. NMT04-T0554
Volume IV · Page 554
| In spite of this very definite pronouncement, the defendant later went on to say he investigated the sixty cases. The defendant's manner of testifying, his shifting and evasive attitude while discussing this subject, convince the Tribunal that he did not tell the entire truth about the sixty alleged investigations. The defendant stated that some of the killings had been ordered by the army, but that he reviewed those cases also. It developed, however, that no written report was made so that it is not clear, if he had no personal' knowledge of the facts and received no written report, how he could review the cases. His explanation, which is obviously no explanation, follows: |
"* * * these cases of executions which I was questioned on in Barvenkova became known to me when, by accident, I happened to the place, and the corresponding report about the respective orders of the army units were given to me for information. Today, I cannot state exactly from memory or with certainty that the subcommander received this order from the military officer, who had the right to give this order, and he was also told the crime itself which had been committed by the defendants. I considered this type of handling not correct, and I expressed my opinion to this effect at the AOK, namely, that in my opinion the army when it conducted the investigation and made the decision itself should carry out the executions by its own Kommandos." |
| Much of the defendant's testimony, even if
believable, does not exculpate him. Much is simply not worthy of belief. For
instance, when he says that Streckenbach, who was the man responsible for the
announcement of the Fuehrer Order in Pretzsch, said nothing to him about this
momentous program as he was about to depart for the East, Haensch utters an
obvious falsehood. When he says that in his conversation with Heydrich,
Heydrich was silent about the Fuehrer Order, he declares what is incredible.
And even more incredible is his statement that the very Chief of the
Einsatzgruppe, under whom he was to operate, remained mute on the subject of
the order of the head of the state, the very order which brought the
Einsatzgruppen into being. And then one can only dismiss as fantastic the
declaration of the defendant that his predecessor who had admittedly executed
thousands of Jews under the Fuehrer Order, and whose program Haensch was to
continue, said nothing to Haensch about that program. And when Haensch boldly
uttered that the first time he ever had any inkling of the Fuehrer Order was
when he arrived in Nuernberg six years later, he entered into a category of
incredulousness which defies characterization. The guilt of the defendant in the commission of war crimes and |
