the defendants, please.
the first thing i'm going to do is hear motions from each of the defendants' lawyers.
i am going to take these cases one by one.
hanna schmitz.
your name is hanna schmitz?
can you speak louder please?
thank you. you were born on october 21st, 1922?
at hermannstadt. and you're now 43 years old?
you joined the ss in 1943?
what was your reason? what was your reason for joining?
you were working at the siemens factory at the time?
you'd recently been offered a promotion. why did you prefer to join the ss?
i'll re-phrase my question. i'm trying to ascertain if she joined the ss freely. of her own free will.
well?
go on.
did you know the kind of work you'd be expected to do?
and you worked first at auschwitz?
until 1944. then you were moved to a smaller camp near cracow?
you then helped move the prisoners west in the winter of 1944 in the so-called death marches?
miss schmitz, you're familiar with this book.
parts of it have already been read out in court.
she was in the camp, wasn't she, when she was a child? she was with her mother.
in the book, she describes a selection process. at the end of the month's labour, every month, sixty inmates were selected. they were picked out to be sent from the satellite camp back to auschwitz. that's right, isn't it?
and so far, each of your fellow defendants has specifically denied being part of that process. now i'm going to ask you. were you part of it?
so you helped make the selection?
you admit that? then tell me, how did that selection happen?
are you saying your fellow defendants took part in the process?
even though they've denied it? but you admit it. you're saying you took part in the process.
did you not realise you were sending these women to their deaths?
i'm not sure you understand.
no, but what i'm saying : let me rephrase : to make room, you were picking women out and saying `you you and you have to be sent back to be killed.'
in what way differently?
i want to move on now to the march. as i understand it, you and your daughter were marched for many months.
please tell us about the night in the church.
the church burned down? nobody came to open the doors? is that right?
even though you were all burning to death?
how many people were killed?
how did you survive?
thank you. i want to thank you for coming to this country today to testify.
why did you not unlock the doors?
why did you not unlock the doors?
i've asked all of you and i'm getting no answer. two of the victims are in this court. they deserve an answer.
here, this is the ss report. you all have copies.
this is the report which was written, approved and signed by all of you immediately after the event. in the written report, you all claim you didn't even know about the fire until after it happened. but that isn't true, is it?
well? it isn't true.
the first thing i'm asking is, why didn't you unlock the doors?
why? why couldn't you?
i see. and if they escaped, then you'd be blamed, you'd be charged, you might even be executed?
well then?
so you did know what was happening? you did know? you made a choice. you let them die rather than risk letting them escape.
the other defendants have made an allegation against you. have you heard this allegation?
they say you were in charge.
did you write the report?
is that true?
i need to see a sample of your handwriting.
yes. i need to establish who wrote the report.
somebody take her this piece of paper.
give her the paper. counsel, approach the bench.
the court finds guilty the defendants rita beckhart, karolina steinhof, regina kreutz, angela zieber, andrea luhmann jointly aiding and abetting murder in three hundred cases. the court finds the defendant hanna schmitz guilty of murder in three hundred cases.
the court sentences the accused as follows. rita beckhart, karolina steinhof, regina kreutz, angela zieber, and andrea luhmann, you will each serve a total sentence in prison of four years and three months.
hanna schmitz, in view of your own admissions and your special role, you are in a different category. the court sentences the accused schmitz to imprisonment for life.