Trials of war criminals before the Nuernberg military tribunals under control council law no. 10, volume III

by Various

Presiding Judge Brand: The morning recess—15 minutes.

Dr. Kubuschok: Before the recess, you answered the question as to the origin of the circular decree which we discussed. Please continue.

Defendant von Ammon: The circular decree, Exhibit 319, which took issue with the questions raised in the reports from the senior public prosecutor at Cologne and Essen was, as Mr. Mettgenberg has already stated here, the joint work of both Departments III and IV of the Ministry of Justice. I participated in the work on that particular decree, insofar as the competence of my department was affected by drafting the provisions contained in it. Various questions that were settled in that circular decree did not affect the competence of Department IV at all. Thus, for example, the question of burials of NN prisoners who died a natural death while serving their sentences and the question of the possessions they left behind was a matter for Department V to deal with. To that extent only Department V was responsible for the provisions which had been worked out. Apart from my section, there were other sections, partly in Department IV and partly in other departments which were competent. The questions which emerged therefore had to be dealt with by these various sections cooperating.

Q. What are your comments about the contents of the circular decree in general?

A. By that circular decree the existing provisions concerning secrecy were not made more severe in any way. The stringent provisions concerning the seclusion of the NN prisoners from the outside world had applied since the NN decree as such had been issued. As far as we were concerned it was a shock from the very beginning that in the case of the death of an NN prisoner, the relatives could not be informed. That was true in the case of a natural death, as well as in the case of a death sentence being carried out. We, naturally, were aware of the severity of such a provision, but we did not see any possibility of avoiding it, but as far as that was possible within the scope of the severe provisions we wished to take into account the principles of humanity. We did want to make sure that persons who had been sentenced to death would have spiritual care. We did wish to afford them a possibility not only to leave a holographic will but also to make a real testament before a notary or judge. We also wished that NN prisoners who had died should have a proper funeral. That was the purpose of the provisions in the circular decree of 6 March 1943.

Q. Please comment on the more important details of that circular decree?

A. The provisions under paragraphs 1, 3, and 5 of the circular decree, I believe speak for themselves. Concerning the other provisions I would like to say this. Paragraph 4 said that farewell letters by NN prisoners were not to be sent out. That was not a new provision but that was the unavoidable consequence of the NN decree, since the general administration of justice had to deal with NN cases. As early as the first day when the NN provisions had come into force, the Department V, the administration of punishment, had issued a provision to the effect that NN prisoners were not allowed any correspondence. The farewell letters of prisoners who had been sentenced to death also came under that provision. Paragraph 4 of the circular decree furthermore reads that the farewell letters from NN prisoners were to be kept in custody for the time being by the prosecution. It was to be made sure that the farewell letters, when the NN provisions would be rescinded, that is to say, at the latest at the end of the war, would be passed on to the relatives. Paragraph 6 of the circular decree laid down that the relatives were not allowed to receive information about the death of NN prisoners. That was a repetition of the old provision which had existed since the NN decree as such had been issued. It was an unavoidable consequence of the NN decree as such. Paragraph 7 of the circular decree laid down that the dead bodies of NN prisoners who had been executed or who had died from other causes were to be turned over to the Gestapo for their funeral. That provision is not new and is not peculiar to the cases of NN prisoners. That is obvious from Document NG-257, Prosecution Exhibit 322. That document contains the reply from Thierack to the complaint by the chief of the Security Police, that this opinion had not been obtained before paragraph 7 of the circular decree was issued. Thierack’s reply points out that that provision did not provide new tasks for the Gestapo. That the Gestapo was to carry out the funeral, that in itself was not of a dishonorable nature, but funerals in cases where the relatives could not take care of them, that in Germany is one of the duties of the police. Whereas, under the general regulations in such cases the corpse is offered to an anatomical institute for research purposes, an exception was made in the case of NN prisoners, and the corpse was buried. As the provision shows, we, of course, ordered that every NN prisoner receive a grave of his own which was not identified by his name, but figures or something of that nature.

Finally, paragraph 8 of the circular decree laid down that the possessions which NN prisoners had left behind were not to be handed over to the relatives. That also was the necessary result of the provisions which dealt with the seclusion of the NN prisoners from the outside world. On the other hand, we ordered that the possessions which the NN prisoners had left behind were to be taken in custody by the NN prisons and once toward the end of the war, a general public prosecutor—concerning the watches and other articles left behind by NN prisoners, wanted to make his own regulations. Naturally, I repudiated that view.

Q. In its opening statement the prosecution said this: If the armed forces in the occupied territories arrested the people by mistake, who quite evidently had not been guilty of any form of resistance against national socialism, then those victims, for the sake of keeping the program secret, had to be treated in the same manner in which other persons were treated who succeeded in getting away with a prison sentence. Is that correct?

A. That assertion by the prosecution is not correct. First of all, I consider it out of the question that the general authorities of the administration of justice ever had persons handed over to them who quite evidently had not made themselves guilty of any resistance to the occupying powers. Persons who had been arrested were not moved into Germany immediately after their arrest, but to begin with investigations were carried out inside the occupied territories and in particular the defendant was interrogated. In the course of those investigations obvious errors were soon discovered, and in that case the person concerned was not moved to Germany but was set at liberty in the occupied territories. May I refer to the testimony by the witness Lehmann?[482] He testified that the agency of the armed forces in the occupied territories had issued provisions which were to make sure that as far as possible only such matters were handed over to the general administration of justice which were clear cases on account of the evidence that had been obtained. If it did happen after all that a person who was obviously innocent was taken into Germany—I cannot remember that such a case ever occurred—there was the possibility to transfer him to the occupied territories. In this respect, I refer to Documents NG-226, Prosecution Exhibit 313 and NG-205, Prosecution Exhibit 328.