Konrad Morgen, Brief against Koch & Hoven, April 1944 (NO-2366)

[Archie]

Morgen is very well-known to revisionists and is mentioned frequently. But I have not heard much detailed discussion of this particular document. It caught my eye because it is a wartime document authored by Morgen, not just postwar testimony. It deals with Morgen's investigations against Koch and Hoven at Buchenwald.

I have found a copy of it at Harvard's Nuremberg site. It's a blurry photostatic copy. 96 pages. In German. With those three factors in combination, I found it to be too difficult for me to read. I gave up trying to read it straight through very quickly. I'm hoping someone has already looked at this. If not I will probably try to grind through a few select parts of it.

Full document (in German)
https://nuremberg.law.harvard.edu/docum ... O-2366#p.1

There does not seem to have been a full English translation (probably because of the length). The document was used at the NMT Medical Case (where Dr. Hoven was on trial). Here is the partial translation. It is very partial (only two pages).
https://nuremberg.law.harvard.edu/docum ... O-2366#p.1

And there's also a three page summary/analysis.
https://nuremberg.law.harvard.edu/docum ... O-2366#p.1

-Is anyone aware of a better quality scan of this document? (US national archives probably has a digitized copy since they have most if not all of NMT 1 digitized, but I haven't found it yet.)

-Is anyone aware of any revisionist commentary on the document? Has anyone gone through this and found all the good bits?

The summary/analysis document has some interesting points. For example,

(Point 10) The whole complex of illegal killings beginning on page 53 brings under subsection II the actual conditions in the camp CC; Murder by injection, by beating, by shooting etc. on the order of by request of Koch without any legal or even RSHA justification. Page 54.

(Point 18) The murder of the prisoners Goldstein and Schiltemeyer are described in detail. HOVEN took an active part in the killing of the latter. P. 67-68.

The above is not consistent with the H legend because it would be absurd for the SS to have Morgen investigating the concentration camps and getting worked up over one or two hundred "illegal" killings while at other camps millions are being killed as part of a formal state policy. This is the classic point that revisionists make about Morgen. But I think having it come from a document like this is better, especially if it makes the murder charges really explicit. I have seem some people try to downplay the murder charges and say that Koch got in trouble primarily for his personal greed and for enriching himself rather than the Reich. But if Morgen explained the charges at length in 1944 then that interpretation isn't really tenable.

[danewerk]

There are some excerpts from NO-2366 in:

"Konrad Morgen; The Conscience of a Nazi Judge" by Herlinde Pauer-Studer and J. David Velleman (2015)

Must say though that after reading Morgen's testimony at the Frankfurt Auschwitz trial (1963-65) I found him to be an extremely odd character.

Pauer-Studer and Velleman seem to have some misgivings about Morgen as well. From the book p.52:

There was a rumor that SS men looked out for rich Jews and shot them for their money. Money thus attracted predators:

[quoting Morgens account in NC-2366]

Many Jews therefore just threw their money and valuables away. [...] Some of the Jews are said to have become so indifferent to their money that they wiped their asses with 50- and 100-mark notes. This has been confirmed by eyewitnesses. Because of this development, there came to be specialists who would use a bar or a board with a nail driven through its end to fish the bills out of the latrines, wash them, dry them, smooth them out, and press them.

Now, Morgen knows that conditions in the camp latrines were not within his brief, and hence not a matter requiring eyewitnesses. The only criminal charge in the offing here is the violation of camp regulations.

(I checked; this account of fishing bank notes from the latrine really is in NC-2366 on pages 21-22)

His Auschwitz testimony can be found here (use Google Translate):
https://www.auschwitz-prozess.de/zeugen ... en-Konrad/

Among the oddities: victims to be gassed were taken on trucks that drove down a ramp to unload below ground level, extremely attractive Jewish girls made potato fritters for the SS-guards, and while inspecting the lockers of the SS-men, testicles from a bull fell out of one of them.

The reason for the visit to Auschwitz was that an SS-nurse there had sent three lumps of gold to his wife in Germany. The parcel with the lumps was intercepted by German customs who passed it on to Morgen for investigation. Morgen therefore went to Auschwitz to look for additional cases of theft. When asked at the trial for the name of the nurse that had sent the three lumps, and which of the SS-judges handled the case, Morgen could only remember that the nurse was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment.

I have not been able to find anything more about the three lumps of gold. At his point I suspect that the whole story, including the visit to Auschwitz, was made up by Morgen.

