-50-

... BIND BOOKS IN HUMAN SKIN

29 Jan 46

M. DUBOST: And in the working groups?

THE PRESIDENT: We have heard that they were all mixed up. M. DUBOST: The fact will not have escaped the Tribunal that these questions are put to counter other questions which were asked this morning by the Counsel for the Defense with the intent to confuse not the Tribunal, but the witnesses.

BALACHOWSKY: I repeat that we had a complete conglomeration of nationalities and categories of prisoners.

THE PRESIDENT: That is exactly what he said, that these ttriangles were completely mixed up.

M. DUBOST: I think, that the statement by this second witness will definitively enlighten the Tribunal on this point, whatever the efforts of the Defense might be to mislead us.

[Turning to the witness] Do you know anything about the fate of tattooed men?

BALACHOWSKY: Yes, indeed.

M. DUBOST: Will you please tell us what you know about them?

BALACHOWSKY: Tattooed human skins were stored in Block 2, which was called at Buchenwald the Pathological Block.

M. DUBOST: Were there many tattooed human skins in Block 2?

BALACHOWSKY: There were always tattooed human skins in Block 2. I cannot say whether there were many, as they were continuously being received and passed on but there were not only tatooed human skins, but also tanned human skins - simply tanned, not tattooed.

M. DUBOST: Did they skin people?

BALACHOWSKY: They removed the skin and then tanned it.

M. DUBOST: Will you continue your testimony on that point?

BALACHOWSKY: I saw SS men come out of Block 2, the Pathological Block, carrying tanned skins under their arms. I know, from my old comrades who worked in Pathological Block 2, that were orders for skins; and these tanned skins were given as gifts to certain guards and to certain visitors, who used them to bind books.

M. DUBOST: We were told that Koch, who was the head at that time, was sentenced for this practice.

BALACHOWSKY: I was not a witness of the Koch affair, which happened before I came to the camp.

M. DUBOST: So that even after he left there were still tanned and tattooed skins?

BALACHOWSKY: Yes, there were constantly tanned and tattooed skins, and when the camp was liberated by the Americans,

IMT VI

311

-51-

... an objection from the defense

TWENTIETH DAY

Friday, 14 December 1945

Morning Session

DR. KAUFFMANN: May I bring up two points with regard to yesterday's and all future presentation of evidence on the section dealing with Crimes against Humanity.

Firstly, I request that the affidavit of the witness Pfaffenberger, which was submitted yesterday, be stricken from the record. The witness himself will later have to be cross-examined, since his affidavit is fragmentary in most important points. In many cases it does not a clear whether his statements are based on personal observations or on hearsay, and therefore it is too easy to draw false conclusions. The witness did not mention that the Camp Commander Koch and his inhuman wife were condemned to death by an SS court among other things on account of these occurrences.

It ls, of course, possible to ascertain the complete facts by questioning the witness at a later stage of the Trial. But until then the Tribunal and all members of the Prosecution and the Defense must be continually influenced by such dreadful testimony.

The contents of this testimony are so horrifying and so degrading to the human mind that one would like to avert one's eyes and ears. In the meantime such statements make their way into the press of the whole world, and civilization is justly indignant. The consequences of such prejudiced statements are incalculable. The Prosecutor clearly recognized the significance of this testimony and exposed the sorry documents in yesterday's proceedings.

If weeks or months pass before such testimony is rectified, its initial effect can never be wholly eliminated; but truth suffers and justice is endangered thereby. Surely, Article 19 of the Charter does not envisage bringing about such a state of affairs.

Secondly, I should, therefore, like to suggest that at the present stage of the Trial the testimony of witnesses who live in Germany, and whose appearance here in court is possible should not be read in the proceedings. For at this stage of the Trial the charges being made are even more terrible than those referring to wars of aggression, since the tortured lives and deaths of human beings are involved.

At the beginning of the Trial the Tribunal refused to admit testimony of the witness Schuschnigg, and it is my opinion that

IMT III

542

-52-

14 Dec. 45

apparently the real source of this discussion. According to our legal system it is the duty of the Prosecution to produce not only the incriminating evidence but also evidence for the defense of the accused. I can well understand that my colleague, Dr. Kauffmann, protests the Prosecut ion 's failure to mention a very important point, namely, that the German authorities indicted this inhuman leader and his wife and condemned them to death . It is highly probable that the Prosecution knew of this and that these horri ble exhibits of perverted human nature, which were presented to us, were found in the files of the German Court.

I believe the whole discussion would not have arisen if the Prosecution had mentioned, as part of the ghastly evidence, the fact that the German authorities themselves passed judgment on this inhuman man and condemned him to death.

We find ourselves in difficulties because, in contrast to our own procedure, the Prosecution for the most part simply presents incriminating evidence but omits to presen t the exculpating evidence which may form part of any document or part of the testimony of a witness. If the German procedure had been followed in the present case and if the Prosecution had stated that this man was condemned to death, then in the first place, the evidence against the Defendant Kaltenbrunner would not have appeared so weighty and secondly, public opinion would, on the whole, have been left with a different impression. My colleague Kauffmann could then have limited himself to proving at a later stage of the Trial that Kaltenbrunner had, in fact, nothing at all to do with this affair; and the inhuman character of. the proceedings and the dreadful impression which it made on us would have been avoided.

THE PRESIDENT: Will you explain the part of the German law to which you were referring, where you say it is the duty of the Prosecution not only to produce evidence for the Prosecution but also to produce evidence for the Defense.

DR. BERGOLD: That is a general principle of German jurisprudence, established in Paragraph 160 of the Reich Code of Penal Procedure. It is one of the basic principles of law in Germany to ...

THE PRESIDENT: Give me that reference again.

DR. BERGOLD.: Paragraph 160. German law incorporates this principle in order to enable an accused person to ...

THE PRESIDENT: 160 of what?

DR. BERGOLD: Of the Reich Code of Penal Procedure. The same is true of Austria. In the Austrian Code of Penal Procedure there is a similar paragraph with which, however, I am not quite familiar. This principle is established to permit the whole truth of a case to be brought to light, since a defendant in custody is frequently

IMT III

549