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A. Whether such a permission or whether such a directive existed or
not makes no difference at all. The fact is that German foremen were beating
inmates. They beat everyone, whether they were. intellectual or manual
laborers; whether they were people coming from Germany, Holland, Russia,
Poland, or wherever they came from.
Q. Now in conclusion, do you
believe that that was a consequence of the National Socialistic ideology which
was inherent in these people?
A. It was not only a consequence of a
National Socialistic ideology. but also a consequence of their personal
attitude. These persons knew that they could give play to their brutality, that
they could play their game of the master race there, and that they were
assisted in that from all sides, including the heads of the German State.
Q. Witness, I know that you could not complain to the SS; that is why I
do not want to ask you about any right of complaint; but was not the fact that
you were under the supervision of the SS of decisive importance for what
happened?
A. Counsel, if there had not been thousands of people who
became members of the SS, there would not have been any concentration camps,
and had there not been thousands of Germans who could he misused by the I. G.
Farben for their plant in Auschwitz, then tragedies like that in Monowitz could
not have come about.
Q. Another question, Witness. Could one see at the
very beginning how thing were going to develop? Let us take a case of an
architect who designed this plant.
A. I do not quite understand your
question, Counsel.
Q. With reference to the conditions which you have
described, could one understand them only when one was actually there at the
construction plant?
A. Every person who went through the plant with
open eyes, and everyone who had any human feelings within him was in a position
to observe these matters, knew to what results this treatment in the I. G.
Farben plant did lead. The defendant Duerrfeld himself could see it when he
attended our march into the Camp Monowitz on repeated occasions. This march was
not like a parade of well-nourished soldiers, but it was really a parade of
mourning.
Q. A final question, Witness. What should the plant
management have done? In other words, had they wanted to —
MR.
MINSKOFF: I object to that question, your Honor — as to what the IG should
have done.
PRESIDING JUDGE SHAKE: That objection is sustained. It is
going into the field of speculation. If it becomes pertinent to determine that
question, the Tribunal can only determine it from facts that are established in
evidence, and will have to draw its own conclusions. |
602 |
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