There is a second book about Konrad Morgen which I have no seen: "A Judge in Auschwitz" by Kevin Prenger (2021)

[Archie]

Must say though that after reading Morgen's testimony at the Frankfurt Auschwitz trial (1963-65) I found him to be an extremely odd character.

His testimonies are a bit odd because they are such a mixed bag. He would say things that appealed to revisionist interpretations (about his investigations, about some of the camp conditions) but then other things in support of the gas chambers, etc.

In a 1971 interview with historian John Toland, Morgen claimed that he was beaten by the Americans for refusing to sign a statement confirming the more outlandish claims against Ilse Koch. His claim that the Americans attempted to obtain a coerced confession out of him will be welcome to revisionists, but if true it would also suggest Morgen was of such upstanding integrity that he would rather be beaten than tell a lie. That would enhance his credibility as a gas chamber witness but it would also suggest the interrogations were often coercive. Of course, that also might be why he's telling that story, because it paints him in a very positive light as a man a great integrity and honesty.

At the IMT he was an SS defense witness and his testimony appears to be very calculated to shift blame. Below for example he accepts the extermination tales but strives to pin the blame on Wirth who was not in the SS (and who was already dead).

Wirth staged an enormous deceptive maneuver. He first selected Jews who would, he thought, serve as column leaders, then these Jews brought along other Jews, who worked under them. With that smaller or medium-sized detachment of Jews, he began to build up the extermination camps. He extended this staff of Jews, and with these Jews Wirth himself carried out the extermination of the Jews.

Wirth said that he had four extermination camps and that about 5,000 Jews were working at the extermination of Jews and the seizure of Jewish property. In order to win Jews for this business of extermination and plundering of their brethren of race and creed, Wirth gave them every freedom and, so to speak, gave them a financial interest in the spoliation of the dead victims. As a result of this attitude, this sumptuous Jewish wedding had come about.

Then I asked Wirth how he killed Jews with these Jewish agents of his. Wirth described the whole procedure that went off like a film every time. The extermination camps were in the east of the Government General, in big forests or uninhabited wastelands. They were built up like a Potemkin village. The people arriving there had the impression of entering a city or a township. The train drove into a dummy railroad station. After the escorts and the train personnel had left the area, the cars were opened and the Jews got out. They were surrounded by these Jewish labor detachments, and Kriminalkommissar Wirth or one of his representatives made a speech. He said, "Jews, you were brought here to be resettled, but before we organize this future Jewish State, you must of course learn how to work. You must learn a new trade. You will be taught that here. Our routine here is, first, every one must take off his clothes so that your clothing can be disinfected, and you can have a bath so that no epidemics will be brought into the camp."

After he had found such calming words for his victims, they started on the road to death. Men and women were separated. At the first place, one had to deliver the hat; at the next one, the coat, collar, shirt, down to the shoes and socks. These places were faked cloakrooms, and the person was given a check at each one so that the people believed that they would get their things back. The other Jews had to receive the things and hurry up the new arrivals so that they should not have time to think. The whole thing was like an assembly line. After the last stop they reached a big room, and were told that this was the bath. When the last one was in, the doors were shut and the gas was let into the room.

As soon as death had set in, the ventilators were started. When the air could be breathed again, the doors were opened, and the Jewish workers removed the bodies. By means of a special procedure which Wirth had invented, they were burned in the open air without the use of fuel.

HERR PELCKMANN: Was Wirth a member of the SS?

MORGEN: No, he was a Kriminalkommissar in Stuttgart.

The above testimony will seem strange to both sides. Revisionists will obviously object and the orthodox side won't like the parts about Jews being so heavily involved in the extermination program.

[Hektor]

.....

The above is not consistent with the H legend because it would be absurd for the SS to have Morgen investigating the concentration camps and getting worked up over one or two hundred "illegal" killings while at other camps millions are being killed as part of a formal state policy. This is the classic point that revisionists make about Morgen. But I think having it come from a document like this is better, especially if it makes the murder charges really explicit. I have seem some people try to downplay the murder charges and say that Koch got in trouble primarily for his personal greed and for enriching himself rather than the Reich. But if Morgen explained the charges at length in 1944 then that interpretation isn't really tenable.

The testimony of Georg Konrad Morgen is a problem for the narrative (as are many others). He describes what he has seen at concentration camps during the war and it doesn't fit the picture exterminationists like to be drawn in the minds of their gullible audience. The investigations into SS-camp guards and management staff or also not exactly what would be expected, if the narrative was true. Although even if one assumes the extermination thesis, to be true. It's to be expected that such a regime would still try to suppress theft and embezzlement.

