_DIRECT EXAMINATION_
* * * * *
DR. KAUFFMANN: Witness, I now put to you documents concerning, among
other things, procuring skulls of Jewish-Bolshevist Commissars. Please
look at page 1 of Document NO-085, Prosecution Exhibit 175. This is a
letter from the Ahnenerbe, of 9 February 1942, addressed to you. It is a
secret communication, and it bears Sievers’ signature. There are two
annexes to this document. One of them concerns research into microscopy,
and the other one concerns the suggestion for procuring the
afore-mentioned skeletons for the purpose of scientific research. Now, I
ask you whether you received this document, whether you are familiar
with the contents of this letter, and whether you still remember it
today?
DEFENDANT RUDOLF BRANDT: I received the letter with the inclosures, but
I recall as little about this as I recall about the other matters.
Q. Do you wish to say then that you did not read the two inclosures to
this letter?
A. That is what I really should like to say because, as I have already
said, reports which were destined for the Reich Leader were put with the
mail that he was to read personally, and it would have been the same in
the case of Professor Hirt’s report, which is really incomprehensible to
a lay reader.
Q. Perhaps I might point out to the Tribunal that the two inclosures are
wrongly bound in the document. The first inclosure refers to the
microscopic research and the second inclosure to the procuring of
skeletons. Is that also your opinion, Herr Brandt?
A. Yes. That is how the letter states it. First, comes the microscopic
study and then the other.
Q. Now, I ask you, with particular regard to the fact that you are
testifying under oath, did you know in detail that, as can be seen from
this report, human beings were to be killed and that the skulls or
skeletons were then to be sent to the University of Strasbourg? Did you
know these details?
A. No. I did not know these details.
Q. Would you tell us just what you did know, in broad terms?
A. I knew the contents of the letter which I sent on to Eichmann.
Q. This is Document NO-116, Prosecution Exhibit 178. In this letter you
inform Eichmann that everything necessary would be done for Professor
Hirt to build up this collection of skeletons, and you say further that
SS Obersturmbannfuehrer Sievers will communicate with Eichmann as to the
details of this. I now ask you, who is Eichmann?
A. I do not think that I had any idea who Eichmann was at that time.
Sievers sent me the draft of this letter, which I certainly did not send
on in this form as it appears here. As was always the case, I showed it
to Himmler, and only then did I send it on. I am quite sure that I heard
Eichmann’s name then for the first time. I did not know him otherwise,
nor did I know him later.
Q. Can you not tell us whether you did not have some idea as to what was
going on here in this whole business? When, for instance, one heard that
a collection of skeletons was to be made, then one would surely ask
oneself what was really going on?
A. I certainly had no other ideas concerning this matter than those that
would normally arise in connection with a collection of skeletons for
anatomical purposes; and it would never have occurred to me that any
prisoners would be used for this except those who had died a normal
death.
Q. Did you work on this affair independently thereafter, or did you
submit the matter to Himmler for him to decide and arrange?
A. It was submitted to Himmler, like all other questions. To begin with
I was not thoroughly versed in such matters, and secondly, owing to my
lack of technical knowledge, I could not give orders or instructions for
it to be carried out.
Q. I draw your attention now to Document NO-087, Prosecution Exhibit
181, again a letter to Eichmann marked “secret”, dated 21 June 1943. The
letter was apparently sent by Sievers with copies for two other persons
and also with a copy to be sent to you. This letter says that altogether
115 persons would be affected and that the selected persons should be
sent to the concentration camp at Natzweiler. How would such a letter be
handled by you in your registry office—I refer now to the copy which
was sent to you? Did you again submit it to Himmler, and did you or
someone else lay the letter aside?
A. I do not remember ever having seen this letter. The file note on it
bears an initial that is not mine, but that of my collaborator Berg. He
also initialed for filing several of the documents that are in the
document book.
Q. Now, please look at the file note of Berg. (_NO-091, Pros. Ex. 183._)
Would you say that that is the same Berg who initialed the foregoing
document?
A. Yes. That is the same Berg.
Q. Now, please look at Document NO-091. Here it says, “Note—for SS
Standartenfuehrer Dr. Brandt”, and it is signed by Berg. This reproduces
a talk that Berg had with Sievers; do you remember seeing this notation?
A. I do not remember having seen it.
Q. Let me point out the date, 26 October 1944.
A. That was the last day of our stay at our East Prussian quarters. The
Russians were only about 30 to 40 kilometers away. Berg would have made
the note so that I could get a final report to Himmler. As, however, we
had to clear out by that evening, there were more important things to do
than to submit such a memorandum, so that possibly he did not show it to
me at all.
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[85] Trial before International Military Tribunal. See Trial of the
Major War Criminals, vols. I-XLII, Nuremberg, 1947.
[86] See Case 8, United States _vs._ Ulrich Greifelt, et al. in vols. IV
and V.
[87] See Case 9, United States _vs._ Otto Ohlendorf, et al. in vol. IV.
[88] Complete testimony is recorded in mimeographed transcript, 24, 25,
26 March 1947, pp. 4869-4994.