authorities used different administrative procedures. I can give the following example for the killing of children: The names of newly born children who were deformed or partly paralyzed, or mentally deficient, were submitted to the health authorities and finally to a Reich agency in Berlin-W.9 P: O. B. 101. A short time after the reports were filed, the County Health authorities of the respective districts, received an order that these children should be sent to a special institution for special modern therapy. I know from hundreds of cases, that this "special modern therapy" was nothing less than the killing of these childrenfor instance, in the institution of Haar-Eglfing and others. I read dozens of such orders which said that this procedure of assignment of such children to institutions was "in agreement with the Herrn Reich Minister des Innern (Hr. Reich Minister of the Interior)." Another method of killing so-called "useless eaters" was to starve them. This was done particularly in a period, when for reasons I do not know, the killing itself was not possible, because possibly of transportation difficulties from one institution to another. At the end of 1942 a conference took place in the Bavarian Ministry of the Interior which is under the direct supervision of the Reich Ministry of the Interior about the procedure for starving such people to death. In this conference, the directors of the asylums were instructed that "useless eaters" who could not work very much, should be killed by slow starvation. This method apparently was considered very good, because the victims would appear to have died a "natural death". This was a way of camouflaging the killing procedure. I know from the files of the institution where I am now director, that several hundred people were starved to death. In analyzing the whole system of these mass-killings, I can state as a psychiatrist, familiar with such cases, that hundreds of the people killed would have been absolutely able to perform a certain amount of simple work under supervision-among them, according to my knowledge, some people who had brain injuries from the First World War. Among the people who were killed were also aged people who were a little feeble-minded. So far as the children were concerned, they had mainly brain diseases, but not hereditary diseases, except in a very few cases. In any normal society, such children, mentally deficient, and aged peo ple would have been treated and cared for in the proper way and not killed as "useless eaters". Signed: Dr. Gerhard Schmidt Subscribed and sworn to before me this 28th day of March 1946. Dr. Robert M. W. Kempner, TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 3843-PS Business number Vg 3c Vr 1920/45 INTERROGATION OF WITNESS District Court for penal matters Vienna I sitting in Salzburg on 15 October 1945 beginning of session: 2:00 o'clock PRESENT: Judge: L. G. R. Dr. Sucher Recorder: CHARGE: against Dr. Guido Schmidt and others. The witness is warned to tell the whole truth in answer to the questions put to him, to the best of his knowledge and conscientiously, to conceal nothing, and to give his testimony in such a way that he can if necessary confirm it under oath. He gives his personal data as follows: 1. Given name and surname: 2. Age: 3. Place of birth: 4. Religion: 5. Marital status: 6. Occupation: 7. Residence: 8. Relationship to the accused or to other persons partici- Karl Karwinsky 57 years Roman Catholic Married State Secretary, retired Salzburg, Schallmoserhauptstrasse 1 not related I was State Secretary in the Dollfuss and Schuschnigg cabinets from September 1933 to 15 October 1935. I was therefore not a member of the cabinet when Guido Schmidt was State Secretary or Minister. I was therefore not able to follow closely his activity in directing for Foreign Ministry. It was known that Guido Schmidt had to pursue a policy toward the Reich which aimed at pacification. However, he had, of course, to pursue the same policy toward the [western powers?] and Italy, when it became clear that Austria urgently needed restraint on the part of these big powers toward Germany. In this connection I recall several occurrences. The treatment which he afforded the foreign representatives was often not at all of a kind to gain sympathy for Austria. I recall that the Italian Foreign Minister Ciano and his wife were annoyed at the way their visit to Vienna developed, since they did not receive enough attention. The worst impression was made by a performance in the Schoenbrunn Castle Theater, where a very mediocre cast rendered the performance, and there were noticeable gaps even in the first few rows of seats, a picture which, if one considers Ciano's well-known vanity, should have been avoided by all means. On Neurath's visit, at any rate, Schmidt had prepared an