Now the Morgen testimony contains descriptions of homicidal gassing facilities. In Nuremberg he said:

MORGEN: Ich schilderte bereits gestern die vier Lager des Kriminalkommissars Wirth und gab schon den ersten Hinweis auf das Lager Auschwitz. Mit »Vernichtungslager Auschwitz«, meinte ich nicht das Konzentrationslager. Das gab es dort nicht. Ich meinte ein besonderes Vernichtungslager in der Nähe von Auschwitz, »Monowitz« bezeichnet.

MORGEN: Die Häftlinge, die abmarschierten in das Konzentrationslager, hatten keinen Hinweis dafür, wohin die anderen Häftlinge verbracht wurden. Das Vernichtungslager Monowitz lag weit von dem Konzentrationslager entfernt. Es befand sich in einem weitläufigen Industriegelände und war als solches nicht zu erkennen, und überall am Horizont standen Schornsteine und es rauchte. Das Lager selbst war außen bewacht durch eine Spezialtruppe von Männern aus dem Baltikum, Esten, Litauern und Ukrainern. Die ganze technische Durchführung lag fast ausschließlich in den Händen der dazu bestimmten Häftlinge selbst, die nur jeweils von einem Unterführer überwacht wurden. Die eigentliche Tötung wurde durch einen anderen Unterführer durch Auslösen von Gasen in diesem Raum ausgeführt. So war also der Kreis der Wisser um diese Dinge ein ganz außerordentlich begrenzter. Dieser Kreis war besonders vereidigt...

http://www.zeno.org/Geschichte/M/Der+N% ... agssitzung

According to the testimony. The homicidal gas chambers were in Monowitz. This was the extermination camp. There were none in other camps.

During the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial he made a different statement.

Die andere Gruppe mußte auf Lastwagen Platz nehmen und ging sofort, ohne daß eine namentliche Feststellung erfolgte, in die Gaskammern nach Birkenau.

Ich hatte zunächst dafür keine Erklärung, bis man mir sagte, daß durch eine Öffnung vom Dach aus Gas, und zwar in kristalliner Form, das Zyklon B, in diese Todeskammern gegossen würde. Bis zu diesem Moment war also der Häftling ahnungslos, und dann war es natürlich zu spät. Gegenüber den Gaskammern lagen die Leichenaufzüge, und diese führten dann nun in den ersten Stock oder, von der anderen Seite aus gesehen, in das ebenerdige Geschoß.
https://www.auschwitz-prozess.de/zeugen ... en-Konrad/

Here the homicidal gas chambers are in Birkenau, not in Monowitz. Why didn't he say that in Nuremberg. He's pretty adamant on this in both cases, so this ain't an error on his behalf. It makes however sense, if this was untrue and he said this under duress (to avoid automatic arrest and deportations to the Soviets for example). On the other hand a lawyer (who doubts the Holocaust himself) told me that this is a tactic in statements to invalidate them (when under duress) say two different mutually exclusive things so that this can be picked up later and indicate that there is a problem with the statement.

How that bears on his statements of investigations of criminal activities involving SS-men is of course another matter. If his statements weren't true, I'd assume that this would have been brought up by the prosecution side. So I assume they corroborated it in some way and found that this was true.

[hermod]

Now the Morgen testimony contains descriptions of homicidal gassing facilities. In Nuremberg he said:

MORGEN: Ich schilderte bereits gestern die vier Lager des Kriminalkommissars Wirth und gab schon den ersten Hinweis auf das Lager Auschwitz. Mit »Vernichtungslager Auschwitz«, meinte ich nicht das Konzentrationslager. Das gab es dort nicht. Ich meinte ein besonderes Vernichtungslager in der Nähe von Auschwitz, »Monowitz« bezeichnet.

MORGEN: Die Häftlinge, die abmarschierten in das Konzentrationslager, hatten keinen Hinweis dafür, wohin die anderen Häftlinge verbracht wurden. Das Vernichtungslager Monowitz lag weit von dem Konzentrationslager entfernt. Es befand sich in einem weitläufigen Industriegelände und war als solches nicht zu erkennen, und überall am Horizont standen Schornsteine und es rauchte. Das Lager selbst war außen bewacht durch eine Spezialtruppe von Männern aus dem Baltikum, Esten, Litauern und Ukrainern. Die ganze technische Durchführung lag fast ausschließlich in den Händen der dazu bestimmten Häftlinge selbst, die nur jeweils von einem Unterführer überwacht wurden. Die eigentliche Tötung wurde durch einen anderen Unterführer durch Auslösen von Gasen in diesem Raum ausgeführt. So war also der Kreis der Wisser um diese Dinge ein ganz außerordentlich begrenzter. Dieser Kreis war besonders vereidigt...

http://www.zeno.org/Geschichte/M/Der+N% ... agssitzung

According to the testimony. The homicidal gas chambers were in Monowitz. This was the extermination camp. There were none in other camps.

