We shall now submit a document, Number L-154, which has already been submitted by our American colleagues under Exhibit Number USA-335. My colleague has read this text in extenso. I will merely refer to three lines, in order not to delay the proceedings, “In principle, no fighter-bomber pilots brought down are to be saved from the fury of the people.” That text comes from the offices of Albert Hoffmann, Gauleiter and Commissioner for the Defense of the Reich, of the Gau South Westphalia.
Under Exhibit Number RF-376 we shall submit Document Number F-686, on Page 82 of our document book. This is the record of an interrogation of Hugo Grüner on 29 December 1945. He was subordinate to Robert Wagner, Gauleiter of Baden and Alsace. In the last lines of this document, Page 82, Grüner states:
“Wagner gave a formal order to kill all Allied airmen we could capture. In this connection Gauleiter Wagner explained to us that Allied airmen were causing great ravages on German territory, that he considered it was an inhuman war, and that therefore, under the circumstances, any airmen captured should not be considered as prisoners of war and deserved no mercy.”
Page 83, at the top of the page:
“He stated that Kreisleiter, if the occasion offered, should not fail to capture and shoot the Allied airmen themselves. As I have told you, Röhm was assistant to Wagner, but Wagner himself did not speak. I can state that SS General Hoffmann, who was SS chief of the police for the Southwest Region, was present when the order was given to us by Wagner to kill Allied airmen.”
This witness, Hugo Grüner, confesses that he participated in the execution of Allied airmen in October or November 1944.
Passing through Rheinweiler, he (Grüner) noticed that some English or American airmen had been taken out of the Rhine by soldiers. The four airmen were wearing khaki uniforms, were bareheaded, and were of average height. He could not speak to them because he did not know the English language. The Wehrmacht refused to take charge of them.
That is the third paragraph at the bottom of the page and the witness declares—I am reading:
“I told the gendarmes that I had received orders from Wagner to execute any Allied airman taken prisoner. The gendarmes replied that it was the only thing to be done. I then decided to execute the four Allied prisoners and one of the gendarmes present advised the banks of the Rhine as the place of execution.”
On Page 84, Paragraph 1, Grüner describes how he proceeded to assassinate these airmen and admits that he killed them with machine gun shots in the back. In the third paragraph he gives the name of one of his accomplices, Erich Meissner, who was a Gestapo agent from Lorrach, and then he denounces Meissner for having himself killed an airman as he was getting out of his car and was walking toward the Rhine. I read: