Publication Number: M-1019 Publication Title: Records of the United States Nuernberg War Crimes trials Interrogations, 1946-1949 Date Published: 1977 RECORDS OF THE UNITED STATES NUERNBERG WAR CRIMES TRIALS INTERROGATIONS, 1946-1949 On the 91 rolls of this microfilm publication are reproduced nearly 15,000 pretrial interrogation transcripts, summaries, and related records of over 2,250 individuals. The interrogation records were compiled by the Interrogation Branch of the Evidence Division of the Office, Chief of Counsel for War Crimes (OCCWC). These records were used primarily in the prosecution of 185 officials or citizens of the Third Reich in the 12 separate proceedings listed below that were held before U.S. Military Tribunals I-VI from 1946 to 1949 at Nuernberg in the U.S. Zone of Occupation in Germany. No. of Case No. United States v. Popular Name Defendants 1 Karl Brandt et al. Medical Case 23 2 Erhard Milch Milch Case 1 (Luftwaffe) 3 Josef Altstoetter Justice Case 16 et al. 4 Oswald Pohl et al. Pohl Case (SS) 18 5 Friedrich Flick Flick Case 6 et al. (Industrialist) 6 Carl Krauch et al. I. G. Farben Case 24 (Industrialist) 7 Wilhelm List et al. Hostage Case 12 8 Ulrich Greifelt RuSHA Case (SS) 14 et al. 9 Otto Ohlendorf Einsatzgruppen 24 et al. Case (SS) 10 Alfried Krupp Krupp Case 12 et al. (Industrialist) 11 Ernst von Weizscrecker Ministries Case 21 Et al. 12 Wilhelm von Leeb High Command 14 et al. Case Authority for the proceedings of the International Military Tribunal (IMT) against the major Nazi war criminals derived from the Declaration on German Atrocities (Moscow Declaration) released November 1, 1943, Executive Order 9547 of May 2, 1945, the London Agreement of August 8, 1945, the Berlin Protocol of October 6, 1945, and the IMT Charter. Authority for the 12 subsequent cases stemmed mainly from Control Council Law 10 of December 20, 1945, and was reinforced by Executive Order 9679 of January 16, 1946; U.S. Military Government Ordinances Nos. 7 and 11 of October 18, 1946, and February 17, 1947, respectively; and U.S. Forces, European Theater General Order 301 of October 24, 1946. The procedures applied by U.S. Military Tribunals I-VI in the subsequent proceedings were patterned after those of the IMT and further developed in the 12 cases, which required over 1,200 days of court sessions and generated more than 330,000 transcript pages. The processes of collecting data, verifying authenticity and handling the records of the IMT by the prosecution at Nuernberg are described in the affidavit by Maj. William H. Coogan dated November 19, 1945. These processes for the 12 U.S. trials at Nuernberg are summarized in a similar affidavit by Fred Niebergall dated December 3, 1946. OCCWC was officially established on October 24, 1946, having evolved from the Subsequent Proceedings Division of the Office, Chief of Counsel for the Prosecution of Axis Criminality (OCCPAC), which prosecuted the major Nazi war criminals at the IMT at Nuernberg. The Evidence Division of OCCWC, headed by Walter H. Rapp, included the Apprehension and Locator Branch and the Document Control Branch, in addition to the Interrogation Branch. Brig. Gen.Telford Taylor was appointed by the U.S. Prosecutor at the IMT, Justice Robert H. Jackson, as his deputy for subsequent trials. Later in 1946 General Taylor was appointed Chief of Counsel for War Crimes by Gen. Joseph T. McNarney, the commander of headquarters, U.S. Forces, European Theater. Interrogations conducted by the OCCWC Interrogation Branch represented probably no more than 10 percent of those carried out by various organizations in Germany and elsewhere in Europe. These interrogating agencies, including the IMT, the 3d and 7th U.S. Army interrogation centers, the U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey, and others, accumulated large quantities of reports. In order to familiarize themselves with subject matter and documentation of the cases in which they specialized, interrogators were assigned to various OCCWC trial divisions (e.g., Military, SS, Economics, and Ministries Divisions) and trial teams (e.g., I. G. Farben, Justice, Dresdner Bank, Krupp, and Flick teams). They were generally fluent in German and normally conducted interrogations in that language. Sound recordings were made of the interrogations, and notes were taken by a stenographer for later transcription. Almost all of the interrogation transcripts in this collection are in the German language and not all have been translated into English. Many have a control or identification number. The transcripts are generally unsigned and range from 1 to 50 pages in length, averaging less than 10 pages. In addition to the actual interrogation, they generally contain the names of persons interrogated, interrogator, and stenographer, as well as date and hour of the interrogation. The interrogation transcript is normally in the form of questions posed by the interrogator and the answers provided by the interrogated