- Description
- (Paris 457) War Crimes Trials, Nuremberg, Germany, December 20, 1945. Maj. Warren Farr of the US prosecution explains the subdivisions of the SS organization. CU, rear view, Maj. Farr. LS, side view of the Tribunal in the courtroom. "The personal staff. ... First, when the question is asked, how many persons in the SS had something to do with the concentration camp program... you may find out how many people were in the Deaths Head ..." CU, SS organization chart. "I shall read only the Himmler directive appearing on Page 2 of the translation. The Tribunal will note that it is addressed to every main office of the SS Supreme Command. I read that list of addressees of the directive:
"(1) Chief of the personnel staff of Reichsfuehrer SS; (2) SS Main Office; (3) Reich Security Main Office; (4) Race and
Resettlement Main Office; (5) Main Office, Ordinary Police; (6) SS Economic Administrative Main Office; (7) SS Personnel Main Office; (8) Main Office SS Court; (9) SS Supreme Command, Headquarters of the Waffen-SS; (10) Staff Headquarters of the Reich Commissioner for the Consolidation of Germanism; (11) Main Office Center for Racial Germans; (12) Office of SS Obergruppenfuehrer Heissmeyer; (13) Chief of the anti-partisan combat...." 03:12:44
"I point out to the Court that every one of the main offices appearing on the chart is a recipient of that directive. The next addressees are the Higher SS and Police leaders in the various regions. I continue to quote the body of the directive: Referring to Item 4 of the above-mentioned order, I order that all young female prisoners capable of work are to be sent to Germany for work, through the agency of Reich Commissioner Sauckel. 03:13:30 Children, old women, and old men are to be collected and put to work in the women's and children's camps established by me on estates, as well as on the border of the evacuated area." 03:13:48
Maj. Farr reading Himmler's decree on women coming into Germany.
And also document..issuance of new regulations.
in order to counter all aspirations of the enemy of the state, and that the Gestapo had the exclusive right to order protective custody, ...to be in the state concentration camps.
2 January 1946 Rear view, Col. Robert G. Storey of the US prosecution speaking about the Gestapo organization. 03:15:00 "I now pass to another subject, namely: "The Gestapo was responsible for establishing and classifying concentration camps and for committing racial and political undesirables to concentration and annihilation camps for slave labor and mass murder."
The Tribunal has already received evidence concerning the responsibility of the Gestapo for the administration of concentration camps and the authority of the Gestapo for taking persons into protective custody to be carried out in the State concentration camps. The Gestapo also issued orders establishing concentration camps, transforming prisoner-of-war camps into concentration camps as internment camps, changing labor camps into concentration camps, setting up special sections for female prisoners, and so forth.
The Chief of the Security Police and SD ordered the classification of concentration camps according to the seriousness of the accusation and the chances for reforming the prisoners, from the Nazi viewpoint. I now refer to Documents 1063(a)-PS and 1063(b)-PS in the second volume, Exhibit Number USA-492. The concentration camps were classified as Class I, II, or III. Class I was for the least serious prisoners, and Class III was for the most serious. Now this Document I063(a)-PS is signed by Heydrich and it is dated the 2d of January 1941. I quote from the beginning with the word "subject," quoting:
"Subject: Classification of the concentration camps.
CU, organization chart indicating position of Kaltenbrunner, the Gestapo, and the SD in the German police system.
- Duration
- 00:10:57
- Date
-
Event:
December 20, 1945 to January 2, 1946
- Locale
-
Nuremberg,
Germany
- Credit
- Accessed at United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of National Archives & Records Administration
- Contributor
-
Producer:
United States. Army. Signal Corps.
