 |
Q. Yes, and then it was said, “we will go to Auschwitz.”
A. Yes.
Q. Was the question of labor considered in deciding to
go to Auschwitz?
A. No. Before plans were approved by the authorities,
all questions involved, such as the obtaining of materials, building materials,
labor, had to be settled. When I was told about this project, I assumed that
these questions had been settled. At any rate, if the authorities wanted such a
plant to be built they had to give the directives for obtaining the workers.
Q. Did you hear that inmates were to be used to build the plant?
A. In the beginning when I was called in, I did not know that. I heard
of it later, about May 1941. I heard of a decree of Goering’s ordering
that concentration-camp inmates were to be used for labor at Auschwitz.
Q. Had you inspected conditions at Auschwitz personally at that time?
A. In the early summer of 1941 I was at Auschwitz for the first time.
Q. Did you consider this regulation that inmates were to be used in the
construction work anything out of the ordinary?
A. No, because inmates
and prisoners were employed everywhere in industry.
Q. Dr. Braus,
records of the construction meetings have been put into evidence here. I should
like to ask you, did you attend these construction meetings?
A. I did
attend most of them.
Q. What was discussed at such meetings?
A.
All problems affecting the construction of this plant; construction work,
ordering machinery, labor, and so forth.
Q. Of Sparte I, who
participated in these conferences?
A. In Sparte I, Dr. Duerrfeld was
entrusted with the assembly by both Sparten. He attended regularly. Also, Dr.
von Staden, whom Dr. Buetefisch had entrusted with the planning of the Leuna
part, as I have already said. Generally, the first engineer of Sparte I, Dr.
Sauer, was represented; usually the first engineer of Leuna, Dr. Strombeck was
present; and almost always, the first construction engineer of the Leuna plant,
Mr. Hoepke.
Q. Did Buetefisch attend many of these construction
conferences?
A. No, Buetefisch attended very few of them.
Q.
But Buetefisch had the over-all supervision of the planning?
A. Yes, he
did, but he had a great deal to do, and he conducted himself in this case as in
many others: He merely received reports on general matters, and he was asked
for his decisions only in very special cases, when the rest of us could not
manage. |
834 |
. 
