Barbie Trial -- Day 10 -- Two witnesses testify

Identifier
irn1004895
Language of Description
English
Alt. Identifiers
  • 2005.516.1
  • RG-60.1617
Level of Description
Item
Languages
  • French
Source
EHRI Partner

Creator(s)

Scope and Content

17:57 The witness, Mr. Stourdze, describes the evacuation of Auschwitz in January 1945 on foot to Gleiwitz, and then by coal train to Mauthausen and Oranienburg; the witness was then sent to Flossenburg, where there were inmates of several concentration camps; they were forced under scalding water for 20 minutes, and then made to stand outside naked in the bitter cold for three hours; the witness stayed for two weeks before being transferred again, to Regensburg, where he worked constructing a runway for a jet engine factory; Hermann Göring arrived and inspected the facility, which was riddled with lice and typhus; the facility was bombed and many inmates died; those who survived were forced to reconstitute the corpses of the dead, to prove that no one had run away 18:01 In April 1945, the inmates were evacuated from Regensburg to Dachau, on foot, about 120 km; the American Army liberated Dachau two weeks after his arrival 18:03 President Cerdini asks the witness to explain his conviction that Barbie was responsible for his deportation 18:06 Prosecutor Klarsfeld asks the court to examine a sealed document, signed by Barbie in August 1943, in order to establish Barbie's location as Lyon at the time of Mr. Stourdze's arrest 18:12 A French translation of the document is read aloud for the record; Cerdini presents Barbie's reaction to the document, which had been presented to him on two occasions; he claimed in both instances to not recognize the signature as his 18:15 Prosecutor Klarsfeld asks the court to compare the signature to the signature on another document signed by Barbie 18:17 The clerk reads a French translation of the second document for the record; when Barbie was presented with this document, he recognized the signature as his own 18:20 President Cerdini calls a new witness to the stand, Henri Troussier; Mr. Troussier is a civil party in the case 18:22 The witness was called to join the STO (Service du Travail Obligatoire) in 1942, in Germany; he refused, and entered into the Resistance instead; he was personally arrested by Barbie, and took him to the St. Claude school building in Lyon, where three fellow Resistants were already being held 18:26 Mr. Troussier was taken, following an interrogation by Barbie, to the Montluc prison by car; he was interrogated a second time by Barbie, and then deported to Compiègne, Buchenwald, and finally Gross Rosen; the witness describes seeing Barbie beating a small girl in the basement of the Gestapo headquarters 18:29 President Cerdini asks the witness to give precision as to his quarters within Montluc, and as to how he was able to identify Barbie as responsible for his deportation 18:31 Prosecutor Santet, Mr. Troussier's counsel, comments that he wishes his client had the opportunity to face Barbie; Santet and Troussier discuss Barbie's comment that Troussier was a, 'dirty Jew,' though he was a Roman Catholic and Barbie arrested him knowing he was a Resistant; Santet comments on Mr. Troussier's reconnaissance of a photograph of Barbie as his interrogator in the winter of 1945-1946 18:39 Prosecutor Cohendy asks the witness to discuss specifics of his transport to Buchenwald and his arrival there 18:43 President Cerdini suspends the hearing

Note(s)

  • Abbreviated transcript with real time code idents available in departmental files.

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