-41-

... CUT PEOPLE'S HEADS OFF AND SHRINK THEM

13 Dec. 46

found in Buchenwald Camp and captured by military forces under the command of the Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Forces."

And the last paragraph of Document 3423-PS (Exhibit USA-252) is a conclusion reached in a United States Army report, and I quote it:

"Based on the findings in Paragraph 2, all three specimens are tattooed human skin."

This document is also attached to this exhibit on the board. We do not wish to dwell on this pathological phase of the Nazi culture; but we do feel compelled 'to offer one additional exhibit, which we offer as Exhibit Number USA-254. This exhibit, which is on the table, is a human head with the skull bone removed, shrunken, stuffed and preserved. The Nazis had one of their many victims decapitated after having had him hanged, apparently for fraternizing with a German woman, and fashioned this terrible ornament from his head.

The last paragraph of the official United States Army report from which I have just read deals with the manner in which this exhibit was acquired. It reads as follows:

"There I also saw the shrunken heads of two Poles who had been hanged for having relations with German girls. The heads were the size of a fist, and the hair and the marks of the rope were still there."

Another certificate by Lieutenant Demas is set forth in Docu­ment 3422-PS (Exhibit USA-254) and is similar to the one which I have read a few minutes ago with relation to the human skin. excepting that it applies to this second exhibit. We have no accurate estimate of how many persons died in these concentration camps and perhaps none will ever be made; but as the evidence already introduced before this Tribunal indicates, the Nazi conspirators were generally meticulous record keepers. But the records whic they kept about concentrauon camps appear to have been quite incomplete. Per haps the character of the records resulted from the indifference which the Nazis felt for the lives of their victims. But occasionally we find a death book or a set of index cards. For the most part, nevertheless, the victims apparently faded into an unrecorded death. Reference to a set of death books suggests at once the scale of the concentration camp operations, and we refer now and offer Document Number 493-PS as Exhibit Number USA-251. This exhibit is a set of seven books, the death ledger of the Mauthausen Concentration. Camp. Each book has on its cover the word "Totenbuch" (or Death Book)-Mauthausen.

In these books were recorded the names of some of the inmates who died or were murdered in this camp, and the books cover the

IMT III

516

-42-

DOCUMENT 3421·PS

CERTIFICATION OF ORIGIN OF EXHIBIT USA-252 (3420-PS) AND ACCOUNT BY GERMAN PRISONER OF WAR OF THE KILLING OF PRISONERS IN BUCHENWALD CONCENTRATION CAMP TO OBTAIN TATTOOED HUMAN SKIN FOR ORNAMENTAL PURPOSES (EXHIBIT USA-253)

OFFICE OF U. S. CHIEF OF COUNSEL FOR THE PROSECUTION OF AXIS CRIMINALITY

16 November 1945

CERTIFICATE

I, GEORGE C. DEMAS, LIEUT., USNR, associated with the United States Chief of Counsel for the Prosecution of Axis Crim­inality, hereby certify that the attached exhibit, consisting of parchment, was delivered by the War Crimes Section, Judge Advocate General, U. S. Army, to me in my above capacity, in the usual course of official business, as an exhibit found in Buchenwald Camp and captured by military forces under the command of the Supreme Commande, Allied Expeditionary Forces.

NAME eorge C. Demas
RANK Lieutenant
USNR FILE NO. 3 0 1 9 73

AFFIDA,VIT

Before me, Sidney N. Schreiber, 2nd Lieutenant AC, being authorized to administer oaths, personally appeared Jack R. Nowitz, 2nd Lieutenant AUS, who, being by me first duly sworn, made and subscribed the follOWing statement:

1. That sometime during the period of April to July 1945, the exhibit attached hereto, labeled "Section of 'Human' Skin Lamp Shade," Buchenwald Concentration Camp," was described to me by Raymond M. Givens, Lieutenant Colonel, Infantry, to have been secured by him as follows:'-.

