. NMT05-T0966
Volume V · Page 966
| Early in 1942, the WVHA was organized under Himmler's order to coordinate and consolidate the administrative work of the SS. The organization of the former Administrative Department and Department of Budget and Buildings of the SS was taken over intact, and, in addition, another Main Office of the SS was incorporated into the WVHA, namely, the Inspekteur der Konzentrationslager, or Inspector of Concentration Camps. Of this revamped organization, the defendant Pohl was continued as chief and was in supreme command. The WVHA was divided into five Amtsgruppen, or departments [office groups or divisions], namely: |
Amtsgruppe A — budget, law and administration. |
| Each Amtsgruppe was headed by a chief and
was, in turn, divided into Aemter or offices. For example, Amtsgruppe A was
subdivided into Amt A I to Amt A V, Amtsgruppe B was likewise subdivided, while
Amtsgruppe W was subdivided into Amts W I to Amt W VIII. Each Amt or office was
charged with some specialized phase of the general field covered by its
Amtsgruppe. The WVHA, as one of the twelve main offices of the SS central organization, was charged with the administrative needs of the entire SS, including supplies of every kind, billeting, transportation, and also the administration of the entire system of concentration camps. This did not involve the commitment to, or release of inmates from concentration camps, but it did involve the maintenance and administration of the camps and the use of the inmates as a source of forced labor. In addition to its functions as an administrative agency, WVHA managed and controlled a vast number of economic enterprises which were either owned or controlled by the SS. These enterprises embraced an extensive industrial empire, extending from Holland to Poland and Hungary, and were operated almost entirely by the use of concentration camp labor. The operation and administration of these enterprises was the task of Amtsgruppe W, of which defendant Pohl was the chief and defendant Georg Loerner the deputy chief. Ancillary to Amtsgruppe W was an amorphous organization called staff W, headed by the chief of staff W, or chief W. This staff exercised general administrative supervision of the W industries, negotiated for and procured new enterprises, arranged financing, floated loans, negotiated financial matters with the Reich Minister of Finance, and in other ways performed broad coordinating functions within the framework of |
