. NMT05-T0982
Volume V · Page 982
| Maurer and was in a position to exercise and did exercise substantial supervision and control over Amtsgruppe D. Pohl himself, in his affidavit of April 3, 1947 (NO-2736, Pros. Ex. 525), states: |
"* * * Gluecks was chief of Amtsgruppe D and was subordinate to me in my capacity as Main Office Chief. Thus I became authority for the administration of concentration camps within the sphere of activity of the WVHA. The camp commanders were nominated by the SS Personnel Office on my recommendation and appointed by me." |
| As chief judicial officer of the SS, he had
full disciplinary power over all guards who served in the concentration camps.
All judgments arising in disciplinary proceedings against SS guards were
submitted to Pohl for modification or confirmation. One of the purposes in organizing the WVHA was to centralize and concentrate administrative authority and to reduce the number of independent administrative offices. In view of the fact that the SS enterprises administered under Amtsgruppe W were manned by concentration camp inmates and in many instances operated in concentration camps themselves, it was inevitable that the administrative affairs of the camps should be placed in the hands of Pohl, who was also the head of the enterprises. The camps and the enterprises were so inseparable that a unified control of both had to be fixed, and this control was imposed on Pohl. Armed with this power, Pohl energetically set about driving the inmates to the limit of endurance in order to further the economic and war efforts of the Reich. In April 1942, he wrote to Himmler: |
"The custody of prisoners for the sole reasons of security, education, or prevention is no longer the main consideration. The mobilization of all prisoners who are fit for work, for purposes of the war now, and for purposes of construction in the forthcoming peace, come to the foreground more and more." |
| In the affidavit of Philipp Grimm (NO-2126, Pros. Ex. 298), who in 1942 was labor assignment officer at Sachenhausen and later was transferred to office D II of WVHA, it is stated: |
"Through my activity as labor assignment officer I know that in 1942 an order by Pohl was sent to the concentration camps, which authorized the camp commanders to retain prisoners who had been released for discharge by the Reich Security Main Office, but were important for the organization of labor in the camp. The duration of this illegal imprisonment could be extended to the end of the war." |
| To the very end of the war, Pohl kept a tight rein on all aspects of concentration camp administration. He constantly fought for |
