. NMT05-T1038
Volume V · Page 1038
tooth extractions were to be undertaken and no other treatment at all. These tooth extractions were to be carried out without any local anaesthesia. Many of these prisoners had no more teeth and I was forbidden by Dr. Pook to have sets of artificial teeth made. Consequently many of these prisoners were not able to digest their food properly, and this resulted in serious disorders of the stomach and the intestines, which in many cases led to death. |
| The defendant emphatically denies the truth
of this affidavit, contends that he had no such knowledge and that no such
orders were given by him. The Tribunal concludes that this affidavit portrays the true conditions prevailing in this camp and that the defendant's attitude towards these unfortunate people was as stated therein. Other evidence in the case corroborates the Greunuss affidavit. The defendant admitted that he heard of the extermination program of the SS sometime during the summer of 1944. After hearing of this program, he visited the concentration camp Auschwitz and had the opportunity of seeing, and did see, the mortality charts kept by Lolling. However, he denies that he noticed from these charts the actual death rate. It should be noted that at the time of his visit to the Auschwitz concentration camp the program of extermination was at its peak. In regard to the SS program of the final solution of the Jewish problem and the planned extermination of inferior races and political opponents of the Nazi regime, it would follow that thought was given as to what would be done with their personal property and valuables. The answer to this question was to confiscate and steal everything of value that could be obtained from their personal belongings and their bodies. The International Military Tribunal in its judgment against Goering and others, found the following: |
"Evidence was given of the treatment of the inmates before and after their extermination. There was testimony that the hair of women victims was cut off before they were killed and shipped to Germany to be used in the manufacture of mattresses. The clothes, money, and valuables of the inmates were also salvaged and sent to the appropriate agencies for disposition. After the extermination, the gold teeth and fillings were taken from the heads of the corpses and sent to the Reich Bank." |
* Trial of the Major War Criminals, op. cit. supra, vol. 1, p. 252.
