DR. KAUFFMANN: Witness, I am just concerned with Buchenwald. I do not wish to know anything about Dora. I ask you . . .
BALACHOWSKY: It was the prisoners at Buchenwald who, by their connections within the camp, were the cause of my return to the Buchenwald Camp. It was M. Julien Cain, a Frenchman, the Director of the French National Library, who called my presence to the attention of a German political prisoner, Walter Kummelschein, who was a secretary in Block 50. He drew attention to my presence without my knowing it and without my having spoken in Dora of being a French specialist. That is the reason why the SS called me back from Dora to work in Block 50.
DR. KAUFFMANN: Please pardon the interruption. We do not wish to elaborate too much on these matters. I believe everything that you have just said is true—the reason why you were sent to Dora and why you were sent back to Buchenwald—but my point is a completely different one. I would like to ask you once more: You knew that these men were practically martyrs. Is that correct? Please answer yes or no.
BALACHOWSKY: I will answer the question. When I arrived at Block 50 I knew nothing, either of the Block 50 or of the experiments. It was only later when I was in Block 50, that little by little, and through the acquaintances I was able to make in the block, I found out the details of the experiments.
DR. KAUFFMANN: Very well. And after you had learned about the details of the experiments, as you were a doctor, did you not feel great pity for these poor creatures?
BALACHOWSKY: My pity was very great, but it was not a question of having pity or not; one had to carry out to the letter the orders that were given, or be killed.
DR. KAUFFMANN: Very well. Then you are stating that if in any way you had not followed the orders that you had received you might have been killed? Is that right?
BALACHOWSKY: There is no doubt about that. On the other hand, my work consisted in manufacturing vaccine, and neither I nor any other prisoners in Block 50 could ever enter Block 46 and actually witness experiments. We knew what went on concerning the experiments only through the index cards which were sent from Block 46 to be officially registered in Block 50.
DR. KAUFFMANN: Very well, but I do not think it makes any difference to one’s conscience whether one sees suffering with one’s own eyes, or whether one has direct knowledge that in the same camp people are being murdered in such a way. Now, I come to another question.
THE PRESIDENT: Was that a question you were putting there? Will you confine yourself to questions.