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| matters were separated from this department. Only later on, I can no
longer give you the exact date, did I officially get the appointment toalso
handle the camp questions, together with the head of the personnel
department. |
| |
| * * * * * * * * * * |
| |
Q. I now come to another question, and that is the employment of
concentration camp inmates at Auschwitz. In October 1941, you came to
Auschwitz. Were concentration-camp inmates employed at the plant at that time?
A. Only at the construction site, not in the plant. The plant wasn't
built at that time.
Q. And where were they housed? A. In the regular
concentration camp, Auschwitz. They marched from the concentration camp to the
construction site and back, every day.
Q. Wasn’t there any
transportation — trucks, or railroads — from time to time?
A.
I cannot remember that, but that's possible.
Q. The prosecution’s
witnesses have testified that in October 1942, the concentration-camp inmates
were put in their own camp which was south of the plant terrain. Now, was it
intended from the beginning to house these people in this camp?
A. On
the contrary, this was intended for other purposes. This was camp IV which you
are speaking about. Its original purpose was to house the German employees. It
was a very well equipped camp, and I complained when this good camp was lost to
its for our own purposes.
Q. What were the reasons why this camp, which
was actually intended for the Germans, was made available for the concentration
camp inmates?
A. There were several reasons, as far as I know. One of
the main reasons was probably to save the prisoners having to march through the
city to the construction site, because it doesn’t help a person if he has
to march several kilometers each day just to get to work and back. There were
other reasons. I never talked to anybody about them, but I can imagine what
they were. For instance, one of the ideas of the management may have been to
try, by setting up such a camp, to get more direct contact with the local
leaders and through some stipulation to have some influence on the organization
of these concentration-camp inmates, which was very difficult.
Q. The
prosecution says that this camp IV was a concentration camp. What have you to
say about that?
A. I have never seen any concentration camps from the
inside, I am glad to say. But I did not have the impression, so far as I could
judge the camp from the outside — I have never been inside camp IV —
that |
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