FRANZ NOVAK
31 May 1961
To the Competent Court of Justice, Vienna
Re: Request for Legal Assistance
The main hearing in the criminal proceedings against the
Accused Adolf Eichmann is at present taking place in this
Court.
In the context of this main hearing, I request you to extend
legal assistance to this Court by the examination on oath of
the following witness:
SS Hauptsturmbannfuehrer Novak, Remand Installation, Vienna,
Austria.
The witness is to be examined as to the following
allegations of the Accused:
(1) that transports of Jews from the Theresienstadt
Ghetto to Auschwitz took place in accordance with
explicit instructions from the authority superior to
Section IVB4;
(2) that when Jews were deported from Theresienstadt to
Auschwitz, it was not known that the deportees were to
be exterminated in Auschwitz, but that the transfer was
made for the purposes of labour service;
(3) that the Accused, as a person who gave orders,
could not issue on his own authority instructions for
seizure and deportation, but that the instructions were
always issued on the basis of orders and directives of
his superiors;
(4) that the Accused Eichmann did not take any measures
designed to thwart relaxations of the anti-Jewish
measures which were ordered by superior authorities.
To complete the testimony of the witness, I request that the
witness also be asked the following questions which were
drawn up by Counsel for the Accused:
(1) Did you work in Section IVB4 of the Head Office for
Reich Security as an expert official under the former
SS Obersturmbannfuehrer Eichmann, or did you belong to
an office subordinate to him?
(2) What were your duties (transport matters)?
(3) Was Adolf Eichmann in charge of an independent
Department in the Head Office for Reich Security, or
did he only head a Section in this Department?
() Did Eichmann give orders on his own for
deportations, or did he act only on the basis of orders
which he had received?
(5) Did Eichmann report regularly to the authority
superior to him about the implementation of orders?
(6) Did Eichmann give you orders on his own initiative?
(7) Did Eichmann issue instructions which were contrary
to the orders or directives of the authority superior
to him?
(8) Did Eichmann take measures to prevent the
implementation of instructions which were issued by
superior authorities, in order to relax or discontinue
the persecution of the Jews?
(9) Did Eichmann’s superiors reproach him for having
prevented the implementation of his superiors’
measures?
(10) Apart from Eichmann’s direct superiors, did other
authorities insist on the implementation of measures
against the Jews?
(11) Did the Party authorities or other SS authorities
or government agencies influence the implementation of
anti_Jewish measures?
(12) Did Eichmann have influence over what went on in
extermination camps?
(13) Do you know of any facts which show that Eichmann
had authority to give orders regarding events in the
concentration camps?
I also request that the witness be asked the following
additional questions which were drawn up by the Attorney
General:
(1) When did you make the Accused’s acquaintance?
(2) When did your work in the Security Service
commence?
(3) When were you first assigned to the Accused?
(4) What were your duties in Vienna and Prague from
1938 to 1940, and was the Accused your superior during
those years?
(5) When were you appointed to the Head Office for
Reich Security, and to which department?
(6) Were you given powers regarding the Reich
Representation of Jews in Germany, and later the Reich
Association of Jews in Germany, and when?
(7) What was the meaning of the series of files
designated “RZ” which were kept by the Head Office of
the Security Police and later by Section IVB4?
(8) Which Section kept these files and acted as the
controlling supervisory authority over the Reich
Association of Jews in Germany?
(9) Who were your direct superiors from 1938 until the
end of the War?
(10) What were your duties in Section IVD4, IVB4, IVA4b
and the Eichmann Operations Commando in Budapest? And
what was the official definition of your duties in the
aforementioned Sections?
(11) Were there material and personnel changes when
Section IVD4 became Section IVB4?
(12) In Sections IVD4, and later IVB4, were there
sub_sections or sub-departments with similar names
which were subordinate to the Accused’s Section?
(13) What was the scope of duties of sub-departments or
sub-sections a, b and c in the sections which the
Accused headed from 1939 to 1945, and who were the
heads of these sub-sections during those years?
(14) With which German government authorities, Reich
agencies, SS and Security Service offices and NSDAP
authorities were you in constant contact when you
worked in the Head Office for Reich Security?
(15) Which were the authorities of the type mentioned
above when you were active with the Eichmann Special
Operations Commando in Hungary?
(16) Which was the authority of the Reich Government
which was in charge of, and responsible for, providing
timetables for the evacuation of Jews?
(17) What were your special assignments with reference
to providing German timetables?
(18) With which agencies in the Generalgouvernement and
the Reich Commissariats of the Eastern Territories did
you have regular meetings, in order to provide
timetables and rolling stock for carrying out
evacuations of Jews?
(19) Who was the responsible authority for the Head
Office for Reich Security in Cholm, and which
transports of Jews were sent there?
(20) What were your official links with
Sturmbannfuehrer Hoefle?
(21) What was the nature of your official links with
the Commander of the Security Police in Lublin,
Obersturmbannfuehrer Huppenkothen, and later with
Mueller and Wirthoff, also in Lublin?
(22) What was your official relationship with
Stahlecker of the Head Office for Reich Security?
