“SS Obergruppenfuehrer Dr. Kaltenbrunner attended personally conferences with SS Obergruppenfuehrer Pohl, Chief of the SSWirtschaftandVerwaltungshauptamtand Chief of the concentration camps. Due to these conferences and through talks with the Chief of Office Gruppenfuehrer Mueller ofAmtIV and Gruppenfuehrer Nebe ofAmtV, the Chief of the Security Police and SD, SS Obergruppenfuehrer Dr. Kaltenbrunner, must have known the state of affairs in the concentration camps.” (L-35)
“SS Obergruppenfuehrer Dr. Kaltenbrunner attended personally conferences with SS Obergruppenfuehrer Pohl, Chief of the SSWirtschaftandVerwaltungshauptamtand Chief of the concentration camps. Due to these conferences and through talks with the Chief of Office Gruppenfuehrer Mueller ofAmtIV and Gruppenfuehrer Nebe ofAmtV, the Chief of the Security Police and SD, SS Obergruppenfuehrer Dr. Kaltenbrunner, must have known the state of affairs in the concentration camps.” (L-35)
(2)With full knowledge of conditions in and the purpose of concentration camps, Kaltenbrunner ordered or permitted to be ordered in his name the commitment of persons to concentration camps.All orders for protective custody other than short-term confinements were issued in the name of Kaltenbrunner as Chief of the Security Police and SD and bore the facsimile stamp of his signature (2477-PS).
The commandant of Buchenwald concentration camp in his affidavit states:
“With the exception of the mass delivery of prisoners from the concentration camps of occupied territories, all prisoners were sent to the concentration camp Buchenwald on orders of theReichssicherheitschauptamt, Berlin. These preventive arrest orders (red blanks) were in most cases signed withthe name Kaltenbrunner. The few other preventive arrest orders were signed with ‘Foerster.’ ” (L-38)
“With the exception of the mass delivery of prisoners from the concentration camps of occupied territories, all prisoners were sent to the concentration camp Buchenwald on orders of theReichssicherheitschauptamt, Berlin. These preventive arrest orders (red blanks) were in most cases signed withthe name Kaltenbrunner. The few other preventive arrest orders were signed with ‘Foerster.’ ” (L-38)
On 7 July 1943 an order for protective custody was issued by the Gestapo (AmtIV C 2, RSHA) bearing the facsimile signature of Kaltenbrunner, to be sent in the form of a telegram to the Gestapo office in Koeslin in the case of a woman whose offense was stated to be failure to work, work sabotage, and asocial conduct. She was ordered to be confined in the concentration camp at Ravensbrueck (2745-PS).
On 19 January 1944 a warrant for protective custody was issued by the Gestapo (AmtIV C 2 of the RSHA) certified as signed by Kaltenbrunner, to a British subject, C. S. James, on the grounds that he had been proven guilty of activities to the detriment of the German Reich, and that there was reason to expect that he would, if released, commit acts prejudicial to the Reich (1574-PS).
Other instances of commitments to various concentration camps on orders, signed by Kaltenbrunner, are contained in the dossiers of 25 Luxembourgers committed to concentration camps by theEinsatzkommandoof the Sipo and SD in Luxembourg during the year 1944. The concentration camps to which the persons were committed included Dachau, Natzweiler, Sachsenhausen, and Buchenwald. Among the grounds were: “strongly suspected of working to the detriment of the Reich;” “spiteful statements inimical to Germany as well as aspersions and threats against persons active in the National Socialist movement;” “strongly suspected of aiding desertion;” “as relative of a deserter expected to take advantage of every occasion to harm the German Reich.” (L-215).
Further orders for commitments to concentration camps are contained in file of 42 telegrams, all issued by the RSHA,AmtIV A 6, Prague, to the Gestapo Office at Darmstadt, and all signed by Kaltenbrunner, during the period from 20 September 1944 to 2 February 1945. The concentration camps to which people were sent included Sachsenhausen, Ravensbrueck, Buchenwald, Dachau, Bergen-Belsen, Flossenburg, and Theresienstadt. Nationalities included Czech, German, French, Dutch, Italian, Corsican, Lithuanian, Greek, and Jew. Grounds included “refusal to work;” “religious propaganda;” “sex relations with PWs;” “communist statements;” “loafing on job;” “working against the Reich;” “spreading of rumors detrimental to morale;” “Aktion Gitter;” “breach of work contracts;” “statementsagainst Germany;” “assault of foreman;” “defeatist statements;” “theft and escape from jail.” (2239-PS).
