. NMT05-T1052
Volume V · Page 1052
| became second business manager
of DEST, and in September 1941, first business manager. When the Main Office
Administration and Economy, and the Main Office Budget and Buildings
amalgamated to form the WVHA, Mummenthey became chief of office W 1, and as
such continued to control DEST. DEST had brickworks and quarries at the Flossenbuerg, Mauthausen, Gross-Rosen, Natzweiler, Neuengamme, and Stutthof concentration camps. The ceramic works of Allach and Bohemia were also subordinated to office W I under Mummenthey. The gravel works at Auschwitz and Treblinka, the granite quarry at Blizyn, the Clinker Works at Linz all formed part of the vast DEST establishments employing concentration camp labor. Mummenthey testified that plants subordinated to office W I used a maximum of from 14,000 to 15,000 inmates at one time. The DEST industries were strictly concentration camp enterprises. Each DEST plant had a works manager appointed by Pohl upon recommendation by Mummenthey. These works managers made monthly reports to Mummenthey's office. Mummenthey frequently visited these plants and often called on the concentration camp commanders. Schwartz and Schondorff, in behalf of Mummenthey, also made periodical inspections of the plants. Mummenthey's attorney in his final argument before the Tribunal said: "Without the connection with its Holding-Gesellschaft [Company] and Pohl's power of command, and without Mummenthey's membership in the SS, the DEST and thereby Mummenthey also. would hardly have to defend themselves before this forum." But it is precisely this which condemns Mummenthey. It is like saying that were it not for a robbery or two, a robber would not be a robber. It was Pohl's command, and by his command the entire WVHA is involved, plus Mummenthey's command as an SS officer, which made DEST what it was, an organization engaged in human slavery and human degradation. The Tribunal must also renounce defense counsel's contention that Mummenthey did not accept the responsibility of chief of office W 1. All the evidence points to the contrary. It has been Mummenthey's plan to picture himself as a private business man in no way associated with the sternness and rigor of SS discipline, and entirely detached from concentration camp routine. The picture fails to convince. Mummenthey was a definite integral and important figure in the whole concentration camp set-up, and, as an SS officer, wielded military power of command. If excesses occurred in the industries under his control he was in a position not only to know about them, but to do something. From time to time he attended meetings of the concentration camp commanders where all items pertaining to con- […centration] |