That during the investigation and preparation of evidence regarding war crimes committed as the said

IMT XXXII

267

-43-

3421-PS

Buchenwald Concentration Camp, he had acted as Investigator-Examiner assigned to the Judge Advocate Section, War Crimes Branch, Third United States Army:

That the above exhibit was secured by him at said camp during the period of the investigation and turned over to the War Crimes Branch of the Judge Advocate Section, Third United States Army, along with the other evidence secured in the case. .
2. That the attached exhibit is the one referred to in the above statements made to me.

Jack R. Nowitz, JACK R. Nowitz, 2 Lt., AUS.

Subscribed and swom to before me at Munich, Germany, on 3 November 1945

Sidney M. Schreiber SIDNEY N. SCHREIBER, 2nd Lt., AC, Investigator-Examiner.

SECRET

Mobile Field Interrogation Unit No. 2 PW INTELLIGENCE BULLETIN

No 2/20

19 December 1944

Address Briefs and Requests to HQ. FID, MIS, APO 887 EXTRACT

Pre a m b l e. The author of this account is PW Andreas PFAFFENBERGER, 1 Coy, 9 Landesschuetzen Bn. 43 years old and of limited education, he is a butcher by trade. The substantial agreement of the details of his story with those found in PWIS (H) /LF1736 establishes the validity of his testimony.

IMT XXXII

211

•

-44-

3421-PS

account,which he wrote without being told anything of the intelligence already known. Results of interrogation on personalities at BUCHENWALD have already been published (PWIB No 2/12 Item 31).

• • • •

In 1939, all prisoners with tattooing on them were ordered to report to the dispensary. No one knew what the purpose was. But after the tattooed prisoners had been examined, the ones with the best and most artistic specimens were kept in the dispensary, and then killed by injections, administered by Karl B E I G S, a criminal prisoner. The corpses were then turned over to the pathological department, where the desired pieces of tattoed skin were detached from the bodies and treated. The finished products were turned over to SS Standartenfuehrer KOCH's wife, who had them fashioned into lampshades and other ornamental household articles. I myself saw such tattoed skins with various designs and legends on them, such as "Hans'l und Gretel", which one prisoner had had on his knee, and ships from prisoner's chests. This work was done by a prisoner named WERNERBACH.

There I also saw the shrunken heads of two young Poles who had been hanged for having had relations with German girls. The heads were the size of a fist, and the hair and the marks of the rope were still there.

19 November 1945 Certified to be "a true copy James B. Donovan Commander, USNR

DOCUMENT 3422.PS

PHOTOGRAPH OF SHRUNKEN HUMAN HEAD FOUND IN BUCHENWALD CONCENTRATION CAMP, AND CERTIFICATION (EXHIBIT USA-254)

EXPLANATORY NOTE:

Photo of head reproduced. Extract from PW Intell, Bulletin reproduced under 3421-PS

IMT XXXII

269

-45-

OFFICE OF U.S. CHIEF OF COUNSEL FOR THE PROSECUTION OF AXIS CRIMINALITY

16 November 1945.

CERTIFICATE

I, GEORGE C. DEMAS, LIEUT., USNR, associated with the United States Chief of Counsel for the Prosecution of Axis Crim­inality, hereby certify that the attached exhibit, consisting of one shrunken head, was delivered by the War Crimes Section, Judge Advocate General, U.S. Army, to me in my above capacity, in the usual course of official business, as an exhibit found in Buchenwald Camp and captured by military forces under the command of the Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Forces,

NAME GEORGE C. DEMAS RANK Lieutenant, USNR FILE NO. 3 0 1 9 7 3

WAR CRIMES BRANCH i ) Records Subsection

10 November 1945

Receipt for the two following exhibits of Concentration Camp Buchenwald is hereby acknowledged:

Item 106 3 pieces of human skin (tattooed) exhibit B 2
Item 106 Human head (shrunken) exhibit B 3