During the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial he made a different statement.

Die andere Gruppe mußte auf Lastwagen Platz nehmen und ging sofort, ohne daß eine namentliche Feststellung erfolgte, in die Gaskammern nach Birkenau.

Ich hatte zunächst dafür keine Erklärung, bis man mir sagte, daß durch eine Öffnung vom Dach aus Gas, und zwar in kristalliner Form, das Zyklon B, in diese Todeskammern gegossen würde. Bis zu diesem Moment war also der Häftling ahnungslos, und dann war es natürlich zu spät. Gegenüber den Gaskammern lagen die Leichenaufzüge, und diese führten dann nun in den ersten Stock oder, von der anderen Seite aus gesehen, in das ebenerdige Geschoß.
https://www.auschwitz-prozess.de/zeugen ... en-Konrad/

Here the homicidal gas chambers are in Birkenau, not in Monowitz. Why didn't he say that in Nuremberg. He's pretty adamant on this in both cases, so this ain't an error on his behalf. It makes however sense, if this was untrue and he said this under duress (to avoid automatic arrest and deportations to the Soviets for example).

Yes, it makes sense. It seems that Morgen had been briefed by some Soviet "interrogators" before testifying at the Nuremberg show trial. In their 1st "report" on Auschwitz after the capture of that camp by the Red Army (Pravda, February 2, 1945), the Soviets located the alleged Nazi homicidal gas chambers in Monowitz ("in the eastern part of the camp"); not in Birkenau (in the western part of the Auschwitz complex), and they claimed that those facilities had been "restructured, even little turrets and other embellishments were added so that they would look like innocent garages," not that they had been dynamited so that their use as slaughterhouses for groups of human beings would be impossible to see in the ruined crematories.

https://postimg.cc/dLGnxsQr

[Hektor]

....
Yes, it makes sense. It seems that Morgen had been briefed by some Soviet "interrogators" before testifying at the Nuremberg show trial. In their 1st "report" on Auschwitz after the capture of that camp by the Red Army (Pravda, February 2, 1945), the Soviets located the alleged Nazi homicidal gas chambers in Monowitz ("in the eastern part of the camp"); not in Birkenau (in the western part of the Auschwitz complex), and they claimed that those facilities had been "restructured, even little turrets and other embellishments were added so that they would look like innocent garages," not that they had been dynamited so that their use as slaughterhouses for groups of human beings would be impossible to see in the ruined crematories.
....

I don't think Morgen resided in the soviet zone. And I doubt soviets had direct access to people in the Western Zones.His residence is given as Frankfurt. This is east of Nuremberg. However the soviets would be the most important source of information on Auschwitz for quite a while. So Americans could have taken that information and presented it to Morgen. How that went of, is of course another question. There was high priority interest in framing the Germans / NS-government and officials. Sending an agent to Morgen and presenting it to him would possibly be enough to 'rethink' and 'remember' the right things.

During the Frankfurt Auschwitz trial he might have been approached as well. But by other agents that presented him with the new version and did not notice that this contradicts the Nuremberg version.

Another possibility would be 'preemptive obedience'. Morgen wasn't silly. He realized how the wind was blowing. That he would put himself (and family) possibly at risk, if he didn't play ball with the Allies and their agenda. Just bear in mind. He investigated the camps and their administration. If there had been an extermination program as alleged he would know. If there wasn't he would know that as well. Assume that he knew it was all BS. What was his reaction when he noticed what the Allies were alleging over and over again? It would be an indication of "what they want". Better play ball along there. That they demonstrated readiness to murder people not playing along, the Allies have demonstrated and those in the SS would also have known about it, via their own intelligence wing.

Additionally it appears that he was assaulted, indicted himself for war crimes, but never convicted.

After the Nuremberg trials, he continued his legal career in Frankfurt, though not before he was himself brutally beaten, arrested and taken into custody on January 28, 1946, in Ludwigsburg. Because of his membership and high rank in the SS he was brought before a Denazification tribunal in 1948. He defended himself with the claim he had become a lawyer "to serve justice" and told the court he had fought against "crimes against humanity". The court decided to classify him as an Entlastete (innocent) and he was released. A revision of the trial against him took place in 1950 by the district court of Nord-Württemberg. This time, he was indicted as a Mitläufer (follower), but he remained a free man.[21]

Additionally, the district court of Frankfurt am Main opened three legal investigations against Morgen. He was accused of involvement in the deportation of Hungarian Jews and of participating in a medical experiment on Russian prisoners of war in Buchenwald. In the absence of evidence, he was not prosecuted

So he was an SS-member of note also to the Allies and to the Germans they commanded around at the time. No way that he was off-limits to intelligence services.

