Ernst Kaltenbrunner, chief of the German Security Police, under whose direction millions of Jews were murdered in Eastern Europe, told the International Military Tribunal today that he was unaware of the extermination of Jews for many months and, when he learned of them, he had protested to Hitler concerning the policy of Gestapo chief Heinrich Himmler.
Despite the laughter with which the audience greeted these denials, Kalton-brunner also claimed that he was not responsible for ordering the Lutwaffo to bomb the Jewish camps of Landsberg and Muehldorf which was charged in an affidavit by Bertus Gerous, his former secretary. After Gerous allegedly sabotaged the order, and prevented the camps’ destruction, Kaltenbrunner ordered the Landsberg Jews to be sent to Dachau where they were to be poisoned, while the Muehldorf prisoners were turned over to the Gestapo for killing.
Kaltenbrunner was accused in an affidavit by another subordinate of ordering the Jews driven from camp to camp to prevent them from being liberated by the Allied armies, even though Himmler himself had ordered that they be allowed to remain in the camps.
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