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Q. May I conclude that it happened repeatedly that prisoners were
sent from camp IV to other camps? Can one draw the conclusion that a transfer
from one camp to another was nothing unusual? Please answer the question with
“yes” or “no.”
PRESIDING JUDGE SHAKE: You have
asked two questions now. Wait a moment and let the witness catch up. Mr.
Witness, do you understand the questions that counsel propounded to you?
A. Yes.
PRESIDING JUDGE SHAKE: You may answer. if you know.
A. Generally, there were different causes that were necessary for
inmates to be transferred to another camp. Generally, one cannot speak of any
transfer of inmates from camp IV to another camp.
DR. SEIDL: But,
Witness, I must put to you that you yourself, in August 1944, were transferred
from Monowitz to Treblinka.
A. I said generally. That means that it was
not a normal circumstance. I should like to add, if counsel is thinking of a
particular transfer of inmates, then I believe, in 1944, all Czechs were
transported to Germany.
Q. Then obviously, there were security reasons
because, with the approach of the Eastern Front, perhaps the Reich Security
Main Office feared that there might be some difficulty?
A. I cannot
judge that exactly. In my opinion they were economic reasons.
Q.
Witness, are you aware that, at approximately this same time, the Poles in camp
IV were also removed to the Reich because of the approach of the Russian Front?
Did you hear of that?
A. Yes, but I emphasize once more that I don't
believe that it stood in connection with the approaching Russian Front.
Q. But you know of the fact?
A. Yes, I know of the fact.
Q. Witness, do you also know that the big concentration camp Auschwitz,
toward the end of the war, included about 40 to 50 labor camps which were
assigned to various industrial firms near this camp in eastern Upper Silesia?
A. I cannot give you the number. I don't know whether it was 40, 10 or
20. I know that such camps existed.
Q. Do you also know that all these
labor camps, or subsidiary camps as you call them, which belonged to the
concentration camp Auschwitz, from September 1943 on, were consolidated as an
administrative district, Auschwitz III? Did you hear of that?
A. I
cannot remember exactly.
Q. You cannot remember?
A. No.
Q. The result of this reorganization was that the main concen-
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