HERR BABEL: Could they see from there that the officers were driven to the barbed wire by anyone by means of blows? Could they observe that they were driven there and beaten?
VEITH: They could see it so well that once or twice some of the guards refused to shoot, saying that it was not an attempt to escape and they would not shoot. They were immediately relieved from their posts, and disappeared.
HERR BABEL: Did you see that yourself?
VEITH: I did not see it myself, but I heard about it; it was told by my Kommandoführer among others, who said to me, “There’s a watchguard who refused to shoot.”
HERR BABEL: Who was this Kommandoführer? The chief of the group?
VEITH: The Kommandoführer was Wielemann. I do not remember his rank. He was not Unterscharführer, but the rank immediately below Unterscharführer, and he was in charge of the Hollerith section in Mauthausen.
HERR BABEL: I thank you.
I have no more questions to ask just now. I shall, however, make application to call the witness again, and I shall then take the opportunity to ask the rest, to put such further questions to him as I consider necessary. I request you to retain him for this purpose, here in Nuremberg. I am not in a position to cross-examine the witness this afternoon, as I did not hear his statements this morning, and I would request that the witness . . .
THE PRESIDENT: You ought to have been here. If you were released from an interview with General Mitchell at 10:15, there seems to the Tribunal, to me at any rate, to be no reason why you should not have been here while this witness was being examined.
HERR BABEL: Mr. President, this morning I discussed with General Mitchell some questions with which I have been occupied for a long time. General Mitchell agreed in the course of our conversation that my duties and activities are so extensive that it will now be necessary to appoint a second defense counsel for the SS; my presence at the sessions claims so much of my working time and has become so exhausting and so burdensome that I am often compelled to be absent from the Court. I am sorry, but in the prevailing circumstances, I cannot help it.