(3)Kaltenbrunner authorized executions in concentration camps.Adolf Zutter, the adjutant of Mauthausen concentration camp, avers that, until the assassination of Heydrich, orders for executions at Mauthausen were signed by Heydrich or his substitute, and that after Kaltenbrunner became Chief of the Security Police and SD they were signed either by Kaltenbrunner or by his substitute, Mueller. Zutter mentions a specific instance in which Kaltenbrunner ordered the execution of a group of 12 to 15 uniformed members of an American military mission (L-51).
(4)Kaltenbrunner had knowledge of the commitment of thousands of Warsaw Poles to concentration camps and refused to release them.During the suppression of the Warsaw uprising of 1944, about 50,000 to 60,000 inhabitants of Warsaw were sent to concentration camps. As a result of entreaties by Hans Frank to Himmler the deportation was stopped. Frank and Buehler, his State Secretary, requested Kaltenbrunner to release the persons who had been committed. Kaltenbrunner refused to release them on the grounds they were employed in making secret weapons for the Reich and declared that the number transported into concentration camps in the Reich was small. Buehler verified the fact that the number of persons so placed in concentration camps for forced labor was 50,000 to 69,999 (2476-PS).
(5)Kaltenbrunner controlled the deportation of Poles, Jews, and other non-Germans from Poland.Otto Hofmann, former Chief of the SS Main Office for Race and Settlement Matters, stated:
“The execution of all so-called resettlement actions, that is, the sending away of Polish, Jewish, and people of non-German blood, inhabitants of a territory in Poland destined for Germanization was in the hands of the Chief of the RSHA, Heydrich, and, since the end of 1942, Kaltenbrunner.” (L-49).
“The execution of all so-called resettlement actions, that is, the sending away of Polish, Jewish, and people of non-German blood, inhabitants of a territory in Poland destined for Germanization was in the hands of the Chief of the RSHA, Heydrich, and, since the end of 1942, Kaltenbrunner.” (L-49).
(6)Kaltenbrunner ordered the deportation of Jews from Denmark.In September 1943 Himmler ordered the Danish Jews arrested and shipped to Stettin and from there to Theresienstadt concentration camp. Mildner, the Chief of the Sipo and SD, telegraphed the RSHA to request that the Jewish persecutions bestopped. In reply he received an order from Himmler through Kaltenbrunner to carry out the anti-Jewish action. Shortly thereafter Mildner flew to Berlin to speak to Kaltenbrunner personally about the matter. In Kaltenbrunner’s absence he spoke to Mueller. After his return to Copenhagen, Mildner received a direct order from Himmler through Kaltenbrunner to carry out the anti-Jewish actions immediately (2375-PS).
(7)Kaltenbrunner personally exercised punitive authority over foreign workers.By order of Kaltenbrunner Labor Reformatory Camps were established under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Security Police (1063-B-PS).
In addition to sending workers to Labor Reformatory Camps, Kaltenbrunner, through orders for protective custody signed by him or by facsimile of his signature, committed workers to concentration camps. On 9 February 1945 a French citizen was sent to Buchenwald by order of Kaltenbrunner for shirking work and insubordinate behavior. On 18 June 1943 a Pole was sent to Natzweiler “to be used as a skilled worker” by order of Kaltenbrunner. On 2 December 1944 a citizen of the Netherlands was taken into protective custody “for work sabotage” by order of Kaltenbrunner. On 2 December 1944 a French citizen was taken into protective custody for “work sabotage and insubmissive” (2582-PS;2580-PS).
(8)Kaltenbrunner personally attended to matters against Jews and political and concentration camp internees in the Protectorate.A memorandum found among Kaltenbrunner’s personal effects states in part:
“Radio message to Gruppenfuehrer Fegelein Hq. of the Fuehrer through Sturmbannfuehrer Sansoni, Berlin.“Please report to RF SS and to the Fuehrer that all arrangements against Jews, political and concentration camp internees in the Protectorate have been taken care of by me personally today” (2519-PS).
“Radio message to Gruppenfuehrer Fegelein Hq. of the Fuehrer through Sturmbannfuehrer Sansoni, Berlin.
“Please report to RF SS and to the Fuehrer that all arrangements against Jews, political and concentration camp internees in the Protectorate have been taken care of by me personally today” (2519-PS).
(9)Kaltenbrunner personally ordered the Sipo and SD to encourage the populace to lynch American and English flyers.In 1944 at a conference ofAmtChiefs Kaltenbrunner said:
“All offices of the SD and the security police are to be informed that pogroms of the populace against English and American terror-fliers were not to be interfered with; on the contrary, this hostile mood is to be fostered” (2990-PS).
“All offices of the SD and the security police are to be informed that pogroms of the populace against English and American terror-fliers were not to be interfered with; on the contrary, this hostile mood is to be fostered” (2990-PS).
