DR. LATERNSER: Was the civilian population compelled to clear the houses for complete occupation by the troops?
WESTHOFF: No. There was merely an order saying that those houses in which the offices were set up had to be cleared. Other houses did not have to be evacuated, and as a rule the system was that I, for example, whenever I was billeted, would always sleep in the same room with the people who lived there.
DR. LATERNSER: Have you experienced destruction which was not due to military necessity?
WESTHOFF: No.
DR. LATERNSER: Have you on occasion or frequently fed the hungry civilian population from the field kitchens?
WESTHOFF: The regiment was ordered that all food which was surplus in the regiment was to be issued to the population mostly at midday or in the evening, so far as we had any contact at all with the population.
DR. LATERNSER: Yes. And then one last question: Do you consider it possible that German soldiers invited Russian children for coffee, and then killed these children by giving them poisoned cake?
WESTHOFF: No.
DR. LATERNSER: I have no further questions.
THE PRESIDENT: You aren’t suggesting, are you, that this witness is one for the High Command?