Q. Do you know of any cases where a prisoner condemned to death had his sentence commuted to life imprisonment because he underwent the high-altitude experiments?
A. No.
Q. Witness, were any political prisoners used in these high-altitude experiments?
A. Yes, there were political prisoners who were used in these experiments. All foreigners were considered political prisoners.
Q. Witness, tell the Tribunal how one could tell the difference between a political and a criminal prisoner in a concentration camp?
A. All inmates had certain squares with letters; the political inmates had red squares; the German political inmates had a plain red square; the Poles had a red square with a “P” marked on it; the Russians with an “R”; all nationalities could be identified by the first letter of their country. The red square with a yellow star was the Jew. The green square, on the other hand was the sign of the so-called professional criminal. Here it must be said that there were quite a number of people with green squares who did not fall under the classification of professional criminals, but who were sent to the camp with that square since the Gestapo could find no excuse to send them into the camp as political prisoners.
Q. Now, was this square really a square or a triangle?
A. It was really a triangle with the head of the triangle pointed down to the earth. If it pointed upward, it indicated a member of the Wehrmacht who was sent to the camp for punishment.
Q. Witness, were any Jews experimented on in these high-altitude experiments?