(10)Kaltenbrunner personally worked out the form of justification to be submitted to cover up the execution of prisoners of war.In connection with the shooting of some 50 recaptured prisoners of war who had escaped from a prisoner of war camp near Breslau, Kaltenbrunner worked out with Mueller and Nebe the false reasons which were to be given to the Red Cross, that is, that they had been killed by bomb attacks, or shot while escaping or resisting arrest (2990-PS).
Kaltenbrunner was a life-long fanatical Nazi. He was the leader of the SS in Austria prior to the Anschluss and played a leading role in the betrayal of his native country to the Nazi conspirators. As Higher SS and Police Leader in Austria after the Anschluss he supervised and had knowledge of the activities of the Gestapo and the SD in Austria. He had much to do with developing Mauthausen concentration camp and visited it frequently. On at least one occasion he observed the gas chamber in action. With this knowledge and background he accepted in January 1943 appointment as chief of the very agencies which sent such victims to their deaths. He held that office to the end, rising to high prominence in the conspiracy, receiving honors from Hitler and gaining Hitler’s personal confidence.
The political career of Alfred Rosenberg embraced the entire history of National Socialism and permeated nearly every phase of the conspiracy. In order to obtain a full conception of his influence upon and participation in the conspiracy, it is necessary to review his political history and to consider each of his political activities in their relation to the thread of the conspiracy, which stretches from the inception of the party in 1919 to the defeat of Germany in 1945.
It is interesting to note that for Rosenberg the 30th of November 1918 marked the
“Beginning of political activities with a lecture about the ‘Jewish Problem’ ”. (2886-PS)
“Beginning of political activities with a lecture about the ‘Jewish Problem’ ”. (2886-PS)
An official German pamphlet entitled, “Dates in the History of the NSDAP”, discloses that Rosenberg was a member of the German Labor Party (afterwards the National Socialist German Workers Party) in January 1919, and that Hitler joined forces with Rosenberg and his colleagues in October of the same year (3557-PS). Thus, Rosenberg was a member of the National Socialist movement even before Hitler himself.
An extract from “Das Deutsche Fuehrer Lexikon”, 1934/35 (3530-PS) completes the biographical data on Rosenberg:
“From 1921 until the present, editor of theVoelkischer Beobachter; editor of the ‘N.S. Monatshefte’; 1930, Reichstag deputy and representative of the foreign policy of the movement; since April 1933, leader of the foreign political office of the NSDAP; then designated as Reichsleiter; January 1934, deputized by the Fuehrer for the spiritual and philosophical education of the NSDAP, the German labor front and all related organizations” (3530-PS).
“From 1921 until the present, editor of theVoelkischer Beobachter; editor of the ‘N.S. Monatshefte’; 1930, Reichstag deputy and representative of the foreign policy of the movement; since April 1933, leader of the foreign political office of the NSDAP; then designated as Reichsleiter; January 1934, deputized by the Fuehrer for the spiritual and philosophical education of the NSDAP, the German labor front and all related organizations” (3530-PS).
In July 1941 Rosenberg was appointed Reichsminister for the Occupied Eastern Territories. (2886-PS)
Rosenberg was the official National Socialist ideologist. Through the ideological tenets which he expounded he exerted an influence upon the unification of German thought, a unification which was an essential part of the conspirator’s program for seizure of power and preparation for aggressive war.
Rosenberg wrote extensively on, and actively participated in, virtually every aspect of the National Socialist program. His first publication was the “Nature, Basic Principles, and Aims of the NSDAP”, which appeared in 1922. Rosenberg spoke of this book in the following terms:
“During this time (that is, during the early phase of the party) a short thesis was written, which nevertheless is significant in the history of the NSDAP. It was always being asked what points of program the NSDAP had and how they each were to be interpreted. Therefore, I wrote the principal program and aims of the NSDAP, and this writing made the first permanent connection between Munich and local organizations being organized and friends within the Reich.” (3054-PS)
“During this time (that is, during the early phase of the party) a short thesis was written, which nevertheless is significant in the history of the NSDAP. It was always being asked what points of program the NSDAP had and how they each were to be interpreted. Therefore, I wrote the principal program and aims of the NSDAP, and this writing made the first permanent connection between Munich and local organizations being organized and friends within the Reich.” (3054-PS)
Thus, the original draftsman of and spokesman for the party program was Rosenberg.
Without attempting to survey the entire ideological program advanced by Rosenberg in his various writings and speeches, certain of his statements may be considered as indicating the nature and scope of the ideological program which he championed. There was not a single basic tenet of the Nazi philosophy which was not given authoritative expression by Rosenberg.
(1)The theory of racism.Rosenberg wrote the “Myth of the Twentieth Century”, published in 1930. At page 479 of this work (3553-PS), Rosenberg expressed the following views on the race question: