Talk:Georg Konrad Morgen

POV

As the article stands now it seems to be very POV

For example it states "At the Poniatowa camp Morgen watched without pity as more than 15,000 prisoners "of all ages and both sexes" went naked to open, self-prepared trenches and were shot:" Obviously he witnessed the event, the text following this is sourced to one of his affidavits in the IMT.

However I find it very hard to believe that anyone would incriminate oneself so as to in a court affidavit state that they watched "without pity" as mass murder was committed. And what is the point in having this big chunk of text from an affidavit inserted into the text about an individual?

There are more such items inserted biases and possible misinterpretations. And Why is his own explication of his activities not included?

Hoehne in this article accuses him of not doing anything about the mass killings, just acting against corruption, but we hear not a squeek about his own explanation of his acts.

For example, in his testimony at Nuremberg he states:

The circumstances prevailing in Germany during the war were no longer. normal in the sense of State legal guarantees. Besides, the following must be considered: I was not simply a judge, but I was a judge of military penal justice. No court-martial in the world could bring the Supreme Commander, let alone the head of the State, to court.

...it was not possible for me as Obersturmbannfuehrer to arrest Hitler, who, as I saw it, was the instigator of these orders.

On the basis of this insight, I realized that something had to be done immediately to put an end to this action. Hitler had to be induced to withdraw his orders. Under the circumstances, this could be done only by Himmler as Minister of the Interior and Minister of the Police.

I thought at that time that I must endeavor to approach Himmler through the heads of the departments and make it clear to him, by explaining the effects of this system, that through these methods the State was being led straight into an abyss. Therefore I approached my immediate superior, the chief of the Criminal Police, SS Obergruppenfuehrer Nebe; then I turned to the chief of the Main Office SS Courts, SS Obergruppenfuehrer Breithaupt. I also approached Kaltenbrunner and the chief of the Gestapo, Gruppenfuehrer Muller, and Obergruppenfuehrer Pohl of the Economic and Administrative Main Office, and the Reichsarzt, Gruppenfuehrer Dr. Grawitz. But aside from taking these necessary steps, I saw a practical way open to me by way of justice; that is, by removing from this system of destruction the leaders and important elements through the means offered by the system itself., I could not do this with regard to the killings ordered by the head of the State, but I could do it for killings outside of this order, or against this order, or for other serious crimes.

For that reason, I deliberately started proceedings against these men, and this would have led to a shake-up of this system and its final collapse. But these activities had another far-reaching effect in the near future, for through the big concentration camp trials against Commander Koch, of whom I spoke earlier, and against the head of the political section at Auschwitz-Kriminalsekretur Untersturmfuehrer Grabner, whom I charged with murder in 2,000 cases outside of this extermination action-the whole affair of these killings had to be brought to trial. It was to be expected that the perpetrators would refer to higher orders also for these individual crimes. This occurred; thereupon the SS jurisdiction, on the basis of the material which I supplied, approached the highest government chiefs and officially asked, "Did you order these killings? Is the legal fact of murder no longer valid for you? What general orders are there concerning these killings?" Then the supreme State leadership would either have to admit its mistakes and thereby bring the culprits definitely under our jurisdiction also with regard to the mass exterminations, or else an open break would have to result through the abrogation of the entire judicial system. --Stor stark7 ^Speak 21:08, 7 May 2010 (UTC)

Stor stark 7's critique seems reasonable. Extremely "objective" tone of Morgen's affadvit on what he saw at Poniatowa suggested phrase "without pity", but it does inject a POV issue and should therefore be removed....as could be the f/h description of the executions at Poniatowa, which would indeed be more appropriate in the current wiki stub on the Harvest Festival operation itself; which I might then substantially expand to include f/h descriptions of the other two mass executions involved, at Trawniki and Maidanek, as well as background information and postwar legal repercussions, historicization of the event, and etc.. Can't speak to other aspects of Stor stark7's critique, as balance of article on KM not by me. --Seadragonconquerer ^Speak 16:13, 7 May 2010 (PST)

While prosecuting Birkenau, Morgen had established that the order of annihilation had clearly originated at "T3" (next door to "T4"), which is Tiergartenstrasse 3, Party Chancellery, i.e. Hitler himself. He says so under scrutiny in a 2 hour witness testimonial Ff/M during the 1963 Frankfurt upon Main trial on Auschwitz. Powers were delegated to Gestapo-Müller who angrily shouted at Morgen first, later was brought onboard by Morgen while visiting the office of Gestapo-Müller in Berlin (RSHA). So operating inside of whatever was left of a legal framework, stopping the genocide was technically impossible, unless Hitler found the Führer Adolf H. guilty as the head judge. Morgen did not think this was likely going to happen, though he still could have gone for this goal, of course.

