“Therefore requests for fuel for this purpose are unnecessary.”
The action “14-F-13” is not defined in the letter, but it is perfectly apparent what it means. Every human being, bedridden, crippled, no matter what his physical condition, from whom any work at all could be extracted was to be excepted from the action. Only the insane, from whom nothing could be expected, were to suffer the action. What could the action be? It is perfectly apparent. The action was extermination.
The SS, however, was to some extent enabled to achieve both goals: that of increased production and of elimination of undesirables. The Tribunal will recall the agreement between Minister of Justice Thierack and Himmler on September 18, 1942, our Document 654-PS, which was read in evidence by Mr. Dodd as Exhibit Number USA-218. I am not going to quote again from that document but will remind the Tribunal that the agreement provided for the delivery of anti-social elements after the execution of their sentences to the Reichsführer SS to be worked to death.
The conditions under which such persons worked in the camps were well calculated to lead to their death. Those conditions were regulated by the WVHA. As an illustration of WVHA management, I call the Court’s attention to our Document 2189-PS, which I offer in evidence as Exhibit Number USA-460. It is an order directed to commandants of concentration camps, dated 11 August 1942, and bearing the facsimile signature, which does not appear on the translation but does appear on the original, of SS Brigade Führer and General of the Waffen-SS Glücks, who was Chief of Office Group D of WVHA. That is Document Number 2189-PS. I will read the body of that letter:
“The Reichsführer SS and Chief of the German Police has ordered that punishment by beating will be executed in concentration camps for women by prisoners under the ordered supervision.
“In order to co-ordinate this order the Main Office Chief SS of the Economic Administration Main Office, SS Obergruppenführer and General of the Waffen-SS Pohl, has ordered, effective immediately, that punishment by beating will also be executed by prisoners in concentration camps for men.
“It is forbidden to have foreign prisoners execute the punishment on German prisoners.”