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A. I was present at that meeting, without expressing my opinion or
making any comment. As far as I know, not one of these ten thousand policemen
was actually sent to Italy.
Q. In connection with the early plans for
employing Russian prisoners of war in the German armament industry, why did you
consider that General Thomas, chief of the Military Economics and Armaments
Office of the High Command, was the right man for the further development of
this idea with respect to employing Russian PW's? Why did you think that Thomas
was the right man, as Kirschner said in the letter which you have already
discussed before the Tribunal?*
A. I don't think that I named Thomas
myself. I did not write the letter. Kirschner did. I described that at that
time I was ill at home and heard of this affair and was interested in helping
these people. That was my motive. To whom this was passed on or what happened
afterwards was not of much interest to me at the time.
Q. Well, did you
tell Kirschner that you thought Thomas was the right man to participate in this
suggestion which, as you say, you thought, was to help the Russian prisoners of
war by working the German armament industry?
Did you personally tell
Kirschner that you thought General —
A. I don't think I said so. I
think Kirschner drew that conclusion. Q. Now, General Thomas died recently, so
he can't come here. Is it not true that General Thomas was the highest officer
of the High Command in affairs of military economy and was subordinate to no
one other than Keitel?
A. That is correct.
Q. Dr. Krauch, you
were aware, from the beginning, that foreign workers were to be used in the
so-called PSV, that is the powder and explosives production program were you
not?
A. I knew that, yes.
Q. And also prisoners of war? Is that
correct?
A. As far as PSV was concerned, I did not know. But it's
entirely possible that that was done.
Q. Just a moment. Dr. Krauch, we
have marked as exhibits next for identification, Prosecution Exhibits 1848,
1849, 1850, and 1851. These are all documents which were directed to
concentration camps, and our staff has just drawn them from the file. I will
ask you if you can find on them anything which would lead you to believe that
K. L. does not stand for Konzentrationslager — concentration camp —
Mauthausen, Buchenwald, Auschwitz, Natzweiller, whatever the case may be. I
think you can possibly tell by just looking at the headings which show the
addresses. |
__________
* Kirschner's letter to
General Thomas (Document EC-489, Prosecution
Exhibit 473), dated 20 October 1941, reproduced in subsection D above.
683 |
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