Uujjuu (talk) 17:01, 31 January 2021 (UTC)

Morgen affidavit in IMT

I've lifted out this text from his affidavit to the cort, from the article, because it ads nothing about the person. It is better suited in the article about the massacre itself, said article to which we can link to if a secondary source has found it relevant to his person. But the chiunk of text ads nothing and makes the article harder to read.

"it was the usual, tested procedure....A company of unarmed Ukrainian police trainees arrived who formed only a security cordon and had nothing more to do with it, while a single Order Police officer holding a small-calibre weapon waited at the far end of each trench, accompanied by two or three others to charge magazines and take turns carrying out the executions. So the entire operation was carried out by only a very few police. Meanwhile the camp inmates - 6,000 Jews and 9,500 Jewesses -left their quarters and assembled voluntarily at the near end of the trenches. Here they handed over their personal effects - money, documents, wristwatches, and so forth - while the women and girls removed their jewelry. Husbands and wives, mothers and daughters made their farewells and waited quietly; none were mistreated before execution. When their time came, the inmates undressed and began to enter the trenches, both sexes completely naked and running one behind another in orderly, infinite lines. The men went first, into one trench, and later the nude women had their own separate trenches....All passed silently and methodically through the trenches, so the executions went very quickly." --Stor stark7 ^Speak 21:15, 7 May 2010 (UTC)

References

"Morgen Affidavit"

Is the passage discussed here from an affidavit by Morgen? If so, where is that affidavit? The same passage appears in an interrogation of Ernst Kaltenbrunner prior to the IMT trial (Red Series, Supplement B). Also missing here is a reference for the detail about Morgen's interaction with Walther Toebbens. User talk:Jdvelleman 11:25, 26 May 2011 (CET)

I have added a tag to the sentence about Toebbens. I am a bit confused by your other question. Can you clarify what is wrong with the article?Hoops gza (talk) 09:59, 26 May 2011 (UTC)

Sorry, my comment here was inaccurate. The problem here is that the words "6,000 Jews and 9,500 Jewesses" do not appear in the volume cited. The same problem appears in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poniatowa, where the passsage is described as an affidavit submitted by Morgen. In fact, the passage is spoken by the interrogator in an interrogation of Ernst Kaltenbrunner. If an author/editor of one or both entries has a different source, such as an affidavit from Morgen, in which the problematic words occur, it should be cited. (User talk:Jdvelleman) 14:43, 26 May 2011 (CET)

Erntefest Massacre

It is highly questionable whether Morgen was a witness of the massacre on 3-4 November 1943. In his testimony at the Majdanek trial in Duesseldorf, Morgen says that he arrived in Lublin *after* the massacre and submitted a report on the basis of information gleaned from others. A report written by Walter Toebbens after the war describes the massacre without mentioning Morgen at all. Whatever appears in the transcript of Toebbens's trial is unlikely be relevant, since Toebbens was tried in absentia. I will therefore remove this material from the article. (User talk:Jdvelleman) 5:07, 22 June 2011 (EST)