(23) What were your duties with regard to giving
instructions and information to the Security Police and
units (Operations Units) in the Eastern Occupied
Territories after June 1941?
(24) When did your official relationship with
Hauptsturmfuehrer Otto Hunsche in the Head Office for
Reich Security begin, and what was its nature until the
end of the War?
(25) What were your duties at the transport conference
which took place in Vienna in May 1944, and who
assigned you your tasks in that respect?
(26) What form did your co-operation with Captain
Kullay* {*@11The reference is to Captain Lullay, see
below} of the Hungarian gendarmerie take?
(27) When were the deportations of Jews in Hungary
first halted by the highest Hungarian authorities?
(28) What was the reaction which the Accused expressed
to you on this?
(29) Did you have special instructions from the Accused
about the stopping of transports of Jews?
(30) Did you receive orders from the Accused about
removing Jews who, at that time, were inmates of the
Kistarcsa assembly camp?
(31) Did you carry out these orders in full?
(32) What were the special measures adopted at that
time by the Accused, in order to ensure the execution
of the orders issued to you?
(33) While posted in Hungary, did the Accused make
frequent visits to the Head Office for Reich Security,
and to what end?
(34) Did the Accused, while he was posted in Hungary,
receive instructions from the Head Office for Reich
Security in Berlin, and if so, from which Department?
(35) Did you know Rolf Guenther, the Accused’s
permanent deputy in Berlin?
(36) Did Rolf Guenther become the Accused’s superior,
after the Accused’s departure for Mauthausen on 19
March 1944?
(37) Who was the official head of Section IVA4b of the
Head Office for Reich Security from April 1944 until
the end of the War?
(38) After the Hungarian operation, when were you
ordered to return to the Head Office for Reich Security
in Berlin?
(39) What were your official duties in the winter of
1945?
(40) Who was responsible for the drawing up of
directives for the Gestapo regional headquarters and
the drawing up of timetables for the deportation of
further classes of Jews and those of Jewish origin to
Theresienstadt which occurred at the beginning of 1945?
I would request you to summon to the examination of the
witness the representative of the Attorney General of the
State of Israel, c/o H.E. Ambassador Dr. F.E. Shinnar,
Israel Mission, Cologne, as well as Counsel for the Accused,
Advocate Dr. R. Servatius, Hohenzollernring 14, Cologne, and
to afford them, on their part, the opportunity to ask the
witness any questions which might arise from his answers.
There is no objection on the part of this Court to the
aforementioned representatives of the parties obtaining
copies of the record of the examination.
Please forward the original of the record of the examination
to this Court,
(-) Moshe Landau
President of the Trial Court
File No.: 33a Hs 3484/61
Examination of Witness
The Vienna District Court for Criminal Matters, on 15 June
1961, as from 9.45 a.m.
Present:
Judge: Counsellor of District Court Franz Fiedler
Recording Clerk: VB Juliane Beringer
Criminal Proceedings against Adolf Eichmann
The witness is instructed to tell the truth in reply to the
questions which he is to be asked, according to the best of
his knowledge and belief, to conceal nothing, and to give
his testimony in such a way as to be able to affirm it upon
oath, if required to do so.
With regard to his personal circumstances, he stated:
1. First name and surname: Franz Novak
2. Age: 10.1.1913
3. Place of birth: Wolfsberg, Carinthia
4. Religion: Roman Catholic
5. Marital status: Married
6. Occupation: Printing shop employee
7. Residence: Lang-Enzersdorf near Vienna, An den Muehlen
18, currently remanded for investigation at the Vienna
District Court for Criminal Matters.
8. Relationship to the Accused or other persons involved in
the examination: Not related.
Section 153 of the Code of Criminal Procedure was explained
to him.
——
I. Questions related to the allegations of the Accused,
Adolf Eichmann.
(1): I remember transports of Jews taking place from
Theresienstadt to Auschwitz. However, I no longer remember
when this was and which authority issued the instructions
for it. However, I assume that Section IVB4 received the
relevant instructions from an authority superior to it.
(2): I did not know that the persons in these transports
were to be liquidated in Auschwitz. The transports were
ordered in order to employ Jews for labour or to evacuate
them.
(3): I do not know whether Eichmann was able to issue orders
independently, or whether he received orders for the
transports. I do know that Eichmann was sent for by his
superior almost every day. The reason why I know this is
that often he was looked for, and then it was said that he
was with the Group Leader or the Department Chief.
(4): For lack of information, I cannot answer this question.
I do not know anything about any relaxations being ordered
of anti-Jewish measures and cannot, therefore, say whether
Eichmann observed these or not.
II. Questions from the Defence:
(1): Section IVB4 of the Head Office for Reich Security
(RSHA) was responsible for the evacuation of Jews, Poles,
Gypsies and Slovenes, and also had to provide transport when
RSHA offices had to be transferred (particularly after air
raids). The head of Section IVB4 was Eichmann, who was in
charge of several specialized employees. The official in
charge of transport matters in Section IVB4 was the former
SS Sturmbannfuehrer Rolf Guenther, to whom I was directly
subordinate as an assistant Specialist Officer.
Last-Modified: 1999/06/14
