The Nuremberg Trials (Vol.10). International Military Tribunal

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СКАЧАТЬ purposes. Specific facts, that is, specific instances, were certainly not mentioned, but only a general assertion was made, and it was also asserted that Hitler Youth abroad were even used as paratroopers, that is, that they had been trained at home as paratroopers in order to be used abroad in this capacity.

      That is the assertion which I submit to you, and I now ask to have your opinion on this, whether, on the basis of your knowledge as the competent leader of the Auslands-Organisation, something like that did occur or whether anything like that was at all possible?

      BOHLE: I would like to say the following in reply: I consider it entirely out of the question that members of the Hitler Youth abroad were misused in this way. I can assert that so much the more since I know I would have heard anything to the contrary from the leaders of the Party in the various foreign countries.

      I know also nothing at all about the training of the Hitler Youth as paratroopers or anything similar. I consider these assertions as absolutely pure invention.

      DR. SAUTER: Then I may assume, as the result of your testimony, that things of that sort on the basis of the entire organization would certainly have come to your knowledge, if something like that had occurred or perhaps even only had been planned; is that correct?

      BOHLE: Yes, indeed.

      DR. SAUTER: And then, Witness, I have a last question: Here in the courtroom a further assertion was also made about the HJ, that is, about the Hitler Youth. It has been asserted that at LVW it once happened that the Hitler Youth or members of the Hitler Youth had used Little children as targets. Also in this report no details of course were given, but only the assertion wag made. The following would interest me: As you know the Hitler Youth had, I believe, a membership toward the end of about 7 to 8 million.

      THE PRESIDENT: Dr. Sauter, does that have anytkng to do with the Auslands-Organisation?

      DR. SAUTER: Yes, it does insofar .as my client, the Defendant Von Schirach, is charged with the fact that the Hitler Youth abroad committed such atrocities.

      THE PRESIDENT: It was not suggested that they did this abroad, was it-that Hitler Youth ever used children as targets abroad?

      DR. SAUTER: Yes, indeed, it was said that at Lvov, in the Government General, not in Germany, but in Lvov, which means abroad.

      THE PRESIDENT: You mean after the war began?

      DR. SAUTER: Yes.

      THE PRESIDENT: I thought this witness was speaking about the same organization before the war.

      DR. SAUTER: I do not know whether he was also talking about the Auslands-Organisation during the war. But in any case, Mr.President, the witness knows these facts, for he was the head of the Auslanck-Organisation. Therefore this witness seems to me especially qualified to give us information on these matters.

      THE PRESIDENT: It seems to me that we are very far from the point, but you can go on.

      DR. SAUTER: Yes, Mr. President, for otherwise I would have to call expressly this witness for my client again.

      Witness, do you at all recall the last question I put to you, whether you had any knowledge that the Hitler Youth, or members of the Hitler Youth abroad, which was under your jurisdiction, is supposed to have committed atrocities of that nature?

      BOHLE: I regret to tell you, Mr. Attorney, that the Government General did not belong to the Auslands-Organisation, that I was never there and therefore am not in a position to state anything on that point. Obviously the erroneous opinion seems to exist that the Government General, from the point of view of the organization of the Party, was connected with the Auslands-Organisation; however that was not the case. I had no organizational powers there. .DR. SAUTER: Otherwise, I have no further questions.

      DR. ROBERT SERVATIUS (Counsel for the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party): Witness, to what extent, in your capacity as Reichsleiter of the Auslands-Organisation, were you informed about the foreign political intentions of the Führer?

      BOHLE: I was not Reichsleiter, but Gauleiter, and was never informed of the foreign political intentions of the Fuhrer.

      DR. SERVATIUS: Do you know whether the Führer basically advocated to your organization an understanding with England?

      BOHLE: I do not quite understand your question.

      DR. SERVATIUS: Did Hitler, before the war, in your presence and before the other Gauleiter, frequently emphasize the fact that he wanted at all costs an understanding with England, and that you also were to work for its achievement?

      BOHLE: I received no orders in this respect from the Führer, but certainly from the Deputy of the Führer. The Führer never discussed foreign political matters with me during the 12 years I was in office.

      DR. SERVATIUS: I have no further questions.

      THE PRESIDENT: Do any members of the Defense Counsel want to ask any other questions?

      LIEUTENANT COLONEL J. M. G. GRIFFITH-JONES (Junior Counsel for the United Kingdom): Your Auslands-Organisation was organized in the same way as the Party in Germany was organized; is that not so?

      BOHLE: Not in all points, because there were various organizations within the body of the Party in the Reich which were not intended for foreign countries, for example, the Office for Municipal Policy.

      LT. COL. GRIFFITH-JONES: Perhaps I can shorten my question: Did you have Hoheitstrager abroad in the same way as you had them in Gmany?

      BOHLE: Yes.

      LT. COL. GRIFFITH-JONES: The organization in each country was under the Landesgruppenleiter; is that correct?

      BOHLE: In almost all countries.

      LT. COL. GRIFFITH-JONES: And under many there were lowerranking Hoheitstrager?

      BOHLE: Yes, the Ortsgruppenleiter.

      LT. COL. GRIFFITH-JONES: Was the result of that, that you had your German population in foreign countries well organized and known to the leaders in those countries? BOHLE: To a great extent that might be correct, but it was not SO thoroughly organized, nor could it actually be so, because the leader of the Party did not know all the Reich Germans in the country concerned.

      LT. COL. GRIFFITH-JONES: Did it never occur to you that in the event of your army's invading a country where you had a well-organized organization, that organization would be of extreme military value?

      BOHLE: No, that was not the sense and the purpose of the Auslands-Organisation and no offices ever approached me in this connection.

      LT. COL. GRIFFITH-JONES: Are you telling this Tribunal now that when the various countries of Europe were in fact invaded by the German Army your local organizations did nothing to assist them in a military or semimilitary capacity?

      BOHLE: Yes, indeed.

      LT. COL. GRIFFITH-JONES: Very well. Now, let me ask you about something else for a moment: You had, had you not, an efficient system of reporting from your Landesgruppenleiter to your head office in Berlin?

      BOHLE: Yes.

      LT. COL. GRIFFITH-JONES: I think you have said yourself, did you not, in your СКАЧАТЬ