The other thing is that there are no notes of anyone on homicidal gassings that were done DURING the war. Something like diary entries on the matter. Apparently there is occasionally reports of execution also that the people involved weren't comfortable with it. But on gassing?

[hermod]

I don't think Morgen resided in the soviet zone. And I doubt soviets had direct access to people in the Western Zones.His residence is given as Frankfurt. This is east of Nuremberg. However the soviets would be the most important source of information on Auschwitz for quite a while. So Americans could have taken that information and presented it to Morgen. How that went of, is of course another question. There was high priority interest in framing the Germans / NS-government and officials. Sending an agent to Morgen and presenting it to him would possibly be enough to 'rethink' and 'remember' the right things.

During the Frankfurt Auschwitz trial he might have been approached as well. But by other agents that presented him with the new version and did not notice that this contradicts the Nuremberg version.

Another possibility would be 'preemptive obedience'. Morgen wasn't silly. He realized how the wind was blowing. That he would put himself (and family) possibly at risk, if he didn't play ball with the Allies and their agenda. Just bear in mind. He investigated the camps and their administration. If there had been an extermination program as alleged he would know. If there wasn't he would know that as well. Assume that he knew it was all BS. What was his reaction when he noticed what the Allies were alleging over and over again? It would be an indication of "what they want". Better play ball along there. That they demonstrated readiness to murder people not playing along, the Allies have demonstrated and those in the SS would also have known about it, via their own intelligence wing.

Additionally it appears that he was assaulted, indicted himself for war crimes, but never convicted.

After the Nuremberg trials, he continued his legal career in Frankfurt, though not before he was himself brutally beaten, arrested and taken into custody on January 28, 1946, in Ludwigsburg. Because of his membership and high rank in the SS he was brought before a Denazification tribunal in 1948. He defended himself with the claim he had become a lawyer "to serve justice" and told the court he had fought against "crimes against humanity". The court decided to classify him as an Entlastete (innocent) and he was released. A revision of the trial against him took place in 1950 by the district court of Nord-Württemberg. This time, he was indicted as a Mitläufer (follower), but he remained a free man.[21]

Additionally, the district court of Frankfurt am Main opened three legal investigations against Morgen. He was accused of involvement in the deportation of Hungarian Jews and of participating in a medical experiment on Russian prisoners of war in Buchenwald. In the absence of evidence, he was not prosecuted

So he was an SS-member of note also to the Allies and to the Germans they commanded around at the time. No way that he was off-limits to intelligence services.

The other thing is that there are no notes of anyone on homicidal gassings that were done DURING the war. Something like diary entries on the matter. Apparently there is occasionally reports of execution also that the people involved weren't comfortable with it. But on gassing?

Did Morgen's residence really matter for such a thing? The accused and the witnesses at the Nuremberg show trials were managed by "interrogators" from all the victorious powers, not just by American ones. Given his job as an inspector of concentration camps, I doubt Morgen didn't meet some Soviet "interrogators" of the Vyshinsky Commission at some point only because Nuremberg was located in the American zone of occupied Germany.

[Hektor]

I don't think Morgen resided in the soviet zone. And I doubt soviets had direct access to people in the Western Zones.His residence is given as Frankfurt. This is east of Nuremberg. However the soviets would be the....
The other thing is that there are no notes of anyone on homicidal gassings that were done DURING the war. Something like diary entries on the matter. Apparently there is occasionally reports of execution also that the people involved weren't comfortable with it. But on gassing?

Did Morgen's residence really matter for such a thing? The accused and the witnesses at the Nuremberg show trials were managed by "interrogators" from all the victorious powers, not just by American ones. Given his job as an inspector of concentration camps, I doubt Morgen didn't meet some Soviet "interrogators" of the Vyshinsky Commission at some point only because Nuremberg was located in the American zone of occupied Germany.

It could matter for pressure.
But for flow of information, it isn't that relevant.
As long as any interrogators or people that could put him under pressure to get him to use portray that information as real, there is a feasible information.

I listened to Frankfurt Trial audio of his testimony there. Very detailed, but also noticed that his voice and breathing sounds like he was under a high degree of distress during the recording.