. Yes. Rechlin is roughly 120 kilometers northeast of Berlin on the Muelef Lake [northwest of Berlin on Lake Mueritz].
Q. And an officer of the German army, 120 kilometers from Berlin, didn't know who Himmler was until 1945?
A. Of course, I knew that Himmler was a Party member but that Himmler had all the concentration camps under him I really didn't know until very much later.
Q. But you knew he was head of the SS?
A. I knew that he was an SS commander. I did not know until then that he was the head of the SS.
JUDGE PHILLIPS: How many concentration camp victims did you hear were killed up to 1945, starved to death and killed?
A. I did not know that and I only learned it from press notices which came out in connection with the Nuernberg trials.
Q. How many concentration camp workers were killed in your camp?
A. Nobody was tortured or killed in our camp; not even one man.
Q. Did any of them die a natural death while you were there?
A. Nobody died; I can confirm to the Court that both the health and the individuals' happiness was such that there was neither case of death nor complaint.
PRESIDING JUDGE Toms: The name of this concentration camp I must know. What was it?
A. The camp was near Rechlin and was an agency attached to Oranienburg.
Q. That was Oranienburg you were talking about?
A. It must have been a branch of Oranienburg. Up to my resignation on 31 January 1945, neither a torture nor a fatality occurred there. I said that before, your Honor, and I should like to repeat it.
Q. Don't repeat it.
