Q. Now, Dr. Hielscher, I assume that the defense counsel has shown you all the documents concerning the skeleton collection. Is that right?
A. Yes.
Q. There won’t be any need for me to go over them. You have stated in connection with the one document that was presented to you today on the stand that this was a very praiseworthy act on the part of Sievers in a negative way. Since you are familiar with all the skeleton collection documents—I had intended to go into each one but I will just go into that one. That is Document NO-088, Prosecution Exhibit 182. This is a document which was written by Sievers. You will see that his signature appears thereon. Do you recognize the signature at the bottom of the letter?
A. Yes.
Q. Well, Sievers here is proposing a way in which they can destroy the skeleton collection so that it will not be known to any one—that is, to the Allies when they overrun Strasbourg. And you will notice, two-thirds of the way through, the one paragraph that states: “The viscera could be declared as remnants of corpses apparently left in the anatomical institute by the French.” You see that?
A. Yes.
Q. “In order to be cremated.” Now this is an idea of one Wolfram Sievers, wherein he is suggesting that these, or the results of these criminal activities be left so that they may, by the Allies, be blamed on to the French, and bearing in mind, of course that the French, as well as the United States, Great Britain, and other Allies were equally as interested as the resistance movements in defeating the Nazi regime, were they not?
A. I have already said that it was Sievers’ duty to say “yes” and to act negatively, but, of course, I did not praise this action, but I praised the vocabulary, the formulation. He spoke like a Nazi. The concrete question in such a case was simply as follows: Can anyone be saved here or not? If no one can be saved, what can I do to keep up the appearance of a Nazi since I know that Obersturmbannfuehrer Neuhaus suspects that I have some contact with the resistance movement? Sievers, since the 20th of July, or rather since my arrest, was constantly seeing to it that his actions looked like Nazi actions, insofar as no one was actually killed; that was part of his duty, part of the mask without which the organization could not operate.
Q. Yes. But from this letter does it not suggest that he was willing to allow an innocent Frenchman to answer for the crimes which flowed out of this skeleton collection activity?
A. If you show me—