GEORGE C DEMAS Lt USNR

1) Carbon copy

IMT XXXII

270

-47-

•

... MAKE POCKET BOOKS AND DRIVING GLOVES FOR S.S. OFFICERS OUT OF HUMAN SKIN

2428-PS

Q. Was Dr.RASCHER in c:harge of this work for this whole period?
A. Yes. RASCHER told me that he had been put on this work by HIMMLER personally and he was there until it was abandoned; I forgot to mention that in the early pan of the work in 19[illegible] Russian civilians, prisoners of war and Jews of all nationalities were killed. Particular attention was paid in being sure that a man was a Russian commissar or some sort of intellectual.
Q. Is there anything else that you would like to add about this experiment?
A. Yes. I can never forget the way RASCHER acted. RASCHER used to go for the prisoners personally and would bring them in at pistol point. He would casually shoot any who tried to make a break or any who did not move fast enough. Once herded into the room he would sneer and tell them that they had fifteen minutes to llve and he would relax the prohibition of no smoking among prisoners and that they could have a smoke. The, most disgusting part was that when the prisoners lined up, RASCHER would go along and make what he called a leather inspection. He would grab a man by the buttocks and thighs and say "good." After the group had been killed, the skin from these bodies would be removed from these thighs and buttocks. I was in the office many times when human skin with blood still on it was brought into RASCHER. After the bodies had been carted away, RASCHER would inspect them carefully, holding them up to the light for flaws, and would pass on them before they were tanned. They were always stretched over small wooden frames when they came to RASCHER. I saw the finished leather later made into a handbag that Mrs. RASCHER was carrying. Most of it went for driving gloves for the SS officers of the camp..."
Q. Was this so-called "Doctor" a doctor of medicine or science?
A. He was a doctor of medicine, I do know that. He

-Page 5 -

was about thirty-:four years of age. I have been told that RASCHER was killed by the SS before the Americans got here but I have no proof of that.
Q. Were there any other experiments conducted other than those you have mentioned?
A. Yes.
Q. What were they?

IMT XXX

-48-

2428-PS

gas chamber at the new crematorium and extremities of the body amputated without the use of anaesthetics, i.e., living bodies were used to simulate battle field condition wounds and shell fire wounds. The coagulation tests were being conducted during this time. Dr. RASCHER conducted this experiment and would later dictate his findings for the official report.
Q. Were there any other things of this nature that went on?
A. I remember in particular any report I made out almost always ended with the remark "Experiment successful but the patient died." This may sound like a joke as I have heard it before but I have never had to write it before and realize it was true.
Q. Arel there any more experiments you remember wherein you can give names of personnel conducting them?
A. None, except I would like to tell what I know of the dungeon here. I was thrown into the dungeon after having escaped from camp. The circumstances of my escape were that in RASCHER's absence I cleaned out his safe and took all signed receipts of sale of gloves and pocketbooks that RASCHER had sold, i.e. gloves and pocketbooks made from human skin. There were other docurnents also which I can't remember now. My English friend in camp who has since been killed made a contact for me on the outside. When I left camp I met this intermediary from the British and handed him all these compromising documents. This person took them on to Switzerland. I do not know where he is now nor where the documents are. I came back under guard anti thought I would be killed but RASCHER saved my life. RASCHER was in trouble charged with negligence and he thought I could save him. He in turn said he had burned the documents in question and I was merely thrown into the dungeon where I remained for nine months in chains. RASCHER was convicted of negligence and many other things and was later dismissed from the service and I understand has since been killed by the SS, for what he knew. RASCHER's wife was convicted for embezzlement and imprisoned. I gave RASCHER 5,000 marks to keep from being killed even before this came up. I had money on the outside. RASCHER had told us when I gave him the 5,000 marks that the SS was afraid something would go wrong in Germany and that the American Invasion might be successful and if it was every prisoner would be killed.

Q, Who was in charge of the dungeon?

A. Sturmfuhrer STILLER. I don't remember the name of his assistant. Most of the punishment I received in the dungeon was inflicted by an SS men [sic] from Munich who came from the Gestapo

IMT XXX