person. The interrogation transcripts are arranged in folders, one per folder. They frequently are preceded by interrogation summaries in English. These summaries are numbered from 1 to 4896; each one contains a brief interrogation summation, a list of persons mentioned in the transcript, the name of the OCCWC trial division or team that requested the interrogation, and the date of the interrogation. In rare cases the transcript is missing and only a summary is available. Some folders contain an affidavit in German based on an interrogation, rather than the transcript itself. The affidavits are sometimes signed, and some contain the interrogated person's curriculum vitae. The folders and the documents they contain are filmed alphabetically by surname of the person interrogated and thereunder chronologically by date of the interrogation. Following these, the summaries are filmed again in numerical sequence (1-4896 with a few gaps) on rolls 82-91. Filmed at the beginning of roll one are key documents from which the tribunals derived their jurisdiction: the Moscow Declaration, U.S. Executive Orders 9547 and 9679, the; London Agreement, the Berlin Protocol, the IMT Charter, Control Council Law 10, U.S. Military Government Ordinances Nos. 7 and 11, and U.S. Forces, European Theater General Order 301. Affidavits by Major Coogan and Fred Niebergall are filmed following the key documents. These are followed by an alphabetical list of the persons interrogated by OCCWC's Interrogation Branch, the principal finding aid. Two appendixes are also reproduced on roll one. Appendix 1 is an alphabetically arranged list of names of individuals interrogated by the IMT Interrogation Division under the direction of Col. John H. Amen, 1945-46. Appendix 2 contains two lists: first, individual reports arranged alphabetically by names of persons interrogated by various agencies and made available to the OCCWC Interrogation Branch and the IMT Interrogation Division; second, an unarranged list of consolidated interrogation reports grouped by subject matter and collected at Nuernberg from various sources, including 3d and 7th U.S. Army interrogation centers as well as British agencies. The U.S. tribunals' interrogation transcripts, summaries, and related records, and those described in appendixes 2 and 3, like the records of the other Nuernberg and Far East (IMTFE) war crimes trials, are part of the National Archives Collection of World War II War Crimes Records, Record Group 238. They are closely related to other microfilmed records in Record Group 238, specifically: Prosecution Exhibits Submitted to the International Military Tribunal, T988 Records of the Office of the United States Chief of counsel for War Crimes, Nuernberg, Military Tribunals, Relating to Nazi Industrialists, T301 Records of the United States Nuernberg war Crimes trials: NOKW Series, 1933-1947, T1119 NG Series, 1933-1948, T1139 NM Series, 1874-1946, M936 NP Series, 1934-1946, M942 WA Series, 1940-1945, M946 Guertner Diaries, October 5, 1934-December 24, 1938, M978 Records of the United States Nuernberg War Crimes trials, United States of America v.: Karl Brandt et al. (Case I), November 21, 1946-August 20, 1947, M887 Erhard Milch (Case IIJ, November 13, 1946-ApriZ 17, 1947, M888 Josef Altstoetter et al. (Case III), February 17, 1947-December 4, 1947, M889 Oswald Pohl et al. (Case IV), January 13, 1947-August 11, 1948, M890 Friedrich Flick et al. (Case V), March 3, 1947-December 22, 1947, M891 Wilhelm List et al. (Case VII), July 8, 1947-February 19, 1948, M893 Ulrich Greifelt et al. (Case VIII), October 10, 1947-March 10, 1948, M894 Otto Ohlendorf et al. (Case IX), September15, 1947-ApriZ 10, 1948, M895 In addition, the record of the IMT at Nuernberg has been published in Trial of the Major War Criminals Before the International Military Tribunal (Nuernberg, 1947), 42 vols. Excerpts from the subsequent proceedings have been published as Trials of War criminals Before the Nuernberg Military Tribunal Under Control Council Law No. 10 (U.S. Government Printing Office), 15 vols. The National Archives and Records Service holds motion pictures and photographs of many sessions of the IMT and of the 12 U.S. proceedings, and sound recordings of the IMT proceedings only. Several of the interrogation transcripts and summaries contain material of a private nature, such as medical data of witnesses and defendants, that is subject to restrictions on access and use. George Wagner compiled appendix 2, and Donald E. Spencer arranged the records for filming. The introduction was written by John Mendelsohn. ALPHABETICAL LIST OF PERSONS INTERROGATED Following is an alphabetical list of individuals interrogated by the Interrogation Branch of the OCCWC and the date(s) of interrogation. Abeck, ---, Sept. 17, 1947 Abend, Viktor, Apr. 9, 1947 Abraham, Hans, Aug. 30, 1947 Abraham, Karl, Feb. 3 and 17, 1947 Abs, Hermann, Oct. 2, 6, and 21, 1947; Mar. 15, 1948 Abs, Otto, Aug. 19, 1947 Ackermann, Josef, Mar.