. NMT05-T0680
Volume V · Page 680
| Q. Well, if the WVHA had charge
of the allocation of all the labor in the concentration camps, which you say is
true, and the economic administration of the inmates; don't you think that if
the evidence is true that over 3,000,000 people were exterminated, that that
would make a difference so great that they would have to know something about
it in order to properly allocate the labor? A. Your Honor, please consider that I have the greatest interest in achieving a complete verification, not only in the interest of the noncriminal part of the SS, of our innocence, but also of our guilt. But I know — Q. This Tribunal wants to find the truth, that is all. That is what we are trying to do right now, to find the truth about this. A. Yes. I can only say that in my conviction and as far as my knowledge goes the Reich Leader SS probably — and I can only assume that, in order to give my conviction to the best of my knowledge and belief — the Reich Leader SS would not have discussed the details with the Inspectorate of the Concentration Camps. Whether and at what period of time the Inspectorate of the Concentration Camps in the course of the execution might have obtained knowledge of these problems, that of course, I cannot judge myself because at that period of time I was not there anymore, but was already in Italy. |
| * * * * * * * * * * |
| PRESIDING JUDGE TOMS: Witness, when did you
go to Italy? WITNESS KARL WOLFF: On 9 September 1943, after I bad been sick for 6 months before, and as I already stated during the Milch* trial, I was operated on at Hohenlychen, Karlsbad, Bad Gastein, and I was convalescing there. Q. Were you a member of the circle of Himmler's friends? A. Yes. Or to express it more clearly in cases where Himmler was prevented from attending, I personally participated in the monthly conferences of the industrial circle of friends of the Reich Leader and I repeatedly, or let us say often, attended these conferences as his representative, or representative deputy of the Reich Leader SS, and I attended the dinners. Q. Well, never mind, that is going too far afield. Did you hear the speech of Himmler at Poznan? A. No. I did not hear that speech. Q. Did you hear the speech at Poznan in October 1943 ? A. No. Because at that time I was already in Italy. Q. Yes, and you didn't hear about it in Italy? A. No. This speech was not distributed to the leaders who were at the front. |
* Defendant in case of U.S. vs. Erhard Milch. vol. II.
