MR. DODD: Did you deport any Jews from your Gau?
LAUTERBACHER: When I came to the Gau in December 1940, the Jews had already emigrated.
MR. DODD: They were already out by the time you got there?
LAUTERBACHER: Yes.
MR. DODD: Did you ever hear of Gauleiters getting reports from Heydrich or from Himmler about what was happening to the Jews in the East? Did any of your fellow Gauleiter ever tell you that they got reports regularly, say by the month or by the week?
LAUTERBACHER: No. Himmler’s reports were no more accessible to the Gauleiter than they were to the honorary leaders of the SS. As Obergruppenführer of the SS I never received a report or an instruction from Himmler.
MR. DODD: Those Himmler reports were handled pretty carefully, were they not?
I am now asking you—as an SS Obergruppenführer I suppose you know something about it—were those reports handled very carefully, those Himmler and Heydrich reports?
LAUTERBACHER: As an SS Obergruppenführer I never received any of Himmler’s reports, and I know that Himmler sent all reports dealing with confidential or internal SS matters only to SS and Police, that is, SS leaders in the service of the SS, but never to the honorary leaders.
MR. DODD: Now, what I really asked you was whether or not the reports, when they were sent out, were very carefully handled. Do you know the answer to that?