entirely different type of welcome. I know from repeated talks with the French Minister Puaux, whom I knew as one of Austria's most reliable friends, that he was very much disturbed at Schmidt's personal conduct toward him. Schmidt repeatedly kept Puaux waiting for an unsuitably long time, and, as Puaux thought, with demonstrative intention, when Puaux visited him, only to dismiss him with brief and noncommittal remarks. I also recall that England and Belgium had no corresponding information on the critical situation in Austria. While interned in Magdeburg, there came to my hands the reference book "Who's Who", which contains the personalities prominent in the politics and economy of the Third Reich. The enumeration of the positions held by Guido Schmidt as director-general of the Hermann Goering Works and the numerous supervisory and administrative positions held by him at home and abroad took up much more space than with most of the others. The deceased wife of the deceased mayor Schmitz, who was in a concentration camp to the end, once turned to Guido Schmidt in her need. First he kept her waiting for an hour, and then he told her that he did not understand why she was excited-there were so many others in Dachau. At the end of February 1938 I met the then Minister of the Interior Glaise-Horstenau, in Herrengasse [name of street]. He was obviously very cheerful and greeted me with a lively: “How are you, how are you?" I could not share his cheerful mood in those critical days and replied with emphasis: "I am getting along just as an Austrian should in these days. The man out there [Hitler] has his program, and I am afraid that it will not be long before he carries it out." Glaise-Horstenau answered, quite unconcerned: "Yes, of course, he has his program" whereupon I left this Austrian Minister of the Interior. Shortly after Easter 1934 I received the news that the prisoners in the Kaiser-Steinbruch detention camp had gone on a hunger strike. Thereupon I went there myself, in order to inform myself about the situation. While comparative calm and discipline prevailed in most of the barracks, one barrack was very disorderly. I noticed that one tall man seemed to be the leader of the resistance. This was Kaltenbrunner, at that time a candidate for attorney-at-law, who was under arrest because of his illegal activity in Austria. While all the other barracks gave up their hunger strike after a talk which I held with representatives of the prisoners, the barracks under Kaltenbrunner persisted in the strike. I saw Kaltenbrunner again in the Mauthausen camp, when I was severely ill and lying on rotten straw with many hundred other seriously ill persons, many of them dying. The prisoners, suffering from hunger edema and from the most serious intestinal sicknesses, were lying in unheated barracks in the dead of winter. The most primitive sanitary arrangements were lacking. The toilets and the washrooms were unusable for months. The severely ill persons had to relieve themselves on little marmalade buckets. The soiled straw was not renewed for weeks, so that a stinking liquid was formed, in which worms and maggots crawled around. There was no medical attention or medicine. Conditions were such that 10 to 20 persons died every night. Kaltenbrunner walked through the barracks with a brilliant suite of high SS functionaries, saw everything, must have seen everything. We were under the illusion that these inhuman conditions would now be changed, but they apparently met with Kaltenbrunner's approval, for nothing happened. In connection with Guido Schmidt, I should like to mention that Dr. Froehlichstal, the secretary of the Chancellor, was often able to keep people from reaching the Chancellor. I had the impression at that time already, however, that Froehlichstal did not put up these difficulties on behalf of the Chancellor, but was waging his own politics. Dr. Sucher Read, approved and signed by I certify that the testimony of Karwinsky was taken before the Austrian court. The present document is a copy of the testimony. Signed: Dr. Arnold Sucher Appellate Court Judge [Oberlandesgerichtsrat] 3 Excerpt of interrogation of Albert Tiefenbacher [Albert Tiefenbacher was at Mauthausen concentration camp from 1938 until 31 May 1945 and he was employed in the crematorium for three years as a carrier of dead bodies.] Q. Do you remember Eigruber? A. Eigruber and Kaltenbrunner were from Linz. Q. Did you ever see them in Mauthausen? A. I saw Kaltenbrunner very often. Q. How many times? A. He came from time to time and went through the crematorium. Q. About how many times? A. Three or four times. Q. On any occasion when he came through, did you hear him say anything to anybody? A. When Kaltenbrunner arrived most prisoners had to disappear, only certain people were introduced to him. |