Erntefest

Actually, Toebbens mentions being "locked in the camp kitchen" by an "SS-Major". Inasmuch as Order Police carried out the 4 November Poniatowa shootings (the SS fraction of the OP + SS unit that carried out the Maidanek killings on 3 Nov. went over to Trawnicki) that "SS Major" would be KM; so his account re Poniatowa is eyewitness. In fact all the details in it, e.g., preparation of the execution site by the inmates themselves on 3 November, shallow trenches in zig-zag pattern, etc. - are specific to Poniatowa (at Maidanek, execution site prepared by Jewish SK brought in from Auschwitz, squared-off open pits not trenches). The operation Morgen arrived "too late" to see was that at Maidanek, on 3 November. Apparently, Morgen spent most of 3 November at Poniatowa, then drove the 20 miles or so eastward to Maidanek, arriving there shortly after the last of the Jewish inmates had been shot; talked to a few of those involved; then went back to Poniatowa to spend the night and witness the events of November 4th. ([User talk:Seadragonconquerer]] 22:29, 24 July 2011 (PST) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Seadragonconquerer (talk • contribs)

Removed anonymous reader comment to the effect that "Morgan is not mentioned on p. 345 of Kurzman's book" from text of article; it belongs here. As above, this is true. Kurzman refers to Toebbens statement about being accosted by an "SS-Major", w/o naming Morgan. But I know of only two SS officers of this rank present in the Lublin Camps during Harvest Festival...and the other was SS-Major Christian Wirths, who organized and was in charge of the entire operation. Wirths - who had been involved in anti-partisan warfare in the Balkans for most of 1943, and during the previous year ran the Belzec death camp - is well known to have been a compulsive killer, a man on a hair-trigger who sometimes shot his own SS subordinates when they balked. Had the "SS-Major" encountered by Toebbens been Wirths, he would not have lived to tell about it. Seadragonconquerer (talk)[User talk:Seadragonconquerer] 17:50, 3 November 2013 (PST)

Erntefest

This is very helpful: thank you. I assume that you are using Browning's Ordinary Men for the details? Also: I wonder whether you know where to find Morgen's full report, not just the bit quoted in the interrogation of Kaltenbrunner. User talk:Jdvelleman 4:01, 26 July 2011 (EST) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.210.20.71 (talk)

Erntefest

Yes, I've looked at Browning - Martin Detmold's account therein ties in with Morgen's quite well. Back in the day, I had some back-and-forth with Raul Hilberg about M's affadavit; he explained to me that, after Morgen told his interrogator about having been at Poniatowa, he was then asked a quite specific & limited series of questions, and his answers then comprised the affadavit...which was then used against Kaltenbrunner. In other words, there is no more to it. However, in 1972 - when I was working at the Columbia U. Law Library, I got in touch with Morgen via the West German Bar Assoc. and did an about 1/2 hour long phone interview with him; that's where the number/gender of inmates at Poniatowa comes from...I have much else from him on Harvest Festival, but this is "original research" and not appropriate for Wiki. Fairly soon I'm going to do a write-up on the whole Warsaw Ghetto - Erntefest sequence of events at one of my sites, and will include some of this additional material. The secondary source that I now cite for the Morgen/Toebbens incident, Kurzman's book, backs it up with material from the Toebbens Trial plus an interview he did with one of T's relatives, an "L. Toebbens". ([User talk:Seadragonconquerer]] 12:33 24 August 2011 (PST) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Seadragonconquerer (talk • contribs)

Recent ce

I checked the source cite and the names and dates used before were correct, so I reverted them back and they are the same in the source (cited). The ip change to the german spelling for Hoess I agree with, so Höss was retained by re-insert. Further, the fact a building containing the evidence was burned down was correct per the source cited so I re-added back in that point, only changing his word of "warehouse" to "building". I also did some grammar and presentation clean up which was needed overall. Kierzek (talk) 19:48, 1 April 2012 (UTC)

Foto

Is there a mistake with Morgen Morgan? --Buchbibliothek (talk) 10:25, 7 June 2016 (UTC)

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The section heading "Indicted"

This heading seems too cryptic. Part of the problem is that the article does not explain, even briefly, the legal system of Nazi Germany, so it doesn't make clear what the scope of an SS judge's authority was to investigate, prosecute, and/or indict. Were SS judges, in effect, investigators, prosecutors, judges (and juries) rolled into one person? At the very least, the heading should be expanded to "Persons Indicted by Morgen."Redound (talk) 16:14, 10 July 2021 (UTC)

Hauptscharführer Blanck

Hallo, could Johann Blank (Q108555540) be the aforesaid indicted (in absentia). Lotje (talk) 13:30, 25 November 2021 (UTC)