Q. How were these SD organizations which were attached to each Gau organized? Were there departments in each SD organization within each Gau, and if so, what were these departments?
A. In the SD districts there were departments [Referate], as we called them. Essentially there were four—III was the designation of the SD office in general; III-A, law and administration; III-B, folkdom and public health; III-C, cultural fields, including education; and III-D, economy.
Q. When you were assigned to the Gau here in Nuernberg for the SD, to which one of these four departments were you assigned?
A. I was assigned to the department of law and administration.
Q. And what was your position in that department?
A. I was in charge of it. That is to say, for quite some time there was only one man in it, really. There was only one person.
Q. Can you tell me in general—I will later ask you some specific questions, but now tell me in general what your duties were as head of law and administration of the SD in the Franconia Gau.
A. The SD as home information service, in our case through the Reich Security Main Office had to inform about all developments in various fields of German life. I personally had to report about all developments in the field of law and administration, positive and negative developments which occurred in that field of law and administration, to investigate and to report about them.
Q. Being assigned to the law and administration section, did you confer with the defendant Rothaug in connection with your official duties?
A. Yes. On the basis of an instruction received from the inspector of the Security Police and SD at Munich who was our administrative superior, from an instruction through him we had to take up in connection with the prosecution of the Special Courts in order to inform the inspector, and in the last event, the Reich Security Main Office, about the pending criminal cases, that is to say, the activity of the Special Courts. In the course of this action, it came to a conference of my chief with the president of the court of appeal, and in the course of that conference Doebig, the president of the court of appeal, stated that he was not competent for any agreement that had to be passed here, because as the Public Prosecutor, the prosecution was under his control. For that reason on the same day, practically at the same hour, a conference was brought about with the General Prosecutor Dr. Bens. On that occasion, the presiding judge of the Special Court, Rothaug, was present. Bens justified that by saying that the first hand information about pending criminal cases before the Special Court could best be obtained from the presiding judge himself, because it was he who was in charge of scheduling the cases and therefore could give the best information, and for that reason Rothaug was drawn into that conference. The oral agreement came about to the effect that from time to time if my superior office was interested, I should get the appropriate information from Rothaug.