Post-WWII - 1945, Germany: Nuremberg War Crime Trial re Mauthausen, 13Dec45
PARIS 0443. SOF (English) from behind Dodd speaking to Court quotes from Army document of 17Jun45: “There is no doubt that Mauthausen was the basis for long-term planning. It was constructed as a gigantic stone fortress on top of a mountain flanked by small barracks. Mauthausen, in addition to its permanency of construction, had facilities for a large garrison of officers & men & had large dining rooms & toilet facilities for the staff. It was conducted w/ the sole purpose in mind of exterminating any so-called prisoner who entered within its walls. The so-called branches of Mauthausen were under direct command of the SS officials located there. All records, orders, & administrative facilities were handled for these branches through Mauthausen. The other camps, including Gusen & Ebensee, its two most notorious & largest branches, were not exclusively used for extermination; but prisoners were used as tools in construction & production until they were beaten or starved into uselessness, whereupon they were customarily sent to Mauthausen for final disposal." (edit)
04:01:49 Slides of maps & photographs w/ Dodd speaking: “The Tribunal will recall that in the showing of the moving picture, w/ respect to one of the camps, there was a showing of sections of human skin taken from human bodies in the Buchenwald Concentration Camp & preserved as ornaments” (edit)
04:02:08 “Attached to the exhibit is an extract of an official United States Army report describing the circumstances under which this exhibit was obtained; and that extract is set forth in Document 3420-PS, which I refer in part. It is entitled: ‘Mobile Field Interrogation Unit Number 2; PW Intelligence Bulletin; 13. Concentration Camp, Buchenwald. Preamble. The author of this account is PW Andreas Pfaffenberger, 1 Coy, 9 Landesschutzen Bn., 43 years old & of limited education. He is a butcher by trade. The substantial agreement of the details of his story w/ those found in PWIB (H) /LF/36 establishes the validity of his testimony. PW has not been questioned on statements which, in the light of what is known, are apparently erroneous in certain details, nor has any effort been made to alter the subjective character of the PW's account, which he wrote without being told anything of the intelligence already known. The results of interrogation on personalities at Buchenwald have already been published.” (edit)
04:03:53 “This exhibit, which is on the table, is a human head w/ the skull bone removed, shrunken, stuffed, & preserved. The Nazis had one of their many victims decapitated, after having had him hanged, apparently for fraternizing w/ a German woman, & fashioned this terrible ornament from his head. The last paragraph of the official United States Army report from which I have just read deals w/ the manner in which this exhibit was acquired.”
04:04:44 “Another certificate by Lieutenant Demas is set forth in Document 3422-PS (Exhibit USA-254) & is similar to the one which I have read a few minutes ago w/ relation to the human skin, excepting that it applies to this second exhibit. We have no accurate estimate of how many persons died in these concentration camps & perhaps none will ever be made; but as the evidence already introduced before this Tribunal indicates, the Nazi conspirators were generally meticulous record keepers. But the records which they kept about concentration camps appear to have been quite incomplete. Perhaps the character of the records resulted from the indifference which the Nazis felt for the lives of their victims. But occasionally we find a death book or a set of index cards. For the most part, nevertheless, the victims apparently faded into an unrecorded death”. (edit)
04:06:01 Shots of defendants in dock listening w/ Dodd continuing to speak of record books.
Post-WW2; Holocaust Testimony; Extermination Evidence; Horrors of War; Crimes Against Humanity; 1940s;
NOTE: Partial or entire sold at per reel rate. Good quality sound.
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Post-WWII - 1945, Germany: Nuremberg War Crime Trial re Mauthausen, 13Dec45 PARIS 0443. SOF (English) from behind Dodd speaking to Court quotes from Army document of 17Jun45: “There is no doubt that Mauthausen was the basis for long-term planning. It was constructed as a gigantic stone fortress on top of a mountain flanked by small barracks. Mauthausen, in addition to its permanency of construction, had facilities for a large garrison of officers & men & had large dining rooms & toilet facilities for the staff. It was conducted w/ the sole purpose in mind of exterminating any so-called prisoner who entered within its walls. The so-called branches of Mauthausen were under direct command of the SS officials located there. All records, orders, & administrative facilities were handled for these branches through Mauthausen. The other camps, including Gusen & Ebensee, its two most notorious & largest branches, were not exclusively used for extermination; but prisoners were used as tools in construction & production until they were beaten or starved into uselessness, whereupon they were customarily sent to Mauthausen for final disposal." (edit) 04:01:49 Slides of maps & photographs w/ Dodd speaking: “The Tribunal will recall that in the showing of the moving picture, w/ respect to one of the camps, there was a showing of sections of human skin taken from human bodies in the Buchenwald Concentration Camp & preserved as ornaments” (edit) 04:02:08 “Attached to the exhibit is an extract of an official United States Army report describing the circumstances under which this exhibit was obtained; and that extract is set forth in Document 3420-PS, which I refer in part. It is entitled: ‘Mobile Field Interrogation Unit Number 2; PW Intelligence Bulletin; 13. Concentration Camp, Buchenwald. Preamble. The author of this account is PW Andreas Pfaffenberger, 1 Coy, 9 Landesschutzen Bn., 43 years old & of limited education. He is a butcher by trade. The substantial agreement of the details of his story w/ those found in PWIB (H) /LF/36 establishes the validity of his testimony. PW has not been questioned on statements which, in the light of what is known, are apparently erroneous in certain details, nor has any effort been made to alter the subjective character of the PW's account, which he wrote without being told anything of the intelligence already known. The results of interrogation on personalities at Buchenwald have already been published.” (edit) 04:03:53 “This exhibit, which is on the table, is a human head w/ the skull bone removed, shrunken, stuffed, & preserved. The Nazis had one of their many victims decapitated, after having had him hanged, apparently for fraternizing w/ a German woman, & fashioned this terrible ornament from his head. The last paragraph of the official United States Army report from which I have just read deals w/ the manner in which this exhibit was acquired.” 04:04:44 “Another certificate by Lieutenant Demas is set forth in Document 3422-PS (Exhibit USA-254) & is similar to the one which I have read a few minutes ago w/ relation to the human skin, excepting that it applies to this second exhibit. We have no accurate estimate of how many persons died in these concentration camps & perhaps none will ever be made; but as the evidence already introduced before this Tribunal indicates, the Nazi conspirators were generally meticulous record keepers. But the records which they kept about concentration camps appear to have been quite incomplete. Perhaps the character of the records resulted from the indifference which the Nazis felt for the lives of their victims. But occasionally we find a death book or a set of index cards. For the most part, nevertheless, the victims apparently faded into an unrecorded death”. (edit) 04:06:01 Shots of defendants in dock listening w/ Dodd continuing to speak of record books. Post-WW2; Holocaust Testimony; Extermination Evidence; Horrors of War; Crimes Against Humanity; 1940s; NOTE: Partial or entire sold at per reel rate. Good quality sound.