Müller might have had the power to stop the actions, or to slow them down, and he might have been able to convince the Reichsführer SS of the need for this. But he failed to do so, although he knew exactly what the results would be, because it was contrary to their intentions. That is how I see it today, although at the time I could not appreciate the attitude of the Reich Security Head Office.
Müller repeatedly said to me: “The Reichsführer SS is of the opinion that the release of political prisoners during the war must be refused for security reasons. Requests for release must therefore be reduced to a minimum and only submitted in exceptional cases.” “The Reichsführer SS has ordered that, on principle, all prisoners of foreign nationality are not to be released for the duration of the war.” “The Reichsführer SS desires that even in the case of negligible acts of sabotage by prisoners of foreign nationality, the death penalty shall be demanded, as a deterrent to others.”
After what I have said above, it is not difficult to guess who was behind these orders and wishes.
Altogether one can say that the Reich Security Head Office, or at least the executive, and all that it achieved was Müller.
As a person, Müller was very correct in his attitude, obliging and friendly. He never stood on his seniority or rank, but it was impossible to have any close, personal contact with him. This was confirmed to me time and again by those of his colleagues who had worked with him for several years.
Müller was the ice-cold executive or organizer of all the measures which the Reichsführer SS deemed necessary for the security of the Reich.
APPENDIX 5
Pohl
Pohl was a native of Kiel and a paymaster in the navy. He was a veteran member of the Party and belonged to the naval SA. The Reichsführer SS removed him from there in 1934 and installed him as administrative chief of the SS.
Although this office played only a small part in affairs under the guidance of his predecessors, Pohl managed in a very short time to make himself indispensable to the Reichsführer SS and to make his office feared and all-powerful. For example his auditors, who were selected by himself and received his support and were responsible only to him, were held in terror by the administrative heads of every department. PohPs methods did, however, instill order and accuracy into the administration of the SS and resulted in the dismissal of any administrative official whom he found careless or unreliable.
Under Pohl’s predecessors, the more senior officers were fairly independent in money matters and did much as they pleased. Pohl got the Reichsführer SS to issue instructions that permission had to be obtained for all payments made by the General SS and that such payments would be audited by him. This caused a lot of ill-feeling and irritation, but with characteristic energy Pohl succeeded in getting his way and, as a result, obtained for himself an enormous influence over the affairs of every SS unit. Even the most obstinate cranks among the senior SS officers, such as Sepp Dietrich and Eicke, had to draw in their horns and ask Pohl when they wanted money for some extrabudgetary expenditure.
Each SS unit had an exactly calculated annual budget, which had to be observed with the most scrupulous accuracy. Pohl’s bloodhounds, the auditors, would unearth every penny that had been over- or underspent.
Pohl’s main objective from the beginning, however, was gradually to make the SS financially Independent of the state and the Party, by means of its own business undertakings and thus to guarantee the Reichsführer SS the necessary freedom of action in his planning. It was a task with a far-reaching objective, which Pohl was convinced could be accomplished and for which he labored unremittingly. He was the guiding spirit behind almost all of the business undertakings of the SS. To start with there were the German Armaments Works (DAW), the porcelain factory (Allach), the quarries, slag-works, brickyards, and cement factories forming the German Mineral and Stone Works (Dest), and the clothing factories. There was the WIII German Provisions Combine, incorporating bakeries, butchers, retail grocers, and canteens, the numerous spas, the agricultural and forestry undertakings, the printing works and publishing companies, all of which already represented a considerable economic strength. Yet this was only a beginning.
Pohl had already made plans for industrial undertakings of great magnitude, which would put even the IG Farben Industrie in the shade. Pohl also had the necessary energy to bring these schemes to completion.
The Reichsführer SS needed an enormous amount of money for his research and experimental establishments alone, and Pohl had always produced it. The Reichsführer SS was very liberal in allowing money to be spent for exceptional purposes, and Pohl financed everything. He was easily able to do this, since the business undertakings of the SS, in spite of the large capital investment they required, produced an immense amount of money.
The Waffen SS, the concentration camps, the Reich Security Head Office, the police, and later some other service departments, were financed by the state. Budgetary discussions were conducted on Pohl’s behalf by Gruppenführer Frank, his ad latus and general factotum.
The negotiations with the Treasury over the budget were veritable trials of strength, for without money provided by the state, not one new company of the Waffen SS could be formed. Frank was clever and tenacious and managed to get all that he wanted, often after negotiations lasting for weeks on end. He had been trained by Pohl, and Pohl stood behind his shoulder. Later on Frank reorganized the administration of the entire police force, which had become completely fossilized. After the attempt on the Führer’s life, Frank became administrative chief of the army. Pohl stood in the background and directed.
The headquarters and administration of the SS were situated in Munich during the first few years after the assumption of power. During the same period, Pohl lived in Dachau in the immediate neighborhood of the camp. He therefore came into contact with the concentration camp and the prisoners from the start, and was able to acquire a thorough knowledge of their needs. Because of his intense interest in the construction of industrial undertakings in Dachau concentration camp, he spent much time in the camp and on Sundays enjoyed making a tour of inspection of the entire camp area. He deliberately avoided entering the actual protective custody camp, so as not to give the Inspector of Concentration Camps, Eicke, any possible ground for complaining to the Reichsführer SS. Pohl and Eicke were both powerful personalities, and there was constant friction between them which often developed into violent quarrels. They held contrary opinions on almost every question that came within their competence. This was the case in questions concerning the treatment of prisoners, so far as they affected Pohl, on matters such as their accommodation, provisioning and clothing, and their employment in the industrial undertakings. During the whole time that I knew Pohl, up to the final collapse, he always showed the same approach to all questions concerning the prisoners. It was his opinion that a prisoner who was given good and warm living quarters and was sufficiently well fed and clothed, would work industriously on his own account, and that punishment was only necessary as a last resort.
On Pohl’s initiative a garden of medicinal herbs was started in Dachau. Pohl was an enthusiastic believer in diet reform. Spices and medicinal herbs of all kinds were bred and cultivated in this garden, with the object of weaning the German people from the foreign spices that were a danger to health, and from the synthetic medicines, and of accustoming them instead to the use of unharmful, pleasant-tasting German spices and natural, medicinal herbs for all kinds of bodily infirmities. The use of these spices was made obligatory for all SS and police formations. Later on, during the war, almost the entire army received these spices from Dachau. Pohl found many opportunities in this herb garden of discussing with the prisoners the reasons for their arrest, and of hearing about their life in the carnp. In this way he was always in the know about what was going on in Dachau concentration camp. Even in later years he visited the herb garden almost every month, and always lived there when he was in Munich or when he had some business to transact in the neighborhood.