DIRECT EXAMINATION
Dr. Sauter: Now, Witness, I come to a different problem. It is the suggestion made at that time that Poles suffering from incurable contagious tuberculosis should be liquidated. You were interrogated in January 1946 at Oberursel concerning your participation in the plan for the extermination of tubercular Poles, and also on 9 and 22 October 1946 here in the prison. Were the statements you made at that time true?
Defendant Blome: Yes. But I must add that concerning this matter of the tubercular Poles, as far as I recall, I said it was in 1943, while in reality, as the files now show, it took place in 1942. I must also say that my letter to Greiser in November 1942 has been shown to me here. I was asked whether this was my letter, whether I had written this letter. I said “No.” I said that because it was not a photostatic copy of the original, but a photostatic copy of a copy. I objected to several things in the letter and did not acknowledge it at that time. They were external matters which occasioned me to make that statement. Later, however, in December, when you took over my case, you gave me this photostatic copy, and I had an opportunity to study it carefully and reconstruct the conditions which existed at the time and, therefore, I now acknowledge this letter as authentic.
Q. It is true, Dr. Blome, that the prosecution learned for the first time of this plan to exterminate the Poles through you? Dr. Blome, what can you say about that?
A. Yes. The prosecution learned from me for the first time of this plan. In 1942 I told my interrogator Captain Urbach at Oberursel about it, after he had described the details of the atrocities which I had not known up to that time.
Q. You just said 1942.
A. I meant 1945. I meant December 1945. I beg your pardon. I do not believe that the prosecution had any knowledge of this, at least not at Oberursel.
Q. Dr. Blome, this whole matter begins with a letter from the Reich Governor Greiser dated 1 May 1942. (NO-246, Pros. Ex. 196.) Tell us briefly who Greiser was.
A. This was Arthur Greiser, Gauleiter of the Warthegau, the Reich Governor of the Wartheland, and the Reich Defense Commissioner of the Wartheland.