Q. Would you tell us just what you did know, in broad terms?
A. I knew the contents of the letter which I sent on to Eichmann.
Q. This is Document NO-116, Prosecution Exhibit 178. In this letter you inform Eichmann that everything necessary would be done for Professor Hirt to build up this collection of skeletons, and you say further that SS Obersturmbannfuehrer Sievers will communicate with Eichmann as to the details of this. I now ask you, who is Eichmann?
A. I do not think that I had any idea who Eichmann was at that time. Sievers sent me the draft of this letter, which I certainly did not send on in this form as it appears here. As was always the case, I showed it to Himmler, and only then did I send it on. I am quite sure that I heard Eichmann’s name then for the first time. I did not know him otherwise, nor did I know him later.
Q. Can you not tell us whether you did not have some idea as to what was going on here in this whole business? When, for instance, one heard that a collection of skeletons was to be made, then one would surely ask oneself what was really going on?
A. I certainly had no other ideas concerning this matter than those that would normally arise in connection with a collection of skeletons for anatomical purposes; and it would never have occurred to me that any prisoners would be used for this except those who had died a normal death.
Q. Did you work on this affair independently thereafter, or did you submit the matter to Himmler for him to decide and arrange?
A. It was submitted to Himmler, like all other questions. To begin with I was not thoroughly versed in such matters, and secondly, owing to my lack of technical knowledge, I could not give orders or instructions for it to be carried out.
Q. I draw your attention now to Document NO-087, Prosecution Exhibit 181, again a letter to Eichmann marked “secret”, dated 21 June 1943. The letter was apparently sent by Sievers with copies for two other persons and also with a copy to be sent to you. This letter says that altogether 115 persons would be affected and that the selected persons should be sent to the concentration camp at Natzweiler. How would such a letter be handled by you in your registry office—I refer now to the copy which was sent to you? Did you again submit it to Himmler, and did you or someone else lay the letter aside?
A. I do not remember ever having seen this letter. The file note on it bears an initial that is not mine, but that of my collaborator Berg. He also initialed for filing several of the documents that are in the document book.