LAUTERBACHER: I was made an SS Brigadier General on 2 August 1940, on the occasion of my appointment as Deputy Gauleiter.
MR. DODD: I did not hear your answer as to when you first joined the SS. Would you repeat it, please?
LAUTERBACHER: On 2 August 1940.
MR. DODD: You had not belonged before that date to the organization at all?
LAUTERBACHER: I was not a member of the SS before that date; but I served in the Waffen-SS as a soldier, from 26 May 1940 to September 1940.
MR. DODD: And then you later became an SS Obergruppenführer, did you not?
LAUTERBACHER: On 20 April 1944.
MR. DODD: And when did you join the staff of Himmler?
LAUTERBACHER: I was never a member of Himmler’s staff.
MR. DODD: Did you not join it in January of 1944, or what would you say that you did join in the Reichsführer SS Organization? Perhaps I have used the wrong term “staff.” There is some other name for it. Were you not affiliated in some way with Himmler?